The world sucks. Without question, on a daily basis horrendous things happen. If someone could stop these from happening, the world would be a better place. However, if this person consistently chose to do nothing, ze would be considered an accessory to the crimes. Surely, ze would face the judgment of all those who know of the act. It might even be said that a person who allows rape and murder to occur without intervention does not deserve to live. Yet, by believing in an omnipotent being, one is forced to submit to a God who allows these act of cruelty. In the book Foreign Bodies by Hwee Hwee Tan, the author presents a diverse set of characters who deal with this theodicy through their own theological positions. By the end of the novel, Mei …show more content…
Andy indicates he was raised Christian, but “has never prayed seriously before, [he] never really felt he needed God to hear [his] words.” His first encounter with God occurs after being lost in Fellensham. He begs God to “give [Andy] a little direction.” Andy encounters God and the glory of Heaven after asking for God’s direction. Even after this experience, Andy goes through college “know[ing] that God doesn’t exist.” But without a God, Andy struggles to find meaning in life. At university Andy wants a world “where Jesus saves” and where “God overwhelm[s Andy] for once.” The mystical encounter from his past is not enough evidence for him; Andy wants hard proof. It is not until Mei brings him her story of when she first felt God within her that Andy accepts Christianity. This God is not the same as Mei’s God, though, as Andy believes that God interacts with humans individually on a daily basis. The reader first sees this when Andy is arrested and certain that “[God] won’t let [Andy] take the fall for something [he] didn’t do.” This shows that Andy believes in a God that intervenes with the world -- opposed to Mei’s view of a God who judges humanity after they leave the mortal world. Again, Andy divulges a more human involved God when he writes a letter to Mei addressing God in the final chapter. The God Andy addresses is not just one of good, though. Andy indicates that God will hurt him, meaning that God is …show more content…
Andy is forced to admit that not everything that God does is good. But Andy reasons that it does not have to be. He should love God because no matter what Andy does, God will continue to love him. This love can be compared to Mei’s love for God because they are both based on the concept that God sees everyone as perfect. Andy’s love, though, has to deal with the acceptance of a God that does evil things. In a way, his God acts yahwisticly as He interacts with humans and seems to have human like traits like rage. Even though this seems like a harsh reality to accept, it makes Andy’s life significantly more blissful. By accepting that God is the ultimate cause of the evil as well as the good in the world, Andy chooses not to worry about the evils. Andy’s God works as a sedative to the poor hand Andy’s been dealt. Religion is acting as the “sigh of the oppressed creature” or “the heart” of Andy’s “heartless world.” Sitting in a cell, Andy doesn’t have much to look forward to in his life. God acts as an escape for Andy -- an opium to his painful life. Andy cannot get mad about the evils of his life because he would have to get mad at a God who Andy knows loves him unconditionally. Thus, Andy is free to flow through life without caring for the unfair position he is in. Andy’s God significantly justifies the life
In “God in the Doorway,” Annie Dillard conveys a shift in her perception of God by associating fearful childhood experiences with her current interpersonal relationship with God. Santa Claus appears in Dillard’s doorway on Christmas Eve and as a young girl Dillard reacts in fear of a powerful, omniscient god-like figure and runs away. (M.S. 1) Dillard later realizes Miss White, her elderly neighbor, dressed-up as Santa Claus intending to shape a loving relationship with Dillard. Miss White attempts to form a bond with Dillard again and focuses a ray of sunlight on her hand with a magnifying glass and burns her causing Dillard to run from her again. Dillard associates the actions of Miss White to her perception of God as wrathful
Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving is a novel in which religion is of great importance. One of the main themes in this novel is faith in God and oneself, and even more, the conflict between belief and doubt. Irving writes in such a way, that this is very evident throughout the book. John Wheelwright, at the start of the novel, is a young boy who does not seem to know much about how strong his faith really is. Part of the reason for this, is that the choice between believing in and doubting God is that there isn’t any complete evidence that He even exists.
Between the covers of the book Night is the story of a boy who had to endure the constant threat of death. He had to watch as other perished, family, friends, strangers, everyone. Yet his God had done nothing. He remained unmoved and silent. How could a God he was taught to look upon when anguished allow such savagery to
...ere watching the actual God. In this work, the events and nouns in nature symbolize the presence of God; whether it is beautiful and giving such as the pear tree, or destructive and vengeful such as the hurricane. Many events of the book revolve around the weather and the climate, the seasons, and it shows that religion is open-minded, and that it can be interpreted in many different forms.
In the first chapter of God Behaving Badly, David Lamb argues that God is unfairly given a bad reputation. He claims these negative perceptions are fueled by pop culture and lead many to believe the lie that the God of the Old Testament is angry, sexist, racist, violent, legalistic, rigid, and distant. These negative perceptions, in turn, affect our faith. Ultimately, Lamb seeks to demonstrate that historical context disproves the presumptuous aforementioned. In addition, he defends his position by citing patterns of descriptions that characterize God throughout the Old Testament. “Our image of God will directly affect how we either pursue or avoid God. If we believe that the God of the Old Testament is really harsh, unfair and cruel, we won’t want anything to do with him” (Lamb 22). Clearly, they way Christians choose to see God will shape their relationship with Him.
