I don't get it why theist don't blame their god for Hitler's action. Wasn't god responsible for giving Hitler freewill? If there was something wrong(really really wrong) with Hitler, shouldn't god re-checked his "omniscient radar" first to make sure to create someone worth creating?
2007-08-27 15:01:14 · 18 answers · asked by 8theist 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
To Socratic Pig: But unlike god, you aren't omniscient, so you didn't know if killers used it for good or bad.
2007-08-27 15:15:21 · update #1
Well it isn't just that. In Mein Kampf Hitler directly says that he is doing "the Lord's work" with respect to the Jews. God's actions in the Old Testament were actually the inspiration for the whole thing.
2007-08-27 15:06:45 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 1⤋
So you are saying that God should have interfered and made Hitler an obedient robot or perhaps ensured that Hitler never got born in the first place or was born a retard and therefore unable to influence anyone or do anything bad?
How are we to be convinced that breaking the 10 commandments is bad unless we are permitted to witness first hand the consequences it brings to all of us, the guilty and innocent alike, when somebody does?
How many people would take God's word that sin is bad if he wrapped us in cotton wool and shielded us from it's effects? Or if he eliminated sin altogether so that while in theory we had a free choice but in practise there was only one option available for us to choose?
I suppose what it boils down to is: Do you want to live in a real world of cause and effect, action and reaction, where if you get cut you bleed, or do you want to live in a Warner Bros Cartoon where nothing is real and the characters can do the most horrific things to each other and it doesn't matter because they don't actually exist?
I don't think it's possible to have it both ways and for this world to be both simultaneously real and artificial.
And if we can get along just fine without God, then how is it after all these Centuries we are still unable to solve the world's problems? Why haven't we eliminated crime, violence, wars, poverty, epidemics? Does anyone seriously believe Science will one day be able to control hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes, tidal waves, floods, droughts or famines?
There is an answer to all these problems, but we have to look beyond ourselves and the physical world to find that answer!
2007-08-27 15:20:50 · answer #2 · answered by jeffd_57 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You have a good question and you are using logic to find an answer.
1) God is responsible for the entire creation including Satan. So, of course directly or indirectly he is responsible for it!
2) If God created someone better than others, he is not playing fair. So, he created all people equal and gave them an option between seeking him or seeking his gifts. Most people seek his gifts (the world itself is a gift to us, as is heaven and all the pleasures in the world). If you seek God and God alone (and not for any ulterior motive of fame, fortune etc) then you can have the powers like Jesus. (To all that received him, he gave them the power to be the son of God - Bible. (Unfortunately, no one receives him...they just want his gifts!).
3) Your question is very similar to the logical argument - if God is perfect why did he create this imperfect world! The question itself is illogical. Someone perfect cannot create an imperfect world. So, it means either God is not perfect (which argues against the very definition of God) or the world is perfect and we just are not able to comprehend the mysterious ways of God!
4) Your question makes perfect sense when seen from the physical world - the world of logic! If only we could see the world from the deeper spiritual side we would understand things very differently. When I mean deeper spiritual side, I do not mean understanding it but I mean actually seeing the world from the eyes of the soul, the spirit. Seen from that perspective, it is a play of shadows all within the the splendor of the light of God. How can the light of God be responsible for the action of the shadow ? The shadow was merely created by the delusion of Satan (or whatever name you want to call it based on your faith). True, the shadow was created only because there was the light of God (like the creation exists because of God).
God knows about the suffering in the world. However, he also knows that the soul, the true essence of the individual will always be taken back to him (if the soul chooses) and that soul is never hurt by the hardships we face. I still protest and say it is not fair, since very few know of their true existence as the soul but he silenly points out "you have the choice to know me and yourself and get out of the suffering too!"
I am sorry my answer was too long and it is difficult to follow. The question is not easily answered with logic and even harder for the intellect to comprehend. It is easier to experience it and solve the mystery!
2007-08-27 17:24:45 · answer #3 · answered by Bhavin D 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Interesting question of where the responsibility falls. I've heard that the people who watch evil acts taking place but do nothing are just as responsible as the people who commit evil.
I saw the response comparing god to a weapons dealer who just sells the gun, not commits the crime. However, the weapons dealer isn't omnipotent and omniscient, god is and therefore, knows about the evil taking place and can stop it. So is he responsible? He better have a good reason for not intervening.
