Why Does God Hide Himself




In the Bible the question is asked why doesn't God show himself? Endless explanations have been given. The link dances all over the floor saying God does not show himself because God decided not to show himself.

The writer does the old dance we hear endlessly about tragedies, "Why does God allow these to happen.?" The automatic play-back answer is we cannot know the mind of God.

If we cannot know the mind of God how can Christians make this argument over and over: "We cannot understand why God allows tragedies because we cannot know the mind of God. But we do know the mind of God when we say God offers comfort to the survivors."

Wait, if we cannot know the mind of God, then we cannot know God is giving comfort to survivors. Maybe God hates the survivors.

When one tragedy is sort of forgotten another one comes along. This might be evidence God hates us and will pummel us with tragedies forever more. In fact, that will happen. There have been, and continue to be, an unending string of tragedies. God must like this.

So, if "God is love," as the phrase goes, how can he also hate us? There is an explanation for all of this.

God was made up by those who wrote the Bible. Or, more accurately perhaps, a god was put in the minds of humans hundreds of thousands of years before the time of the Bible by looking at the stars or wondering why the weather did what it did. Eventually variations of that thinking was written down. Many gods showed up and many religions were the result.

Those who wrote about gods found they could control people with fear of their god.

Comments

  1. Matt NoahSeptember 25, 2018 at 2:25 PM

    https://www.catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/why-doesnt-god-reveal-himself is one essay on the matter.

    If God came down from Heaven and revealed himself to the world on October 1, 2018, in front of 100 high-definition videocamears, spoke for an hour about what He wants people to do to get to Heaven and then disappeared never to be seen again by Man, would you believe?

    Would people 1000 years from now believer the videos?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jon LindgrenSeptember 25, 2018 at 5:41 PM

      Matt: "If God came down from Heaven and revealed himself to the world on October 1, 2018....would you believe?"

      That is one of the profound questions hanging over the faith. Many skeptics ask, "How will we know it is really God when he returns? Tell us what he/she will look like now so we can evaluate whatever it is that shows up."

      So far, no one has come up with information as to what God will look like or what the measuring stick of authenticity will be. You asked, "...would you believe?" My question is how will I know?

      Delete
    2. Matt NoahSeptember 28, 2018 at 2:46 PM

      So, your answer is a simple, "No, I would not be convinced."

      Insofar as measuring sticks are concerned, we Catholics have our Church to tell us what is authentic in terms of apparitions and sainthood. You can use that authority since it is a gift from God to all of mankind. Or you can poopoo it and search for an earthly authority to validate a sighting of God. I will go out on a limb and venture that you won't be convinced by any earthly authority, even your buddy Bart Ehrmann(spelling?).

      Delete
  2. Matt NoahSeptember 25, 2018 at 4:07 PM

    You really should turn off 'moderation' and let users comment without moderation. This is the number 1 reason traffic to blogs and websites, like yours, end up dormant.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. mark anthonySeptember 26, 2018 at 12:57 PM

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. Jon LindgrenSeptember 26, 2018 at 4:24 PM

      mark: .." I don't think anyone would be left with any doubts."

      You "don't think." But, you really don't know. Without a criteria as to the real McCoy we are left with everyone "thinking" they will know when none really do. Skeptics carry the day on this one.

      Delete
    3. mark anthonySeptember 26, 2018 at 7:25 PM

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete

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