Comments on: God’s Away on Business

By: midnight prayer « darwinian remiix

midnight prayer « darwinian remiix — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:33:32 +0000

[...] Blake, in his post God’s Away on Business, said: It’s hard to sort out the reasons and the sequence of my loss of faith. In the afterimage [...]

By: Lincoln Cannon

Lincoln Cannon — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 02:39:34 +0000

I’m good with that.

By: Jonathan Blake

Jonathan Blake — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:29:01 +0000

“The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.” (John Milton, Paradise Lost, 1667, 254–55)

By: Lincoln Cannon

Lincoln Cannon — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 04:42:46 +0000

Ha! Send me to hell with the compassionate, and we’ll make a heaven of it — and you know where this idea comes from.

By: JohnR

JohnR — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:08:46 +0000

If I die and unexpectedly meet God, I’ll have a choice word or three for him, spit in his eye, and cheerfully go to Hell where all the compassionate folk take up residence far from that insufferable tyrant.

Amen! I said something similar, but far less eloquent, when a Christian friend told me that ultimately, no matter how unfair or uncompassionate god may seem (we were arguing about the condemnation of so many to hell), we had to worship him if for no other reason but his omnipotence.

By: Lincoln Cannon

Lincoln Cannon — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:05:18 +0000

I intend no discounting of gratuitous suffering. You and I can’t keep this from happening, but we still value each other. I extend the same esteem to all aspects of God, expecting only that each does what it can to make the better world.

By: Jonathan Blake

Jonathan Blake — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:40:06 +0000

First, you obviously worship a God who isn’t classically omnipotent.

Second, and most importantly to me, is that this discounts the truly gratuitous suffering that takes place. There is nothing instructive, transformative, or redemptive for the victim in the short life of a child stolen from her parents to become a sex slave for the nominally Christian LRA. If your God can’t keep this from happening, then that only reinforces my point that we’re on our own. There’s no point wasting our time worshiping such a God. It’s better to ignore Him and focus on what we can do for ourselves.

For those who actually believe in the inerrancy of the Bible, my question still remains: which is holier and more worthy of protection, the innocence of a child or the Ark of the Covenant?

By: Lincoln Cannon

Lincoln Cannon — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:38:40 +0000

Until you are on the verge of ceasing to exist beyond all restoration, you’re not on the verge of forever losing your faith. If you and I happen to meet God at the same time, and if we learn together that God could have best pursued our exaltation in some manner other than that which we are now experiencing, I’ll gladly join you in hell. Until then, I’ll consider your increasing compassion and decreasing patience for oppressive gods to be evidence for the God I worship.

By: Jonathan Blake

Jonathan Blake — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:35:44 +0000

There's also an excellent rendition of Dear God by Sarah MacLachlan featured on mind on fire. It's more soulful and heartfelt than the one I included above, but is visually lacking.