Erica Campbell’s recent tragic conversion to Christianity got Me thinking about My own experiences with Western religion over the past couple of days…
When I was a young child, very young, age five or so… I believed in God, with a capital G and everything. Being very bright and gifted, I mastered the core theology of Christianity very quickly, and discussed and debated theology with adults starting around age 8. But there were always aspects of the Christian account of the world which I found puzzling and even absurd; most importantly the question of free will. The explanation for the human condition, our very struggle for survival as a species, is blamed on the exercise of free wil by the original humans, Adam and Eve. Their choice to partake of the Forbidden Fruit led to sin, which introduced pain and suffering of every kind to the world.
Sigh, where do I begin… Well, I could go on and on and on. But the most fundamental flaw in the story is this: God created humans, over whom He had complete and total dominion. Then He gave them free will. I can remember lying awake at night with My young mind racing to find an explanation for such a logical absurdity. A Superior Being, a Deity, relinquishing control to a pair of inferior minions? What possible benefit could there be in such an act? The explanation most commonly given is that God, in His infinite wisdom, felt that it would be preferable to have His subjects choose to submit themselves to Him. Again, this fails the logical litmus test. Why should a truly Superior Being concern themselves with the motivations and feelings of inferior subjects? Superior Beings have the power, that’s the way it is, that’s the way it should be, and even according to the Biblical story, when gods give up power to lesser beings, nothing good will come of it! In some ways the story of the Fall of Man is a powerful and moving tale; and if it is viewed as a parable it does impart a strong message to Superior Beings like Myself. I take My power very seriously and I would never be so foolish and irresponsible as to discard it! It goes against My nature and the natural
order. What really puzzled Me as a child struggling to make sense of the world was the idea that any human would choose to worship this so-called deity, believing that He gave them the choice to do so in the first place. In other words, if the story of the Genesis were true, a god took that which made him divine and gave it to humans, effectively raising them to his level, or lowering himself to their level; after which they continued to worship him as a god. What utter nonsense! I must say I am fortunate in being so secure in My Own superiority. I know that *I* will never feel the need to gain some bizarre form of validation by treating My slaves as equals!
