God does not know best - listen to your own heart
Religion is full of rules that it says the human mind cannot understand but
which God does for he knows best. If we don't understand God, then naturally we
are not going to understand some of the things he wants us to do. Any dangerous
idea could be condoned with that kind of thinking. Yet it flows naturally from
the idea that God exists and reveals his ways. Belief in God logically sows the
seed of fear.
Some forms of Christianity forbid abortion across the board. What if a woman
dies over not having an abortion though it was necessary to save her life? The
Catholic Church says it is God’s law and God knows what he is doing. It says
that he sometimes makes laws that seem odd or even inhuman just because he sees
that having them pushes chance in such a direction that our spiritual betterment
is implemented for everything that happens has direct and indirect effects and
short-term and long-term effects. But what if the Church is wrong about God and
what if there is no God? We have a woman that died over a fanatical so-called
mystery. But God as far as human beings are concerned and as far as they can
know is only a belief and nobody has the right to die for it or ask others to
die for it or encourage such deaths in any way.
Beliefs such as that God or the universe do not care about what you need but
about what you have to give are harmful. That is really saying that your needs
ultimately do not matter. If yours do not matter then nobody else's do either.
Yet those who accept the belief, say God and the universe don't care about your
needs but about what you can give.
People say God knows what is ultimately best for us. What does ultimate mean? Does it mean he can and will ensure that we can have a happy eternity - does ultimate refer to endless time? Or has what is ultimately good nothing to do with duration but what something is in itself? A good person who goes out of existence is still ultimately valuable. So in fact ultimate goodness has nothing to do with duration. Seeking permanent happiness and putting that first is actually evil. It is more important that a person does good than that the good be everlasting. Good is not about duration or being remembered by God forever.
Why are people so drawn to the God idea? The
argument is that God sees all the past and the present and the future so he sees
the big complete picture and the wonderful consequences and thus we should trust
him when he lets evil happen. But God cannot change the past any more. He can
only work in the present. And even if he sees the future that is not the same as
controlling the future. In theory you can see something in the future without
causing it. God seeing the future does not then mean that God can do what
is best any more than we do. Knowing the best and doing the best are
different things.
The notion that God has a wonderful plan for your life makes no sense. Why?
Because even if he loves you it does not follow that he makes the plan for you.
After all he must come first.