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levite · 03-12-2009, 08:14 PM

Out of order, just for the ease of answer length.

1. Can't help you: don't believe in either Hell or Jesus.

3. I am not a Xian, so I can't say what their answer is. As a Jew, I can say that the overwhelming trend of Jewish thought historically is that one does not have to be Jewish to be a righteous person, and non-Jewish righteous people can and will enter the World to Come.

2. Theodicy:

OK, so this is my opinion. Some other Jews I know of believe similarly, but there is certainly no general consensus in the Jewish community, historically, about the answers to the theodicy question.

My opinion is that for whatever reasons, God created this universe, and not a different universe. Therefore, there must be some good reason-- which I admit I don't know-- for the rules of this universe being necessary. And this is a universe which cannot function without the elements of chaos, entropy, and evolution. To ask why God does not intervene to save people from natural disasters is to ask why God created this universe and not one that functions differently. Which may be a valid philosophical question, but to me makes no pragmatic sense. This is the universe we live in. We presume, among those of us who believe in religious teachings of one sort or another, that God had good reason to create the universe, even if we don't know what it is. If this is the universe we live in, we have to accept that it is the best that God could arrange for us. Nature is dangerous, yes, but it is also beautiful, and necessary, and its danger is not from malice. If you want to blame God for suffering from malice, that's not Nature, that's human free will.

God created us, we find in Genesis, in His own image: "in Our image, according to Our likeness." The classical Jewish commentators are clear that this is nothing physical, but the power of free will. And we abuse it daily. The hurt that comes to people in this world is disproportionately from human evil. Either direct evil action, like murder and rape and genocide; or the evil of inaction, like wasting hundreds of billions of dollars a year on weapons, and pointless attempts to quash petty vices, and elaborate schemes to help keep the disgustingly wealthy and powerful disgustingly wealthy and powerful, instead of on helping people and healing them and housing them.

I think trying to blame God for the suffering in the world is a waste of time. I think before we go off blaming God, we should probably look in the mirror first. And if our problem is with Nature, I say that maybe a better question is, when hundreds of thousands of people die every year from natural disasters, how come human beings are spending such a disproportionately massive amount of their resources on better preparing to kill one another or pamper the super-rich? We are creatures of free will. We have the resources, the innovative genius, and the power to create systems or invent technologies to save most of the people who die needlessly on this planet, and instead, we fritter those gifts away on creating better fighter aircraft and larger volumes of guns and bombs, or on making sure the idle rich can stay that way.

03-12-2009, 08:14 PM	#13 (permalink)
levite Minion of Joss Location: The Windy City	Out of order, just for the ease of answer length. 1. Can't help you: don't believe in either Hell or Jesus. 3. I am not a Xian, so I can't say what their answer is. As a Jew, I can say that the overwhelming trend of Jewish thought historically is that one does not have to be Jewish to be a righteous person, and non-Jewish righteous people can and will enter the World to Come. 2. Theodicy: OK, so this is my opinion. Some other Jews I know of believe similarly, but there is certainly no general consensus in the Jewish community, historically, about the answers to the theodicy question. My opinion is that for whatever reasons, God created this universe, and not a different universe. Therefore, there must be some good reason-- which I admit I don't know-- for the rules of this universe being necessary. And this is a universe which cannot function without the elements of chaos, entropy, and evolution. To ask why God does not intervene to save people from natural disasters is to ask why God created this universe and not one that functions differently. Which may be a valid philosophical question, but to me makes no pragmatic sense. This is the universe we live in. We presume, among those of us who believe in religious teachings of one sort or another, that God had good reason to create the universe, even if we don't know what it is. If this is the universe we live in, we have to accept that it is the best that God could arrange for us. Nature is dangerous, yes, but it is also beautiful, and necessary, and its danger is not from malice. If you want to blame God for suffering from malice, that's not Nature, that's human free will. God created us, we find in Genesis, in His own image: "in Our image, according to Our likeness." The classical Jewish commentators are clear that this is nothing physical, but the power of free will. And we abuse it daily. The hurt that comes to people in this world is disproportionately from human evil. Either direct evil action, like murder and rape and genocide; or the evil of inaction, like wasting hundreds of billions of dollars a year on weapons, and pointless attempts to quash petty vices, and elaborate schemes to help keep the disgustingly wealthy and powerful disgustingly wealthy and powerful, instead of on helping people and healing them and housing them. I think trying to blame God for the suffering in the world is a waste of time. I think before we go off blaming God, we should probably look in the mirror first. And if our problem is with Nature, I say that maybe a better question is, when hundreds of thousands of people die every year from natural disasters, how come human beings are spending such a disproportionately massive amount of their resources on better preparing to kill one another or pamper the super-rich? We are creatures of free will. We have the resources, the innovative genius, and the power to create systems or invent technologies to save most of the people who die needlessly on this planet, and instead, we fritter those gifts away on creating better fighter aircraft and larger volumes of guns and bombs, or on making sure the idle rich can stay that way. __________________ Dull sublunary lovers love, Whose soul is sense, cannot admit Absence, because it doth remove That thing which elemented it. (From "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" by John Donne)