God Knows
Sarah Palin’s been quoted as saying that she needs her supporters help to make sure that “God’s will” be done.
So help me God, I have no idea what this is supposed to mean.
If God has a will, why would He—the all-powerful, all-knowing, creator of the Universe—need any assistance from people to get it done? Couldn’t He just do it himself with a simple snap of his omnipotent fingers?
But even more confusing to me is the idea that God could even have a will. It’s an old question to be sure, but has anyone answered the one about how an absolutely perfect being could have any desires or preferences? Especially ones that aren’t realized?
Doesn’t having a desire for something indicate incompleteness? For instance, my wish to lose a few pounds demonstrates that I’m not in a state of idea body image. But if I were perfect, I’d be back down to my preferred fighting weight and so, wouldn’t have that desire. So God, being perfect, can’t have desires, otherwise, He wouldn’t be perfect. Right?
But maybe my confusion stems from not really grasping who or what this God being is supposed to be anyway. I continue not to understand what could possibly exist outside of all that is that would, in some way, be responsible for all of it.
I realize that the idea of God gives comfort to many millions of people, many of whom are way smarter and better educated than me. But, from my perspective, a Universe without purpose or design is a far more comforting place. I get the willies from thinking that there might be something out there that has a plan for me that I can’t possibly understand and that I might piss off by behaving in some way that it doesn’t want me to.
It just seems like a lot safer to live in a place where the only wills we try to get done are each others’.
So help me God, I have no idea what this is supposed to mean.
If God has a will, why would He—the all-powerful, all-knowing, creator of the Universe—need any assistance from people to get it done? Couldn’t He just do it himself with a simple snap of his omnipotent fingers?
But even more confusing to me is the idea that God could even have a will. It’s an old question to be sure, but has anyone answered the one about how an absolutely perfect being could have any desires or preferences? Especially ones that aren’t realized?
Doesn’t having a desire for something indicate incompleteness? For instance, my wish to lose a few pounds demonstrates that I’m not in a state of idea body image. But if I were perfect, I’d be back down to my preferred fighting weight and so, wouldn’t have that desire. So God, being perfect, can’t have desires, otherwise, He wouldn’t be perfect. Right?
But maybe my confusion stems from not really grasping who or what this God being is supposed to be anyway. I continue not to understand what could possibly exist outside of all that is that would, in some way, be responsible for all of it.
I realize that the idea of God gives comfort to many millions of people, many of whom are way smarter and better educated than me. But, from my perspective, a Universe without purpose or design is a far more comforting place. I get the willies from thinking that there might be something out there that has a plan for me that I can’t possibly understand and that I might piss off by behaving in some way that it doesn’t want me to.
It just seems like a lot safer to live in a place where the only wills we try to get done are each others’.
posted by Professor Dave at 12:34 PM
1 Comments:
I heard something on public radio the other day, a clip of Palin speaking at a Pentacostal church, and evidently in that case God's will was to get that pipeline built through Alaska.
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