Is your God mean?

[zanana]

This is a problem I always run into when I think of the Christian God I was taught about as a child. I went to a Catholic school and there I learned that God was vengeful and would send you to hell if you didn't love him enough. (I guess the Christian God has a fragile ego).
I choose to see God (or Gods) my own way. My God isn't mean. Is your God temperamental?

[mr blur]

1. Er, no, don't have one.

Life is so much easier - and makes much more sense

[CanuckAmok]

2. I'm an Athiest, but...

...if I fall under a God's jurisdiction, I'm fucked, because whenever I get supremely pissed off, I curse 'God' and caper about, Basil Fawlty-style, flipping the bird, skyward.

[asjr]

3. I was taught

the same things as a child. That is so wrong. There was always the backup :God is love" but very few taught me that. I always had the impression of a two-faced God. Thank heaven I grew up and used the brain God gave me.

[seventhson]

6. Judging by the condition of things on Earth today

It seems there may be a tragically mean streak.

So much misery and sadness.

Of course, nonattachment ought to be an option - then who would care.

I lost an old friend this week. Ran into another old friend whose brother had been run down and killed by the police in a chase (Quiet dude - of color - who probably just panicked)

Another oldfriend just got his last unemployment check. He is nearly 70 years old. He's a painter but there is no work.

(He's also a brilliant researcher and historian)

I believe Buddha's teachings that all is impermanent and that attachment and desire cause misery.

But when I see hungry children and folks who cannot afford their medicine for pain or other ailments which hurt - I wonder why there is such suffering.

I understand why the Holocaust made atheists out of so many Jews.

It makes me sad.

and I wonder exactly WHAT role, if any, a God has in all this.

If all of life is Maya - illusion - and the ultimate reality comes at the time of the death of the body (and we become pure spirit) MAYBE all of this suffering and misery will make sense.

I went to Masada, where about a thousand people sacrificed themselves rather than be made slaves and prostitutes by the Romans. They were probably essenes and were certainly Jewish rebels against Rome in a deeply religious and tough warrior community in the dead sea desert on top of a high plateau.

What is the purpose of such sacrifice? What is the karmic meaning?

I know I learned much from going there (that they believed in the immortality of the soul and would rather sacrifice their physical bodies than be enslaved and brutalized by fascist totalitarians, for example). I learned that they were heavily influenced or familiar with Hindu religious philosophy (Josephus writes about it)

This is a subject which means a lot to me and I could prattle on endlessly.

But it is a good question.

WHY does God allow this suffering? Why does God make the innocent suffer? Or is there no God at all?

[Runesong]

4. I was raised Catholic

and taught that god was loving and forgiving above all else. I have been a pagan for many years, and essentially hold that same view. My beleif in god has merely evolved to honor god the mother, as well as god the father.

[MariaS]

5. In order for me to believe

in God I must believe that She/He is powerless. I must believe that She/He gave us the universe, life, and intellegence and now She/He must stand back and watchs to see if we use those things for the betterment of mankind. She/He must be really sad sometimes. :-(

[rockymountaindem]

7. I believe in God

and I think God is both all powerful and all good. I do not believe that God commits any unjust acts. However, I think that God must not intervene to stop all evil, or else there would be no reason for people to choose good over evil. I am a Jew, and we believe that God is "slow to anger and quick to forgive". I believe that God has compassion for all of us, and if you want me to go deep into it I think that history proves that we are continuously progressing toward good. It is my religion's belief that people and God must work together to make the world a better place. I could not do this if I believed in an unjust, angry God.

[silverlib]

8. My God is not mean...

I look at the story of creation, and I think of the creation of free will. We humans evolved to a point that we wanted more than universal governance. The decision of woman to eat the apple, that God made available, was symbolic in the creation of man's "power" over the earth. God doesn't make bad things happen and he doesn't hide. He just stands by his promise made to man when man opted for free will. We have the power to change things or destroy them. In my opinion, Jesus is the Son of God, Buddha is the enlightened one and Mohammad is the great prophet, all gifts from God to man to help us make our way. The belief in one does not have to be exclusive, only if man chooses to do this.

So there's my two cents worth.

[Fleshdancer]

9. No, She's actually pretty cool

;)

[camero]

10. My god is not mean

Except on the third week of the month. :)

[dorktv]

11. My God is

a being who loves us and would like love in return. It is a give and take relationship.

[burythehatchet]

12. My God is really mean sometimes

but that doesn't happen too often anymore.

:)

[TrogL]

13. My God is insane

or inscrutible, which is basically the same thing.

[Nikia]

14. No, we are friends

It is sort of an unequal relationship but we are friends. God is much wiser and wants me to learn things. Like Dorthy in the Wizard of Oz, there are things that I have to learn for myself. I believe a slightly version of the forbidden fruit and orignal sin. When humankind chose to eat the fruit, they chose to be knowledgable and free to choose their own destiny. Yes, they by choosing the fruit, they chose to suffer because people do not always choose correctly in their choices. Was it better than the alternative, blissfully ignorant? For myself, I would eat the fruit.