The Folly of Pretending to Know the Mind of God

“She believed that God liked people in sailboats much better than He liked people in motorboats. She could not bear to look at a worm. When she saw a worm, she screamed.

She was a fool, and so am I, and so is anyone who thinks he can see what God is Doing” – Kurt Vonnegut, “Cat’s Cradle”



Source: Jesus and Mo

If one can convince people that God wants what you want, how dare they oppose God’s will? What is interesting is how often it works as a rhetorical technique. If God is ineffable, humans cannot fully know the mind of God, and therefore all statements of the form “God wants X” or “God likes/dislikes X” are meaningless.

Believing in a God with unknowable preferences takes away much of the certainty of many religious beliefs. God hates people who stay up late and loves people who get up early? How do you know? Why are you claiming to know?

Why would God create people who had tendencies to act against his wishes. When a computer programmer creates a program that does the opposite of their intention, we mere humans call them a crappy programmer. Sure, one can claim humans have free will, but what of the rest of the creation? If God hates gays, why create gay animals? There have been many things throughout history which God has “hated”, which are nobody’s fault but His.

Further reading:

Study suggests people project their beliefs onto God.