I grew up in Florida and loved the water sports there, including fishing. A fishing excursion did not just mean catching fish, but usually seeing a variety of shorebirds, crabs, sting rays, manatees, dolphins and often pretty sunrises or sunsets. It is true that a bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work! (But is that true for commercial fishermen?) However, in recent years I have been less enthusiastic about catching fish, and it relates to my theological views. I’ll start with the theology.
Many people seem to think that since God created the world and its people then He therefore has the right to do with it as He pleases, even if that means suffering and death for some people and ultimately the end of the world. As Paul said, we are just the clay and He is the potter (Romans 9:21). The Bible records a number of times in which God conducted wholesale slaughter of people, such as with Noah’s flood, and believers accept this as His right, based on His wisdom and foresight and His position as creator. Many (most?) believers think that God has in mind a time when He will end the world, which includes either the destruction of most of humanity, or eternal torment for them, depending on your doctrine. I think this is one reason many religious people are in denial about things like pandemics and climate change: God is in control and nothing we do will change the course of events.
I find such views perplexing. When parents have a child we do not believe that gives them absolute control over the child, including the right to kill that child. Although many an angry parent has said, “I brought you into this world and I can take you out of it!” When a parent does in fact kill a child we hold them accountable for it. We believe that having a child creates an obligation to care for and nurture that child, not absolute authority over that child’s life and death. Good parents raise children to mature and become independent functioning adults; parents who raise children to be their dependent slaves are not thought of as good parents. But we don’t think that way about God for some reason. Do we think that because He created us He has the right to use us as He pleases, even killing us or destroying our world as He chooses? Because might makes right? Why don’t we think that creating us creates an obligation for God to care for us and nurture us, to help us to be independent self-functioning beings rather than dependent slaves? Recall that Paul often refers to himself and other Christians as a “doulos,” a “slave” of God (although often it is euphemistically translated as “servant,” which sounds less harsh I suppose). Was Paul right in using that term? Do good parents treat their children as slaves, even to the point of inflicting suffering and death on them?
Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson (Susie raises an interesting point: what if a god mightier than the God of the Bible shows up?)
Maybe we’ve got it wrong. Or rather, maybe the authors of the Bible have it wrong. Maybe God does see His position as one of nurturing and guiding, but He is grieved by how we have introduced so much strife into the world. We would be in a much better position to cope with and overcome natural suffering like disease or famine if we were not so obsessed with war, greed and selfishness. Perhaps instead of manipulating the world according to His whims God is an aggrieved father (or mother) who sees us mistreat ourselves but knows that He must let us run the course that we choose. He does not have an arbitrary time set for the world’s destruction, but rather is nervously watching and waiting to see if or when we will end it on our own. Although I can see one situation in which God might be justified in bringing the world to an end: as a form of global euthanasia, to put us out of our misery if the world becomes too hellish by our selfish and short-sighted actions.
What does any of this have to do with fishing?! I object to the idea that God has the right to manipulate us just because He is a superior being, either in terms of power or intelligence. If a more advanced alien race came to earth and enslaved us, or hunted us as in the Predator movies, would we accept that as the natural order of things? I doubt it. If I am stronger than you does that give me the right to control you and use you for my purposes? Does might make right? Most of us would object, although that is the way humans have operated throughout our history (think of slavery’s long history, or the conquest of the Americas by the Europeans) Maybe that is why we think God and sci-fi aliens act that way, because that is how we humans act. We have created God in our image.
When I hook a fish he does not swim up to me and accept his fate. My hook seems to cause him pain and he fights like mad to get away. He certainly does not seem drawn to me because of the suffering I am causing him. Although that seems to be the theme of many Biblical prophets; see Deuteronomy 28 for example, which starts off with 14 verses of nice things for those who obey, but then 54 verses of curses if you do not toe the line. Odd how often the Almighty and Wise One has to resort to threats to draw people to Him. And the hooked fish’s struggle to get away from me actually seems to increase the enjoyment of catching him. The harder the fight, the better! Is God like that, getting a perverse enjoyment from our struggles against Him? Is that why Jesus said, “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance” (Luke 15:7)? Perhaps God and His angels appreciate a good fight? “Doug, you put up a good fight, but We got you!”
So, if I object to Father God having absolute control over me, even inflicting pain and suffering if it suits His purposes, then how do I justify exerting such control over a species I consider inferior to me? Using its pain for my pleasure? I am not by any means a radical animal rights person; I am not even a vegetarian. I acknowledge that our world is designed, either by evolution or by God, to have some species consume others. But I think we ought to ponder such things and their philosophical implications. Even if we decide that fishing and hunting are morally acceptable or even pleasurable perhaps we should at least think about the implications for how we humans should treat other species and especially how we treat one another. And maybe think about how God supposedly treats us according to the Bible.
Does “might make right” or does might create responsibility to help and to nurture? Was Voltaire right when he said, “With great power comes great responsibility”? (No, it wasn’t Spiderman’s Uncle Ben who first said that.) Is God the domineering father who threatens His slaves “I brought you into this world and I can take you out of it!” or is He the nurturing parent who is grieved when we do wrong but happy when we do right as mature independent beings? As a loving parent has He given us the freedom to create our own fate? Has He fixed a time for the end of the world according to His own purposes, or might He be waiting to see if we will end it ourselves? Instead of waiting for God to write the ending perhaps we should work harder on creating our own future, a good one, not the dystopian one often portrayed by religion (read the Book of Revelation!). Or has religion created God in our image, in which might makes right, with absolute authority including the ultimate destruction of us and our world? Is it possible to think otherwise?