How Does a Perfect, All Powerful God Get Angry?

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“Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but also with regard to their mode of life.” (Aristotle 384 BC – 322 BC.)

The ancient authors of scripture made God out to be emotional. That’s a problematic concept, because emotions are a product of new perceptions. Consider an omniscient, omnipotent “him.” He wouldn’t hear news, because nothing is hidden from him, nothing can be revealed to him, and he knows the future. We (humans) feel anger and frustration when something is wrong, but he can fix anything. We long for things we lack, but he lacks nothing. People pursue perfection, but he’s perfect, so needs nothing from anyone. He’s never lonely, and there’s nothing he needs to do. He must just exist in his own wonderful world.

Yet the God of Israel, also known as Yahweh, was perturbed when people didn’t play by his rules, and was pleased when they did. How could a perfect, all-powerful Yahweh get happy, angry, sad, aggressive, or jealous? It’s impossible for him to experience these emotions unless he’s been pretending. An emotional God makes no sense.

Yahweh has Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSbP). He deliberately exaggerates or fabricates problems (such as sins; thoughts or actions that supposedly upset him) in those under his care, and thereby makes himself important. He can get attention by appearing to care for and ‘save’ the sinner.

The truth is Yahweh doesn’t exist. Men created him in their own likeness. “God” is a fabricated figure who has always been all about power. One of man’s main ambitions is to be powerful; to rule over others. “God” is nothing more than a sock puppet for priests or other religious raconteurs. The “God” concept was originally used for the benefit of the Jewish clerical caste; to give priests prestige, power and wealth.

In later times the Roman government and the Christian priesthood promoted God’s existence for the same reasons – to control and profit from the public. “God” kept commoners bowing to priests and kings, paying their tithes and taxes, slaves in shackles, women submissive to men, and wayward adolescents obeying their superiors.

Things are much the same today, as Christian leaders in governments, armies, churches, schools, and families are still using God to control others. Consider dying for one’s country, Sunday school, sermons from the pulpit, the confessional box, “gay rehabilitation” centers, and the pressure put on people to fork out every Sunday.

About Post Author

Mark Fulton

Dr Mark Fulton is a practising physician living on the Sunshine Coast, Australia. He has spent many years researching the origins of Christianity, and has written a book, soon to be published, titled "Get over Christianity by Understanding it." His website is at www.markfulton.org
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Rosemary Lyndall Wemm
10 years ago

Jim Moore, you have just written some of the wisest words I have read in a long time. Congratulations!

10 years ago

Jonathan,
My religion of exactly one disciple is this:

The universe is finite. There will come a time when our successors (human, machine or otherwise…or other surviving entities even if “we” don’t make it) will be faced with the ultimate demise of the universe. The how of the demise is immaterial. It will be whatever it is, another big bang, entropy, a “brane” collision….whatever.

Evolution dictates that we strive to survive. So, faced with this challenge, we will, no doubt at the last possible moment, strive to figure out what is going to happen and how we might survive that cataclysm with our awareness intact.

We not only must survive, but to survive, we must be able to orchestrate the creation of another universe in which our consciousness can survive. In other words, the survivors, such as they are, must become god.

That’s my religion for what its worth. And, while I can’t envision a solution to the end-of-the-universe dilemma, I can see that to get there we must face other more pressing matters – climate change, war, poverty, famine, drought and so on. These challenges are well beyond my grasp, but I see that humans do have the capacity to solve them. Next on the list is being wiped out by a cosmic collision with a small space object. Again, I can envision our ability to deal with creating a system to fend off such collisions. Not easy but doable.

We need only get our asses in gear and start solving these problems, and, as we have seen in the past, the collateral benefits of programs like Apollo and so on will rain down on humanity and spur us along to greater achievements. We have work to do if we want to become the gods we’ll need to be if we want to survive the end of the universe as we know it…or, more accurately, as we’ll come to know it.

Reply to  Jim Moore
10 years ago

Well said indeed Jim, and very true, every single word.

Jonathan
10 years ago

Jim, our “paths” didn’t part nearly as much as you think. my own beliefs are very closely in alignment with yours it seems, i just dont have much fun arguing my own beliefs as much as taking other viewpoints. regardless, my comments were more to the fact that the majority of this article focused on god’s retributions toward humanity, and i was merely trying to justify that. i agree that religions can tend to distort, but there is just as much good that can come from it. from the patronage of the arts in the middle ages by christianity, beautiful texts and ideas from ancient india, art from all over that stems from religious ritual (mesoamerica/asias). further, I have to say that while Francis’ track record in the past hasnt been great, he looks to be the best pope in a long, long time and seems intent on fixing some grave errors that have come about in the church the past few decades.

as far as your other points… god is on every side in every war because god is the totality of everything, both that which we can see and that which we cannot see, understand, or even begin to guess about (now i AM arguing my own views). I dont personally think god is there to punish us, or even ever has–all it wants is perfection, something which we inherently strive toward but consistently fail at achieving due to our human shortcomings… greed, pride, ego, etc. (all the bad things religions everywhere strive to prevent). We make our own pain and suffering, both under the guise of and completely in the face of religion. yes, there are some horrible people who are religious, but there are also some really horrible athiests. its hard to be nice at all in this day and age when the levels of vitriol are at critical mass everywhere… the internet, the media, even in public spaces. it doesnt take much to get people worked up these days and it’s even harder to have a civilized conversation about things people care so passionately about, and so when you start to shake the foundation of someones life people tend to reply out of fear of losing (likely) their only constant.

