Tuesday, June 8, 2010

If I Were God, I'd End All the Pain, Pt 1 - Introduction

John Dickson sets the tone for his book through his introduction and by bringing up the idea of 'doubt'. This book, he confesses, is "a tribute to doubt." As I read the Introduction I began to question what Dickson's angle was in writing about doubt. As I continued to read and think more about this, I realised what he was getting at. Of all the myriad of issues that could possibly cause Dickson to question his faith, or to doubt God, it would have to be the issue of pain and suffering. Dickson writes, "nothing has exercised my sceptical muscles as much as the issue of human pain - mine, yours, that Kenyan baby with AIDS I'll never meet, and so on." Does that ring true in your mind? When you really start to think about it, this is a really hard issue to get your head around.

This musing prompts Dickson to bring forth some questions: "If I were God, I'd end all the pain, so why doesn't HE? Is he powerless? Is he not interested in us? Or is he just plain not there?" These are very provocative questions and I'm sure, like me, you have asked them yourself, or at least, have had someone ask you. When we think about these questions, do we really know how we'd respond?

Well, Dickson assures us he will attempt to answer these questions in his book. Let's read on and see if he does. Have these questions at the back of your mind as you read this book.

5 comments:

  1. Hi Bron, Luke Pereira here. Thanks for your keenness to get this up and running. I will endeavour to get involved, though I am notoriously bad at finishing non-Narnia Christain literature. Planning a trip to Koorong this weekend, so will try and pick it up and get started then.

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  2. Hi Luke! Great to hear from you. I hear ya, reading Christian books can be a hard slog. I'm determined to rectify my current reading record. You may need to ring Koorong ahead and check if they have any copies as they're sold out currently. I'm happy to order you a copy this week.

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  3. What a book! I finished it in 2 sittings, so if anyone wants to borrow my copy, I'll bring it to church on Sunday. Do I write a comment now, or wait to see how everyone else is going?

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  4. Great work, Rach. What a speed-reader!! How about you write a comment referring to each section that I post (i.e. the introduction, chapter 1, etc.) about? What you thought about each section. Does that make sense?

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  5. I have recently discovered there is a song called "Dear God" by Sarah McLachlan that some of my non-Christian friends feel reflects the way they feel about God - and it is exactly this topic! One phrase sums it up:
    "It's the same the whole world round
    The hurt I see helps to compound
    That Father, Son and Holy Ghost
    Is somebody's unholy hoax"
    I hope reading this book gives me some good ammo for discussing this with those friends!

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