When people discuss god/gods/divinity, it seems that the intent is
always to show the supernatural beings as loving and watchful of humans.
There seems to always be the desire to see divinity as the ultimate
dispenser of justiceâ€"when humans are cruel, demanding, selfish, whatever,
we can depend on divinity to set things right. However, based primarily on
the two sources offered for this paper, one would have to take a very
different view of divinity. Based on the texts used here, divinity, by
whatever name, gender, cultural background, or number, seems, instead,
capricious, illogical and dangerous to humankind in general.
To begin with, there are the stories involved in the Old Testament
readings. Besides the creation story that has been the source of
controversy for many years now, there is the story of Cain and Able. It
has never been clear to me, and this reading didn't help any, as to why God
accepted Able's sacrifice and not Cain's. There doesn't seem any logical
explanation. Then to add to that seemingly capricious judgment on the part
of God, Cain, in a fit of jealousy, kills Able and rather than actually
punishing Cain, sets him free, with a mark on him that tells everyone not
to hurt him.
And the Lord said, What have you done' Listen; your brother's blood
is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the
ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood
from your hand. When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to
you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.
(Genesis 4:10-12 NRSV)
Cain starts whining that his punishment is greater than he can bear
and that he is afraid everyone will want to kill him. God says that won't
happen because of the mark that has been put on him and Cain is sent away.
He can't be a farmer anymore so Cain builds a city and has ...