God's strange act

This page is very much a work in progress. Even though it is neither complete nor polished, I am putting it up as I progress on this page.

Objection: "The God of the Bible is a violent, bloodthirsty, God."

Case 1: The Genesis Flood
Why would a loving God destroy all the people and animals He created except for the few which were saved in the ark according to the Bible?

(Please note: It is not my attempt here to answer to the scientific feasibility of the Genesis flood - although I believe there are satisfactory answers to this question.)

First, let's look at what the book of Genesis has to say about why God sent the flood:

"And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart." Gen 6:5-6

To begin to grasp why God sent the flood of Genesis, we must first address the question, "Why did God create the universe and planet Earth?" I don't know of any clear Biblical answer, but a simple answer would be that God simply wanted to. God had a plan that seemed incredibly good to Him, and He couldn't rest until He carried it out. I like to think that God imagined all kinds of wonderful and beautiful things and ideas that He wanted to share, and He created beings (themselves wonderful and beautiful) with whom to share His own excitement.

(Note that the question of why God would have feelings similar to our own is addressed on the Objections page.)

The people of Earth became very corrupt. We can imagine that wanton murder, torment, neglect, and abuse were rampant. The Golden Rule, recognized by religions around the world, and even by most atheists today, to "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," or more simply to just "be nice" though not necessarily forgotten, was probably only practiced when considered expedient. God, and those who expressed any inclination to follow Him, likely became public objects of contempt, derision, and sometimes outright brutal hostility. Selfishness was the ruling power, and very feeble were the attempts by the populace to surmount this trait and to strive for something better. The desire for a relationship with the Creator was well nigh obliterated. Parents were not bringing up their children to love and to reverence the Creator, nor to live unselfishly. If drastic measures were not taken, there would be no hope but for the world to become anything more than a heap of suffering, and ultimately, for humanity to completely destroy itself and the planet.

For this cause, God sent the flood. Many Christians, including myself, believe that during the long years that Noah, his family, and hired workers were building the ark, he preached to the people, urging them to turn back to God (2 Peter 2:5), and to enter the ark to escape the pending destruction. The people had plenty of opportunity to turn to God. God does not delight in the destruction of anybody (Ezekiel 33:11). It is called His strange act (Isaiah 28:11).

[Objections: 1. Why would God big enough to create the physical universe, care squat what we did on our tiny speck of a planet? 2. Free choice is an illusion. 3. If God knew this would happen, why did He create Earth in the first place? All these objections are answered elsewhere on this site except number 2. I will be posting that soon.]

There was a great deal of suffering and destruction during the flood, but the seed of humanity and of the various basic kinds of animals was preserved. If God had exercised the kind of "mercy" that critics say He should have exercised, it is probably doubtful that there would be anyone alive on our planet today.

[Objection: "This whole thing sound so far fetched! How can an intelligent person believe such a story?" Let me answer that in-line for now: The people of Noah's day thought that the warning of a global flood was far fetched also, until it was too late. Another consideration: The balance in the constants that make-up the physics of our universe is so finely tuned, that if any of the numbers were slightly different, life wouldn't be possible. The chances of these constants being just right by pure luck are practically zero. This fact has caught the attention of some of the most prominent scientists today. I'll leave it to the reader, for now, to study how scientists attempt to explain this without an intelligent creator. Let me just say, I think their idea is extremely far flung. But then, what we think is far fetched has a lot to do with our starting assumptions. For those who think they don't start with assumptions, but rather with conclusions, (yes, I have actually read someone make such a statement before on the web or in a journal - I don't remember where exactly) may I kindly suggest that you take a course in logic?]

Page added: 09.02.22