Is God a Dictator?

I am beginning to feel very uneasy.  Evidently God watches me 24/7.  Worse, he judges me.  Even worse, however he judges me will be carried out for eternity.  That is very scary.  That is the ultimate police state, the ultimate dictatorship, the ultimate control.  Why would he do that if he loves me?  Why would he do that if he wants the best for me?  Why would he do that if he designed me to be imperfect, to have needs and urges and addictions he does not approve of?  Why did he set me up for failure?  If he is watching all the time why doesn’t he intervene?  Why not tell Eve, “Don’t touch that apple!” as she reaches for it?  (And why are humans still being punished for that screw up?) Tell Hitler that Jews are good people who just don’t know him yet.  Tell Trump that deities do not recognize borders or walls?  Why does he sit there and just watch us screw up?

Though evidently if I give up all that I have and all that I own and totally follow him it will all be OK.  Probably not right now because I will have nothing, but for all eternity I should be OK.  Even North Korea does not ask so much of its citizens.

So yes, he must be a tyrant, a big brother who knows all, sees all; otherwise he could not judge us for all eternity.  It is the ultimate Aldous Huxley and George Orwell nightmare.  Add to that the fact that he is guilty of negligent homicide every day, promotes human sacrifice and cannibalism and I am really getting spooked.  I get it that Jonah wanted to hide and ended up in the belly of a whale.  I want to hide too.  What critter will swallow me for attempting to avoid the ultimate surveillance?  I don’t think tinfoil on my head will do the trick.

Or, perhaps, there really isn’t a big dictator in the sky monitoring every move of 7 billion people, and such a being is like the bogeyman, created to scare some into doing the right thing.

"The Eyes of Jesus are upon you,

All the livelong day.

The Eyes of Jesus are upon you,

You cannot get away.

Do not think you can escape them

At night or early in the morn --

The Eyes of Jesus are upon you

Til Gabriel blows his horn."

Facebook Religion

It has been a terrible time in Texas and Florida for many, many people.  And though there are wing-nuts out there who, like Pat Robertson, believe natural disasters are God’s way of punishing the pagans, it is very interesting to me to try and detect what people really believe.  One of the ways for me to do that is to read posts on Facebook, even if it gives me an ulcer and high blood pressure.  I’ve read the following recently:

“A lot of sirens this morning. I don't like it.  Praying!!”  Really? Praying for what?  The sirens indicate something bad has happened, so praying something bad does not happen is pointless.  Praying for the safety of the first responders.  That makes sense, but I am not aware of heavenly intervention in times of disaster.  So why pray?

“If you woke up feeling blessed give God an Amen.”  And if your spouse washed your clothes, set the alarm, snuggled before arising, made the coffee and made your breakfast give him or her the amen because you are truly blessed.  On the other hand, if you await being rescued after having lost all that you own, you are hungry, thirsty, sick, wet, hot and tired and prior to the storm you prayed for God to protect you then you may not feel so blessed.  Some might argue being alive is a blessing.  Perhaps, but that does not help explain the 44,000 people who committed suicide last year, twice the number of homicides.

“Jesus, I can’t make it on my own.  I need you in my life.  Today.  Tomorrow.  Forever.  Amen.”  Co-dependency is really hard to escape, especially if it is with a paranormal being.  Do you feel Jesus in your life?  Do you know that is likely delusional?  It is very sad if you perceive you cannot make it unless a fictional, imaginary friend helps you. 

“Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do something, when the Bible clearly says you can do all things through Christ.”  Unless you were trying to walk on water during Harvey or Irma.  Unless you were trying to hold your roof on during the storm.  Unless you were trying to get your spouse to come back.  Unless you wanted your team to win.  Unless you wanted your candidate to win.  Unless you wanted to save everyone you love from cancer.  Unless, unless, unless.  In fact, do you know someone who was able to do something because Christ helped them?

“God will open doors no man can shut.”  Unless you were on the German Wings flight and the co-pilot locked the door and took the entire plane down with him.  God chose not to open that door.  Unless you were on flight 93 on 9/11/2001.  Unless you were trapped in an elevator as flood waters rose.  God seems to be very reluctant to open doors.

“God is with me.  I walk without fear.”  That is why I have dead bolts, an alarm system, and a permit to carry a concealed firearm.  So much malarkey.  People live in fear and when the boogey man comes and they plead to God for succor, they become victims anyway.

“If you lose everything but still have Jesus, you still have everything you need.”  As long as that “everything” includes air to breath, food to eat, water to drink, shelter from the storms.  If not you will die.  So if you lose electricity and your house then even with Jesus you are still in big trouble.

I could go on and on.  The bottom line for me is that these platitudes do more harm than good for the Christian faith.  They are clearly flawed logic and not Biblical.  Even those that are Biblical based are in fact mostly BS.

So if you pray to God for help in the storm and you lose everything, what does that mean?  If you pray to God for help in the storm and you drown what does that mean?  If you pray to God to steer the storm out to sea and it hits you dead on, what does that mean?  Is God taking a nap?  Does God simply choose not to intervene when he surely could?  Does it mean God has a secret plan that includes the death and suffering of thousands?  We are talking about the same being who was willing to have his son executed.  What could we possible expect from such a being? 

If I had the power to eradicate cancer I would do so.  If I had the power to steer storms out to sea I would do so.  If I had the power to save all those dying of hunger and thirst I would do so.  If I have the power to save hundreds of thousands of human beings from earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanoes, etc., I would do so.  The question is, what does it say about a supernatural being who has such power and chooses not to use it?  I say he is guilty of negligent homicide.  Or more likely, he is just an imaginary friend.