God, War And Testosterone: That's Entertainment!

If God is: All Powerful, All Knowing, Creator of All Things, Eternal, The Beginning and The End, Father of All, Ever Was and Ever Will Be, Designer of Karma, Destiny, Punishment, Forgiveness, Damnation, Repentance, Salvation, Unconditional Love, Hell, and, Free Will, what are we here for? What is our purpose, we humans? What, on earth, does God want with us?

Entertainment! Of course!

War! of course! The ultimate entertainment!

Without war what adventure would we prepare for, get excited about, recover from, commiserate over, fear, lament, record innumerable written records of the strategies, discuss the warped perceptions of the Other Side, the wins, the defeats, the sorrows, the history books, history classes, Monday Morning Quarterbacks, souvenirs - no end to the possibilities for occupation and entertainment!

WWI, "The Great War", had just ended, the rifles had hardly cooled, but there was again serious talk of trouble with Germany. Headlines in newspapers and movie newsreels blasted military music while soldiers marched in mechanical precision, on the screen.

Swastika flags dominated the movies. They filled every scene with the ominous zig-zag of evil intention waiting in the wings.

As a child I'd ask, "Why do we have war?"

The response was, "Because, it's the way things are".

Ever since I could think or reason, I have been asking, "Why? Why are things the way they are?" And someone would casually respond, "Because that's the way they are."

That made no sense at all. Are things "the way they are", or do we people expect, encourage, connive, plan, provide, celebrate and rejoice in the "way they are" - or the way we "make them are"?

Is war "the way they are"? Or, do we lust for excitement, blood, pathos, drama, suspension and snappy uniforms? - and profits? War is our excuse.

Somewhere along the Road of Life it was impressed upon us that we have free will...? Really? If so, do we freely create war? Is that our will? Is famine our will? Communicable diseases? Poverty? Suffering? Grief - our will? My will?

Just whose will are we talking about?

Are tiny, colorful military flags, lined up in dress-order, flying in formation, over individual graves at a memorial acreage, a poignant marker of mass deaths, mass dedication, mass sacrifice, a statement of someone's will?

It certainly appears so. None of the above is available on the big screen of Life unless we, the people, have a hand in the design and execution of mayhem.

And, bank robberies, child molesting, wife battering, murder, animal cruelty - are these side attractions for the barkers to promise additional fun?

Is this the result of Free Will? or God's will? Is God our Father, or are we cut loose to do what comes naturally?

Once, in a class at my church, we were asked, "What is the best lesson you have learned from the Bible?" One man smiled and said, "I know God is watching me."

I was asked what I thought of his comment. I said, "God is watching you? What good is that? I watch an ant on the sidewalk - and then I step on it."

Dead silence.