[ Sample 1 | Sample 2 | Sample 3 | Sample 4 ]
Sample text for: Judging God
CREATIONISM
Questions regarding the origins of the universe, life on earth, and the ultimate death of all living things have no absolute scientific answers at this time, although we have a much better understanding of these crucial questions than the people who lived even one hundred years ago. For thousands of years, in the absence of scientific knowledge, man has sought answers to these baffling questions by invoking gods.
In invoking the help of gods to explain the nature of the universe we live in, first, man had to create gods. Humans have created their gods with their limited experience and knowledge. Since gods cannot be seen, felt, smelled, heard, or tasted, they have been created in the minds of the only species of animals that have cognitive abilities — man. Certainly the gods of the rest of the animal kingdom would be nothing like the gods created by man. Can you imagine a god created by a rat or a lion? Xenophanes could. He wrote in the sixth century BCE, “Ethiopians imagined their gods as black and snub-nosed, while Thracians imagined their god as blue-eyed and red-haired. But if horses or lions had hands and could draw and fashion works as men do, horses would draw gods shaped like horses and lions like lions, making the gods resemble themselves.”
Once a god has been created, it becomes easy to shift the burden of unanswerable questions to it. This divine figure can now become the creator who is responsible for the origin of the universe and everything within it. Most religions, past and present, have used the Great Spirit in the Sky as the basis for their version of creation. Some used one god while others required many gods to get the earth up and running. Humans have been created in every imaginable way possible — from waving a magic wand to rolling clay in god’s hands. In some instances, man was made for woman and in others, woman was made for man. Most gods threw in a little sin and evil to make the story more interesting. One can suppose that when men and women get together, a little sin and evil will occur. If god created angels, one must ask why he bothered with man?