In the beginning, man created God. And he thought it would provide him some answers.
But bigger and better questions popped up instead.
Me.
If you think of God as means to explain so much of our the world that we don’t understand, you’ll find that it definitely creates some answers, but opens up a lot of new questions.
Yes, it’ll make death less scary, because you’re going on to a better place.
Yes, you’ll be able to infuse a lot more meaning into a seemingly meaningless existence.
Yes, you’ll have the implied comfort of knowing that it’s all part of some grand plan.
But you’ll also have new questions:
What does he really want from you, right now?
Why in the hell does he give cancer to babies and dementia to people who are doing everything right?
Why, really, did He need to create any of this?
Both approaches require you to grapple with difficult emotions.
Believing can lead to anger and resentment at an unresponsive God. It requires a theological leap to explain why bad things happen to good people.
Not believing in God requires grappling with a seemingly meaningless existence and a perpetually approaching End of it All. It means not having a good explanation of what existed before the world was created.
But if I need to take leaps or live with unanswered questions, I’d rather experience, and come to terms with, negative emotions that don’t include a dysfunctional deity.
