This comes up a lot recently. Whenever Theists are backed into a corner regarding the problem of evil or contradictions within his nature or outright absurdities in his description I am told that God is mysterious.
So here is why I think that’s complete and utter BS.
Now it may be true, that we can’t fully wrap our minds around God. If he exists he’s complicated and he’s infinite. We don’t understand him completely. But when you invoke the excuse that whenever there’s something that seems to be incompatible with God that he just works in mysterious ways, then you’re acting like we can’t comprehend him at all.
I don’t understand everything about evolution or about genetics etc. . I roughly understand how it works and I know what the evidence is but do I understand it completely? No. Does that mean that I or the experts can’t draw reasonable inferences? Of course not.
The same is true for God. You may not understand him completely but you do roughly understand that he’s compassionate and immensely powerful, that he intervenes in human affairs and that he designed us with a purpose for our existence in mind.
If you throw up your hands and say you do believe in a deity but have no idea whatsoever what he’s like then we can’t draw inferences. If your concept of God resembles the description above, you’ll have to accept that you’re gonna be held accountable to what we observe in the Universe.
If you use that excuse and pretend that we’re in no position to do that, you have forfaited your right to make any claims at all besides “there is a Supernatural entity whose properties are unknown, because he’s just too incomprehensible for us” . Yet those people who play that card frequently, then happily turn around to claim that natural catastrophe X is a judgement from God for our corrupt culture.
Where’s the data on that? How can you know why God does that, when you have admitted that you don’t understand his motives at all.
We also should ask ourselves this: Why did God create us in such a way that he’s out of reach? He could’ve created us such, that his character and nature are perfectly to us. Why didn’t he?
More importantly, why wouldn’t it scare you that God created you in such a way? Why wouldn’t it scare you that there is this immensely powerful being, that controls the world and everything in it and that will judge you according to his law after your life has ended. If he is so mysterious and so far out there for us, then how can we know that he’s truthful? I know that the Bible says that God can’t lie, but what if he can and he just has a mysterious reason for telling us the opposite?
Ultimately then we can’t know if God will treat us justly or if he will just throw us all into hell because he enjoys seeing the horror in people’s faces right before he does so. After all he works in mysterious ways and we can’t understand his motives.
To be sure, Theists don’t have to know everything about God nor do they need to have an account for everything. If you don’t just say that you don’t. But appealing to God’s infiniteness in the event of any glaring contradiction is not the answer. Especially since it leads to devastating consequences theologically and I as an Atheist see right through it.
Goodbye from yours truly,
Rene von Boenninghausen @Renevelation
Here is what we know: God is love. He would no more want to throw His children in hell than your father or anyone’s loving father would want to see you or their children be tortured. He goes to great lengths to rescue what He calls His “lost sheep” and “prodigal sons.” Rest assured, He’ll be coming for you soon – if you have not felt His presence yet. You’re one of His children. That I know. And He won’t let you down.
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