Suppose that there is a god who wants humans to believe in him/her/it. And suppose, as some religions would have it, those who do not sincerely believe are to be punished. Now suppose further that a person does not believe in god because they are simply too stupid to see the truth. Would that person be deserving of divine punishment?
Suppose that the God who created us gave us instructions, right at the start. And suppose he had a reason not to make us 'programmed' like the animals, but wanted creatures to represent him on this planet to take care of what is already here in the way God wanted.
Now suppose he had to give those representatives qualities that would make them like himself....morality in a sense of right and wrong, a sense of justice so that dominion over God's creation and with each other would be fair, wisdom to work problems out peacefully, and the power to make good choices of their own free will. All the Creator required was obedience to his instructions, which as we know, was not rocket science....had those instructions been followed, none of us would be living this life and the world would not be in such turmoil.
Creation itself testifies to the existence and wisdom and generosity of the Creator, so obeying him was in their best interests. Disobeying the only negative command there was, meant death. By unleashing a knowledge of what God already knew would not benefit them in any way, humans set the stage for disobedience to spread throughout the earth's entire population with horrible results. But rebellion began in God's heavenly family. The first rebel was not human. But he lured the first humans into disobedience so that he could set himself up as their god. A truly pathetic substitute, as things turned out.
If you have a loving family and there are rebels in the house, then you know about the destructive influence that their behavior can have on everyone else who has to live with them and the consequences of what they do. God's formerly orderly heavenly 'family' now housed rebels.
But loving his children as he does, he gave them opportunity to realize the error of their ways by allowing them to experience the full consequences of their own actions, and make choices about their behavior. Experience is the best teacher.
That first rebel influenced quite a number of his own kind to join him in rebellion. That was an exercise of their free will....and that rebellion spread to us because satan tested our free will by lying about the penalty and making independence from God seem attractive...he still does.
So both humans and angels are undergoing the same test....will they use their God-given powers for good or will they abuse their free will and seek to satisfy their own desires to the detriment of others?
Are any of these creatures (human or angelic) too stupid to see the truth?...or is God catching all of us in the act of being ourselves? Do we want what God wants?...or do we only want what WE want?
The Creator has laid it all out in his instruction manual....and its there for all to see. Obey and live....disobey and die...that was the first and only law in the Garden of Eden....it still applies. But if a human is born with some kind of mental deficiency that precludes them from making the right choices, then God knows the heart of every individual and will judge them accordingly.
When I say "stupid," I'm using that term very loosely. The person I have in mind for this hypothetical is an otherwise capable person of average intelligence who leads a self-sufficient life and contributes to society appropriately. Our hypothetical person may even be considered to be educated, but just does not believe in any god. In our hypothetical, this person is ignorant of the truth, but not through personal choice or fault, rather simply because they couldn't make any sense of the proof they were offered.
"Stupid is as stupid does".....isn't that the truth? If the hypothetical person is of sound intelligence, then is there an excuse for them to disobey the laws of the Creator? If the Creator exists and will directly intervene in human affairs as he says he will, belief or unbelief will not save anyone. Obedience will. If you don't obey because you don't believe, then that is your problem. The same information is available to all. We all have the same choices.
Spirituality is inherent in the human race (to which history will attest). All cultures have their "religion" and beliefs. But like a muscle, spirituality gets weak if it is not used or exercised. That innate spirituality is strong in some people and not in others, so what are we to make of this? Who is responsible for who we become as adults? Why are some people so spiritual and others are not at all?
We are not individually created by God but by those who were our parents. Each had a gene pool that gave us a bit of who we are. So it is a bit of a lottery as to how we turn out. But we all have the same choices about who or what we will worship. For some it is a deity, for others it is celebrities or sports stars, for still others it is material things and the trappings of wealth; whatever it is that you give devotion to is "worship". Hearts make those choices.
Since the Bible says that the Creator wants to cleanse this earth of its current corrupt system of governance, he has issued a warning to all of earth's inhabitants of his intentions in much the same way as Noah warned the people of his day about what God was going to do back then. (Matthew 24:37-39) We all have the ability to weigh the evidence for ourselves and make a decision about it.
I believe that God's Kingdom will one day rule this earth and God is choosing its citizens as we speak. Do we individually have the qualities that God is looking for? If so we will be invited to enter......if not, then we have no place to go. There is nothing we can offer as an excuse because we all make our own decisions about these things. We pass the entrance exam...or we fail it.
