When Form Doesn't Quite Match Content

by: Hannah Farber

Mon Jun 02, 2008 at 09:18:04 AM EDT

Usually, internet memes are usually something like "your favorite books" or "three things people don't know about you ('I love licorice jelly beans!')" For a change of pace, here's one via the Velveteen Rabbi:

1. if the nature of god is omnipotent, benevolent, and anthropomorphic (that god is a person, who sees suffering as wrong, and can change all of it), why does god not act to relieve all suffering, or at least the greatest amount of suffering for the greatest amount of people the greatest amount of time?

2. if you were god, and you were omnipotent and benevolent, how would you respond to suffering?

3. if this is not the nature of god, what is the nature of god, that allows suffering in the world?

4. if these are the wrong questions to ask, what are the right ones?

I have no capability of addressing these questions on a Monday morning, but I'm impressed that somebody put them out there. My level of respect for the internet just went up.