Why doesn't God share His knowledge?
in Religion ·
rowdyraven13 said:One might respond to this with a single counter-question: Why don't these bewildered skeptics bother to reflect on the subject at all before they start lobbing such mindless inquiries?
First of all, to whom exactly is this question being directed? To believers? How would we even know? You won't believe me, my dear atheists and antitheists, but God doesn't hold daily "briefings" with us to explain His plans or His actions. Furthermore, one has to wonder if any human being would truly be capable of grasping the designs and imaginings of the Creator.
This question, however, perfectly illustrates the specific type of person who abandons faith to declare themselves an atheist. They are people with a parasitic mindset, lazy individuals who expect God to function as a concierge service—expecting Him to use His omnipotence to solve their problems for them. Then, when they see that isn't how it works, and realize that God likely expects humans to actually put in some effort (after all, why else would He grant us such brains?), they walk away from God and faith in disappointment. It is much like how they abandon people who fail to be sufficiently useful or meet their expectations, or how they abandon ideals that require actual sacrifice and toil.
It is these very people who sit here bemoaning the death of the sick, the plight of hungry children, or perhaps a sudden freeze in San Francisco, yet they aren't even willing to lift a finger to address the very problems that supposedly trouble them so deeply. Instead, they expect God, the government, politicians, or anyone else to simply "do something." They proceed to blame everything around them—starting with God—for various failures, yet not once does it occur to them that they haven't lifted a finger themselves to help those sick or hungry children. Aside from, of course, their endless rambling on the internet.
And so, they pose these questions to believers as if they were detectives conducting a police interrogation. If you must ask, then go ahead and ask God, my atheist friends. Direct your queries to Him rather than to believers. Because, let’s be honest, you aren't actually interested in the answer; this is just another unoriginal, recycled tactic—one that you create yourselves—to launch an attack on faith. Your goal is to indict religion and God, not to care about the fate of the sick and hungry children whose suffering supposedly moves you.
I simply cannot fathom how anyone imagines that "God distributes knowledge" by writing us instruction manuals. What would be the point of any effort? God could, with a mere thought, heal the sick and feed the hungry. Why would He bother "educating" us or "sharing knowledge" only for us to struggle through it, when solving our problems would be effortless for Him?
But God created us exactly as we are. He gave us reason and consciousness. He gave us morality and emotion. He provided us with intelligence, the capacity for abstract thought, and the ability to learn and draw conclusions. He gave us everything necessary to become capable of attaining knowledge on our own. He gave us skillful hands to build and create. The only thing He didn't give certain people was diligence and the willingness to roll up their sleeves; and so, these individuals accuse God of negligence, laziness, or selfishness, even though they themselves are the very embodiment of those traits.
God created the entire universe and oversees its functioning. He also created our planet—our little world—and placed us within it (in His own image, and therefore similar to Him), granting us the intellectual capacity (at least to some of us) to take care of this world of ours.
So the question arises: if God intended to solve our problems for us, or if He intended to merely "hand over knowledge" without requiring our effort, why would He have bothered to instill in us qualities like intelligence, curiosity, ambition, imagination, and everything else required to explore the nature of things, to learn, and to master knowledge?
The question was actually framed around the idea that believers constantly insist God is both good and just, yet simultaneously allow children to die from illnesses despite having the knowledge required to prevent it.
I personally have no issue with the theory that God granted us intelligence and left us to struggle through life on our own terms. However, we cannot claim such a being is good or righteous if He sits idly by without intervening. It really boils down to contradictions that believers simply choose to ignore.
Imagine you were dying in the street after a car accident, and instead of helping, passersby just walked right past you—or worse, they stopped to grab a burger and a soda, sat down next to you, and watched you expire rather than calling 911 on their cell phones. I am merely pointing out that such people are cruel.
By that same logic, if God created the world along with the early viruses and bacteria that cause us to fall ill and die, then He designed a world specifically intended for suffering and misery. In my view, that is the hallmark of an evil being.