"God's Plan"

As I have mentioned before I am an atheist, so I don't believe that there is a "God" to have a plan in the first place, but that isn't even what bugs me about this phrase.

What really bugs me about it is that people use these two words to get out of taking responsibility for things in their lives. I hear people say things like, "I don't know why I lost my job, but I'm sure it's part of God's plan for me." and it just makes me want to smack them upside the head.

First off, the majority of people that have something bad like that happen in their life, caused it themselves, either through their actions or through a lack of action Maybe Bob lost his job because he showed up to work drunk too many times, or maybe he simply called in "sick" more Monday mornings than company guidelines would allow. In some cases, it isn't Bob's fault so much as the upper management types mismanaging things, which is sad, but still not part of any greater "plan" for Bob and his family who must now find a new way to make ends meet.

Saying that such an event is "God's plan" is in my opinion irresponsible and self-defeating. If Bob can't recognize how he screwed up to cause himself to be fired, he may not be able to avoid repeating the behavior at his next job which will just lead to the whole mess repeating. And in the rare cases where he didn't do anything wrong, being able to take a step back and see what it was about that company that caused the issue could prevent him from stepping into a similar situation later. By claiming that "It's all part of God's Plan", you give yourself the illusion that you don't have to do anything different.

This cop out of a response also means that Bob won't give himself nearly as much credit as he deserves if he turns things around for himself and actually gets a better job. If he has to quit drinking or at least learn to regulate himself better, or has to teach himself to be more self-disciplined about showing up to work on time whenever he is scheduled to do so, that is an accomplishment that Bob should take great pride in, but if he is one of the weak minded individuals that insists that "It's all part of God's Plan" then he will claim that it wasn't his choice- it was all God's doing. Did God brush your teeth for you too?

Why is it so hard to say, "Crap! I screwed up! How can I fix it?" or "I did it!" and actually accept responsibility and or credit for it? How can we expect the next generation to take responsibility for anything if we're blaming it all on "God's Plan"? No wonder there are so many kids getting pregnant and doing drugs and otherwise getting in trouble with the law- If nothing will happen unless God plans it, then it doesn't matter if you screw up, right?

This cop out also gets used to explain things that really aren't anyone's fault. Mental disorders like Autism jump to mind for me because of my own family's challenges, but this also applies to other issues like cancer, HIV/AIDS, or heart disease. Sure, there are some things that research has shown can help to prevent these things, but none of it is 100% effective and so sometimes no matter what you do something like this can happen. That doesn't mean that it's "God's Plan"- it just means that you played the game of LIFE and luck wasn't on your side. Maybe you had a genetic trait that made you more susceptible, or maybe there was a accident that you fell victim to, or maybe you DID do something stupid like sleep around or use illegal drugs in a less than safe manor/ environment. That doesn't mean that there is a plan. It just means that SHIT HAPPENS! I've been told that some people just need to believe that there is a reason- a meaning- for all the screwed up shit that can happen in life, but for me that concept raises more questions causes more confusion than anything. Human nature being what it is, if we think there is a "plan", especially one that involves us, we want to figure out what it is. So we turn to things like religion or the bible for answers, but because both of these were created by people who were either actually trying to understand something they didn't have the ability to understand yet, or who were just trying to control other people who understood less than they did, these types of resources for guidance are misleading and often times more confusing than helpful. Sure they have a few basic good ideas covered such as don't kill any body and don't take other people's stuff, but then if you move to a different chapter of the bible, or whatever guidebook you follow, they completely contradict themselves and give you directions on when and sometimes how to break those rules. "Don't kill anyone. oh, unless, of course, they don't believe the same thing you do, because then they don't count as people and you must kill them to prove God's love for His people." What?!? Ok, that's heavily paraphrased, but honestly many of them are about that bad. If you read through the bible for example, you have the basic 10 commandments: don't kill; don't steal; don't have sex outside of marriage; etc... and then they turn around and say oh, yeah, but if someone breaks these rules, it is your duty to form a mob and go throw stones at them until they die because they offended God. Then they change the rules again when they throw in Jesus who says "Follow all those old rules and guidelines, but don't stone anyone to death anymore because you aren't perfect." Wait, a minute, so when people break the rules you don't have to kill them anymore? but isn't that part of the old rules that you just said we have to keep following? How is this not contradictory? The most common answer I get when I ask Christians this is that since Jesus is God's son, he has the ability to change the rules. Ok, let's assume for the moment that I accept that Jesus is God's son. Generally speaking doesn't the father have to be dead or have at least relinquished power to the son before the son can change his rules?Does that mean that the old God died? or did he just retire? And furthermore, God is supposed to be infallible meaning that he doesn't make mistakes, so why would the changes need to be made anyway? Did he get them wrong the first time? or was it just that society was growing up and figuring out that killing people when they screw up wasn't preventing problems. Or maybe it was that the Roman government that was in charge now had a problem with people killing people without the government's permission... Has anyone ever considered that maybe Jesus was a Roman attempt to control vigilantes that just decided to rebel?  

