We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes.
~ Gene Roddenberry
~ Gene Roddenberry
The quote above expresses succinctly one of the problems I've always had with the traditional formula for Christianity. That is, I don't understand why it's necessary for humans to be "saved" or "redeemed" from their supposedly sinful natures, nor do I see why Jesus had to die on the cross.
If humanity is imperfect, I can see two reasons why this is so, neither of which would require us having to apologize and "repent" from being what we are. That is, supposing that God is real and we are God's creations.
One, as Roddenberry said, is that God made a mistake, in which case, it's not our fault we are the way we are, and there's no need to repent for not having been created perfect. But I find this highly unlikely, if God is the omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent God that Christianity has always claimed God to be.
I think the second reason is more plausible. That is, I think that if God is real, that we were designed to be imperfect from the get-go intentionally. Perfect people would be boring and static, unable to change and grow, or to make more of themselves. That would be pretty boring and life would be essentially pointless that way. As the imperfect beings that we are, we are like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to eventually get with each newborn baby. Our lives are not mapped out for us ahead of time to follow a perfect, predictable path.
So, again, there's no need to to be "saved" from our essential natures, but rather to try to live life the best way we can with what we've been given and to make the most of what we have.
Thoughts?
6 comments:
Amen! Brother Libertine. Preach on...
LOL
being an atheist..for me there is no God so this whole concept of religion based morality is pointless. humans are quite capable on their own of establishing morality codes and laws of the land. we've done it for centuries and i do not see that changing any time soon. we may face a verdict and judgement in a court of law or face the consequences of immoral acts amongst our family and friends. but this idea of sin. or born to sin. or some creator who is perfect creating imperfect creations...uh..nah. makes no sense. there is no logical flow of ideas and concepts and consequences.
I will recommend a good read for your mind if you want something to think about. I bought "God is not Great" by Christopher Hitchens. I heard him one evening on Chris Matthews and he praised the book. It is a good read and I am not through it yet. Your library might have it or you could get on a waiting list.
It sort of goes along with your post.
Also "Misquoting Jesus" is a gem. That goes into a lot of details about all of the problems there is with the "Bible" source and so on.
No, I could not draw a map for a city as large as your city. This one is bad enough and thankfully I no longer mess much with it as it is done. I just have to add new streets from time to time.
Thanks for the visit.
I've read "Misquoting Jesus", Abe, and it's a good book. I'll try to get the other one from my library.
I agree with you.
My understanding is, God intentionally made humans imperfect and with free will. This is so that we can grow and learn and continue to improve ourselves.
He sent prophets to show us the way, but ultimately it's all up to us to listen/read and think about what we're being told, and to make our own decisions and act accordingly.
Through the holy books, God gives us guidelines on how to live our life to the fullest, but within those guidelines you're basically free to do whatever pleases you.
Our diversity (physically, mentally and spiritually) is what makes life on earth interesting and entertaining, and God intended it that way so that we can also learn from each other and enjoy the differences.
I think the concept of sin is more to warn you of what is considered detrimental to attaining a happy life on earth, i.e. things that are bad for you (physically, mentally and spiritually) or for the relationship between you and the community and the environment.
This does not mean I don't believe in heaven and hell, I do, but I also believe that doing good deeds do not only gain you points to go to heaven in the afterlife, but it also builds you a heaven on earth.
too long?
aybe I should've blog about this instead :D ha ha
I agree. I'm atheist as well. I suppose I never really understood Christianity, or the other religions. It never made much sense to me. I was baptized, I went through confirmation, etc...but I never really believed. Your post makes perfect sense. Why should we feel bad for what we are. If God exists, it IS his fault for designing us the way He did.
being raised in a strict catholic family, I never understood the whole "being saved" thing either. If babies are born without sin, why did they have to get baptized to wash away their sins? They are babies and couldn't possibly have sinned yet!
I think God made us all a bit imperfect just so we could all be different. I'm sure he would have gotten bored looking at all his "perfect" people....besides who would he send all those door to door bible thumpers too if he made everyone perfect?
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