Tony\'s God (Introduction)

by dhw, Saturday, November 26, 2011, 17:44 (4724 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

TONY: No worries, and I hope no offense taken. We can throw beer mugs or teacups at each other and shout obscenities and call each other unflattering names and it still would not change my respect for you or your opinions and insights one bit. :) As for me, I was having a bad day. I was over it after some sleep, and I bounce back quickly.

Greatly appreciated, no offence taken, and the respect is 100% reciprocated. Sadly, not everyone can handle this kind of discussion – and I fear Abel is the latest, following on from the equally silent broken_cynic. A lot of interesting contributors, theist and atheist, have come and gone during the four years or so since the website opened. No doubt most have given up in disgust because they “know” they’re right, but some may well have taken offence. This has never been intentional on my part, but the mere act of challenging people’s deeply held convictions can seem offensive in itself, which is why I’m immensely grateful to people like yourself, who are prepared to discuss their views in a spirit of give and take.

TONY: Supposedly humans have had between 6000 and 4 million years to figure it out, depending on who you ask. Regardless of which set of numbers you agree with, I think that the evidence is in on whether or not we can do it for ourselves. The funny thing about belief to me is that every ascribes different things to faith. See, I don't need faith in God to enlighten me as to the relevance of love. My faith in God is simply that he is a god of love, and that he will do what is in the best interest of all in its own due course.

As I see it, the technological forces we’ve developed will eventually cause destruction on a global scale, because sooner or later there will be enough idiots in power either to unleash them (weapons) or allow them to tip the ecological balance (pollutants). None of us can stop the process anyway, because there are simply too many autonomous power structures (which means autonomous idiot authorities) that are or will be capable of mass destruction. As individuals we can only enjoy what we can while we can – though I doubt if the human race will wipe itself out completely. By then, we might even have found the means to colonize somewhere else in space, so we can start the process all over again.

I don’t think faith in a god of love will make any difference. History will run its course unless he intervenes – again on a global scale. I don't suppose you imagine he’s going to appear from on high and make all the idiots into geniuses to save the planet! Even when, according to Christians, he did try a non-violent intervention by sending a peace-and-love-preaching Messiah, the outcome was the usual human mixture of peace and war, love and self-seeking, and it didn’t make a blind bit of difference to the onward march towards the abyss. A global intervention would probably have to be a comet that would finish us all off. So...and this is where our discussion may take a different course... perhaps what you have in view is a paradisal afterlife. Any thoughts you’d like to share on that?