Pepper Lim ponders the story of creation. Are we really designed in God’s own image?

The Bible taught me that God created the heavens and the Earth. He created Adam and Eve and on the sixth day, the Bible records, “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” (Gen 1:31)

Many children know the story of creation, how God made the universe and everything in it in six days, by heart.

The church further taught me God made the best things in life free of charge; we have this wondrous Earth to live in, air to breathe to keep us alive and a perfect body with just the correct amount of body parts to live our lives. The Bible states, “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” (Ps 139:14)

At this point, some might wonder if there really is a heaven since life on Earth is already so wonderful.

Is life on Earth really as wonderful as the Bible describes it? I think not.

Move your fat behind! I'm creating the universe!

After digging a little deeper, instead of singing the praises of God’s wondrous creations, I wonder if God is actually trying to kill us.

Last year alone, around the world, there were many natural disasters; floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, droughts and a volcano eruption. Japan’s earthquake and tsunami in March 2011 cost the lives of 15,500 men, women and children. New Zealand suffered a massive earthquake in February while Australia suffered flooding followed by a 180-miles per hour cyclone. In July, the entire East Africa region was hit with severe drought that affected 9.5 million Africans.

MSNBC reported, in an article in July, “2011 already costliest year for natural disasters”. In the first six months of 2011, the world saw US$265 billion in economic losses from “acts of god”.

It does not seem as though this Earth that God created is such a wonderful place to live in after all. People who suffer under such acts of god lose their lives and properties; those who survive lose their parents, children, friends and their homes that were built over many years. The amount of natural disasters that strike the Earth makes it a very hostile environment for life on Earth or as the National Geographic rightly calls it, “The Violent Earth”.

The Earth that was created by God, as claimed in the Bible, is really a dangerous place to live in.

God creates the Earth that includes tsunamis. (Image from 3mfuture.com)

The Bible tell us that human beings were made in God’s image and were given dominion over the animals on Earth. “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” (Gen 1:26) And again in Genesis 1:28, “… and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

We are supposedly made in the likeness of God yet we are more feeble than many animals we are supposed to have dominion over.

The human body is one of the weakest bodies on this planet. We have skin that are so thin, it only takes a small fall for it to tear. The elephant on the other hand has skin that can protect it from a handgun’s bullets.

Our eyes that we use daily cannot see in the dark unlike cats and dogs. If they could, driving at night would not be so hazardous and we would be able to see danger lurking in dark corners. Birds have eyes that can see five spectrums unlike the human eye that can only see three. The extra spectrums allow them to see urine stains; perfect for mothers with babies who are not toilet-trained. Crocodiles have extra eyelids that they can shut while swimming in salt water to prevent eye damage.

Our bodies are so weak, we die if we are attacked by microorganisms such as virus or fungi. Every year, the AIDS virus kills an average of 1.6 million people around the world. The influenza virus affects about 4 million people severely every year.

Are we really made in the image of God? Or did He leave out some of the good bits when He created man?

Each year many people suffer from choking. The same passage that we use for breathing is also used for eating. Why did God design it this way? Why did he not make different passages for eating and breathing to prevent choking?

Most children suffer choking when they unwittingly put small objects into their mouths. Adults on the other hand mostly choke while eating peanuts. Yes, peanuts. The nuts served by the bagfuls at Chinese funerals. Talk about repeat business for the funeral director!
And do you really want me to discuss the placement of the human being’s entertainment unit that is placed next to his sewage system?

Finally, we come to the free air God has made for us to use. Human beings breathe air to stay alive. Adults breathe an average of 17 times per minute, 8.9 million times a year. Our lungs extract oxygen (the air around us is only made up of 21% oxygen) for our bodies’ use. However, the oxygen we need is also killing us slowly through a process called oxidation. Yes, you read that right; breathing kills you slowly! Oxidation is the same process that makes metals rust and cut apples turn brown. To slow down the process of oxidation, we need a diet of antioxidants; found in fruits, vegetables and coffee.

The air that we breathe can also carry deadly microorganisms like the H1N1 virus, Tuberculosis, Anthrax, Chicken Pox, Smallpox and Measles. These diseases enter our bodies via our breathing.

God should have created us like Steve Austin. (Image from borgdotcom.files.wordpress.com)

What is God trying to pull? He creates the Earth for us to live in but the Earth has many natural disasters that kill us by the thousands. He gives us dominion over the animals but in a straight fight with a lion, we would only make a nice meal for it. He gives us air to breathe that also damages cells in our bodies.

It makes no sense to me for anyone to say an almighty God created such wondrous things for life that could also end life.

Maybe God is simply playing dice with us.

References:

Pepper is the father of two adorable children named Paprika Lim and Saffron Lim. "Dear Paprika" is a series of letters written for posterity. When Paprika is 20 years old, he will be 61. He prefers to...

30 replies on “Is God Trying To Kill Us?”

  1. While I respect the author's right to believe that God is vengeful and mean-spirited, I must also point out that the author is displaying a very shallow knowledge of the Bible. Either that, or he is wilfully ignoring the story of the Fall and its effects on this world.

