- Feb 5, 2002
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“I swear there ain’t no heaven but I pray there ain’t no hell.” — Laura Nyro, “And When I Die.”
There is an oft-asserted notion that the God of the Old Testament is a dark, unforgiving and rather insecure entity. Atheists and others who argue for that false understanding tend to round it out with an idea that the God of the New Testament, as revealed through Jesus Christ, is the polar opposite — a platitudinous source of nothing but niceness and spiritual hugs, a lightweight “teacher” who can ultimately be shrugged-off or lumped in with other “teachers” who come and go.
Since these extremist conceptions of God have nothing to do with reality, Richard Dawkins was not wrong when he called them “fiction” in his 2008 book, “The God Delusion.”
Extreme ideas can never be true; whatever germ of actuality they’ve grown from, they are ultimately rendered false by the inherent narrowness of thought that makes them extreme, to begin with. A god to be feared but not loved would be a god who dealt in negatives, but we know that there are no negatives in God, that Creation came into being with the “yes” of his intention, and it is sustained to this very second by that continued affirmation.
Likewise, a god to be loved and never feared would be a god neglectful of our good and, like a bad parent, indifferent to the state of his children and their relationship to him.
Continued below.
www.oursundayvisitor.com
There is an oft-asserted notion that the God of the Old Testament is a dark, unforgiving and rather insecure entity. Atheists and others who argue for that false understanding tend to round it out with an idea that the God of the New Testament, as revealed through Jesus Christ, is the polar opposite — a platitudinous source of nothing but niceness and spiritual hugs, a lightweight “teacher” who can ultimately be shrugged-off or lumped in with other “teachers” who come and go.
Since these extremist conceptions of God have nothing to do with reality, Richard Dawkins was not wrong when he called them “fiction” in his 2008 book, “The God Delusion.”
Extreme ideas can never be true; whatever germ of actuality they’ve grown from, they are ultimately rendered false by the inherent narrowness of thought that makes them extreme, to begin with. A god to be feared but not loved would be a god who dealt in negatives, but we know that there are no negatives in God, that Creation came into being with the “yes” of his intention, and it is sustained to this very second by that continued affirmation.
Likewise, a god to be loved and never feared would be a god neglectful of our good and, like a bad parent, indifferent to the state of his children and their relationship to him.
Seeing the ‘very good’
Continued below.
God is real and balanced; he gets us in darkness and light
Extreme views of God are challenged by presenting a balanced understanding that embraces both light and darkness as “very good.”
www.oursundayvisitor.com
