Everything Condensed into 4½ Short Words

Given the current state of the world, I reasoned that God has a lot to answer for if he is all-knowing, all-powerful, and completely compassionate and loving. I decided to interview him in order to get some appropriate responses to all of this.

This is the (significantly abridged) transcript.

Me: Thank you for taking the time to speak with me about a topic that is very important to many people.

God: It’s my pleasure, and I have plenty of time to answer your questions.

Me: I’d like to start by asking if you agree with what I’ve heard about you: that you created everyone and everything, that you are all powerful and all knowing, and that you are always concerned about everyone.

God: Yes, you are correct. I see and know everything that has happened and will happen in the future, down to the smallest detail. I am completely invested in everything and have complete control over the outcome.

Me: People in the world you’ve created do horrible things to other people and seem to get away with it. People have terrible things happen to them without doing anything to deserve it, whether at the hands of bad people or natural disasters, and it frequently goes unnoticed, with no recompense. This is clearly unjust, and you have every opportunity to put a stop to it. Instead, you sit motionless and do nothing. This appears to be unjust and wrong. How do you answer to this?

God: Everything you said is true. That is an accurate description of the current state of the planet. I have one simple and very important concept that I want everyone to understand, and it has to do with how I perceive them. This is true regardless of how good or bad they are or have been, or whether or not they believe in me. My perspective on each individual and humanity as a whole can be summed up in a single message: It’s not your fault.

Me: Excuse me? What do you mean, it’s not our fault? Who is to blame if it isn’t our fault? Are you claiming that there is an unseen force causing people to commit evil and that they are not held accountable for their actions? I thought you said you gave people the ability to choose whether to do the right thing or the wrong thing, so they must surely be held accountable for their own actions? Are you going to let them off the hook with no consequences?

God: Yes, I am. This applies to everyone who is alive or has ever lived and done terrible things, and I am not blaming anyone for any of it, no matter how bad it is.

Me: Where is the justice in that? While some unpleasant deeds are done unintentionally, much evil is done with full knowledge of what it will do to its victims. Who will answer for their actions if these people do not?

God: I will. I accept complete and personal responsibility for everything that everyone has done wrong.

Me: Where I come from, you can’t just walk into a courtroom, for example, and claim responsibility for someone else’s crimes. The judge would not let the guilty party go free because doing so would deprive the victims of justice. What basis do you have to blame yourself if these people freely choose to do evil?

God: The situation is as follows: I created the world in which you live and allowed these people to do all of these things without being stopped, as you have just stated. I could have, but I did not.

Me: How can you be so good and loving while doing something like this? This implies that you are completely evil.

God: That is an entirely valid point of view, and I do not condemn anyone for reaching that conclusion. Many people regard me as such and despise me for it, as do many invisible spiritual beings who exist in your world but have no physical presence. However, it is inherent in every being I have ever created that they have desires that they wish to fulfil. Every desire in the world you live in is tainted with bad thinking to varying degrees. If I imposed forced limitations on everyone all the time, they would feel and act like caged animals, and they would despise me even more, and this would not solve the problem. So, knowing the misery and hardship that would result, I chose to allow some freedom. What you see going on around you is a result of a combination of free will and imposed constraint.

Me: In the justice system that ancient peoples say you gave them, and in many systems that still exist today, heinous crimes such as murder carried the death penalty, often accompanied by some form of torture. If you say you’re willing to be judged as guilty for every bad thing anyone has ever done, don’t you think you should face the death penalty that people say you mandated?

God: Yes, you are entirely correct, and I completely agree with you.

Me: Are you saying you’d be willing to become flesh and blood, live among us, and face the death penalty under one of the world’s legal systems? If you did this, you would have to live without having your desires and actions tainted like ours, or else people would argue that you were being sentenced for your own actions on Earth, not for the responsibility you took before taking on a human body. Furthermore, from a practical standpoint, you would need to be convicted by a corrupt court that would still convict you despite the fact that there would be no grounds based on your life and actions as a human being. When and how are you going to do it?

God: To answer the question of when, I did it 2000 years ago. The details are well documented in history.

I realised that he was referring to Jesus Christ, who was executed on trumped-up charges by the Romans in collaboration with the religious leaders of his own people, and returned to life a few days later.