    You don't get to pick and choose Bible verses to disprove the Bible. That makes no sense whatsoever. Either the Bible is an authority in its entirety, or it is not.

    1. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA. you dont get to pick and choose from the bible? well,according to your bible,then, youre not allowed to wear clothing made of more than two materials,women are not allowed to teach,you cant eat clams, oysters, crabs, lobsters, and shrimp, you cant plant two crops together at one go,and after a woman gives birth, a priest must kill a lamb, pigeon, or dove as a sin offering. This is because having children is sinful and God likes it when things are killed for him.

      yes,you most definitely CANNOT pick and choose from the bible.

      1. Emalina B, actually there are tons more like that. Do take a little trouble to look up a dictionary for the word "context". Then maybe you might get the hang of how to to deal with a collection of books written over a period of about 2 thousand years by about 40 different authors. I also strongly suggest you approach your more broad-minded friends and find out the difference between Jew and gentile before trying to engage with the GOD of the Bible.

      2. I think you proved my point by taking the "don'ts" from one or two of the early books of the Bible, while completely ignoring what the New Testament says about those requirements.

        Very shallow knowledge.

    2. I would agree that the Bible is to be read in its entirety. One verse in the Bible has to be interpreted with other verses.

      Dear author, instead of trying to kill us, God desires all men to be saved, and to come to the full knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim 2:4)

    3. If God created Adam & Eve, we are all decedents (children) of Adam & Eve. In simple terms brothers & sisters. So are we committing incest when we get married? Please enlighten.

  2. OR: there is no god. hence there is no point trying to justify and understand why bad things happen. instead, focus on how we can make things better.

  3. Sometimes we blame God for killing us, sometimes we blame the Devil for killing us. Have we ever blamed ourselves for killing us (humanity)?

    1. @jasonleec, Wow, out should be a preacher! You have just beautifully defined the hallmark of sin – blame god blame the devil blame others – everyone else except me. The writer of the article totally avoided confronting this issue when he opened with God's creation but totally skipped the incident involving the first couple. Instead of confessing their disobedience to GOD, the man blamed "the woman You made" (blame GOD), and the woman blamed the serpent (blame the devil). It is this stubborn refusal to acknowledge what we are, that ultimately leads to rejection of anything that has to do with GOD, even when GOD Himself has come with a way of pardon. We rather waste out rime taking potshots at the Bible rather than look for GOD's solution to this mess that we have created.

      "GOD so loved the world so much that He gave his beloved Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life."

  4. Religion(the belief in certain god) is just' moral medicine' for the people to apply when faced with all the ills of this world. They(the preachers of religion must tell a nice scenario of the god's intention to get believers-well, I did not mean to be mischievious but all religions teach good things). So just take religious teachings as some soul searching and that final thing is still on oneself. As the saying goes-god helps those that help themselves.
    To my opinion, those natural disasters are things that we have to live with since this earth is not perfectly formed or the universe we lived in is just the way it is.We have to be wise to try to avoid and do best to prevent it.

  5. Might as well paste my FB comment here
    "A couple of points: First, the guy was going through logics from Christianity's point of view,so it wouldn't make sense since Christianity itself does not demand that everything to 'make sense'. Secondly, from his own POV, everything stops at death, so of course everything would not make sense to him. The bottom line is this, this guy sees 'evil' from his own limited mind and knowledge, whereas to clearly and explicitly define 'true evil' requires an All encompassing and All knowing mind… get my point?

  6. Nah, we are trying to kill ourselves. God's just waiting for us to figure it out. Everyone and thing's made imperfect. We're all a balance of good and evil, weak and strong. Event the Earth is a concept of equilibrium. With age, wear and tear occurs. Everything has a shelf life. What speeds up death of nature and death of mankind is mankind's actions since mankind's been given dominion over the Earth. We rock the boat we live in, we sink. Simple.

  7. Dear Pepper,
    In the Bible, Jesus said, "God loved the world so much that He gave his beloved Son , so that whoever believes in him should not PERISH but have everlasting life."
    You are focussing on the reality of the "PERISHing" creation while carefullyy avoiding the offer of "eternal life". Like millions of others, you have created a cut-and-paste god from carefully-selected out-of-context of portions of the Bible and then proceeded to mock the god that you have created. You have only succeeded in deluding yourself (and others like you) that you have knocked out the GOD of the Bible. Far greater men, even kings, have mocked GOD like you. You can find out what happened to then if you will have the interest in going through the Bible.
    The Bible was never written to provide one-liner answers to random questions like Wikipedia. The Bible is a collection of writings of various people relating their experiences with God, culminating in Jesus revealing himself to be the only way to GOD. It is a tool to get you started on the search for God
    But if the contents you have read so far have led you to despise the God of the Bible, so be it. If all that you have learned from science and nature has not inspired an awe of GOD, so be it.
    Jesus said, only few will find the narrow path of Truth, although many will choose the wide road to destruction. I doubt Jesus drags anyone kicking and screaming into the knowledge of GOD. (But he did mention another destination where kicking and screaming is the order of the day!)
    If you would sincerely like to make some sense of the Bible, do visit my blog below, and join me (and others) in the quest for the Truth about GOD of the Bible.
    Good luck with the choices that you make, Pepper.

