A response for Liberalis Femina…

I was so taken back by her comments, I felt a need to respond here and make sure I made myself perfectly clear.

I’ve been getting some interesting notes from some people who I have admired for a while and have on my favorites list. Politically, we are close to being on the same page. Normally when we talk about George Bush and his corrupt adminstration, we rarely if ever clash. Yet when you change the subject to God, I see them in a different light, one that I can’t believe is coming from the same people who I read brilliant political essays from. Before I dig deeper into that, let’s take a gander at a few of the notes:

“Faith is a paradox.” – Liberalis Femina

Faith isn’t the paradox, God is as described in the last two entries. Faith was a cop out to ignore the paradox and the weight it holds. When cornered with something some don’t want to explain or debate, I’ve often watched people whip out faith and use it like a shield to deflect unwanted logic or reason.

“I don’t really care what people believe or disbelieve. I know what I believe and in the end, we will find out one way or another.” – Liberalis Femina

For someone who doesn’t care, the fury within and the quantity of the last few notes you left would suggest otherwise.

As for finding out in the end, we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it.

“The problem, as I see it, is that your argument presupposes that God is like man.” – Liberalis Femina

This is a typical Christian evasion, and quite frankly I expected better from someone like LF. She’s smarter than this, and her political essays are proof of that. It’s an excuse that isn’t going to fly either, because since the very beginning God has been treated as man like by everyone. God praises, denies, accepts, creates, loves and forgives. Man like qualities such as the ones listed are associated with God all the time, so to use the whole ‘God is not like man’ to cop out of the debate is fruitless and childish. The scripture even alledges that God made man in his image, so doesn’t that mean his image is man like since he made man in that image?

What can be really frustrating to me is that people say that God is is all-good, all-powerful, etc, ect… and then when someone tries to point out that this creates fatal contradictions, the come back is to say, ‘no, our puny human rules don’t apply’ or ‘our puny human minds just can’t understand’. If that truly is the case and all of our puny human rules and minds don’t work when it comes to figuring out God, then everyone ought to shut the hell up about God and not say anything at all. You can’t have it both ways…

“AND I do take offense at you calling my faith hogwash!” – Liberalis Femina

You misread my statement. I never said your faith was hogwash, it was your theory of free will I was labelling hogwash. Free will was and still is in my humble opinion a cop out to avoid the all good/all powerful paradox. An all powerful God doesn’t have to stop evil, but an all good God would be required to or he/she/it can’t be considered all good. That is the fatal flaw, because the existence of evil proves it beyond the shadow of a doubt. Either God is all good and wants to stop evil but cannot, which means God is not all powerful. Or good is all powerful but chooses not to stop evil, which would suggest that he is not all good. An all good God with the all powerful ability to stop evil would do it, without hesitation. That is the definition of all good, hence the paradox. You can’t have it both ways, either he is all good or all powerful… but not both.

Then again there is another theory to why evil exists, that being there are no Gods to stop it in the first place. We’re on our own and it’s our problem to deal with. I would rather live with the idea that there are no Gods rather than suggest there might be one but doesn’t give a rat’s ass enough to get off his/her/its duff to help out those who are in dire need of devine assistance.

What I guess confuses me most is that I can’t believe this is the same Liberalis Femina that posts scathing anti-bush entries every day in her diary and is a woman with a sharp mind for politics when doing so. I admire her strengh and refusal to drink the spin koolaid being offered by what is clearly one of the most corrupt adminstrations in US history. Yet when the subject is God, I’m flabbergasted at her (can’t find a better word) ignorant responses. It’s a shame she can’t point that critical finger she often uses to bash Bush & Co. on a regular basis at her Church and the corrupt people who are running that establishment and dig deeper into the issue rather than pin everything merely on faith.

She never accepted the hogwash about weaspons of mass destruction on faith or anything else people tried to sell her about the wars and other fishy things in Washington, and yet she does fall back on faith when it comes to one of the most critical debates in our history concerning our very existence. To say I am discouraged and disappointed by this a complete understatement. I’m not going to tell her how to think, her entires are proof that she’s more than capable of doing that, better than anyone else on the site sometimes.

If this entry upsets her (and it likely will) I apologize in advance. I just call things the way I see them. I’ve been taken to the cleaners on many occassions over the last several years on OD. Some were very well deserved, but I’m not telling you that my word is the end all be all. As you can tell from the last few entries, I’m all for debate. Just come at me with something more substancial than faith, because that’s not an arguement… it’s a cop out.

Peter

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