The Problem of a Good God

A God, be it from a polytheistic or a monotheistic religion, is essentially a supernatural entity responsible for certain or all things that occur in our Universe. Gods have existed in the minds of people since our species first began to live like we do today. Throughout history, thousands of Gods have been created in almost or all societies. Today the overall majority of religions are monotheistic, hence most Gods are responsible for the creation of everything. Now, that poses already several surface problems. Questions about what God is actually the real one are bound to be asked when first hearing this. But if we decide to go a little deeper into what most religions of today and certainly the major ones tell us, we’ll find more problems, and one of those is the main point of today’s post. The two major religions today are Islam and Christianity, and they are both generally similar in what they teach. But the main characteristic in both of them is the idea of a personal God or a Creator that is aware of our existence so notably that It favors us over everything else on the planet and the Universe. It seems to be incredibly preoccupied with human civilizations, but also with each human individual alive and dead. It seems to care about all of us more than what It cares about any other species here with us. Or so both religions have engineered It to be. But lets for a minute assume that one of the religions or both are correct in their depiction of the God. This means that there is Something that cares about me out there or in there, and yet at the same time has to maintain a chaotic Universe, infinitely big for the minds of Its principal creation, working so that we may continue to be alive. That sentence in itself seems nonsensical but it ought to be true if the God exists. Yet, that is not the main concern with the notion of a personal God. I have a huge deal of justified trouble accepting the fact that an all-powerful (with all the other attributes that are given to It) God would maintain such a serious and direct relationship with only one of the last of Its creations. It seems to me rather suspicious that It would be so inclined to us when we are not even kids in relation to the lifespan of other species. The fact that this is claimed to be true would make me conclude that our God is a bit nonsensical or a huge fan of favoritism. Unless it wasn’t true. Unless the claim that a personal God exists is totally made up by us naturally arrogant and egotistical humans. It is a lot more credible to hear that we invented a God that cares more about us than what it cares about everything else because that would mean that we as humans are intrinsically superior to every other species on the planet (which we are not). So if the notion of a personal God like that of Christianity or Islam is in itself outrageous, then does it mean that there is no God at all? The answer is no, that argument does not invalidate completely the existence of a God, but it does impose a limit in the connection it can have with us. Maybe a God that functions by the laws of Nature is responsible for our creation, or a God that governs the inner-workings of individual atoms the building blocks of everything we see is the one responsible for the creation of the Universe. But when you consider that matter accounts for only 5% of the Universe and that Nature is part of that 5% percent, then even those broader alternatives to what a God would be are unjustifiable and even seem a bit wrong. So maybe what this means is that our current notion of what a God is, is very zoomed in. But maybe that’s the way we are meant to interpret our endless (at least for our minds) home, the Universe. Maybe we will never find a way to comprehend the “thing” that “created” us because such “intelligence” is just far away from the narrow scope in which our imaginations live.