Sunday, July 09, 2006

Will the Real God Please Stand Up?

Who is the "real God"? Is He the maniacal mass murderer described in the Old Testament? Is He the loving Father of the New Testament who told us through His Son to "love your enemies" and "turn the other cheek"? Is He both?

I really don't know, but I hope He's closer to the NT version.

One thing I'm pretty sure of is that He's the same today as He's ever been. He's unchanging -- and He didn't do, nor cause to be done, the multiple atrocities and slaughters listed in the OT. We (Homo sapiens sapiens) did.

Animals are selfish. Animals are territorial. Animals are tribal. Animals are driven by their genome to survive and perpetuate their species. Homo sapiens are animals.

Unlike God, we do change -- but on an evolutionary time-line; in other words, very slowly. I doubt if one can find an atrocity that was committed in the OT that has not been repeated in every century since that time, right up to and including the one we're in now.

Joshua and Moses were conquerors. They (violently) stole land and assets (including women) from others. There were certainly not unique human leaders. My Native American ancestors had millions of square miles of their land (America) violently taken from them. Other notable land-grabbers in history would include the following:

Genghis Khan [Mongolia]
Alexander the Great [Macedonia]
Tamerlane [Turkestan]
Cyrus the Great [Persia]
Attila the Hun [Hun Empire]
Adolf Hitler [Germany]
Napoleon [France]
Mahmud of Ghazni [Afghanistan]
Francisco Pizarro [Spain]

In each and every case, the land theft was accompanied by horrible atrocities done by humans to humans. Humans do not need a God to direct their atrocities. They are very talented at committing them on their own.

About the only thing God may be seen guilty of is allowing an animal (mankind) to evolve into such a talented killer.

Watch the news. Such atrocities are not over, and won't be over as long as one person/tribe/country has something another needs/wants. As my wise brother Richard puts it, "We do what we do because we are what we are".

The OT scribes tried to whitewash Josuha's and Moses' beastial behavior (which, unlike other animals, they were capable of recognizing) by shifting the blame to God -- thus creating the terribly cruel OT God. Some still use God that way today (e.g., Islamic extremists).

However, it is more in vogue today to justify human territorial grabass with ideals such as Manifest Destiny, Democracy, "freeing the oppressed", and such whitewash, ad nauseam.

In the mean time, where is the "real God" and what is He doing? Don't know. Your guess is as good as mine. Taking notes?

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