“Question with boldness even the existence of God, because if there is One, [He] must more approve the homage of reasonable doubt than that of blind-folded fear.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

 

This quote from Jefferson need not be read as a rejection of God or a call to atheism (though Jefferson himself was a Deist, and thus much closer to rejecting the Christian godhead than he was of accepting the same).  Indeed, when we read this quote on its face, it merely shares the quite simple Truth that any God who creates His creations ill (i.e. lacking in objective knowledge and full of superstitious fears) and demands that they somehow make themselves well is a God not worth worshiping sat all – indeed, that the raw capriciousness of such a God actually borders on being downright evil.

And interestingly enough, Jesus himself seems to agree – noting as he does that his Father is not at all the damning type; that his “heavenly Father” (remembering that “Heaven’ for Jesus was an internal Kingdom, not a stratospheric one – see Luke 17:20-21) was an embodiment of pure & perfect Love (see Matthew 5:48) and that such a Love was actually completely fearless and utterly lacking in any semblance of judgment (Matthew 7:1-2, Luke 6:36 & Matthew 8:21-22 et al) and completely devoid of the ability to punish others as well (see 1 John 4:18).

As such, any such wholly gracious and non-condemnatory God would quite clearly much more appreciate an atheist who honestly and humbly seeks for Truth than an arrogantly ignorant Christian who boldly claims to know the things he or she quite clearly cannot – and that this would be especially true if that atheist was one who happened to dedicate his or her life to Caring for others, while that Christian dedicated his or her life to condemning them.

 

“I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but rather that in every nation anyone who reveres Him by doing what is Right is acceptable to Him.” ~ Acts 10:34-35

 

Filed under: My Favorite Verses by Scaughdt