Tracy's Passion Page - "My God"
(please visit the link above to form your own opinion - warning, she insists on playing "Imagine..." in the background, hit Stop to cut it)
Tracy enumerates all the things she would expect in a God and warns the devoutly religious that they may be offended. Christians who read the Bible are well aware of the human desire to make God in our image, to judge him by our standards, etc. They are well aware of the follies involved.
My first reaction is to "imagine" a child writing
what a perfect parent should be.
Imagine there's no bedtime, and no broccoli too!
But part of that is stooping to another level. Christians inherit the Hebrew God - who permits or condones animal sacrifice, slavery, etc. If you seriously want to look at some of these issues, I recommend books like Peter Gomez's "The Good Book". My personal take on these things is that God pretty much allows us to do whatever evil things we want but gives us ways to form a relationship with him. I take the Old and New Testaments together and see that in the Old Testament God shows that even if God that lays out specifically what He wants us to do, acts with us or our leaders one-on-one, performs miracles, etc. - we will still stray.
The animal sacrifices were for our benefit - to give us a way to repent so we could feel worthy of re-establishing a relationship with God, not something done for Him.
Similarly, the idea that Christianity claims that God needs our worship and is therefore vain is just absurd. Worship doesn't meet God's needs - it meets our needs. The idea is to look at Creation and our individual lives and experience joy and wonder. The "ritual" of praising God helps us focus on our blessings and our opportunities to learn from situations that do not appear to be blessings.
Finally, if there is more to life than we understand (reincarnation, life after death, etc.) - then things that seem awful to us (Hitler, the painful death of an innocent child, etc.) are much less important than we make them. Do you hate the physician who slapped your bottom to help you draw your first breath? (at the time, I'm sure it would have seemed painful, unfair, etc.)
I'm sorry, Tracy - but if one assumes a God capable of creating the Universe and providing us with life, He's probably a bit more awesome (if somewhat incomprehensible) than any God you or I could invent. Think I'll stick with the One who said: "I love you. I want a better life for you. Here is a way to go about achieving that..."
email me at doug@hardts.net