Things that are too hard for the Lord

I have a family member who is very dear, very precious and I love her very much.  But she is going totally ape shit over her Christian belief to the point that she is posting scripture on her Facebook page, quoting the scandalous 700 Club and completing sentences with “Praise Jesus”.  That would be scripture from the Bible, not the Koran, not the Book of Mormon, not the I Ching, etc.  And though I am deeply tempted to respond on her Facebook page I have told her I will not do so as long as she does not throw that tripe in my face via a personal email or text.  Well, what I really said was if she threw that BS in my face I would respond with reason and rational thinking and highlight the folly of her belief in the mystical, magical, invisible sky daddy myth.  So I’ll post my response here and send her a link.

Her post was, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”  Genesis 18:14.  Well yeah.  The list of things too hard for her lord is almost infinite in length: 

Clearly, her god cannot cure cancer, in fact, her god must have created cancer if she believes he is the creator of everything.  Has there ever been a Christian loved one who died of cancer without prayers for a cure?  The same must be true for any disease one can name.

Her god cannot stop wars.  With every outbreak of hostility there are any number of sincere fools who gather to pray for peace.  Doesn’t work.  Just look at the Mideast. 

Clearly her god cannot answer the earnest prayers of hundreds of people who know they are about to die in plane crashes, ship wrecks and falling bombs.  They all die anyway. 

Clearly it was too hard for her god to place human beings on a planet that allows only about 15% of the space to be habitable.  Is it too hard for her god to give us gills? 

Clearly it is too hard for her god to inspire holy books that imply he has the ability to see into the future.  The Bible is riddled with false knowledge.  No, he had to go and say the earth was flat, the moon is a source of light not a reflection of light, that the universe revolves around earth, and, by the way, our multibillion year history is really only about 10,000 years. 

If he could see into the future and was giving us advice on how to live why didn’t he simply have Jesus say slavery is bad, treating women poorly is bad, judging others by race, ethnicity, sexual preference is bad?  Oh yeah, he did do that, but Christians don’t listen. 

Why didn’t he develop a female component in his holy trinity?  Jesus is a male.  The Holy Spirit must be a male if one believes he impregnated Mary, and Jesus refers to god as the father.  Looks like that leaves 50% of the humans on the planet without divine symbolism.  Oh yeah, there is Mary mother of Jesus worshipped by some, but her claim to fame was to declare her pregnancy was due to god, not Joseph, and spend the rest of her life no doubt explaining how she was chosen because she was a virgin and Jesus had an older brother.  Go figure.

It is clearly too hard for god to protect his creation.  99% of all life that ever existed on this planet is now extinct.

It is clearly too hard for god to find a path to salvation that did not require the tortuous death of his only son.  Man, that is heartless.  If he would allow his only son to die such a death what is willing to allow followers to experience?  Oh yeah, there is Job.

It is clearly too hard for god to redirect human behavior without drowning everyone.

It is clearly too hard for god to simply show up, send a memo, make an appearance, burn a bush, part a sea or something.  There are rumors of such but they are not substantiated by any other observers other than the cult members.

It is clearly too hard for god to have left some evidence that Jesus actually existed.  There is no evidence that he did other than the reports of those who believe in him.  We have the same evidence for Zeus, Ra, etc.

It is clearly too hard for god to actually provide for every human like he claims to do for sparrows.  (See Matthew 6:26)

It is clearly too hard for god to open every door when someone knocks or give them whatever they ask.  (See Matthew 7:7)

It is clearly too hard for god to even answer all the prayers of the faithful.  (See John 15:7.)

But believers ignore all these facts.  They perform a mental gymnastic that is truly beyond belief.  They answer all those questions by saying that either the so-called faithful are not faithful enough, or that their god has a plan that is beyond what we understand.  In other words, it is all our fault, not god’s.  People die due to a plan.  People starve due to a plan.  People kill each other due to a plan.  What a wonderful god this must be to not only kill his only son but to allow such horror as part of a plan no one ever gets to see but we must somehow believe exists.  Worse, he claims to be able to do all things and answer all prayers when he clearly does not.  So, one of the things her god cannot do is tell the truth.

And I am just getting started.  Belief in such a deity is so fool-hardy after just a few moments of reflection I wonder how anyone of sound mind can do so.  Oh yeah, I used to believe because I was brought up to believe.  But once I started asking questions and seeking knowledge my belief evaporated.  And by the way, the behavior that got Adam and Eve banished from the Garden of Eden was the act of seeking knowledge.  Is it god’s intent to punish anyone seeking knowledge?  Are all scientists by definition damned?  Those fools would have bitten the apple too just to learn.

Yes, there are many, many things god cannot do.  Or if he chooses not to do those things he must be evil.  But the major thing god cannot do is be real.