Unanswered prayers. Contradictions in the bible. A bizarre system of original sin and salvation through a human sacrifice. It doesn't matter what objection or question is brought forth, the Christians have a single answer to it all: The Lord works in mysterious ways.
This pearl of apologetics comes from Isaiah 55:9 which states "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts". It's an easy out for anything that can't be explained rationally. It's the answer for every "Why did god do that?" and every "Why didn't he do it this way?"
Christians will often accuse anyone who points out the lack of logic and the inconsistencies in god's plan as described in the bible of trying to put god in a box, or trying to understand the mind of an infinite god with our flawed and limited human perspective. It's quite ingenious, really. It's an escape route from any possible argument that effectively shuts down any questions and sounds profound, even though it's just another way for the Christian to say "I have no idea!". It's like a parent telling a child "you're too young to understand," when they really don't have a good explanation for their actions. As effective as it is at making non-believers throw up their arms and walk away in exasperation, it works even better for believers to quell any of those pesky doubts that crop up from time to time. Anytime things don't make sense, or god's "plan" isn't obvious, they just remind themselves that god is smarter than them and knows what he's doing. Just trust in his higher ways and higher thoughts. Simple. Problem solved.
But to me, an argument that amounts to "you're too stupid to get it, so stop asking," is condescending in the way a bully who's had one too many concussions is when he calls the smartest kid in class stupid for winning the science fair. A leader who resorts to "because I said so," as justification for everything is no leader at all. I may not be the smartest person to ever live, but I'm smart enough to know that if god expects even little children to be able to understand his message, he should be smart enough to have a better answer for questions that even children ask than "you wouldn't understand." An omniscient god would know how we think and what questions we would ask and - if he actually cared - would have a better answer. Oh wait... his thoughts are higher, so we can't understand why he's being such a dick about not explaining things in a way that we might understand. I should have known that was the answer to my objections! My bad.
This pearl of apologetics comes from Isaiah 55:9 which states "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts". It's an easy out for anything that can't be explained rationally. It's the answer for every "Why did god do that?" and every "Why didn't he do it this way?"
Christians will often accuse anyone who points out the lack of logic and the inconsistencies in god's plan as described in the bible of trying to put god in a box, or trying to understand the mind of an infinite god with our flawed and limited human perspective. It's quite ingenious, really. It's an escape route from any possible argument that effectively shuts down any questions and sounds profound, even though it's just another way for the Christian to say "I have no idea!". It's like a parent telling a child "you're too young to understand," when they really don't have a good explanation for their actions. As effective as it is at making non-believers throw up their arms and walk away in exasperation, it works even better for believers to quell any of those pesky doubts that crop up from time to time. Anytime things don't make sense, or god's "plan" isn't obvious, they just remind themselves that god is smarter than them and knows what he's doing. Just trust in his higher ways and higher thoughts. Simple. Problem solved.
But to me, an argument that amounts to "you're too stupid to get it, so stop asking," is condescending in the way a bully who's had one too many concussions is when he calls the smartest kid in class stupid for winning the science fair. A leader who resorts to "because I said so," as justification for everything is no leader at all. I may not be the smartest person to ever live, but I'm smart enough to know that if god expects even little children to be able to understand his message, he should be smart enough to have a better answer for questions that even children ask than "you wouldn't understand." An omniscient god would know how we think and what questions we would ask and - if he actually cared - would have a better answer. Oh wait... his thoughts are higher, so we can't understand why he's being such a dick about not explaining things in a way that we might understand. I should have known that was the answer to my objections! My bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment