Speaking to various fundamentalists in recent times (mainly Christians and Muslims), a common theme I seem to have surfaced from them is that if you believe in God, “of course” you submit to Him.
My question, “Why?”
If we are to use the Old Testament as a guide, God has dished out some seemingly tough punishments for even the most pettiest of ‘sins’. Wave after wave of plagues, locusts, firestorms, floods & fatal illnesses just to name a few.
However, according to my fundamentalist friends, “He created us, so we wouldn’t exist without him, and we exist to worship Him”.
So, even if we believe that God is true, are we allowed to also believe that he is actually quite evil? Can we choose to denounce Him?
If you want to live forever, then you need a higher power to help you do that. Is the true meaning of life, life, or death? Should we worship death, intentional or not?
Egypt was stricken for making slaves of Israelites, not exactly petty. But Onan was killed for pulling-out during sex, which may seem trivial, but then he still went against God’s plans and there would have been no Jewish Davidic Kingdom and our realities may have been very different right now. Or not at all, especially if you are Jewish.
Everything is as it should be, and we may not be here right now if it was something else.
We can nail it down as we ourselves gain more knowledge. We can find growth instructions in DNA, and there is likely a similar Law for everything else, the sum total of which is God’s Law, or perhaps even the Tree of Knowledge.
As I said earlier, we don’t usually blame God for nightmares, but we can sometimes find meaning in them. Life is the same way: when you die and wake up, if you do, you may not blame God for it, but you may finally understand its meaning.
-J
Well, according to both of those faiths, Satan believed in God, but rebelled against him. You’re not gonna get anywhere with them using the line “Satan did it, so therefore I can too,” but there you have it.