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The Suicide Mom, The Devil & More Free Will |
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AMANDA: I read the letters between Roy Casanova and yourself and would like to make the following comments:
AMANDA: The girl that committed suicide
didn't kill herself because it was part of "God's master plan"
or a "higher good", she killed herself because it was her free
will to do so. For some reason she felt that life just wasn't
worth living and the devil played on that.
BRUCE: I see. So your father
"praying" over you, in Jesus' name, (per your previous email)
was good enough to elicit an immediate response from Jesus to "cure
you of the symptoms of Hepatitis A," but this young lady's pleas
for help apparently were not enough for Jesus to "step in" and
protect her against that opportunistic devil that caused her to kill
herself and leave a 4-year-old without his mommy? If God cannot or
will not intercede in the crises of humans (even when they are begging
for him to do so), then what good is He? I guarantee you that had
I been in that room with her I would have intervened to prevent this
tragedy; by physical force if necessary! I would have further seen
to it that she received professional help! Of course, I had no way
of knowing this was going to happen in advance. But Jesus did,
right Amanda?
Your god, if he is the all-knowing,
all-powerful, all-loving God of the universe you proclaim him to be,
would have had to have known about this young lady's suicide even before
she ever began to contemplate such a self-induced end, would he not?
This is a huge problem, Amanda, because that means your god is directly
responsible for this girl's actions! The very idea of "free
will" is incompatable with the idea of an omniscient, omnipotent,
omnipresent deity. You clearly have not thought this through.
As for the "Devil," no such being
exists outside the fertile imaginations of humans who attempt to avoid
responsibility for their own actions. It's always easier to blame
others for our own misgivings, and what better receptacle than an
invisible boogey man that no one has ever seen. "The Devil
made me do it!" Yeah, right! The Devil is just the ugly side
of yourself that you cannot stand to face in the mirror, Amanda!
For the ancient Hebrews, this took the form of a goat, the 'scapegoat'
Azazel (see Leviticus 16), in which all of the peoples' "sins"
were presumed to be imbedded into it, after which it was literally
"sent away" into the wilderness. And based on many of
the comments you make in this email, Amanda, I can see that you keep
your 'scapegoat' very busy!
Moreover, there was no "Devil-god"
for the pre-exilic Hebrews that opposed the will of Yahweh. The
very idea of such a thing would have been blasphemous to them, since nothing
could oppose YHWH. The satan is a title, not a proper name.
It was a position in Yahweh's divine counsel, like a prosecutor, and he
acted in accordance with, not against, the will of YHWH.
AMANDA: Don't blame God for her decisions.
BRUCE: Who says I "blame
God," Amanda? To blame the god(s) of the Bible would make
about as much sense as blaming Zeus, or Ra, or Vishnu, or Allah.
Just as I explained to Mr. Casanova, it is not my belief, but your
belief in Jesus that I am applying toward the event--in this case the
young woman who committed suicide, and leaving behind a 4-year-old boy
without his mommy!
It is you who proclaims your god to be the
supreme God of the universe (to the exclusion of every other
"supreme God of the universe") who created all, knows our
every thought before it happens, hears our prayers, and is always there
when we need him. So, calling your belief into question, Amanda,
where was your God for this Christian woman at the moment when she
needed him most? The evidence suggests that she was certainly
"calling out" to him, praying for help, so how could he just
stand by and "allow" it to happen?
It gets worse, Amanda! Has it occurred
to you that your God would have had to have known in advance, at the
beginning of time in fact, that this woman would have used her
"free will" to kill herself, thereby negating her journey into
the heavenly realm? (note that suicide has been considered a one-way
ticket to hell since the 4th century, when Augustine declared it an act
of "self-murder"). If your god knew this was going to
happen, and he knew that the "soul" he had inserted into this
woman would never be returning to heaven, but would instead suffer and
burn in hell "for all eternity" (merciful?), then why create
her at all? If "souls" are such a treasured possession
of your god, then why not just not create her, and keep that
"soul" up in heaven where it could remain safe, warm and
happy? Or why not insert that soul into another person that he
knew would use their "free will" to kiss up to him?
This is so silly . . .
AMANDA: Must all Christians in the world
blame God because you decided to become an atheist? No, of course
not - it's your choice; we mustn't blame God because you know
EXACTLY what you are doing, and so did she. Jesus was right with
her when she died, but He won't force Himself on anyone, it has to be
our decision to accept Him.
BRUCE: Excuse me, but this woman WAS A
CHRISTIAN, Amanda! So, if Jesus was "right there with her
when she died," then why didn't he do something to
"inspire" her not to splatter her brains all over the bedroom
wall? Are you suggesting that she wasn't a
"true Christian" (TM); perhaps deceived all those years while
growing up in a Catholic family, and therefore her pleas for help were
rejected? If only Jesus had sent you, Amanda, to inform her of the
"error of her ways" (as you apparently intend to do here for
me), then maybe she would be alive today, right?
Moreover, the Bible is full of tales where
"God" not only "forces Himself" on people, but gives
an ultimatum: "You will follow my laws, or else . . ."
And given the staggering degree to which he acted upon the "or
else" part, he seems to have taken some pleasure in it, just as he
always took "pleasure" at the odor of sacrifices being
"burnt at the altar." (Gen. 8:21; Ex. 29:18; Lev. 1:9)
Bruce Monson
Adherence to Life BEFORE Death
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