Does God grade on a curve?

[Silent3]

Would He (or She or It, or They for that matter if you're a polytheist), when it comes to followers interpreting the labyrinthine twists and turns of various Holy Books, take into account learning disabilities and language skills in deciding matters of salvation or reincarnation or how righteous a life a person had lived?

Not everyone, after all, can read ancient languages and argue the meaning of this passage and that based on subtle intricacies of translation. Not everyone is aware of every bit of research meant to discover "true" original texts. Not everyone can agree, even if they do believe in real Divine Inspiration, at which points in time God guides the recording of the True Word, and when He lets people mess it up and publish then-supposedly "corrupted" texts.

If you just plain aren't smart enough to handle that sort of thing, if in fact you aren't even capable of reading or understanding language at a level of better than, say, a five year-old, will God punish you for your lack of intelligence? Perhaps the opposite, will He give you a complete pass? Would the latter alternative make intelligence a kind of curse, obligating you to a higher degree of spiritual study and a higher risk of spiritual failure?

Will He judge you on something else if your intellect is limited, like who you decided to trust about His Word since you had no capability to figure it out yourself, or how nicely you treated your pet dog?

If you have even just barely enough intelligence for scriptural scholarship, would your God punish you in the afterlife if you didn't devote yourself to that scholarship, and in not doing so somehow did the "wrong" things and followed the "wrong" rules?

It seems to me, if any gods existed at all and they cared much about how humans conducted their lives, they'd somehow figure out something better than the collected confusions of the various so-called Holy Books and Sacred Scriptures we have today.

Unless you're willing to admit that books like the Bible and the Quran are nothing more than flawed human creations, which perhaps contain some wisdom one might carefully extract from surrounding noise and confusion and not-so-holy human agendas, I can't think of anything much more absurd than arguing over what these texts "really" mean.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

1. Jesus, I hope so. nt

[NC_Nurse]

2. Seconded.

:P

[tblue]

3. Super post! Anyone who claims to know the alpha-omega of God

is the last person on earth I'd trust.

[Angry Dragon]

4. It is more to do with the difference between

If one is going to look at god it is more to do with the difference between religion and church. Religion is the belief and the church is vehicle of corruption of the belief. I believe man for the most part has always had the feeling that something other than himself was the center of the universe. Churches, perhaps the more major ones, have taken the beliefs and corrupted them.

[JerseygirlCT]

8. I don't think so

religion is the human construction - so yes, sometimes quite corrupt. But sometimes quite elevating. Full of flaws, full of potential - just like humankind.

[montanto]

5. The god of my imagination

is sort of like a teacher who sets his students on a confusing assignment with unclear objectives and no real concern for the outcome other than that the students stay busy and don't cause too much trouble. My imaginary god is in the back of the classroom right now, reading the paper, and as long as we're quiet, he really doesn't give a shit what we do or what happens to us. In the end I think he'll grade on whether we were at least pleasant and left him alone while he read, which might not be good for people who spend a lot of time whining at him about their lot and begging for shit they don't deserve.

[Igel]

6. The god I have in mind is a bit different.

He has a school and a teacher and a class list for those enrolled, but everybody else shows up at the building anyway. They go to various rooms and do various things, and some even have the text. But they get up and teach each other as best they can, while god's teacher holds class.

The teacher differentiates his learning and accommodates multiple learning styles and multiple intelligences. Each student gets two grades--the first is pass/no-pass, the other is a numerical grade 0.0 - 4.4. The first grade is strictly criterion-based--you make the cut or you don't. However, the testing modalities vary: For some there's a final, others maintain a portfolio. Sometimes somebody turns in a portfolio from another, external class and gets a grade of pass.

The other grade is on a curve. If you're stupid you get graded easier; if you have a rough time of it, you get graded easier. If you have an easier time, you get graded harder. It's the "affirmative action" way of doing things--you take into account the history and (dis)advantages of the student.

Get a grade of pass and you're in. However, what you wind up doing depends on your letter grade.

Some people decide that they want to make a fetish out of decorating their notebooks or having fancy covers for their textbooks. Some do their reports in calligraphy. None of that matters, although it may keep them interested and make them feel good. If it's a distraction, of course, then it matters.

[JerseygirlCT]

7. There's no need for a curve

All are loved, all who wish to be welcomed are welcomed.

The texts aren't rule books, or ever meant to be read as such. They are indeed, man-made, and as such flawed. But still the record of humankind's search for the divine and relationship with the divine. As such, they're invaluable.

And the ongoing arguments about what scripture means is really the point of it all.

Just as scholars will be deconstructing Shakespeare's work for many hundreds of years to come, so it's always a good thing when new people bring new light to scripture and its meanings. It's those who would claim a static and limited reading that you should be nervous about!