His Ways Are Not My Ways

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,
declares the Lord.”

-Isaiah 55:8

Is that verse true? Are my ways not like God’s ways? Let’s see…

When I see someone in need, I help…without hesitation.

When I discipline my children, it is because of their actions, not due to a grudge I hold against people who wronged me at some point in the past.

I would never punish my children for anything they do that is just part of human nature. Normal human feelings, urges and tendencies are not crimes and should never be punished as such.

I would never ask my children to love me unconditionally if I was never around for them. An absentee father, who is intentionally absent, deserves no accolades or respect from his children, let alone love. Love is easy to reciprocate if it is given freely. Silence and constant hiding is not how any loving parent shows that they love their children.

If someone is longing to have a relationship with me and I truly love them, I would never ignore them. Their cries would not go unanswered.

I hate things like slavery, misogyny, rape, murder and child abuse. I have not, and would never, make exceptions for these things to be permissible. It is disgusting to allow any of these things to happen under any circumstance.

If anyone wanted to know the real me, I would never allow a plethora of contradicting stories to be told about me and allow them to constantly be changed while I sat back and did nothing about it. I would set the story straight and make sure it stayed true.

If someone wants to know if I exist, and I want them to know it, I would leave no doubt. I would be accessible to anyone who wishes to know me.

If I love anyone, and I mean truly love them, I would show them. I wouldn’t allow someone else’s words to define me. I wouldn’t let my feelings be passed down through the ages in a book, never showing people that I love them. Love is shared. Love is given freely. Love is recognizable by anyone who receives it. Love is not something that can be confused for something mysterious. It is a universal gift that all people can feel. It has no borders. It is not restricted by language, culture or race. Love is understood by all.

There are so many things that I could say about the difference between the god of the Bible and I, but this is a good start. I am a being who needs others like me in my life. I need to give love and receive love. I am honest and decent. I am not unreasonable with how I discipline my children. I don’t ignore them or abuse them. I have realistic expectations of them and the other people I come into contact with. I don’t make exceptions to allow for atrocities to be committed. I don’t care if it would make me more renowned or better received. Wrong is wrong and hate is hate. I think if more “people of faith” stopped and thought about how they actually treat other people (how they love, how they help, how they discipline, etc) and compare that to their invisible and silent “father”, they would see that the God of the Bible is not a god of morality, but rather a god of vanity and wrath. The god of the Bible claims to love us, yet stays hidden and silent. That is not love. Love actually means something. Empty words and empty promises mean nothing.

I am glad after so many years, I chose morality, kindness and love over blind submission and complicity to hate. I am glad that I was able to separate true goodness from the religion I was living in. They are simply not compatible.

So no, his ways are not my ways. Thank God for that.

14 thoughts on “His Ways Are Not My Ways”

  2. Well done Ben. Take this for what it’s worth, “ I hate things like slavery, misogyny, rape, murder and child abuse. I have not, and would never, make exceptions for these things to be permissible”. I would in one condition. Life has some risk but I would take that chance over the totalitarian government they’re promising where “every knee will bow, and every tongue confess allegiance to god”. Who does that as their defining epitaph? I’ll take the former over the latter. Maybe we’re just lucky god never intervenes? (If there was one I’d say stay away) please

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    1. Lucky indeed, Jim. I, for one, am very grateful such a horrible monster of a deity has not intervened. In fact, I am happy that such a god only seems to exist within the minds of his followers and not in the real world.

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  3. Fabulous post Ben. His ways are not at all many/most of our ways, particularly peace-loving non-violent peoples! Yahweh or the God of the three Abrahamic religions is undeniably, irrefutably a Violent Blood-Thirsty God. Period.

    Between Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, and Judges God-Jesus slaughtered or sanctioned the slaughter of some 25,000,000 humans. If Jesus is not 1/3rd of the Godhead and one in the same, then this is the Old Covenant God he undeniably worshiped so much he also died for it/Him. In modern criminology, Jesus was an accessory to near 25-million capital murders. I mean Hitler has NOTHING on this God!

