God and me and you

Who is God? God is the Creator of all (that is seen and unseen). That said, I think He made us to challenge and entertain (delight, disappoint, exasperate, and probably boor) Him. Job certainly challenged Him, albeit deferentially. Job's fundamental question – why do the just suffer – seemed to anger Him, perhaps because He knew that His “answers” weren't very convincing. “Because I said so!” is a parental response and dissonant with the sense of justice He gave us. I like Jung's idea – that Jesus is God's Answer to Job. (I'm growing more skeptical of Jung's idea that Jesus had something to learn, as God, of the human condition.) The Answer is a retelling of God's parental love for us, assuming a form better suited for a more mature humanity.

The universe is challenging and entertaining for us. It is the mysteries that best hold our interest, like a closed door for a cat or just beyond any boundary for a kid. Even if apples were part of the daily diet in Eden, those on that one certain forbidden tree would still hold a special allure, an irresistible attraction for the first humans.

In response to our persistent questioning, maybe He creates alternate universes, one after the other, as needed, on the fly, out of His infinite inventiveness. Physicists confirm what our intuition tell us – that observation changes everything*. They tell us that some things are actually several (potential) things until they are observed, whereupon they resolve into one of the options. He is managing an awful lot of options!

We keep trying to figure it all (the universe) out. We see evanescent patterns and make little rules – but they are not His rules. Our rules become our little gods, our little idols, which we follow diligently until they prove unreliable. His omniscience and omnipotence keeps His ever new universe consistent over time, more or less, so that our world doesn't degrade into a relativistic nightmare. It seems a miracle. But maybe the consistency is simpler than we think. Maybe it simply stems from His constant love and consistent rule – that we love one another. Oh, and have no other gods before Him.

* Physicists boldly go one link further up the causal chain. Not only might a tree falling unobserved in the forest make no sound, it may not even have fallen until someone sees it on the ground (or still standing).