The Vague Higher Power
Almost anyone who reads the Bible cover-to-cover from an objective perspective will be able to notice that the story is ridiculous. It is almost certain that the character of God as portrayed in the Bible is as fictional as the evil Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series. And yet there are still billions (with a b) of people who claim to be believers in the Abrahamic religions.
The thing is that most mainstream believers have no idea what the character of God in the Bible is like. Instead, in order to keep the character of God believable, many believers have stripped the character of almost all of his characteristics and have left him as a one-dimensional vague higher power rather than the fully developed three-dimensional character that is described in the Bible.
I don’t really blame them, the God of the Bible is a real asshole and it would take a really cold-hearted person to worship such a tyrannical prick. Instead, most believers have created their own vague idea of what God ought to be like and then they worship that false ideal. It really isn’t hard to do. Just imagine a being to which no greater being can be imagined and according to Anselm that is God.
However, Anselm’s God is a lot different that the character of God as portrayed in the Bible. I can imagine a character quite a bit greater that that deity. In fact, I would have a much harder time imagining a being more despicable then the God of the Bible.
So when some atheists (like myself), claim that the character of God as portrayed in the Bible is an evil tyrant, many believers get all angry. Surprisingly, it is the mainstream believers who especially get angry for some strange reason. But I think that is because they believe that atheists are calling their vague higher power concept an evil tyrant.
The fact is that I just think that mainstream believers made-up the vague higher power and that such a make-believe character is little different then Santa Claus. But that character is not the one that I am calling evil. That character is just imaginary, but the character that is portrayed in the Bible is both evil and imaginary… like Voldemort.
Filed under: god, image of god, Ontological Argument, Religion, the bible, Vague Higher Power
