So a couple of days ago, I had interesting encounter. I was at work, and a customer gave me some advice for how I could do my job better. I would have been thankful, if he had stopped there. Instead, he decided to give me a lecture on his philosophy on the world.
"If an employee messes up, whose fault is it?" he asked.
I wasn't sure where he was going with this, so I answered, "The employee?"
"No," he said. "It's always management. Why is this world so screwed up? God is in control. He created everything. It's His fault. There is no God, but that's a different discussion."
So we went from talking about my work to "there is no God." Had I the time to respond, or if I wasn't caught off guard by what he was saying, I might have pointed out a few flaws in his argument.
Most importantly, the man had confused fault with blame. There is a difference. Rape victims, sadly, are often blamed for what happened to them, but was it their fault or the rapists'? The rapists of course.
This guy had made one valid point. If an employee screws up, it will affect how the customer views that company as a whole. So management would take the blame for their employee's mistakes. Sure, it might be possible that management isn't doing a good job of hiring quality employees, but is it really their fault if someone they hire does something they shouldn't? Say I go batcrazy after a rude customer pushes me too far, and I take out my pocketknife and stab them in the temples. Who's fault would it be? Who would be going to jail? Well, me of course.
He also showed a common mistake all people make quite often. He applies his same broken logic on God. Any time something goes wrong, we blame God. Then when things go well for us, we pat ourselves on the back. But who is really at fault for humanity's problems?
Say you're having trouble getting a job. You apply to two locations in three months, get a couple of interviews that you didn't prepare for in advance, and you don't get any of the jobs. Who's fault is it that you're still unemployed? It's yours of course.
Every individual is answerable for his or her own actions. Regardless of where the blame naturally falls, no one is at fault for what another person does.
Second, is our world really so screwed up? I don't think so. When I look at nature--the plants, the animals, the land, the sea, the air, the stars--I don't see something screwed up. I see beauty. Our world is very well put together.
Flowers produce nectar, bees drink the nectar, and bees carry pollen from flower to flower so that the genes from one could be transferred to another. Before the GPS was even thought of, a certain type of pigeon could find its exact position in the world and navigate with incredible accuracy.
But in all of nature, the crowning achievement is none other than mankind. We possess incredible intellect. We have feelings of what's right and what's wrong. We have power over our environment, to an extent. In all of the animal kingdom, no other animal has shown capacity to understand that other people have knowledge separate from their own. Apes can be taught sign language, but they have never asked us what we think.
Humanity is very unique. In the creation story, God stopped at the end of each day to admire His creation and say, "It is good." But only on the sixth day, when He created man, did He say, "It is very good." Humanity is extremely well put together.
Yet, mankind is also the source of most of the world's problems. With all of the power we've been given, we tend to use it to make a lot of bad decisions. Instead of listening to our conscience, we justify our actions and then wonder why the world "is so screwed up."
So, in the end, what do we have to blame God for?
"If an employee messes up, whose fault is it?" he asked.
I wasn't sure where he was going with this, so I answered, "The employee?"
"No," he said. "It's always management. Why is this world so screwed up? God is in control. He created everything. It's His fault. There is no God, but that's a different discussion."
So we went from talking about my work to "there is no God." Had I the time to respond, or if I wasn't caught off guard by what he was saying, I might have pointed out a few flaws in his argument.
Most importantly, the man had confused fault with blame. There is a difference. Rape victims, sadly, are often blamed for what happened to them, but was it their fault or the rapists'? The rapists of course.
This guy had made one valid point. If an employee screws up, it will affect how the customer views that company as a whole. So management would take the blame for their employee's mistakes. Sure, it might be possible that management isn't doing a good job of hiring quality employees, but is it really their fault if someone they hire does something they shouldn't? Say I go batcrazy after a rude customer pushes me too far, and I take out my pocketknife and stab them in the temples. Who's fault would it be? Who would be going to jail? Well, me of course.
He also showed a common mistake all people make quite often. He applies his same broken logic on God. Any time something goes wrong, we blame God. Then when things go well for us, we pat ourselves on the back. But who is really at fault for humanity's problems?
Say you're having trouble getting a job. You apply to two locations in three months, get a couple of interviews that you didn't prepare for in advance, and you don't get any of the jobs. Who's fault is it that you're still unemployed? It's yours of course.
Every individual is answerable for his or her own actions. Regardless of where the blame naturally falls, no one is at fault for what another person does.
Second, is our world really so screwed up? I don't think so. When I look at nature--the plants, the animals, the land, the sea, the air, the stars--I don't see something screwed up. I see beauty. Our world is very well put together.
Flowers produce nectar, bees drink the nectar, and bees carry pollen from flower to flower so that the genes from one could be transferred to another. Before the GPS was even thought of, a certain type of pigeon could find its exact position in the world and navigate with incredible accuracy.
But in all of nature, the crowning achievement is none other than mankind. We possess incredible intellect. We have feelings of what's right and what's wrong. We have power over our environment, to an extent. In all of the animal kingdom, no other animal has shown capacity to understand that other people have knowledge separate from their own. Apes can be taught sign language, but they have never asked us what we think.
Humanity is very unique. In the creation story, God stopped at the end of each day to admire His creation and say, "It is good." But only on the sixth day, when He created man, did He say, "It is very good." Humanity is extremely well put together.
Yet, mankind is also the source of most of the world's problems. With all of the power we've been given, we tend to use it to make a lot of bad decisions. Instead of listening to our conscience, we justify our actions and then wonder why the world "is so screwed up."
So, in the end, what do we have to blame God for?