10 years ago

Jonathan

I respect your right to your personal beliefs. And in that context, I accept your argument for an involved God. I won’t attack you or those beliefs, but I will debate the assertions.

At the 30,000 Ft. level, one has to ask what kind of perverse god would, on the one hand, create a world with such widespread, cruel suffering by so many and yet would also meddle in personal lives and expect humans to uphold some sort of standard to which god itself does not adhere? There is a fundamental illogic in the assertion that is impossible for me to overcome.

Inherent in the assertion is that god itself is some sort of mental health case – a diabolical, nasty, childish, cruel, self-centered being capable of enabling Rwanda genocide and child soldiers on the one hand and demanding, for example, marital fidelity on the other. This simply does not compute. Those are not the behaviors of a god. They are the behaviors of a lunatic…Mommy Dearest with no wire hangers!

I don’t for a second believe that a creator of the universe would be a lunatic. God isn’t a lunatic. We have simply attributed lunatic-like behaviors to god. If there is a consciousness – a will – behind the universe, then we humans grossly misunderstand that entity. Setting aside the religious implications of “evolution,” the God you assert demands that we evolve as conscious beings. “He” expects us to mature and develop to become “better” human beings. THAT evolution makes sense. That makes a LOT of sense. One might say the same of the amorphous conscious entity that I believe may be out there at the helm. The universe demands evolution–that we get better if we want to survive. And the scientific belief in evolution supports that idea. Our survival depends on growing and getting better – cooperating and seeing other beings as partners as opposed to commodities to be consumed or used or subjugated or bombed.

Where our paths part, Jonathan, is at the point when human-created religions codify a set of behaviors that transcend that evolution and begin to assert: superiority of one faith over the other; exclusivity in access to the divine; separation of faiths to the point of waring over some damned rock in Jerusalem; the authority of the priest class to the point of Salem witch trials or burning “heretics” at the stake; Crusades; impoverishment of the faithful to amass wealth for “the church”; and so much more.

The fact is that the manifestation of religion is ugly, rife with corruption and avarice and it is divisive rather than unifying. The very fact that the teachings of Prophet Jesus could be so badly distorted and become so perverse is all the evidence I need to realize that religion is the problem, not the solution.

Whether or not there is a god or God is immaterial to this discussion. Religions are sick, twisted, perverse, exploitative creations of humans whose motives are highly suspect at best. This doesn’t mean that every religious person is evil. What it means is that every religious person is a soldier in a Nazi-like army bent on world domination – believing in the cause and just following orders!

And our challenge in overcoming this worldwide epidemic infecting most humans is overwhelming. In many ways, religions are far more powerful than governments. Our American Revolution was fought over, among other things, “religious freedom.” One sect of “Christianity” fighting against another. In the former Soviet Union, there was an undaunted religious insurgency that undermined loyalty to the secular government. Religions are transnational corporations that foster loyalties far greater than loyalty to flag and country. Religions are an entrenched force that can mobilize suicide bombers. For all their peaceful trappings, most religions can be vicious killers of those who oppose them. …all in the name of some god or another. And god is on every side in every war…explain that.

Jonathan, if there is a god, I am absolutely confident that that god hopes we evolve past the point of the LA-gang-like behaviors of most of the world’s religions. I’m absolutely sure that any god I could respect would not support religion as we know it.

Jonathan
10 years ago

consider God wasnt angry, jealous, etc but rather that he was punishing us for acting poorly. as a father would. it is because he cares. i cant say for sure whether there is a god or, probably more accurately, that the christian depiction of god is correct, but if there were an all-powerful omniscient, omnipresent god i would say he probably deserves respect and was right in punishing those who egregiously violated his rules. after all, his rules (the commandments, in particular, not the weird ‘mentioned only once’ rules that seem to pop up these days) are generally followed as a part of the social contract and not simply because it is a part of some archaic religion. maybe try to understand both sides before posting something so angsty.

10 years ago

A petty, jealous “god” isn’t the creation of “mankind” but of a few men as a tool of power. The Priest class, by first creating the petty, jealous, vindictive god and then claiming to be the only ones who can intervene on behalf of humans to placate that bastard who can make your life a living hell, the priests seized enormous amounts of power for themselves…and their power challenged that of emperors and kings.

Many politically powerful individuals (e.g. those emperors and kings) quickly learned to align themselves with the priest class and, through teamwork, wield enormous power over their subjects.

The academic observations of Aristotle merely scratched the surface at a time when challenging these two ruling classes was risky business indeed.

Admin
10 years ago

They created their god in THEIR image and that’s why he is like he is. If you think about it mythological history is replete with gods that are just like people, and the christian god is no exception.

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