God in Charge? Then give some guidance.

 Religious non-believers are often asked why they have no belief or stopped believing. My short answer is to say that the world makes more sense to me without a god in it than it does with some kind of loving deity. But here is a longer answer.

Looking at the world there doesn’t seem to be a god in charge. If there is a god he either doesn’t want to get involved or he's cocked up the idea of a wondrous creation big time.

Shouldn’t a loving god stop bad people doing bad things? Stop good people doing bad things is his name? Give people clear guidelines on how to live? Tell us the point of life? But it seems all 'holy scriptures' are so open to interpretation and mis-interpretation.

But believers will claim that their god doesn’t only use scriptures to communicate with them, that he does give clear guidelines if we are ready to listen.

However this supports the point I am trying to make. If we need help from god and it is not clear in scripture then we should expect clear guidelines from the other methods of communication. Do we get them?

Abortion’ contraception, the death penalty, homosexuality, woman’s rights, helping the poor, starving and afflicted, gays and women’s place in the clergy, etc, etc, etc. Questions on these subjects are sought from religions, clergy and their congregations all over the world using scripture and other communication (prayer, meditation etc).

If god has any control or involvement then these questions should be answered – are they? Many religious people and organisations definitely believe they have answers to questions on these subjects and they are often black and white, but different between people, sects and denominations. And the answers they have received cause so much misery. Surely the answers should be the same for all, or at least the overwhelming majority should have the same guidance?

I am not asking for nor do I mean direct intervention by god. A burning bush or trumpeting angels is not needed, and I’m not suggesting any loss of free will here either, just guidance resulting in similar answers to similar questions asked of god. I can accept some differences in interpretation due to cultural background or the retelling of the guidance to others if that became necessary. I can even accept that due to personal agendas the guidance could become totally distorted in rare instances, but overall this guidance should have a very similar core message for all worshippers.

What we have in the real world are gays preaching from the pulpit and gays being stoned to death for being an abomination and everything in between all in the name of god and his ‘clear guidelines’. We have abortions deemed Ok by some faith denominations  to people working in abortion clinics being killed and girls who have had abortions being jailed for very long sentences and everything in between all in the name of god and his ‘clear guidelines’. Just to point out 2 of many possible examples.

I don’t see even the slightest evidence of guidance, but a total lack of it. So if there is a god he either is not involved or if he is involved and in control, he is doing a piss poor job. If there is a loving god in the world this makes no sense to me, but exactly how I’d expect the world to be without one.