The Hateful God And The Loving God

A friend has just shared something on Facebook. It is an article by a "christian" (small "c" intended). This person goes on and on about the dangers of coloring books using mandalas. He connects the devil (small "d" intended too) with mandalas in a weird way reminiscent of a best-selling author's convincing enthralling fictional tale.

I used to live in a country where sadly, many people have been brainwashed to think this way. The smart people soon figure out that their mandalas come from God. It was such a delight to accompany them on this journey of discovery, from the "Angry god" to the Loving God. There is no big G that comes after any negative adjective.

So where does the "Angry god" idea come from? And why do people believe it?

I see this in all civilizations, regardless of exact religious beliefs. And it comes in many forms. Having extensively self-studied theology, I think I can see two threads here.

One thread is in the origin. The other thread is in the maintenance. Let me explain.

The origin is very interesting to my scientific mind. You see, in many civilizations, there is a fear of the bogeyman in some form or another. Although the exact name of the bogeyman changes from one culture to another, this is just semantics. A bogeyman is a bogeyman is a bogeyman. The exact name, ranging all the way from "god" to "devil", and everything in-between, well, that is just a name. Typically, the bogeyman's origins is in disease prevention and explanation of negative events over which it is felt that we have no control over. For example, take the famous case of the Egyptian mummy's curse. It was said that if anyone disturbed a certain tomb, they will be cursed forever. And it turns out that the tomb is riddled with a nasty bacterium. And intimacy abstinence surely has roots in the prevention of disease? And when a meteor hit the Earth or a big earthquake and tsunami were experienced, it is easier to accept one's fate if it were attributed to an angry god. After all, we all feel a certain sense of responsibility, and it is just too much to bear when we cannot figure out a way of getting around the disastrous event. Otherwise, we can drive ourselves crazy thinking we could have done something to avert the disaster and did not know what.

The maintenance thing goes along the lines of 'if you keep someone in a state of fear, they are compliant". Whilst the first thing that jumps to most people's minds is governments and big corporations, the fact is that this is physically carried out not by government or corporations, but by the church minister himself or herself. I think this is for two reasons. One is the caring and god-fearing (small "g" also intended) church minister, who cares for his congregation and genuinely believes that he or she is protecting them by keeping them fearful. This church minister genuinely believes that if his or her flock do not fear this god and devil, something terrible will happen to them, like burning in hell (you guessed it, small "h" is intended) forever as soon as they die. No caring preacher wants their flock to suffer like this. The other kind of preacher is the one who makes the most profit by keeping his flock fearful, because fear has been proven by marketers and advertisers to sell. I like to think that most preachers are the caring kind.

And I like to think that the whole Angry god thing is a sign that we do care about each other. I like to think that it is in some way well-meant, even if not by all.