It is easy to place the blame on fate or God when one is encumbered by suffering. It is much harder to find meaning in that pain, and harvest it into motivation to move forward and grow from the grief. It is imperative for one to understand one’s suffering as a gateway to new wisdom and development; for without suffering, people cannot find true value in happiness nor can they find actual meaning to their lives. In both Antigone and The Holy Bible there are a plethora of instances that give light to the quintessential role suffering plays in defining life across cultures. The Holy Bible and Sophocles’ Antigone both mirror the dichotomous reality in which society is situated, underlining the necessity of both joy and suffering in the world.
The white institution of Christianity has been forced upon Tom since childhood to make him believe in the Puritanical tenet that individual suffering in life, guarantees a good tidings in death. Tom has been taught to read the Bible and believes that God will be with him everywhere he goes, even after he has been sold and separated from Aunt Chloe and the rest of his family. “I’m in the Lord’s hands,” said Tom; “nothin’ can go no furder than he lets it;--and thar’s one thing I can thank him for. It’s me that’s sold and going down, and you nur the chil’en. Here you’re safe; ---what comes will come only on me; and the Lord, he’ll help me,--I know he will,” (Stowe 81)...
There is so much evil in the world such as: murder, child mortality, torture, rape, assault and more. So how can there be an all loving God if these things are constantly happening? In this paper, I will be arguing that there is in fact no such thing as an all loving and all powerful God due to Evil. When I think of an all-loving God, I think of God as someone who would never allow a child to be kidnapped, raped, tortured and killed. I think of God as someone who would not allow anything bad or evil to happen in this world.
...fighting his feelings about not seeing Jesus. He feels that he is lying to God and himself by getting up and being saved even though he cannot see Jesus. Even though the reader knows that he truly is being saved from sin. He is doing something good for himself. Therefore, we can see that he truly does not understand the meaning of God. He is a child on the verge of adulthood. He has every right to be confused and misinterpret religion because he is learning. Religion is metaphorical and imaginative; it is what you believe it to be.
“No one can stop Change, but we all shape Change whether we mean to or not. I mean to guide and shape Earthseed into what it should be” (p.90). Because of Lauren’s walled neighborhood, the family, community, deaths are changing all the time. Change has became pervasive, which she can foresight, plan and even prepare for its coming. She believes change is not easy to adapt or getting any more comfortable, but understanding the nature of change is a one of the required ability of living a good life. Lauren’s God, Change is an impersonal force that can be shaped by humans, it doesn’t have any personal attributes to prefer or dislike any individualism or racism. She describes her God, “My God doesn’t love me or hate me or watch over me or know me at all, and I feel no love for or loyalty to my God. My God just is” (p.11). Her journal also states, “God is neither good nor evil, neither loving, nor hating. God is Power. God is Change” (p.84). Different from Christian, Earthseed’s God doesn’t need to be worship. “Earthseed deals with ongoing reality, not with supernatural authority figures. Worship is no good without action. With action, itʼs only useful if it steadies you, focuses your efforts, eases your mind” (p.75). For Lauren’s God, the best action is to directly response and to meet what the world’s need, the effort should be put into action to make change instead of just
Everything you see is and takes up matter. Rather it’s in your head, in person, in thought, in imagination, its all matter. And it matters. Without a god in someone’s life, people feel that they do not have to feel guilty. People feel guilty when they have a god because they have rules to go by and when they break them they feel bad, or guilty. In the book the author quotes, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but loose his own soul?”
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God , "The God that holds you over the
He starts to believe that what is happening to him is not what the “real” God would do. He starts to question why God is letting these terrible events happen to him, and even starts to question if God is even real. “For the first time, I felt anger rising within me. Why should I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible Master of the Universe, chose to be silent.
At the early stage of novel, God is used as narrator’s scapegoat for failures that resulted from his actions. Narrator mentions God multiple times in the passage that usually talks about his failure. The views on God seem to be neutral as Narrator slightly mentions that “…God only knows if there’s any sense in my looking for a job any longer! All these refusals, these partial promises, simple noes, hopes built up and knocked down, new tries that ended each time in nothing” (Hamsun 5). Narrator believes that God is omnipresent and confess that only God understand what he is going through. But narrator’s view on God turns into anger as more misfortunes befall upon him and he states that “I came on the weightiest objections against the Lord’s arbitrariness in letting me suffer for everyone else’s sins” (Hamsun 20). The narrator suddenly changes his attitude toward God and goes into delusion like thought that God has chosen him to suffer and he thinks the God is the root of problem and that he is the problem for all his unfortunate ends regarding his living conditions and job status.
Here, Taylor envisions a different kind of God, not one who waved his hand, uttered some magic words, and pulled the universe from his Godly top hat (p.151). Taylor’s God is a working God surrounded by wood and iron, soot