Welcome back to my crow's nest. It's been a while since I last visited with you because I've been on a journey that was similiar to nailing Jello to the wall. If you remember in our last time together up here in the nest we talked about sin and suffering and God. I promised you that we would talk about who God really is. Now the easiest approach would be to announce that the God of the Bible is the true and living God but that would be less than satisfying convincing only those who were already convinced. So I went all the way back to even trying to define what the word "god" means without referencing a religious source such as the Bible or the Koran. The only credible voice I could find was the dictionary. Mr. Webster offered a broad framework from which to start, in fact, almost too broad.
Then I had to overcome my own bias in order to engage in our dialogue instead of debating with those of you who may not see things my way. This crow's nest is rather small so if we just argue someone may get tossed out and it would be rude of me to invite you here and then throw you out. And, surely, you would not throw a man out of his crow's nest, would you?
I have been referring to God as He, She, It, or Them. So the best place to start is by narrowing down these terms of reference. Take "It" for instance. A number of modern minds explain God as an impersonal force- a power of some sort that affects us, yet it has no definite personality. No personality means no intelligence, no explainable approach to why it does things, or even if it does things. No personality also means no emotion. Stuff happens with no judgment in mind nor loving intent. That leaves the interpetation of events up to our own perceptions. Does not that, then, make us the ultimate judge of everything? So are we our own God? At least we have a definite personality that allows us to assess things. Are the "It" followers theists or are they atheists? I've got the hammer, you bring your own Jello.

Good to see you again. It’s has been a while since we have met here in the old crow’s nest. I got a new computer with all the latest cool stuff on it, but I’m a bit slow in learning how to use them. Some say that I need a crash course in computing, but the truth, is I’m really good at crashing the computer. So here is my first attempt with my new computer. Hang on, here we go!
To refresh your memory, we have been briefly discussing the subject of God. Is there really a God? Who is God? Can we really know Him, Her, It or Them? It seems that when it comes to the creation of the universe, the ultimate purpose of mankind, or other deep philosophical matters we can remain rational and fairly clear headed in our debates about such matters, but we tend to lose perspective when it comes to sin and suffering. That is because we all are affected so personally by them. Watching loved ones wither away from cancer makes us cry out for Divine intervention. We become disillusioned when nothing happens. Whether justified or not, we hate the death and destruction that war produces. It does not make sense that someone would be angry enough to take the life of another human being. Why would anyone sexually or physically abuse a child? Sensible people find no justification in such violence. Inevitably, we ask, “Where is God? How can He allow this?” Many come to the conclusion that either there is no God in control or He does not deserve our respect.

If there is no God at all, we mortals have some serious problems. Inspite of a constant effort to improve the overall behavior of our species, things are just getting worse. Nothing seems to quell our warlike nature. Old conflicts continue unabated while new ones break out in all corners of creation. Differences in race and culture fuel fighting. Religion, which should make us better, is the reason some seem hell-bent on killing or enslaving those who disagree with them. Murder, rape, robbery are all on the rise. Disrespect and rudeness have become the standard in dealing with others.

If a reasonably intelligent alien were to land on Earth and observe our behavior do you think he would want to become part of our world? Or would he write us off as losers? Face it, we humans have miserably failed. If thousands of years of existence have brought no improvement could we say that we and our world are hopeless? And there is no divine power to blame, only ourselves. That would lead us to the position of the Epicureans whose philosophy was, “Eat, drink, be merry, for tomorrow you die.” Life has no defined purpose, so indulge yourself in your short stay here.

For those who concede that there may be a deity of some kind, but He, She, It, or Them are unapproachable have a greater problem. They acknowledge there is a deity, but the deity just doesn’t care about creation or is unable to control it. It’s like having a broken air conditioner at your house in Florida in July. You try looking up a repairman in the phone book and all you find is listings for repair services with no phone numbers and no business hours. Out there somewhere is a trained service tech sitting in an air conditioned office and does not care that you are sweltering away in 98 degree heat. Even the calmest among us would tend to be angry at such callousness. A deity that ignores the agonizing cries of earth’s multitudes dying with aids, malnutrition, crippling diseases, and the ravages of war should enrage us. Such a god should not be honored.

That brings us to the toughest questions of all, “If there is a deity out there that is greater than we mortals, how does He, She, It or Them explain pain, evil, and death?” Or, “How can a loving deity allow us to suffer?” How about, “Why doesn’t deity stop the horrible injustices all around us?” People are starving to death because their rulers don’t like their particular tribe or their faith. Can’t deity over ride their actions? Could not the attack of 911 been stopped before three thousand innocent people were killed? Some folks really struggle with a god who allows the abuse of children. What’s up with this thing called death? And where do the dead go? Would we want to go live with a god that caused such suffering in the first place?

