Wrath of God

[slave2six]

So, let me get this straight. God is (by all accounts) referred to in many religions as being "all in all." That is to say that God is omnipresent and that everything within our physical universe is simply a part of God.

God is also omniscient (all knowing).

Assuming that these are true, is it even possible for God to be angry or offended in any way?

I was thinking about this because of something that happened yesterday. I was having an argument with my daughter's husband who is a first rate loser who has left me to be responsible for the family he created until such time as he can figure out how to finish school and get a better paying job. At least that's his resent story. (When he met my daughter he had an elaborate story about his father being murdered in Chicago when he was a child, his mother dying in prison, and the people he was living with were his foster parents when it turns out that they are in fact his real parents and he came to this country from Iran when he was 9). Like I said, loser.

Well, my daughter is technically my "step-daughter" but since I have been her father since she was five and her bio dad has not been in her life at all in all these years, she is (for all intents and purposes) my daughter and I have always treated her as such and vice versa.

I explained that to this young man and he disagreed and said she was not my daughter because we are not biologically connected.

Now, since I know the truth of the matter and since my daughter regards me as her father and since this young blighter doesn't have the sense that God gave to polliwogs, I took no offense. After all, why should I be offended just because he is too stupid to see reality?

So, you know, if there is a God and he is all those things listed above, why would he be the slightest bit concerned about what we think or say in our ignorance? For anything that we say is said in ignorance until we actually see this person, meet him/her/it and are able to make a fair assessment. Everything that has been said about him/her/it thus far is nothing more than people's poorly informed opinions.

I guess what I am saying is that I'd like someone to explain to me all these holy scriptures (of any faith) that imply that god is jealous or wrathful or whatever emotive attribute you want to give him.

Wouldn't a real God be above all that?

 

[Riverwolf]

I've NEVER read such a thing in the Bhagavad-Gita or the Upanishads.

The answer is YES, God aught to be beyond human emotions like jealousy and anger, unless he takes human form, and even then he'd have to be in complete control over them.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Wouldn't a real God be above all that?

Most people love to be offended though - so, of course, this will be reflected in whatever god they invent for themselves.

 

[TheKnight]

So, let me get this straight. God is (by all accounts) referred to in many religions as being "all in all." That is to say that God is omnipresent and that everything within our physical universe is simply a part of God.

God is also omniscient (all knowing).

Assuming that these are true, is it even possible for God to be angry or offended in any way?

I was thinking about this because of something that happened yesterday. I was having an argument with my daughter's husband who is a first rate loser who has left me to be responsible for the family he created until such time as he can figure out how to finish school and get a better paying job. At least that's his resent story. (When he met my daughter he had an elaborate story about his father being murdered in Chicago when he was a child, his mother dying in prison, and the people he was living with were his foster parents when it turns out that they are in fact his real parents and he came to this country from Iran when he was 9). Like I said, loser.

Well, my daughter is technically my "step-daughter" but since I have been her father since she was five and her bio dad has not been in her life at all in all these years, she is (for all intents and purposes) my daughter and I have always treated her as such and vice versa.

I explained that to this young man and he disagreed and said she was not my daughter because we are not biologically connected.

Now, since I know the truth of the matter and since my daughter regards me as her father and since this young blighter doesn't have the sense that God gave to polliwogs, I took no offense. After all, why should I be offended just because he is too stupid to see reality?

So, you know, if there is a God and he is all those things listed above, why would he be the slightest bit concerned about what we think or say in our ignorance? For anything that we say is said in ignorance until we actually see this person, meet him/her/it and are able to make a fair assessment. Everything that has been said about him/her/it thus far is nothing more than people's poorly informed opinions.

I guess what I am saying is that I'd like someone to explain to me all these holy scriptures (of any faith) that imply that god is jealous or wrathful or whatever emotive attribute you want to give him.

Wouldn't a real God be above all that?

Hasidism describes God as fundamentally unknowable. We can't know about His nature at all. So what, then, is the meaning of all the descriptions of God that we find in the Bible and in the Talmud?

They are descriptions of what He does. In essence, if God protects me, then I describe Him as protector. If God reveals to me, then I describe Him as revealer. If God heals me, then I describe Him as healer.

In essence, all we can know about God is that which He reveals to us (IE the Torah) and that which we can see that He does (IE His work in creation).

As to your other question, about His being above "all that".


I think it is a mistake to say that a real God wouldn't be concerned with all the things that religion says God is concerned with. Primarily because people who say that don't realize that the God they describe probably wouldn't have created anything in the first place either. I believe it is a logical assumption that if a perfect Being creates something, that Being cares about what It created because otherwise It wouldn't have created.

 

[slave2six]

They are descriptions of what He does. In essence, if God protects me, then I describe Him as protector. If God reveals to me, then I describe Him as revealer. If God heals me, then I describe Him as healer.

And if he sends you to annihilate the Amalekites or some other people group, what is he then?

I believe it is a logical assumption that if a perfect Being creates something, that Being cares about what It created because otherwise It wouldn't have created.

How is that logical? That is simply you projecting human emotion onto a being that cannot be known. For all we know, God may have created this universe and set it on a rubbish heap while he's off busy working on some other project.

 

[Madhuri]

Here are some descriptions (just some parts of it) from a famous poem that was written by a founder of a particular sampradaya:

I have no hatred or dislike,
nor affiliation or liking,nor greed,nor delusion,nor pride or haughtiness,nor feelings of envy or jealousy.I do not commit sins or good deeds,
nor have happiness or sorrow,pain or pleasure.I have neither attachment to the world,
nor to liberation (refer: mukti). I have no wishes for anything
because I am everything,everywhere,every time,always in equilibrium. I am indeed,
That eternal knowing and bliss, Shiva,love and pure consciousness.

 

[TheKnight]

And if he sends you to annihilate the Amalekites or some other people group, what is he then?

Still indescribable.

How is that logical? That is simply you projecting human emotion onto a being that cannot be known. For all we know, God may have created this universe and set it on a rubbish heap while he's off busy working on some other project.

I think that the idea that God created this universe and set it on a rubbish heap is also projecting "human" emotion onto a being that cannot be known. I also find it rather arrogant that many people assume that God has human emotions rather thn the idea that we have Godly emotions.