It is actually an important theological question. Was all history, past and future, created in the moment of existence? Or, much the same, did the initial conditions of creation predetermining all history? (the Newtonian model) -- or - -are there minute departures from exactitude as suggested by quantum theory? Is this a sufficent departure from predetermination to provide for freedom of human action. Is there free will, or is there merely an illusion of free will. How can we execute our will on nature (is action at a distance possible)? Does God have free will? Can he rearrange particles without being bound by the laws of physics? Or does he merely have foreknowledge of the location and velocity of every particle for every moment of the future? If God has foreknowledge and the capacity to communicate with man, why did he bother to forewarn Adam and Eve since mankind must have been doomed from the begining? Why would a kindly God create such a hell on earth? If He was omnipotent, why didn't he fix things? I am not forced to anything, since I consider all this completely mythical -- and not even the myths of mine own peoples. I feel no more obligation to approve or disapprove than I feel it necessary to comment on the Arab practice of stuffing the female camel's vagina and womb with pebbles to prevent conception, or the Chinese custom of consuming menstrual blood mixed with eagle dung.
But when jokesters attempt to impose rule based on fictional "scriptures" on society I really get furious. Why should I care if men engage in sodomy unless I might like to so engage without going to jail where I could engage in it uninterrupted for the rest of my life. Its like throwing Brer Rabbit in the briar patch where he was borned and bredded (a good enough reason to leave Georgia). Why should I not be allowed to engage in adultery if it suited me and my partner? Why should I be required to respect somebody else's figments when they won't respect my delusions.
The Bible is filled with God-blessed odious men, murderers, polygamists, thieves, prostitutes, and little poetry, no history, or philosophy. The really bad guys often win. Children and widows get slaughtered. One of the few decent men is hanged on a cross and his ideas and persona stolen by idolaters, spiritualists, magicians and spooks. God's random choice of the Hebrews remains a mystery.
How odd of God,
To choose the Jews. |
