Causa Unus

These verses were sent to me by a dear friend, in an attempt to shake me out of my unbelief. The following is an excerpt from my response:

I pondered this obtuse passage all day at work, trying to wrap my head around it. From the passage I gather that God's wrath is on constant display in some manner regarding sin and immorality. In addition to that, his power and nature are supposed to be clearly evident. Failure to recognize this has led to futility and some manner of moral decay. Now, if you were asked to make observations about the world, and solely from these make a judgment about the character of it's overseer, what conclusions would you come to? In the natural world I see violence, starvation, extinction, and constant struggle for survival. I see crippling diseases and pandemics, birth defects, and bitter fights among opposing species. In the social world, I see the greedy and deceitful rise to power, the misappropriation of natural resources, pollution, and exploitation of the weak. I see cruel treatment of others, murder, rape, tribalism, and war. Beyond this, I see a pale blue dot. A small planet orbiting a medium sized star on the edge of the Milky Way galaxy, one of billions in a vast sea black space. What am I to gather about the nature of a deity who reveals himself in these things? From this I am to gather that the creator of so vast and majestic a universe is also highly concerned with the thoughts of a infinitesimally small speck and will damn the speck accordingly? That is a highly dubious claim. Everything that can be gathered about the nature of God from observation alone is perfectly covered by Epicurius: "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?".

So, I missed the boat on that one. Now, assuming that I did actually pick up on all the obvious clues and suddenly understood God's wrath, his invisible attributes, and divine nature, what use would I have for scripture? If everything necessary for the understanding of God is evident within me already and obvious in everything around me, of what use are pages of dietary restrictions, schematics for a mobile temple, tedious genealogies, etc.? I supposedly have an understanding of his nature so encompassing as to leave me without excuse, but he still thought it necessary to remind me that I should not commit murder? Why evangelize if the masses of unsaved are already in possession of the knowledge necessary to be reconciled to God? In fact, if this perfect morality and nature is so evident, why is Paul even bothering to write to the Romans at all? What a terrible imposition upon your friends to write a lengthy letter full of things they all already know. Again, obtuse.

Futility. I'll have to admit, this one irks me to no end. What self righteousness! To make such astounding claims about the nature of God, without even a shred of supporting evidence, then assert that these claims are just plain obvious, Q.E.D., is bad enough. To then go on to accuse those who have not been convinced, by this absurdly sophomoric line of non-reason, of being futile in their speculations is intellectual cowardice. It is a moral responsibility to examine the claims of any belief system. How valid are these claims? What is the historic origin of them? Do the claims line up with what we can prove about the world around us? If so, are there other explanations? What are the real world consequences of these beliefs? Not only should I question the belief system, but considering the sum of human misery that has resulted from these beliefs, it is a moral duty to question them. This is the polar opposite of futility. Paul's smug certainty smacks of obscurantism, which is exactly what one would expect from a charismatic cult leader.

The problem with this passage is that the collected stories, beliefs, customs, and moralities of a Bronze Age desert tribe are not obvious at all. These are one culture's first, best guess at why we are here and what we should do. None of the assertions about God that are made in the Bible are obvious with any amount of natural observation. They are simply claims, just like the ones in the Koran, the Book of Mormon, the Upanishads, and Dianetics by L. Ron Hubbard. Being able to recognize this does not make my thinking futile, and my morality, in practical terms, has grown stronger since I became an apostate.