Does God Punish
As for religion, per se: I have found no credence in the belief that a good god would punish the stupidities of the creatures of his own creation,
having made them that way, especially as he influences the lives of those creatures by making sure to put extreme and sometimes overwhelming confusion
in their faces. No more do I accept this artifact of religiosity than I would accept the logic of putting an insect on a table, giving it two paths to take,
and then applying extreme pain to it should it choose the path more obvious.
It is far more likely that a system of man-made power would, in order to gain wealth and power, manufacture a belief system of fear thereby to
control the masses. It is also likely, as reinforcement to that belief system, that a man would so strongly wish that his enemies could be made to suffer
with just an effortless thought, that he would uphold a belief system in which that would be possible. This is completely obvious when, at first one says
that his enemies will be punished for their sins, and then says that his own sins are washed away without consequence.
But truth-seeking individuals intrinsically know that nothing made of pure goodness would create pure evil, neither would pure goodness torture for
all eternity those who he created to lack the skill to have finally made the right choices. I am speaking of my lack of faith in religion and religiousity,
not in God. I, personally, believe in a creator, whatever it may be, which may not see every individual human as a significant member of creation, contrary to popular
religion, but nonetheless has made it possible for me to live a short while to enjoy the beauty of this creation and to, in some way, discover some real truth.
~ May 7, 2010
July 25, 2010
Since this post, my recent studies of NDE have helped bring some more understanding, in that the content of NDE stories confirm there is something behind the creation.
www.near-death.com/
www.nderf.org/
NDE stories do not change the assertions of my post, but in fact, confirm my beliefs.