God or Superman?
I’m reposting some of my work that was previously posted in other forums in order to gather it all in one place. This essay was originally posted on my “The Second Son” blogspot blog, May 28, 2017.
This is a short one, but one that I’ve found to be a useful insight.
He is far more powerful than any human. He wants what is best for people. He rescues people from disasters.
Am I describing God, or Superman?
I've realized that many people think of God as Superman. Rather than the omnipotent omniscient deity they would describe if you asked them to tell you about God, they seem to intuitively think of God as a powerful and benevolent but quite limited Being. He is dealing the best He can with bad situations. The disasters, even the natural disasters, are not His fault, as they must be if He is omnipotent and there is hashgacha pratis, but just kind of happen. Then, like Superman, He swoops in and tries to rescue people. He may even try to mitigate the disaster. This is why people say things like, "Thank God, it wasn't worse."
Thank God it wasn't worse?! God caused the earthquake or the tsunami or the plane's engines to fail or allowed the terrible war to happen or guided the bomb to land here instead of there. That it was bad at all is God's fault! Except that they don't think of Him that way. The God they're thinking of isn't the theologically correct God, what someone once described to me as "The Sunday School version" of God. The God they're thanking is Superman, who came rushing over when he heard the plane's engines suddenly go quiet and managed to save one little girl before it crashed. It's sad that the other passengers died, but it isn't His fault. He managed to divert the plane away from the nearby town and save the little girl. Thank God it wasn't worse.
There’s been a lot written about how comic book universes are modern mythology, and how similar powerful superheroes are to the gods of antiquity. Perhaps we unconsciously think of God as Superman because it’s our default way of relating to deities. They’re just like us, but more powerful. A transcendent tri-omni God is hard to wrap our heads around, but Superman? He’s a well-meaning guy from Kansas who happens to have superpowers.