The Best Laid Plans of... God?!?!

"God has a plan," my mother is found of telling her kids, whether they like to hear it or not. This was also what a great deal of the Amish were saying as they were interviewed tonight, on their thoughts and feelings about the massacre of their daughters. "It was in God's hands. It was part of his plan," stated one young woman, who had two cousins who were shot that fateful day in the school house...

Another older gentleman said, "If it wasn't by this man's hands, another way would have been found for God to take their lives this day. Their time was up. God called them home."

A plan? Really? He's god, he has a plan, and this is the best he could come up with? I think to myself.

Granted, I don't place faith in the almighty being, the great spaghetti monster in the sky, whatever. But, really, if your god's plan for me is to be lined up against a chalkboard, tied by my feet, and executed by a raving lunatic, I'd rather come up with my own plan. And it wouldn't involve anything these poor ten young girls had to endure.

Now I understand that we have a need to explain things--to find a reason, to bring forth the logic, to find the pattern that, when we look at it, go "Aha! That's why!"

But to claim your god planned this? That he willingly let these poor girls die like this? And to claim god is merciful and just?!?! What the hell kind of fucked up idea of god is that?

Now, I'll willingly admit, I don't have the answers. Most likely never will. I am not above telling little pleasantries to help you get going the next morning, when you realize your little girl or boy, your child isn't coming home. Everyone needs to cope, and some people need plain lied to to do so. I get that. But to call it a "plan"? This is a pill I'm having a hard time swallowing right now...

This brings up a very disturbing thought: If all of this is some kind of "master plan" for god's creation, is he truly a god worth worshipping as so many people do? (or at least, is this attribute of god worthy of worship?) The story of Job is filled with heartache, loss, death, destruction, despair and torment--why? God and Satan playing a game. A bet, as it were (perhaps this is where fundies draw the conclusion that gambling is bad?) Satan says Job will curse god if god takes away all of the blessings he has bestowed on Job. God says, "Pshaw! You're full of crap, Lucy! Just watch!" And god proceeds to decimate Job's life. His wife leaves him, all of his kids die, his crops and cattle die, he is stricken with sickness, and he loses his home. And, of course, god is right (as the all-powerful always tends to be in these types of tragedies), and in the end, god gives back Job everything double. So, does this speak to Job's martyrdom? God's ego? Both, perhaps?

The thing is, not everyone's tragedies have so neat and tidy an ending. "Happily Ever After," as it were. These families will be mourning the loss of their children for the rest of their lives. No child they have in the future will ever replace the person they lost that day. So even if everything is brought back double, what is the point?

Some will claim lessons learned. God was teaching them something, as is god's want. Or perhaps some will claim god was punishing them, to bring them back to him (though not in Job's case)...

But who does it profit? A believer will still be a believer (whether or not they rail against god) as the bible already says "Once your name is written in the book of life, it cannot be taken out" (paraphrase). And those who refuse god will still refuse god, despite what god may do to them. And since god already knows who will choose him and who won't, why the seemingly indiscriminate suffering? And even if god doesn't know, hasn't he ever heard, "You get more flies with honey than vinegar"?

What it seems to boil down to is simple: God is sadistic. If he is truly all-powerful:

1. either he enjoys seeing us suffer, or
2. He is powerless to stop any of it, hence not all-powerful, or
3. his plan is severely flawed, or
4. there isn't a god.

Now, I know what's coming here, so go ahead and let loose, but be forewarned, I've heard it before. Either I:

1. refuse to see god when he's standing in front of me shouting in my face, or
2. god's plan is so much higher than I could possibly comprehend that me talking about it here won't even begin to do it justice, or
3. there is no god, and we're all just here suffering along the best way we know how.

We all suffer, some a lot more than others. Some know pain that no person or animal should ever have to go through; watch the news tonight and you might see what I mean. And if you can sit there and watch the horrific conditions of the world, and tell me it's all part of some "master plan," and I'm going to call you crazy. Don't worry: I'm crazy too. Ask my mother.

Some of you I like, some of you I love, some of you I can't even stand to think about, and some of you are growing on me like cancer. :) But we're all here, on this journey together. And you're more than welcome to be the masochistic whipping boy of the great sky god (or not). And I'd love to hear your thoughts (although be prepared to hear my opinion about your opinion if I feel it is needed, or if I simply feel like sharing).

Is our misery of god? Or of ourselves? I'm placing my bet on number 2.

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From a philosophical point of view, Epicurus presented the problem this way:
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

Hume stated it this way:
If evil in the world is the intention of the deity, then, he is not benevolent. If evil in the world is contrary to His intention, then, He is not omnipotent. But evil is either in accordance with His intention or contrary to it. Therefore, either the deity is not benevolent, or He is not omnipotent.

Or, as Douglas Adams put it one time, "That about wraps it up for god." :)

I think I may pull Epicurus' argument apart just for shits and giggles in the future, but for now, have fun!