Just because a religion or "Holy" book covers a few good ideas doesn't mean that it's ALL good. About the only way that the "Old Testament" of the Bible actually makes sense is if you accept the idea that it is not "Word of God", but a collection of historical records, laws and fables from one ancient group of people. From a historical perspective that makes it very valuable for understanding that group and it's religion and customs, as well as some of the customs and beliefs of their descendants. HOWEVER, historical and cultural value does not equal infallible or even absolutely good. The fact that the books of the Old Testament that survive have been adopted by so many newer religions is little more than a testament to how that ancient culture has influenced and continues to influence the groups that have come after it. Many Christians today who claim to believe that the Bible is word of God and infallible are, at best, only vaguely familiar with what the Old Testament says, or, if they are actually aware of all the things it teaches, simply wave it away as if completely ignoring a large portion of what they claim is the "infallible word of God" doesn't make them the ultimate hypocrites. As an atheist who has not only read but actually studied the Bible in depth, I can tell you that not only does the Bible contain some passages of that make a lot of sense, the it is also overflowing with examples of common ancient practices that would simply be declared the most heinous of human rights violations today- many of them described in detail as performed by some very famous Biblical figures and justified in ways that today will get you thrown in prison.

One of my favorite examples of this comes from the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the 2 biblical cities that were so evil that God gave up trying to save them and just bombed them from orbit, but not before he evacuated the one "righteous" man that lived there and his family. This "righteous" man took in a couple of strangers, who just happened to be angels. When his evil neighbors came beating on his door wanting to rape and possibly kill the strangers, he saved them. How? BY GIVING THE PERVERTS OUTSIDE HIS VIRGIN DAUGHTERS TO RAPE! How is this RIGHTEOUS? I'm sorry, but I don't care how holy my guests are sacrificing anybody's KIDS in order to afford an escape is not ok and this is one of the Bible's HEROES! Aside from casting doubt on the worthiness of the man who was saved, this story also illustrates the fact that women at that time were NOT CONSIDERED people in their own right. At best they were a treasured possession and at worst they were a commodity.  This doesn't fly now thanks to Women's Rights movements and Child protection and human rights laws (at least in most of the world), but according to the Bible this is RIGHTEOUS behavior.

I've kind of gotten off the subject, but my point is that it's important to take responsibility for what we can control in our lives and just deal with the curves that we can't control instead of hiding behind the elusive concept of an unknowable plan from a mysterious God that no one can prove is even real. Our society, our world, is maturing at an ever increasing rate- never have so many questions had answers and never have the means to find more answers been so readily available. Continuing to rely on ancient superstition and blind faith in things that are not only inexplicable, but also illogical and unjustifiable and basically out dated is just stupid. By all means, hold on to the ideals that religion puts forth that make sense- Killing people is wrong, taking other people's stuff is wrong, betraying someone that you have made a legal commitment to such as a spouse is wrong, ect.... but don't try to take ideals that no longer make sense and justify their use with an imaginary friend.