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--- philosophy:whoiam [2024/10/21 15:50] – [Pascal's Wager] Owen Mellema
+++ philosophy:whoiam [2024/10/22 13:23] (current) – [What is God like?] Owen Mellema
@@ Line 38: / Line 38: @@
 Leaving my faith was an extremely painful journey, I'm not going to mince words by telling you that it was certainly the hardest and most heartbreaking thing that I have ever done. What I can tell you, however, is that I followed the path far enough to see the benefits of the heartache. My faith in God is different now -- much, much different -- but it is a more perfect faith, a much more joyous and vibrant faith, because I am actually confident in it now. That is to say, I am not afraid I am going to lose it. Like Jacob, I wrestled the angel of God and demanded it's blessing, and I received it.
-Furthermore, and this is something you won't believe, but I think that I am a better person for it. I am proud of the person that I have become, I am proud of who I am. Whereas I once slouched my shoulders and avoided eye contact with everyone I met, like a horrible, slithering thing, I now throw my shoulders back and look people in the eye. I am a man now, a real man, and more importantly, I am a person.
+Furthermore, and this is something you won't believe, but I think that I am a better person for it. I am proud of the person that I have become, I am proud of who I am, and I am proud of what I do. I am proud because I am *confident* in the way I live my life.
+==== What is God like? ====
+If God is real, is there anything we can say about him? I think there are a few things.
+Firstly, does God hate humans, or does he love humans? Or is he ambivalent towards humans? This is a reasonable question, because there are many bad things that happen to humans. Some people think that the entirety of life, from beginning to end, is a cruel sadistic joke. They think that God made humans to form attachments to things and then to have them ripped away. They think that humans have a capacity to suffer, because God made them to suffer, because he hates humans so much.
+Despite it being a reasonable question, I think we can quickly dispense with the idea that God hates humans, by the very fact that we exist. Why would God create something if he knew he was just going to hate them? It would be an exceptionally foolish thing to do, so foolish in fact that it seems entirely unlikely.
+Secondly I find it unlikely that God is ambivalent towards humans. As I mentioned above, as far as anyone knows, there isn't any life anywhere else in the universe, which means that the Earth is the most interesting place in the universe. And the most interesting thing about the Earth are humans, because humans are able to do so many different things, and have now become so powerful they rival any natural force.
+Could it be that God just really likes Earth, but doesn't like humans, per se? Yes, I suppose it's possible, but again, the existence of humans is an easily solvable problem, and humans create many problems for nature.
+So, therefore, I think that God loves us. Furthermore, I believe that