Future History
theBeaver
God reveals himself and performs several miracles in record time, such
as raising some people from the dead, curing all victims of genital
herpes, and levitating himself. All are now convinced, beyond any
doubt, that He is God Himself. With all now prostrate before him, he
clears up one misinterpretation of the Apostles: He never had any
intention of granting anyone eternal life. Instead, everyone is just
going to die, not just physically, but their quite mortal souls will be
terminated as well.
People were aghast at what they had heard. Surely this must NOT be God
after all, they thought. But looking again at the baby smooth skin
where their herpes sores had been minutes earlier, they realized that
this truly WAS God before them. They then asked him, so why should we
listen to you? What's in it for us?
He answered that He was Truth and Love and Goodness. They could live
moral and decent lives only so long as they followed His Word and lived
by His rules. So you will not punish us if we steal, kill, or become
whoremongers, they asked? Or commit the homosexual acts that we have
wrestled against all these many years? After several seconds in which
He fought for patience, he told them no, that He did not intervene in
worldly affairs, as should have been PELLUCIDLY CLEAR to anyone with
eyes open to the injustice in the world around them.
Long, blank stares followed, and many people shook their fists or threw
him a prolonged pair of middle fingers accompanied by feisty expletives.
Almost as one, they turned their backs on God, for now they knew it
did not matter if they sinned. There was no eternal life, no meaning
to their lives, no reward for good behavior. A few still tried to
maintain their routine of worship, but in vain as they saw no savory
answer to the question so often asked: What good will it do? The
answer, of course, was "no good at all".
For all their lives, they had known that the only thing that restrained
Man's indecent passions was the Word of God Himself. How often had this
been preached to them in church? That without a God to reward and
punish, every man was free to act as he wished, and chaos would reign.
And so it did. As if to offend God Almighty, or perhaps to induce Him
to change His policy on Eternal Life, they violated every rule He had
made. If it might offend Him, they made a point of doing it in the
nastiest way possible.
But, in the midst of chaos, an unwavering and steady resistance could be
perceived. To atheists, nothing had changed. They had already known
that God did not intervene in worldly affairs and that eternal life was
a childish fantasy. Their moral law derived from their own natures,
their own sense of justice, their empathy and compassion for all living
creatures. While the suddenly Godless wrought their terror, atheists
fought back, arguing that they could look into their own hearts for
their moral compass, that abject despair over the inevitability of death
wasn't really so bad, and that you could still find some pleasure in
life without imagining that you are made of the same divine essence as
God Himself, except in miniature. Maybe they could take up woodworking,
for instance.
But the best efforts of all well-meaning atheists failed, and the
Godless terror, once unleashed, could not be contained, and a virtual
war raged for years. Even the sheep in the fields were not safe from
the wanton gluttony and lust of soulless Man. After many years, a few
managed to survive the violence, but the now universal scourge of
genital herpes again haunted their miserable lives! Uh, the end.
theBeaver
What I wrote was obviously intended to be an exaggeration, but it is at
the same time very much on point. What I wrote actually should
stimulate thinking, and make one thing obvious: If people's God
suddenly did not reward them, they would not suddenly revert to immoral
behavior. Suggesting that they would constitutes a kind of thought
experiment. Presented with the notion, everyone immediately sees the
absurdity of such a claim, and it thereby undercuts what you often hear
claimed: That without God people would not be constrained to act
morally. This writing is a gedanken experiment. Most Christians are
acting as humanists: they pick and choose what they want from their
bible, or they interpret it to suit their own sense of what is right.
That is why people generally love and care for animals, though there is
nothing in their bible that suggests the slightest importance of being
kind to other creatures. Christians, to the extent they deserve to
continue to breathe the air of this planet, are acting in accordance
with a morality dictated by their own natures -- as humanists.
In addition, it should cause theists to at least briefly confront the
notion of whether they would worship a God that didn't punish or reward.
They wouldn't, since it would do "no good at all", which reveals that
their acceptance of religion is a craven and desperate attempt to quell
their fear. This has often been suggested, but it seems to be a logical
consequence of the fact that their subservience to God would disappear
if there were no carrot and stick.
Evelyn Ruut
"theBeaver" <theB...@nowhere.com> wrote in message
news:2KJ0h.13789$DH5.12417@trnddc04...
Of course. Almost all love is just self love presenting itself in some
costume. Humans love of a god figure is the same. It has only to do with
achieving our own agendas. Punishment when that agenda is not met, reward
when it is. Discarding all agendas ends that game and suddenly there is no
god ....(or self either..... but that is another discussion).
--
Best Regards,
Evelyn
(to reply to me personally, remove 'sox')