Let’s just say somehow, someway God screws up and turns himself into a mortal.
Would you still praise him?
Furthermore, would you be friends with him?
(And yes in case you haven’t already figured it out; this is a baited question.)
Would you be friends with a doctor who let a close loved one of yours die because he or she didn’t have enough money to pay him? (the doctor)
With all the suffering God has allowed on this planet though out time; how is one supposed to consider him to be the very embodiment of “Love”?
Except there’s no evidence at all that the universe needs a god to function, any more than there is for a god. It’s also kind of insulting to God to say that he can’t build to last.
Where does Hydrogen come from and how did it come to manifest in patterns capable of making decisions by alternating between seeking homeostasis and disrupting homeostasis?
Hydrogen came from the Big Bang, and it was fused into heavier elements in ancient stars ( we aren’t made only of hydrogen, you know ). After condensing into planets around young stars, some of this matter underwent enough self organization to become life, after which evolution took over. After a billion plus years, evolution happened to make us; no God required.
As amazing as it may sound, it has been hypothesized that the mechanics of evolution can operate even BEFORE life arises, as long as the driving forces of the “evolution machine” – repoduction and competition – are present in some way.
Scientists have shown that certain arrangements of atoms and molecules can attract other specific atoms and molecules, and then to split into copies of themselves, who then go on like their “parent” to attract those specific molecules and atoms they need to reach a certain state, and then split up, etc. etc.
It is even possible that there could have been “predators” and “prey”. Some groups of these uniting and reproducing molecule arrangements, lacking an increasingly rare atom in their “environment”, could attach onto another moleculuar arrangement that possesses the atoms they need. The other, unneeded atoms of the “prey” are discarded. This is the exact equivalent of a lion ingesting the flesh of a gazelle, extracting needed nutrients into its own composition, and defacating the rest.
While a GREAT DEAL of this is admittedly hypothetical, the point is that it is possible that agglomerations of molecules were already playing “survival of the fittest” before there existed anything that could be called life. But as these agglomerations of molecules and their functions became more complex and sophisticated under the constant whip of evolutionary forces, at some point, something arose that we would call life. But my guess is that it would be impossible to exactly draw a clear line between a very organized bunch of molecules and something that deserved to be called life. That is how evolution works.
Well… you know, if God did lose all his powers, and came down to earth?
Sure, I’d praise the now lower-case him. I mean, face it, the universe is an insanely neat place.
I’d sure want an answer to a bunch of things… and I’d buy him a beef, bean, and cheese burrito so big he couldn’t eat it, but I’d definitely praise him. As for friends? Depends on the answers I got.
As for the doctor thing? Depends, again. If my friend needed 2.4 million dollars of surgery, and insurance didn’t cover it… well, that’s the way things are. I probably wouldn’t be friends with the doctor after, but then again, I might.
You got a handle on God’s travel plans?
What’s north of the North Pole? And hydrogen is frozen energy, in a sense.
As for the OP, it depends on what God actually did. If he did all the stuff written in the Bible, it would be a hell of a trial - make Nuremberg look like traffic court.
Yes, Voyager, but God, qua God, is a different class of being than a human. You can’t try a bear under the same laws as a human, and I posit that it would be equally meaningless to try God. Maybe he does have reasons. We should ask him.
As far as fearing God… look somewhere else. I came to the conclusion a long time ago that the best I could do is hold myself up to my own standards, given the number of varied requirements requested by various claimants to the throne of God. I’m going to live my life my way, and if I happen to be judged after I die, I’m going to be judged, and then whatever happens will happen.
Or, you know, rot in a box, being dead. Being dead is a lot like infinity. Hard to imagine, but lo, there it is.
Okay, so at the worldwide press conference, God is asked the question, “Why did you allow bad things to happen to people?” God answers,“I have very good reasons to do the things I have done, but for your own good, I cannot tell you.” Now what would you do?
I’d have to give any artostic capable of such hits as “Sunset”, “Babies Laughing”, “The Concept of Love”, “Orgasms” and “The Grand Canyon” credit for their previous achievements, even after retirement.
Which of course means no one at all can judge him. How very convienient for him. As for me, he’s victimized humans ( assuming he existed ); humans have the right to judge their enemies.
Outside of a few lunatics, everyone has reasons. And plenty of people have asked; he’s never answered. And if he did, how do you know you’d like the answer ? What if he said, “It’s because I like watching you vermin squirm and die, < chuckles >, and praise me while I’m sending my latest plague.”
Many do. Hell, you know.
And as for what I’d do, if I had the chance I’d shoot him, in case he might get his power back. It would be like having the chance to shoot Hitler, Stalin, Genghis Khan, Pol Pot, Mao, and every other monster in history, rolled into one and magnified a billionfold.