I keep finding these posts online stating that the health epidemics the world is currently facing presented itself somewhere in the bible (Something to do with Abraham). God was punishing people for not worshiping him correctly, and the Christians declare that he must be doing so now. What say you about this apparent repeat of religious history?
(Upon further research, I believe it to be in Chronicles 7: 13-14)
What a primitive and ethically dubious notion, of a "good" omniscient and all-powerful deity punishing his creatures for displaying precisely the flawed finitude he'd imbued them with and knew to be their destiny. George Carlin used to say, of such a punitive overlord, "who does he think he is?"
ReplyDeleteThe following is something you will probably see in my final presentation, which will present Spinoza’s argument on the nature of God, that God is Nature. After presenting his logical argument, in an appendix, he addresses the reasons why men will not accept it. He explains some have preconceived opinions not based on reason that hinder their understanding of his proofs regarding the nature and properties of God. One preconceived opinion is that which you address. This is how he explains it:
ReplyDeleteSome men cannot believe these things [which are beneficial to man] are self-created, and came to believe that gods created everything for them, so that they would worship the gods. Men, by nature concerned with their own self-advantage, developed their own ways of worshipping God so that He would direct nature to satisfy their own particular interests. These ideas developed into superstitions, leading to the notion that nature does nothing that is useless to mankind. This, of course, does not explain natural disasters or disease, so, rather than changing their thinking, superstitious man held that these things occurred because the gods were angry with them because of some wrong done or failure of man in worship. Rather than abandon their demonstrably false opinions, they adopted the axiom that God’s judgments transcend human understanding; i.e., God works in mysterious ways. This would have hidden the truth of nature forever, had not mathematics provided another method for determining the properties of things without regard to a teleological purpose. This was Spinoza’s first point; nature has no goal, and final causes [like punishment by COVID-19 for not worshipping God] are just figments of human imagination.
These are not Spinoza's words; they are my understanding of what he wrote.
DeleteFor Jesus and Mo's perspective: https://www.jesusandmo.net/wp-content/uploads/grant.png
ReplyDelete