Being on vacation for two weeks has allowed me to do some reading. I started a biography of Ben Franklin and even though I’m only one-sixth of the way through it, I’ve found him to be a fascinating character. I haven’t even gotten to the years where he was well known. His early years help you understand how his views were developed. I didn’t know he spent so much time pondering the existence of God and the various aspects of organized religion.
I find that my views about organized religion are very similar to his. He was open to going to church and hoping the ministers would be able to apply religious teachings to our everyday existence. He found all the sermons wanting. Rules, regulations, and dogmatism weren’t worth his time and they aren’t worth mine. I went to Sunday mass for decades and rarely if ever heard a sermon that taught me anything or opened my eyes to a new understanding of God or religion. He stopped going to church and concentrated on his own writings and understanding of God. I stopped going to Sunday mass a few years ago after becoming disillusioned and disgusted with the evil hierarchy of the Catholic church.
Franklin decided that how he lived his life, treated others and his own good works would determine whether he got into heaven. Thinking according to some dogma and going through the motions of organized religion meant nothing. A particular passage on page 87 caught my attention. Franklin thought deeply about the nature of God. He considered four options:
“His study of nature, he said, convinced him that God created the universe and was infinitely wise, good and powerful. He then explored four possibilities: (1) God predetermined and predestined everything that happens, eliminating all possibility of free will; (2) He left things to proceed according to natural laws and the free will of His creatures, and never interferes; (3) He predestined some things and left some things to free will, but still never interferes; (4) He sometimes interferes by His particular providence and sets aside the effects which would otherwise have been produced by any of the above causes.”
Benjamin Franklin – An American Life – Walter Isaacson
We differ regarding the nature of God. Franklin decided that number 4 was the most likely, by process of elimination. I believe number 2 is the most likely, and that will disappoint those who believe prayer can sway God. I don’t believe God is constantly deciding whose prayers are more worthy to be answered. Both sides invoked God’s name during the Civil War. Did God choose the North? I don’t think so. He created this world and allows us the free will to make it a better or worse place. We all have good and evil within us, and it is solely our choice regarding which one wins in the end.
What kind of God do you think exists, or not?
