This parable is much older than Christianity; indeed, it is probably older than Judaism even. The Christians took a parable they never understood to begin with, and built a whole theology around it. So no, I’m not trying to defend the Christian interpretation of it … but … you say God is a prick. Well let’s just go with that. Is God a prick?
War, genocide, raping, pillaging, murdering. That’s been pretty much the history of humanity, hasn’t it? Now I’m not one of those who goes around saying “God is love”, and all the evil in the world is really just part of a plan for the greater good. It says right in the Creation Story that man was made in the image of God. Now one would think that if God is perfect, then anything made in his image would also tend towards perfection. So it’s possible that God isn’t perfect, and if you want to say that he is a prick, that’s your right. But let’s not try to absolve ourselves of responsibility for a messed up world, by laying all the blame on God’s doorstep. We have to acknowledge that we are us much to blame as God.
Now what would happen if God took man and sent him to obedience school? And what if he not only sends him to obedience school, but puts one of our own in charge of instruction. You might be interested to know that he actually did try this, and in our lifetime (if you’re old enough to remember). This was when Princess #1 (as I’ve called her) got promoted to queen, and there was no profit to be made from wars, or violence of any kind. And men had to respect women. It was an idyllic time, and it could have continued if we had appreciated what we had. But as soon as the queen’s reign ended, we got out of school, and things went back to normal, we soon forgot everything we had learned, and in no time we were back to our old ways of wars, murdering, pillaging, etc. You might think like Ecmandu that I’m just making this shit up, but it’s true.
Yes we were made in God’s image, and perhaps the mold we were shaped from has its imperfections. But we can rise above what we were /what we are. But it’s up to us to take that step. God won’t do it for us. And if we can’t admit our own shortcomings, it may well be that we are doomed, and God will just sit back and watch us destroy ourselves.
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Regards