Is God a CEO?
I have devoted a lot of space to the obvious lack of effective communication from God to human beings about his supposed will, if he exists. Isn't God the CEO? If any company had the exact same lack of communication in it, from the top down, then the blame for the company doing wrong would be laid squarely at the top. You cannot deny this. How many Christians who visit here work for large companies where there is a lack of communication from the top about what to do? Who's fault is it if the company has no clear set of directives? The CEO's. This is obvious. So why don't you apply that same logic to the revelation God supposedly gave his people? God chose a poor medium to reveal himself, and as such was not clear about slavery, or the Inquisition, to name just two of hundreds of other theological, moral and scientific disputes the church had no clear direction about, which in turn caused so much pain, misery, tortures, and wars.
My question is, who's at fault here? I'll even grant you that human beings are "wicked" as part of this argument, and that God knows this about us, if you want. If God knows this, then why wasn't he crystal clear about what he wanted us to do? If you say it's exclusively mankind's fault, then why are you applying a double standard here, one for CEO's, and another for God? At the very minimum, and as a best case scenario, the fault isn't laid exclusively in the lap of one of the parties alone. At the very least, the fault lies with both parties. And since this is the best case scenario, God is at fault to some degree for the misery and suffering caused by human beings where he failed to communicate effectively, like when it came to slavery and the Inquisition. Add to this the poor job that the Holy Spirit has done in the life of the church, since he's supposed to guide Christians by "illumination," and you see one of the reasons why I reject Christianity. Not only has God failed to communicate, but the Holy Spirit has failed (and continues to fail) to do his job too!
Christian, before you respond, tell me how your own present arguments would resonate with you if you were born and died a slave in the South at the hands of a wickedly mean Bible quoting master, or as you are burning to death for believing in the ideas you now presently hold to about hell, salvation by faith alone, sola scripture, concordist views of Genesis 1, the role of women in the church, views about communion, baptism, church polity, and so forth? Surely you would wish that God the CEO was clearer about what Christians should believe in these and other areas. Surely. Why isn't this at least partially God your CEO's fault? Why not?
First posted on 5/11/07
My question is, who's at fault here? I'll even grant you that human beings are "wicked" as part of this argument, and that God knows this about us, if you want. If God knows this, then why wasn't he crystal clear about what he wanted us to do? If you say it's exclusively mankind's fault, then why are you applying a double standard here, one for CEO's, and another for God? At the very minimum, and as a best case scenario, the fault isn't laid exclusively in the lap of one of the parties alone. At the very least, the fault lies with both parties. And since this is the best case scenario, God is at fault to some degree for the misery and suffering caused by human beings where he failed to communicate effectively, like when it came to slavery and the Inquisition. Add to this the poor job that the Holy Spirit has done in the life of the church, since he's supposed to guide Christians by "illumination," and you see one of the reasons why I reject Christianity. Not only has God failed to communicate, but the Holy Spirit has failed (and continues to fail) to do his job too!
Christian, before you respond, tell me how your own present arguments would resonate with you if you were born and died a slave in the South at the hands of a wickedly mean Bible quoting master, or as you are burning to death for believing in the ideas you now presently hold to about hell, salvation by faith alone, sola scripture, concordist views of Genesis 1, the role of women in the church, views about communion, baptism, church polity, and so forth? Surely you would wish that God the CEO was clearer about what Christians should believe in these and other areas. Surely. Why isn't this at least partially God your CEO's fault? Why not?
First posted on 5/11/07