Is God kind... or Cruel ... or indifferent towards his creation ???

Question

Atheists may reply to" Is Universe/Nature kind/cruel/indifferent to us"

Great Answers... how many best answers can i select ...10 or 12 will do....LOL

thanks to all CDs

Answer 1

None of the above!
The question implies that God is separate from the universe, out there, somewhere.
God is not separate from creation.
Moment by moment the universe pours into existence as an expression of God.
The universe is a gesture of God as a fist is a gesture of the hand. (Ken Wilber).
Despite people's best efforts, you can't anthropomorphise God. (That's why I prefer the expression, The Eternal). If you want to play at doing so, however, I would guess his feelings would be, "Everything's cool".

EDIT

This extraordinary question draws a good deal of wisdom out of us, the answerers.
Let me tell you a brief story - and its moral.
I once treated someone who had suffered severely and was deeply scarred emotionally and physically. I felt such love, such a deep desire to help this person let go of their pain that - it got in the way! Only when I let those 'good' feelings go was I able to help.
Great love gets in the way!
Stillness helps.
Emptiness helps even more.
And that's just US.

Thankyou for the kind words.

Answer 2

I think he is indifferent, given his general attitude.
Given His "past" records, although human beings had fallen upon evil, there's no records of what he did to improve the situation. He simply wiped clean the slate, instead of trying to lead people onto the right path (or at least according to what was written)

Hence, if he was kind, he would have done something and not just drowning everybody. If He loved his creation, he would not have did what He did without any hesitation or delays.

Whether him being cruel or not, considering my current situation as a pretty peaceful one, i'm noit deigned to comment on that aspect, hence I choose indifferent

P.S. I'm agnostic but attempting to answer in a Christian point of view

Answer 3

Great question, Aum.

This is the great conundrum of detachment, it looks like indifference, but it isn't. It's very simple, and an apt analogy that has been used greatly by the religions, although they have twisted it beyond all recognition.

You have a child, you begin to raise the child, and his/her ability to function in this world grow by laps and bounds, it's exciting, but it is also filled with 'danger'. You want the best for your child, but you can't stand to see him/her get hurt. Here is the perpetual parental dilemma, you know that, eventually, you will have to take your hands off, and also take off the training wheels, and let your offspring find their own way, and this is, although most of us don't think of it this way, the moment at which one relinquishes 'control' of this little human being back to themselves, you have to give them back their free-will. Up until this moment you have made all of their important decisions for them, even what time to get up, when to go to sleep, when to eat, etc. etc.

We are the 'One', that is we all have the exact same sovereign 'power' and the right to determine the course of our own experience. Only here, in this dense, heavy realm, when we arrive we have quite enough to do just adapting to the extremely harsh living conditions, so we delegate that control to our appointed 'parents' for the first few years, knowing that the intention is to get it back as soon as practicable.

Are our parents kind, or cruel or indifferent ?

It's all a matter of perspective.

The 'One' is, through each and every one of us individuated consciousnesses, experiencing all that ever could be, and does not limit us, and, in effect, could be said to 'not care', but that is not the same thing at all, the 'One' cares infinitely that we are free to create whatever experience arises to us.

Having said that, the image of a strictly human-style paternal, or even maternal, 'God' watching over us with the candy of reward and the stick of retribution, is totally false.

The point is all of these images put the 'One' at some distance from us, separate and distinct, which is not how it is, we are the 'One' and the 'One' us, individually and collectively.

The point is how do you feel ? Do you care ? Do I ?


{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Cosmic Love}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

Edit :

Just had to come back and applaud Brother Jon C. Baggins. It is, indeed, the error of anthropomorphisation that get's us every time, it has been said and written that 'God' made us in his likeness, and many a wag has said and written that it is us who have made 'God' in our likeness. Here's the rub, both of those statements are stunningly true, even though they seem to say the opposite !

And that has been the way of the dualistic world, although I have found that most things make more sense if you turn them upside down.

Thanks Jon, I salute you my brother. :-)))

Answer 4

The GOD is always kind. Its our vision and perspectives that makes the difference. Nornally one thinks God is cruel when he is in deep trouble or his wishes are not fulfilled for a long time. And chances are more for a Passimist to think like that.

I am an optimist, and believe if there are troubles - if any; these are gifts of God; to make you a better person. Just Like SONA GARAM KARNESE HI PURE HOTA HAI; a man bravely coming out of trouble becomes Hero!

If you have problems, that doesnot mean God is cruel.

Answer 5

The God can never be cruel. Everything in the universe is his manifestation and emaneted from his own. Because of natural calamities, accidents, and many other things, we see many people being killed, murdered and so many hawak in the world. The God has nothing to do with as once He has set the right order, it should always prevail as it was at the beginning. Earthquakes, floods, land slides and such natural calamities are to set right the natural balance of the earth as per her desire. Wars, accidents, killings, murders, blasts are man made and many miscreants are working behind it just to overpower others for their selfish ends. The God need not control them as He has given some free will to every one just to see how he behaves with others. If man is not behiving properly, he will be punished by powerful men or society and law & order of that nation. The people have to take care themselves to weed out the miscreants with strong protest but they don't.

Answer 6

Indifferent.

Answer 7

Sometimes you got to be cruel to be kind, or in other words, the struggle of living through suffering can help us to grow. Personally I lean towards indifferent.
I don't believe in god, but I do believe that humans have a 'divine' capacity to create meaning and purpose out of nothing.
I can believe in more subtle spiritual and archetypal realms, but I don't see a god making up the rules.
If I was drawn to a belief in a god, it would have to be a god of everything. Good an bad are ego concepts.

Answer 8

Nature is kind to us. But quite the opposite, we are cruel and indifferent towards it in many different ways. For example, pollution, tearing down trees for paper, bombings, war, etc

Answer 9

I think God, or whom ever you believe in, is kind and it is a belief system, I think it is the lessons that are cruel.

They say that we all need to learn to grow , but sometimes when I see the havoc caused by the lessons I wonder why do they have to be so hard

But I believe it is the lessons we learn in life that teach us the most , agree with them or not, they are part of life, sometimes I wish that they were not, believe you me

Good Question, have a great week and enjoy what you do

Answer 10

I don't think that the universe has any concept of cruelty, or any concept of anything in particular. I think that our perception of the universe determines whether it is cruel or kind, and we all have different perceptions.

By the way, I like the way you refer to the universe/nature as God for Atheists. Of course religious people won't like it, because for them, the bible is the only way and we are gods image and vice versa, yada yada.