Re: The Suffering God
Sklanskyanity's opinion (by normal people's standards) of God is higher than your opinion of God.
"Nonsense."
Something tells me you would say that. Remember now that we are not talking about your own perception but rather typical people's perception. Here are three reason's why I think most people would agree that Sklanskyanity has a higher opinion of God than other religions.
1. God doesn't require worshipping him or even believing in him to reward people. He only requires that they follow the Golden Rule.
2. God doesn't make it easy to "file for bankrupcy". He requires good deeds to outweigh the bad. If you come to this realization late in life past bad deeds are not totally forgotten (but there is an allowance made if making up for them is physically impossible). Furthermore punihment and reward is not either total bliss or torment. Someone who is just a little more good than bad is treated differently than the physicians of Doctors without Borders.
3. God had to work harder to make the universe than just speak it. Because he is not totally omnipotent he deserves credit for the brilliant way he set things up that resulted in logical consistency regarding quarks, E=mc squared, DNA etc. He also gave up any ability to see the future so that we could have free will. He did this by creating subatomic particles that even he can't predict except statistically. He is irritated with fawning sychophants who ascribe to him an all powerfulness that would allow him to have the universe anyway he wanted just from a mere thought of his. But he won't punish them as long as they don't try to use this hero worship as an excuse for not doing the good deeds that are required to make up for the bad ones that often were the real reason for their "conversion".
And remember I only said that the above three opinions regarding God are high opinions in most people's minds. I'm not debating whether most people are right. I am also not, for now, debating whether Sklanskyanity precepts are correct or even make sense. I just am asserting that these precepts exhibit a high regard for God in most people's minds.
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