Sunday morning thoughts about God and war

I am not one to dwell on god and/or war, but I so wowed myself with my own musings this morning that I hurried to write them down before I forgot them.

I believe God made this world. When I say “God,” I don’t mean any particular conventional god such as Jesus or Yahweh or Allah. I am using this definition of God:

God (4): the creative, integrative, and redemptive process at work in the world that is the supremely worthful actuality of all existence and upon which all other forms of existence depend for life, meaning, freedom, purpose, value and the realization of their highest destiny

Webster’s 3rd Int’l Unabridged © 1993

The “creative, integrative, and redemptive process at work in the world” is us. You and me. Also the flowers and trees and animals and microbes and every thing with life in it. You can’t take God out of Man, and you can’t take Man out of God. So, God made this world for Man’s pleasure and delight and We worship Him by appreciating all the abundance and beauty here.

So, why does war exist? Why is there starvation and devastating tsunamis and earthquakes? Why is there crime and inequalities?

Let’s discuss each of the above questions. Why does war exist?

Well, when God made this beautiful place for Us it included the freedom to enjoy it in whatever way we chose. God is not responsible for Our choices, We are. God “allows” war because he is allowing Us our freedom of choice, which is the only way We can learn and grow. How could we learn if we didn’t have freedom to choose among the infinite variety available to choose from? If God said “you can learn ANYTHING you want… EXCEPT THAT!” Of course “THAT” will be the only thing of interest that we would want to learn. And some of Us seem to enjoy great war stories. The earliest cultures all over the world have passed down their tall tales of historic battles and great war romances. If God forbade war, the way He forbade Adam and Eve to eat the apple, or Pandora to open that box, well we all know how that turned out.

So, why is there starvation and devastating tsunamis and earthquakes? Why are there different types of climates where food is abundant in variety in one clime and almost absent in other types of desert climes? Because we are free to choose where we want to live, among all the delicious varieties of places there are. Oh, they did not choose starvation, you say. Nobody would choose that. And I say, I agree with you that I wouldn’t choose it, and apparently you wouldn’t choose it either, but all Man has is freedom to choose, so what else could it possibly be? People who don’t like starvation do leave it and do go live somewhere else and create lives they prefer all the time. That’s what life is, choosing what you want out of it. The question shouldn’t be why does God allow it, but why are we only seeing such things as horrors rather than opportunities to make things better? There’s no law that says you have to feel bad because something you don’t like exists in the world. You don’t ever have to feel bad about anything at all. Really, all there is on this planet is choice, and you may as well enjoy it and feel good about it. We are so free to choose that we are free to choose slavery or awful conditions. We are free to learn and be compelled by circumstances to take new directions in life. If you read those “how to get rich” books and articles they all say it’s learning to think in a way that makes opportunities out of all those mistakes and things that go wrong in your life, rather than complaining about it. That’s the big secret! You got it right here on my blog! You can’t change the world, but you can change how you think, and that’s exactly how the world changes.

Why is there crime and inequalities? Well, you get the idea.

You can’t take God out of Man, and you can’t take Man out of God. You can’t have Man without the God-given right to create your own life with all of this world’s God-given gifts, and you can’t have God without Man. This world is a self-perpetuating and ongoing co-creation. We are all in this together. Why is earth a hell-hole of poverty, war and devastation? Why are you looking at it that way? Why can’t it be viewed as a place so abundant that you have an infinity of delicious choices? Why is there war? An awful lot of people must be thinking about it, because if we all started thinking only about peace, that’s all there would be, and I think more and more people ARE thinking more about peace, and I think the world IS headed toward more peaceful co-existence among all its peoples because the world view IS changing.