2007-08-27 15:13:01 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Blaming God for the sins of man is like blaming the parents of a grown child that goes out and commits a sin. Yes, the parents created that child, but even when parents do the best they can for their children, there will always be those children that grow up to be bad and commit sins and crime. The only way a parent could stop his child from doing something wrong is to lock him or her up from birth. BUT, then, that parent will be wrong for doing so and would be punished. Human beings can't erase someone else's free will and neither would God. He also cannot intervene everytime someone evil comes along and prevent such terrors from occurring. To do so would be to take away free will and our rights to chart our own destinies. It would also prevent the rest of the human race from learning whatever lessons are there for us to be learned. As horrible as the Nazi reign was, the world learned a lot of hard lessons through it.
Don't get me wrong. I don't think any of us should ever sit idlly by while horrors are committed on others. We DO have free will and we are here to learn what to do and what not to do, to learn how to be unified and to learn compassion...among other things. For an evil like Hitler to rise to power, there had to be many people in the world who thought Jewish people were inferior. Sooner or later, that evil link would have risen up in one way or the other. After the war, many many people learned to feel compassion for those who suffered at the hands of the Nazi's. Some who used to think that Jewish were inferior because their religion was different learned to see them as people more than they had before, and I believe this is one thing that started creating an overall viewpoint of tolerance and acceptance for people and their differences. Without it, who knows how long it would have taken the majority of the world to change their viewpoints on who's superior and who's not.
Anyway, I don't think God should be blamed for what we humans do. He's giving us a chance to shape our own destiny and we have to take the good with the bad and the terrible. It is up to us to control our people and it is up to us to create a world that breeds fewer monsters. Finding a scapegoat in God is not the answer. Monsters like Hitler are of our own making. If other humans hadn't condemned the Jewish for being who they are for centuries prior to all that, then Hitler would have never found the following he needed to exterminate so many innocent lives. If we want to prevent monsters from being born, we need to change how we, as humans, see each other as well as how we treat each other.
Peace.
2007-08-27 15:18:44 · answer #5 · answered by Top Alpha Wolf 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God put two people on the earth capable of making copies of themselves those who are kind and generous will be resurrected during judgement day. The unrighteious or those who never had a chance to hear about God or do anything about their love for God. Some children died without ever having a chance. They will all come back in a resurrection.
We are today like planting a garden and throwing in a bunch of seeds. Some grow into nice plants, some grow in the rows and have to be uprooted. Others you can see they need or deserve another chance and you transplant them somewhere else to see how well they do.
We are God's garden, some are greedy and deserve to be uprooted. Some deserve a resurrection to another chance.
Some really deserve to be resurrected because they did good works. But each one is given free will and this is just a big field and everything is growing. good, bad and the ugly.
2007-08-27 15:12:10 · answer #6 · answered by cloud 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. "
- Edmund Burke
Hitler's atrocities were committed while the rest of the world stood by doing nothing. (Does "They didn't attack us!" sound like a familiar excuse?) Poland was invaded and 6 million Jews were killed while England, France, Russia and America talked treaties. The Japanese were no better to the Chinese, using poison gas to kill entire towns. By the time the world awoke, it was too late to stop the worst of it.
No, this wasn't God's fault. It was our fault for letting it happen. And the next time it happens (and it will), it will be our fault again!
To answer your question with a question:
If you gave an innocent child a loaded gun and he shot and killed his brother, would you blame God?
2007-08-27 15:14:54 · answer #7 · answered by Mark in Time 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
"If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad...Why, then, did God give them free will? Because free will, though is makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. A world of creatures that worked like machines would hardly be worth creating."--Mere Christianity (C.S. Lewis)
2007-08-27 15:07:25 · answer #8 · answered by lady_phoenix39 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Romans 9:
20. Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
21. Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
22. What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23. And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
2007-08-27 15:12:24 · answer #9 · answered by See the Light 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
god makes man good (and woman). god didn't just say "oh i don't like the Jews, they smell funny, so i am gonna make Hitler to kill all them" NO! it's not god's fault for all that, it's Hitlers. shocking, huh? Hitler is responsible for his own actions-- wait! maybe WE"RE responsible for our own actions too! what an amazing discovery! whoohoo
2007-08-27 15:12:18 · answer #10 · answered by That one guy 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