| Religious blog, prepare to be angry hahahhaa |
[Aug. 5th, 2007|08:35 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  curious | ] |
Now for those of you who know me, I think of random things all the time, my thoughts ranging from everything from video games to theology, languages to politics, everything. Well, today on the car ride from the hotel, I was thinking of something that is an interesting topic: God and forgiveness.
Now, the opinion I will be speaking from is from a Pagan, but has several applications to judeo-christian opinions. Now,throughout my time here and several conversations and dealings with Christians, I have heard that god is the divine source of Infinite love, that He loves all unconditionally. Let's take a look at that word: unconditionally. It means, without exception and forever forgiving. Take a minute, think about what that really means. I'll be coming back to that soon enough, but before I do that, I want to go to the other thing that I know about Christianity, that He is the ultimate Judge.
anyone else notice the contradiction there? To be the ultimate judge, but who loves all his subjects unconditionally; it seems to be a paradox by my thinking, but what do I, a mere mortal know? Let's take a moment to examine both sides of the Ultimate Being. As supreme lover of all, one who forgives, will no doubt give forgiveness to an average run of the mill adult, who maybe hasn't killed anyone, but has taken name in vain, maybe been a little angry, but otherwise overall good guy. Again, this person is an average person who with aside from typical faults, gets into Heaven. Yay, ultimate lover of all His children!
Now, let us examine the other coin of the Almighty, the Judge. John Smith is married with three kids, and John decides to kill his wife and three kids for no other reason than just seeing them suffer. All regular believers know that there is a difference between someone who lies a little and maybe commits adultury, veruss cold blooded murder, and therefore God in his infinite wisdom would send John Smith to Hell.
Back to the paradox of it all. How can something who loves all unconditionally also be the ultimate judge? Either He is judging you for all that you have done, or is willing to accept you for who and what you have done, willing to forgive. This is a scarey train of thought, because it offers the concept that God would forgive, and allow a murderer into Heaven or a petty theif and condem him to hell. Freightening isn't it?
But why is that a scary line of thought? Why does the prospect of Hitler possibly sharing eternal bliss alongside Mother Theresea, or on the other hand, the idea of an unbaptized saint (pardon the oxy-moron: that is to say someone who abides by the commandments and just was never baptised for whatever the reason) condemed to hell inspire such disbelief and anger, myself included.
I cannot propose to know the Universe and its thinking, or presume to know the will of any God or Goddess, but I can take some educated guesses. Here they are:
The reason that we humans cannot fathom the idea of Hitler in Heaven, or a baby in hell is because we are mortal. We hold grudges, we feel anger, remorse, bitterness, all emotions that well, make us humans. But what we lack in abundence, is the one quality that seperates us from the Divine, forgiveness. It is hard to for us to forgive those who wrong us so wrongly, and understandable. Survivors of the Holocaust i doubt, could ever forgive Nazi's, or Hitler, I can't even do it myself, their acts were beyond words. But what if God or whatever creation force you want to use, can and did. I recall something I heard on the History channel about the Race Riots and how a KKK member killed a young black boy, and in the court room faced the boys mother. He asked for forgiveness, and she responded poingently and dignified, that she had already given to him. Not a dry in the house.
It is moments like those, that are truly God inspiring, it is examples of this that Jesus talked about, that all religions refer to.
Forgiveness is a hard trait for humans to muster in themselves, but nevertheless, I believe that it is the true road to the Divine, no matter what faith you follow.
On a similar topic, but a little unrelated, the non Judeo-christian opinions on this topic of divine love and forgiveness. For me, and other Pagans we believe in reincarnation, and that all our actions are paid by through the cosmic credit card system: Karma. With paganism and other reincarnation based systems, the paradox of the duel combination of Supreme Judge/Supreme Forgiver doesn't really apply. For pagans Divinity is not a forgiver or judge, that is us. In the reincarnation system, someone like Hitler or John Smith, will be paying for their crimes for lifetimes to come, in various ways.
But forget about the difference between the religious systems, back to the topic on hand. Anther scary thought regarding this whole topoic, is that what if the Divine isn't either supreme judge or ultimate forgiver. I know! Scary! What if, He/She/It is a combination of the two, but remove the pre-words supreme/ultimate. What if He is just a judge and forgiver. That doesn't create the paradox as mentioned above, because then reason and rationality can come into play in terms of forgiveness and punishment. Meaning that, if God is not Supreme Judge or Forgiver, but just a Judge and Forgiver, He will know the difference between a non christian saint and hitler, and bless or punish accordingly.
You may say now: well duh, that's what I always thought. Ah ha, mes amis. There's a scary loophole in that logicv too: it implies that God is not as perfect as thought, for He is subject to the same emotions and rationality as us! I know i know, you all want ot yell blashpemer at this, but hear me out!!!!
This doesn't have to be as damning as you all think, because here's where I will throw in some of my own personal beliefs: Divinity did this on purpose! After all, we are created in its image, non? I say that It made this 'little error' on purpose all apart of His ultimate plan. By creating humans in his image, and being open to the same emotions and rationality as the creatures he created he did not make himself any less divine, or awe inspring, but rather, made himself more accessible to us. With these 'falisies' we can remember the connection that the Divine has given to us, and remain forever in contact with them.
By continuing the belief that the Divine is the ultimate whatever, we distance ourselves from it, for fear of either retribution, or anger at not understanding. So heres the moral of the story: remember, we are created in the Universe's image, no matter the faith, and it is the fact that we are It's likeness and conversley, It's likeness is in us. |
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