Consider the fact that the kindest man who ever lived was condemned by the leaders of his own religion. They handed him over to their enemies and insisted that he be executed in the most awful way. That form of execution was designed to scare all opposition into submission.
Either
(1) this man was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, or
(2) no-one was not able to save him, or
(3) it happened for a reason.
Believing option (1) could lead one to agree with the philosopher Charles Baudelaire who said "If there is a god, he is the devil". After all, if that could happen to any person, I could one day find myself in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Option (2) would imply that if there is a god, he is not very powerful. Who would want to put their trust in someone who would stand helplessly by if they found themselves in trouble?
To people who desperately want to believe in a God who is fair and powerful option (3) is the one they must arrive at by elimination. For those who accept this option the following question immediately arises: For what purpose did the most righteous man who ever lived die in the most painful and degrading way imaginable? How they answer that question will play a most crucial role in their view of the world.
Showing posts with label meaning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label meaning. Show all posts
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Wednesday, 15 April 2009
I chose to believe
When I was about 10 years old, the story of Good Friday was told us at school. My sense of justice and aversion to pain caused me to put those events out of my mind. What did I have to do with how people mistreated a good man 2000 years ago?
At the age of 20 I was going through a really hard time. Was I just unlucky, at the wrong place at the wrong time? Or was there meaning to my suffering?
I chose to believe that my hardship had a purpose. If that were not the case, I would not want to live. In fact, I did not believe anything in this world could make up for the pain I had endured. Pleasures are fleeting and in the end we all die. I wanted the promise of something beyond the grave. Someone once accused me of being a "time glutton".
Contemplating my miserable state, my thoughts inevitably turned to Jesus. If my pain had a purpose, what about his?
At the age of 20 I was going through a really hard time. Was I just unlucky, at the wrong place at the wrong time? Or was there meaning to my suffering?
I chose to believe that my hardship had a purpose. If that were not the case, I would not want to live. In fact, I did not believe anything in this world could make up for the pain I had endured. Pleasures are fleeting and in the end we all die. I wanted the promise of something beyond the grave. Someone once accused me of being a "time glutton".
Contemplating my miserable state, my thoughts inevitably turned to Jesus. If my pain had a purpose, what about his?
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