The_Fat_Man wrote on Feb 21
st, 2009 at 1:52am:
...if God does exist, I don't think he has supreme power no.
At least I would hope he doesn't. An awful lot of pretty horrible things happen in this world and I would hope God wouldn't be so cold to allow them to happen if he did have supreme power.
Here's a story I heard long ago that seemed to sum up my belief on the subject...
Quote:A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects:
When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said: “I don’t believe that God exists.”
“Why do you say that?” asked the customer.
“Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn’t exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can’t imagine a loving God who would allow all of these things.”
The customer thought for a moment, but didn’t respond because he didn’t want to start an argument.
The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkempt.
The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: “You know what? Barbers do not exist.”
“How can you say that?” asked the surprised barber. “I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!”
“No!” the customer exclaimed. “Barbers don’t exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside.”
“Ah, but barbers DO exist! That’s what happens when people do not come to me.”
“Exactly!” affirmed the customer.
God gave us a characteristic that differentiates us from every other creature in existence: free will. If he stepped in and protected us from one another or from the consequences of our own sin, that would defeat the purpose in bestowing us with that incredible trait.
Free will is not only our most defining characteristic, but it is also the trait that endears us most to God. He could have created automatons that would simply serve him because they were "programmed" to do so, but would that really bring him any glory? Of course not. He is glorified when we
choose to serve him.
Now that I'm married, I've discovered a new outlook on the situation. It has become almost habitual for me to
tell my wife that I love her, and the words themselves don't have the same impact they once did. If it is automatic, it is meaningless. However, from time to time I'll sacrifice something I want for something she wants (time, money, whatever) because I love her so very much.
That has an impact, because it is done out of love and sacrifice, not out of habit.
Make any sense?
-b0b
(...shrugs.)