There are various approaches to the subject of suffering. Since this a blog and not a book I will limit my discussion to a one word explanation- freewill. We humans are the cream of the crop of all earth’s creatures when it comes to intelligence, emotions, and reasoning. Most of the animals react from instinct or triggers in nature. Being a hunter I know that the mating season of the wild turkey is somewhere around the middle of March to the middle of April. The mating ritual is not caused by a burst of romantic feelings between a tom and a hen, but rather by the lengthening of the daylight hours which triggers the hen’s cycle. Now it is true that the tom will strut and gobble in order to attract the hen. All he is doing is showing her that he is capable of fertilizing her eggs. Of course, he does the same thing to any other hen that he can lure. They are simply responding to an instinct that allows them to procreate their species. Once the hens are properly impregnated the toms go off by themselves leaving the hatching and rearing of the young to the hens.

On the other hand, we humans exercise our freewill to pick and chose the one that we marry. It is our choices that determine whether we arrive at happily ever after or divorce court.

The truth be known, our choices determine the entire outcome of our lives. Some may say that there are circumstances in life that we have no control over that seriously affect us. We still have the ability to choose how we react to what we can't control. Either we let the events crush us or we work our way out of them making the most of it. That corny cliche, "If life hands you lemons make lemonade", is a formula for success.

Freewill is the cause of our problems as well. Clashes over power results in war and all of its awlfulness. Wanting what is not yours leads to theft. Not taking care of our bodies leads to health issues. Choosing to lie tears apart friendships and damages reputations. All of our sins and our sufferings can be traced back to someone's or some group's actions.

So, if there is a god, why don't he, she, it or them stop our bad choices? Hey, sounds fair to me. God can correct all that is bad and leave all that is good, right? But what is free about that and whose will is being exercised? For freewill to be actually an unhindered choice both good and bad actions must be allowed, otherwise, we are mere robots. A four year old girl makes her doll do whatever she wants with no input from the doll. What kind of god would create a world where the creations were mere play things? What would be the point of such a thing? Having raised daughters and now granddaughters I have kissed my share of dolls who did not respond to me at all. I would much rather receive one kiss from my wife that is freely given than to give ten thousand kisses to a plastic doll. God is willing to risk some choices that are wrong in hopes of some genuine expressions of love and worship.

My brain is fried, how about yours? Sin and suffering are hard subjects to comprehend, but maybe we have seen some insights. That still leaves the question of who is God unanswered. Next time we will attempt to begin an answer.

CROWS NEST

It is good to see you again here in my crow's nest. Pull up a stool and pour yourself some coffee. I probably should have some tea available for you non-coffee drinkers. It is hard to please everyone. Kinda like our discussion about the existence of God that we started last time. You can't satisfy them all. Some contend that there is no God while others concede that there may be a god hiding out there somewhere, isolated and unknowable. For those who acknowledge the reality of God the question becomes who is He or She or It or Them. Let's look at each group individually.
Those who deny the reality of God have some valid points. Most representations of God show Him to be invisible and out of reach. We humans are used to being touched by those we love, but God has no body or form. How do you cuddle in the arms of something you can't touch? How do you know that He is listening to your prayers?
With all the chaos in this world whether it be in the volatility of nature, the warlike tendencies of man, or the randomness of pain and suffering some question that a God with any moral character would not allow such things to afflict His creation. Therefore, the logical conclusion is that there is no God.
The list of atheistic arguments have filled volumes of books but for space sake we will deal with these two points. Our society today depends on so many unseen, undefineable things. For instance, we can feel the wind, measure it, forecast how it will affect our picnic this Saturday, harness it for power, but we cannot see it. We know that in winter the wind is cold and in summer it is hot. Never are they reversed, not even in Florida. We plant crops based on this predictability. Yet, there are no wind atheists.
There are those who reject the idea of a simple (or complex) faith in that they cannot prove. Often they refer to the world of science and math supposing that both of these are based on proveable facts. Oh really? In my high school geometry class the teacher began the lesson on the first day by placing a small round mark on the chalkboard. He said, "This is a point. It has no dimension, shape, or definition. It is simply a point in space." After putting another undefinable, unexplainable point on the board he connected the two and said, "The shortest distance between two points is a line." Adding a third point and connecting all three he declared that this was a plane. He reviewed by saying that these were the basics for our course in plane geometry. From there we explored a series of proofs, axioms, and postulates to prove certain statements and conclusions about angles, triangles, rhombuses, and other weird forms. We proved things that were true but based on something unseen, undefineable and formless. Talk about blind faith.
Do we even need to talk about electricity? The root of the marvels of electricity is the theory of magnetism. Very intelligent people have studied this mysterious force for better than a hundred years and still cannot fully explain how or why it does what it does. Do you enter into a dark, warm house and refuse to turn the lights or the AC on because you cannot define the roots of electricity? So, you are not an electric atheist? Then would you refuse to concede that there is a God even if you cannot see Him or fully explain Him?
It seems that I am out of coffee and time. Come again and we shall look at sin and suffering. See you then