With Christianity as the core explanation of how the world was both originally created and exists today, evil should not exist. If God is “love” as the Bible says, why is it that such an influx of hate and immorality exists? Christians and the Bible claim that God created the Universe, from start to finish, in the book of Genesis. The Devil is often blamed for tempting sinners, but if God created the universe, He must have created the Devil as well. Even if God did create the Devil, He is supposedly the most powerful being in the world. So why is it that the Devil is able to tempt humans, but God cannot dissuade them from surrendering themselves to these temptations?
There are multiple supposed explanations for this, but none of them display God in a flawless, amorous manner, the way that Christians and the Bible do. It is not likely that God would have created the Devil to be just as powerful as He. The Bible claims that nothing in the world existed before God, so it cannot be possible that the Devil simply existed next to God. God must have created the Devil. Therefore, God created evil. This portrays God as partially malevolent. Therefore, He is imperfect. With this notion, God must have created both Beowulf and Grendel. Beowulf, a God-like warrior, kills to defend his people. Evil can be seen in this as well, depending on the perspective it is viewed from. Grendel is considered evil for barbarically killing the Danes, but Beowulf is seen as evil to Grendel’s mother after the defeat of the so-called monster. There is evil in both Beowulf and Grendel – both of them being God’s creations.
A flawed God is not what comes to mind when most Christians think of who they believe to be their creator. Of course, this was most likely not the intended idea. Could it be that God is not flawed, but instead, Christianity in general? Ideas conveyed with little to no explanation make this likely. The Christian religion often alters concepts they believe to be true when proven wrong by science or other outside forces. Of course, they are usually philosophies created in earlier times, used to explain some unknown phenomena in the world. But the idea that God is somewhat evil does not only change the religion, it drastically ruptures the image of the God that Christians are devoted to. Could it be possible that the Christians have been wrong about their God all along? Or does he not exist at all? There may be other explanations, but as always, they are derived from matters of both faith and opinion.
Stephanie, I really like your essay. I think it's incontrovertible that religion is flawed, yet pious people seem to ignore it. Also, Mr. Perez was definitely right in saying that your sentences are declarative; you definitely keep it real, and the reader knows what you want him/her to get out of your essay. Still, this is a Beowulf essay, and it's only mentioned in a few sentences in your first paragraph. It'd be cool if you paralleled your views on God being flawed to Beowulf, Grendel, or really anything you choose in the poem throughout your essay. I do like your essay, though; if we were in a discussion board, I'd say this is just about perfect.
ReplyDeleteStephanie -- You know my thoughts on "religion" and all of that already, so you must know I would have something to say about an essay such as this! But before all that, I must say that this is an extremely well-written essay. While I read it, I could not help but try to look for something I could critique, but there really is almost nothing wrong. You also tell it like it is, as Mr. Perez and then David pointed out. It is refreshing, to say the least.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that God is flawed. It's like the line from "Angels & Demons": "Religion is flawed but only because man is flawed." People try to understand something i.e., God, who I believe is impossible to ever fully comprehend. It is when these people start treating their explanations as ultimate truths that a problem arises. This is when God's and religion's credibility in general is jeopardized. That being said, I mentioned in my own "Beowulf" essay that God created perfection, but it is from that perfection that evil came into existence. (For the sake of this argument, let us assume that free-will can exist even with God's omniscience, as that is another topic entirely.) Lucifer was created perfect, but that perfection came with free-will. (Angels have their own form of free-will.) Using this, he chose to turn away from God and 1/3 of the angels chose the same. I suppose then one could argue that free-will could lead to evil, but is not inherently evil in and of itself. God did not create evil... directly, at least; the arising of evil was simply one of many results of a flawless, but free-thinking, creation.
Steph, as I read your essay, I realized that you lost sight of what the essay topic was about. The questions you should have addressed were: Why do characters like Grendel exist? What do they represent? What explains evil in the world? Is there an explanation? In your essay, it appears as though your aim was to disprove the beliefs of Christianity, or to merely highlight what are perceived to be flaws in this belief system, rather than to address the pertaining questions. On the contrary, you posed several unanswered questions. An essay should convey a clear message, not leave the reader with questions that she will have to answer on her own. I also find that the essay was quite repetitive at times. At one point, you do mention Beowulf and Grendel and make a good point in saying that they are both flawed, yet you should have expanded on this idea throughout the entirety of the essay.
ReplyDeleteYou also mention that God must have created the Devil as if it were a possibility, yet this fact is undeniably true (according to the Bible). Lucifer was in fact God's creation; he was a beautiful and anointed angel. Through his free will, he decided that he wanted to be greater than God. God punished him for his corruption and exiled him from heaven. It was Lucifer who chose evil; God did not welcome it as evidenced by his decision to punish him. Such is shown in the Bible in the following passage: "By the abundance of thy traffic they filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore have I cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God; and I have destroyed thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire," Ezekiel 28:16 (ASV).
I argue these points from an unbiased platform and am merely referencing the text from the Bible. Rather than contesting the relevance of religion provided your personal views, you should have strictly referred to the actual content of the Bible, as you would with any other literary work.
Jessica, I think you attacked my opinion way more than my essay. My essay is my own creation - you don't really have the right to tell me what I should have written "about." Yes, I will admit, as David stated, I kind of just threw Beowulf in there. I think I did this because I got so taken away by writing about the Christian views that I almost forgot about it. But you're trying to tell me here that I should write according to "fact" rather than my opinion. I guess you are looking for a unbiased paper, but that's not usually how I write. I find that it's more interesting when you write a paper (based on religion, especially, which everyone has an opinion about) with some sort of opinion.
ReplyDeleteI noticed you called me out on stating the "possibility" of God creating the Devil, but in reality, I was stating that God created evil, and wondering why God would create a being with as much power as him.
Rather than just attacking my statements, you could have provided with clear examples of what I did wrong. For example, you say "An essay should convey a clear message, not leave the reader with questions that she will have to answer on her own." I would have appreciated if you included these questions so I could understand the point you were trying to make.
Steph, I don't understand why you are apparently offended by my comment. You did not stay on topic. The unanswered questioned are the following:
ReplyDelete"If God is “love” as the Bible says, why is it that such an influx of hate and immorality exists?"
"So why is it that the Devil is able to tempt humans, but God cannot dissuade them from surrendering themselves to these temptations?"
etc.
And I personally was not telling you what to write about, I simply stated what the topic was as assigned by Mr. Perez. Those were the questions he wanted us to answer, not me...
I am not "attacking" your ideas at all and I am very taken aback by your reaction. You seem to believe that my critique was ad hominem when it was not.