    SAM http://vildness.blogspot.com/2010/07/tale-of-2-pr

    1. You are blind. The practice of your religion, not GOD, is a mass of contradictions.

      "That is none as blind as those who would not see."

      1. Prem Das, maybe I am blind, so guide me. Which is my religion? What is your definition of religion?

  8. Dear Pepper,
    In the Bible, Jesus said, "God loved the world so much that He gave his beloved Son , so that whoever believes in him should not PERISH but have everlasting life."
    You are focussing on the reality of the "PERISHing" creation while carefullyy avoiding the offer of "eternal life". Like millions of others, you have created a cut-and-paste god from carefully-selected out-of-context of portions of the Bible and then proceeded to mock the god that you have created. You have only succeeded in deluding yourself (and others like you) that you have knocked out the GOD of the Bible. Far greater men, even kings, have mocked GOD like you. You can find out what happened to then if you will have the interest in going through the Bible.
    The Bible was never written to provide one-liner answers to random questions like Wikipedia. The Bible is a collection of writings of various people relating their experiences with God, culminating in Jesus revealing himself to be the only way to GOD. It is a tool to get you started on the search for God
    But if the contents you have read so far have led you to despise the God of the Bible, so be it. If all that you have learned from science and nature has not inspired an awe of GOD, so be it.
    Jesus said, only few will find the narrow path of Truth, although many will choose the wide road to destruction. I doubt Jesus drags anyone kicking and screaming into the knowledge of GOD. (But he did mention another destination where kicking and screaming is the order of the day!)
    If you would sincerely like to make some sense of the Bible, do visit my blog below, and join me (and others) in the quest for the Truth about GOD of the Bible.
    Good luck with the choices that you make, Pepper.

    SAM http://vildness.blogspot.com/2010/07/tale-of-2-pr

  9. Hi, you have excluded the element of sin in your analysis. Ours is a fallen world, and humans are sinful creatures. Sin affects not only our human bodies, characters, hearts and minds, but also the natural world around us. In other words, disease, social ills, earthquakes, pain, suffering etc. are results of sin, and are not as God intended.

    1. If God is INFALLIBLE, how is his creation, US, sinful ?

      Sin is a device Organised religion uses to make themselves relevant.

      To make this world habitable, give it an atmosphere, all the elements that makes for weather, He created vegetation. To contain the vegetation so it does not run wild and take over the earth, he created the grazing animals. To contain the grazing animals He created the predators. To contain the predators, He created other predators. You know where I am going with this.

      It's all a numbers game. To make room for new births, members must die. It is as simple as that.

      If religions advocated this philosophy, how would they matter at all in the general scheme of things. How would they induce us to pay for their keep, have us on tap for their convenience?

      For religions to flourish, man must remain ignorant. A religious perfect world is an illiterate world.

      1. Dear Prem DAs

        As I read this article.. i see a couple of worldview fallacies.. and in your response i see the same logical skip..

        If you took time to understand what sin was and how it came in rather than just listening to some sermon or blog about it.. Perhaps you will find more in it..

        Recently there has been a play called Freud's last conversation.. though totally made up.. it is interesting and thought provoking.. perhaps if you would like .. start here

        Or if you prefer a read.. go and read CS Lewis.. and study him… walk the path he took to study and critique christians, religions and God..

        In your final statement.. I think to make such a statement is ignorant in itself.. If you take a look at how christians till today are wrestling with thought to try and understand this life, the reality and God… how is that a sign of ignorance.. And actually this should not be limited to only christians.. but perhaps other religions as well..

        Forgive me if my statements have offended you.. that was not my wish.. .rather instead i ask that you actually sit down and study the very thing you want to critic before doing so.. study not the organized religion but the actual reality of who God and Christ is..

        To put it in christian jargon…. consider what is God's mission .. and what defines his Kingdom..

        thanks

        1. To reduce everything to its nuts and bolts, the Revealed Religions approach to God is the carrot and the stick. Please me and your every wish shall be fulfilled.

          But in the religions that the Revealed Religionists love to despise and disparage on a daily basis, the Hindus and the Buddhists seek the path of renunciation and simplicity. "Be in the world but be not part of the world." But wait, is that not Christ's exhortation???????

          1. Your post shows a real ignorance of what Christianity is about, and what the Bible teaches. I suggest you read the Bible and study it before commenting on things you obviously have no real understanding of. Mind you, you have opinions, but just mere opinions based on nothing but ignorance.

      2. Prem Das, I doubt if your knowledge of God doesn't extend beyond His attribute of "infallibility". But to help answer you first question, remember all those broken toys you had when you were a kid?. Surely your dad wasn't such an evil man to have given you broken toys to play with?
        From your observation of nature, you do believe in a God who is a creator. Why does a creator create anything? Why does a sculptor sculpt? Why does a painter paint? Why does a musician play? If you keep focused on this knowing this Creator, you wont get distracted with the rascals who create religions in God's name and keep people stupid to milk them of their money.

        1. You are comparing God with my dad, the toy broke because neither my dad nor I is almighty and infallible. Things that God create should not break in the first place.

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