"The Christian God," by Gentoo

(This was written by someone close to me. RFers know her as Gentoo!)

The other night I had a dream. In this dream, were many Christian images (that I now can't remember), but I don't think the images were important. I remember trying to take a picture of one with my camera phone, but in the process, screwed up the actual image. I remember going off alone while all of these images are being discovered. I saw ticker tape, with braille on it. But after the braille, was the word: Congratulations, and something became very clear to me. I felt a presence, and it hit me, the Christian God had a message.

He said in my dream that the Bible is wrong, that that's not how he really is/was (I came to the conclusion later that this could be true, that it all started out fine, but then dogma got a hold of it, as it does. And it was twisted continuously until what it is now). I asked why he was congratulating me, and he said and I quote: "I don't know" and went on to say something to the effect of: but something will happen to me that is worthy of congratulations.

Now the dream itself isn't so important, but it is certainly making me question the nature of of the Christian God. Specifically, he said: I don't know. Assuming that this was not my subconscious and that it was God (a stretch, yes but I am going somewhere with this), I've come up with three possibilities as to the nature of this God, though there are probably many more.

1.) There is One God who is all-knowing, all-powerful, all-etc.
2.) There are many Gods that have limitations
3.) There is one God or just a few that are limited.

Christians generally believe in number one, but when asked hard questions like: why is there evil in the world, they answer with human free will. Now this doens't make much sense to me, if their God was all-powerful, why would our free will exist in the first place? Why wouldn't the Biblical Christian God (with his history in the OT) allow for as many separations as there are in his "chosen people" to have separated in the first place? Why would God want/need us to find him by ourselves, if he can just as easily force us to if he has a change of whim again (notice his behavior did a complete 180 from the OT to the NT)?

To me with these questions, option one falls flat. But what of option two? Or three?

If there are many limited Gods, that would explain why we have free will. Since these Gods are not all-knowing, all-powerful, or all-seeing, one can reason that these Gods are fallible. And since they are fallible it would seem to me that there would be a sort of competition between them, who can have the most followers or something (you know, just to pass the time). And what better way to do this than through the use of fear? Of Hell? But a lot of people make the assumption that it is the Christian God himself being the fear monger. But I think that it was the people themselves. Enter Dogma (and no, not the awesome movie).

"Straight and narrow is the path" can basically be used as a definition for dogma. The idea that there is only one path or one truth and a slight deviance is heretical. Dogma basically comes about because of insecurity, someone is very unsure of themselves, and does every and anything to make sure that his insecurities are never brought up. Going so far as to put words in God's mouth: "God hates _____" is common amongst these people. This is usually where splits happen, example: Martin Luther.

After 2000 some-odd years of this, it's really no wonder that a message would get twisted, or even lost along the way. People are so committed to living their life so they're not looked at weirdly they completely miss the message their God gave them in the first place. Hence my earlier thought that the Christian God is not the same as the Biblical Christian God. Not only was the Bible translated and mistranslated over time, but before that it was passed down as oral tradition, and we all know how that works out.

Here are a few links to some sermons I've been listening to that are very interesting, he has a different interpretation than I'm used to, hopefully someone else will benefit from them as well:

Dogma Equals Division
It's Okay to Question
The Beast