    If Christianity wants or must associate itself with Judaism’s God—because they must utilize (hijack) their Messianic prophecies for validation of a Divine Savior-Kingship—then it could be reasoned that faithful Christians condone genocidal, infanticidal, filicidal, and pestilent serial murdering. There is no way around these horrific atrocities for any of the three Abrahamic religions.

    Yep, I am very grateful and pretty proud considering history and their Holy Scriptures record as “truth” that His ways will NEVER EVER be my ways!

    (raises his cocktail glass in honor of Secularism, Science, Humanism, and for me personally… lots of hedonistic, delicious DEBAUCHERY!!! 🥃🍸😈

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    1. Thanks.

      It amazes me how so many faithful followers either excuse, or don’t even know about (because they don’t read the source material) the horrible things this god allegedly did or commanded others to do in his name. I’m even more amazed that I was ever one of those who didn’t see the hypocrisy of it all. On the one hand, claiming that this god is a god of love and on the other, ignoring (or making excuses for) all the things that are as far away from love as you can possibly get.

      I think that because I wasn’t a “true Christian”, I could never accept that bad could ever be good, just because God said so. I am happy I could see through the nonsense and recognize hate as hate and bigotry as bigotry. It took a long time to lose my belief, but at least I had some sense of morality until I completely broke free.

      And although I’m not as big into “hedonistic, delicious debauchery” as you might be, I still raise my bottle of Captain Morgan and wish you the best in your endeavors….Just keep the details to yourself. 😉

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    1. Thanks Steve.

      I constantly hear about how nonbelievers (and even believers) can’t understand how great God is because “our ways are not his ways.” He is “too great” for our mere mortal minds to comprehend. I disagree. The book that the followers cling to is quite clear about who God is and what he has done. His megalomania is on full display for all to see. There are no excuses that can make most of the things he commanded okay.

      Maybe some of his ways are not knowable, but from what we can know by reading scripture, his ways are not something anyone should want to emulate. If a person were to do or even talk about the things that God was said to have done, they would be labeled as a monster, or deranged, disturbed and dangerous. Our ways should be as far from his ways as possible if we are to be good and decent members of society.

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  5. Outstanding!

    I read the bible back when I was around 15. As I trudged through it, I kept thinking to myself if that’s the god everyone is so in love with… this is a messed up situation.

    I saw what you now see. What so many cannot see. Or would not even look if we pointed in that direction. If they would only read the book on the night stand. They all have one, and are blind to its obvious truth.

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    1. I have read it a few different times all the way through and read certain passages over and over again. Every time I came across a disturbing part, I would make excuses. Usually the excuses were the ones I was trained to have. Others were my own. I had to make excuses because I wanted that reward at the end. I wanted the promises to be true. If I thought there was something that would keep me from believing it, I would block it out. I was pretty good at it too….for a while. And by a while, I mean until I was nearly 40. Then I stopped finding excuses that held water. I stopped being okay with things that were in no way okay. My eyes were opened to the truth…and that truth is: God is not a nice guy.

      I wish more people could see what I now see, but most believers have their blinders on nice and tight and won’t remove them for anything. That’s why I share when I can and try to help whenever possible.

      I tried to stay away from writing about religion, but it was such a big part of my life, it’s hard to forget about it….and so here I am once again, back at it.

      🙂

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      2. It’s done and has been submitted to a few places. A couple have passed on it, saying they weren’t interested at this time and blah, blah, blah. Still waiting to hear from another and there’s one more I will be submitting to this week. Trying to stay positive. If there’s still no luck, then I’ll just self publish at some point. We’ll see how it goes.

        In the meantime, I’m a few chapters into my second book. I haven’t written in that for a few weeks though. With some personal stuff going on lately, I just haven’t felt much like writing. I had to share here though. Just couldn’t stay away.

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