God Can Do Anything
God Can Do Anything
by Rob English
One common feature of many religions is that their principal deity can do anything. I grew up in a family that followed a Biblical religion, so here I will use the name, God, to represent my family’s belief in The All-powerful One, and I will respectfully use that name to represent the deity in other religions of which I know little.
So according to so many religions, God can do anything. He (our pronouns fail here) can raise the dead, move mountains, change hearts. We can imagine volumes of miracles that God can do. Millions pray, asking for major and minor interventions: “Lord, Please save my child; end this war; make this penalty kick succeed…”
I would like to believe that there is a Heaven, and, like the Universalists do I would like to believe that no God of any religion would create a person while knowing in advance that the person will go to Hell for all eternity.
That all-eternity concept seems too harsh, yet many religions preach it. First of all, it makes believers think twice about being really bad, and secondly it provides a hope for justice for the victims of really bad people.
Instead, my prayer to The Almighty would be for a compromise between the Heaven or Hell question: How about if God reincarnated every person to
re-live a life as their victims from their previous life? Wow!
Of course, the concept wouldn’t include swatting mosquitos and other such actions for self-preservation; but it would include wanton or careless victimization of others, whether human or animal.
How are horses “broken” for example. How suffers the hunted deer? Or what if the “manly” rodeo contestant came back for a day as one terrified baby cow he chased down on horseback and viciously snapped its neck back with his lasso?
What about me, who as a younger man bought meat, giving money to the grocer who gave my money to the butcher who gave my money to the cruel rancher who separated mother cow and child calf, and slaughtered the calf under hellish conditions? Should I come back for a day as the butchered calf or the heartbroken mother cow?
Well, as an adult I’ve adopted a plant-based diet to make my life as cruelty-free as possible. Would God consider that? Do you think I could use the doctrine of Better Late Than Never on Judgement Day?
I hope so!
Translated into Spanish by Rob English
Photo of Aurora-Borealis by Tobias Bjørkli and photo of Starry Night-Sky above trees Silhouettes by Enric Cruz López from www.pexels.com
Rob English is a member of People for Animal Rights, a grassroots organization in Central New York,
Contact People for Animal Rights
P.O. Box 3333
Syracuse, NY 13220
(315) 708-4520
peopleforanimalrightsofcny@gmail.com
https://parcny.org/
