Yet if God asserted His Truth directly, would we be able to refuse Him? Would not exposure to Him directly overwhelm our ability to resist doing His will? Would we not rely on God's omnipotence to solve all our ills? Would not that direct intervention diminish the creation He loves so dearly?
I believe it would. I believe that God gave humanity the ability to fix the ills that plague us, if we choose to do so. As we organize ourselves in ways consistent with His Truth, humanity achieves ever greater things. As we move away from lives guided by that Truth, the constructs we built begin to erode and crumble.
We are made stewards of Creation not as unthinking slaves to execute a perfect plan given to us. No, we are charged to use the gifts God gave us to assisst Him in helping Creation grow into what He envisioned.
The closest analogy for me is the process where I help my child learn how to navigate life's obstacles. I can tell her what do and in doing so make her dependent on me. No, I must let her live and make the mistakes her choices define. I spent her entire childhood teaching her but she must choose her own way to be the best human being she can be.
The analogy isn't perfect but does work. All those that demand God act in his omnipotence to solve our problems are like my daughter asking me to fix a problem her choices have created. He can act just as I can make my girl's problems better, but what is lost? How much is mankind's potential atrophied by God's intervention? How much of my daughter's future is made more dim because she must learn later what my actions prevent her learning while she is young?
If the choice to act in our children's lives is that complicated, how much more complicated are the choices God faces every second to balance teaching and helping for all humanity.
Michael Everett wrote:I always thought that the greatest argument against a single active deity was the large number of religions.
I'm not saying that there isn't a God, just that if there is, it probably doesn't bother itself with something as galactically small and insignificant as us.
That's fine with me. I don't go whinging to God every time something fails to land in my lap and God doesn't go out of his way to screw up my life.
Live and let live.
Just don't trust the translations of holy books. Each translation is affected by the preconceptions and prejudices of the person(s) who translated it.
Classic example from different versions of the Bible
Modern English translation via Latin and German = Man shall not lie with man as like husband with wife. {Homosexuality is bad}
English translation direct from original Aramaic - Man shall not lie with child as like husband with wife. {Pedophilia is bad}
Big difference from a simple translation drift, hmmmm?