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Tim,
We seem to be in agreement on many things. That there is a reality independent of humans. That God is everything, even evil. There is some thought that God provides evil not only to promote evolution of species, (i.e., survival of the fittest and dog eat dog. I happen to think that evolution is evil, but that it has happened, and is designed into nature); but also god distilled humans by providing hardships for humans, the most severe hardship being war. Competition and war have developed intelligent humans.
There are several examples in the holy scriptures of almost all religions of God condoning and provoking war, and even genocide. One of the first is in the Bhabavata Gita where God in the form of Krishna is telling Arun that he has to fight his cousins because it is his role in life. Soon after, God in the name of Jehovah commanded Joshua to commit genocide in Palestine, killing every human, animal and leveling every city and town except those built on mounds, perhaps the most complete genocide in the history of mankind. Centuries later Jesus in the name of the Father preached tolerance and peace. But that did not seem to work so God in the name of Allah condoned the treacherous and murderous activities of Mohamed.
That seemed to work for several centuries. But Mohamed laid the seeds of the distruction of his own religion as a world force by condemning free speech, free thinking and rational discourse, just as the Christians were using rational thinking to develop science beyond where Islam left it, which eventually lead to the colonization of all of Islam by Christians, based on more advanced scientific technology. But today we see Christian fundamentalists being anti-science in the United States, laying the seeds for our own destruction just in case our particular experiment (under God) does not work.
So I agree that we have a right to enjoy all aspects of human life. We do not have to worry about stepping on bugs (It's the Jainists, a Hindu sect, that has that belief) just because God is going to give us much more serious things to worry about, like Islamic terrorists blowing us up in the name of Allah. God's ways are not so mysterious. They're just not so nice. So until we all achieve world peace, and God can no longer distill us with fire, we needn't worry about the bugs. Besides if it comes to nuclear war, only the bugs will survive.
Richard |
