Which God?

“God has no religion.”

-- Mahatma Gandhi

Everybody who has read Genesis, raise your hand.  I’m talking “Old Testament” not the Hyundai sedan.  You know, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” Old Testament?  It is the beginning.  The beginning of everything wrong with “Holy Scripture” as approved by the Councils of Nicaea. 

God created the heavens and the earth for the first 25 verses of Chapter One.  This is the all-powerful, omnipotent creator of heaven and earth.  My question is, who is this other guy?  The “God” that created Adam and Eve, left a snake in the garden and had to place cherubim at the eastern gate to guard it so Adam and Eve could not return when they were banished for what God didn’t see coming.  Really?  Omnipotent?  Think about it.

This “omnipotent” God had no idea what was happening in the garden.  Wouldn’t a real “God” have snapped fingers and erected a force field at the eastern gate, instead of choosing to set more than one cherub to guard the gate.  Wasn’t one of “God’s” guards enough?  One would think so, but it would seem God not only can’t erect a force field but also has a problem creating “perfect” life forms.  If a guard had to be placed at the eastern gate, why wasn’t one enough?  And they talk about the “eastern gate” as though there is more than one.  What about guarding the others? Let’s jump ahead.

Cain killed Able, and Cain is marked by God for the killing of Abel.  Why?  So, everyone will know God has marked him.  Why? Because Cain’s fear is “it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.”  Who in God’s name is “everyone” and “anyone” in this?  There is just Adam, Eve, and Cain, right?  Let’s move on.

Adam leaves the presence of the Lord and dwells in the land of Nod on the east of Eden, the “garden” being a separate place in Eden, like the land of Nod, where Cain met his wife.  His what?  Yep, that’s right, his wife.  And, like everyone else, where did she come from?  Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and… a little something for Cain?  A wife?  I ask where she came from, but it soon becomes superfluous.  After he “knew” her, she bore him a son, Enoch.  Funny, with all the lineage that appears from this point forward, no one seems to mention the name of Cain’s wife.  Oh well.

Now, again, where did she come from?  Well, Cain builds a city and names it after his son, Enoch.  A city?  Who, praytell, helped him build it?  More important to this post, who will occupy it?  Her people, most likely.

It would seem that this “God” is not the omnipotent God who created the heavens and the Earth.  This “God” seems to make a multitude of mistakes and continues to make the same mistake time after time, learning nothing in the process.  Could it be the ancient historians made their own mistake and are actually speaking of two separate entities – God, and some being that hijacked monkey DNA to create a thinking “human” as some gold mining worker bee?

Well, humans did as they were told.  They went forth and multiplied.  Heck, they shagged everything, by the sound of it.  Even the sheep were smiling.  Babies were squirting out all over.

And, here we are.  Scholars will try to make sense of the story up to this point.  And, I’m pretty certain that before the Councils of Nicaea started picking and choosing texts to call “Holy Scripture” it probably all made some good sense.  But, like everything man touches, we have managed to muck it up well.

I am certain, as always, that someone out there is just chomping at the bit to give us a piece of their mind.  We wait, with bated breath. 

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

-- C.S. Lewis

Editor's Note

(Re: disclaimer cum "get out of jail free" card)

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion. It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other. An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so. This is also why, occasionally, I will present an "opinion" just to stir an emotional pot. Where it may sound like I agree with the statements made, I'm more interested in getting others to consider an alternate viewpoint. 

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and while engaging in peaceful and constructive discussion, in an arena of mutual respect, concerning those opinions put forth. After over twenty years with military intelligence, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human. God's test for us is what we learn from the experience, and what we do afterward.

Pastor Tony spent 22 years with the United States Air Force Intelligence as a planner, analyst, briefer, instructor, and, finally, a senior manager. He spent 17 years, following his service career, working with the premier, world-renowned, Western Institutional Review Board helping to protect the rights of human subjects involved in pharmaceutical research.

Ordained 1n 2013 as an "interfaith" minister, he founded the Congregation for Religious Tolerance in response to intolerance shown by Christians toward peaceful Islam. As the weapon for his war on intolerance he chose the pen, and wages his "battle" in the guise of the Congregation's official online blog, The Path, of which he is both author and editor. "The Path" offers a vehicle for commentary and guidance concerning one's own personal, spiritual, path toward peace and the final destination for us all. He currently resides in Pass Christian, Mississippi, where he volunteered as the lead chaplain at a regional medical center.

Feel free to contact Pastor Tony:  tolerantpastor@gmail.com