Forgiving God?! Taken from the Theories of Gil-White

An interesting take on things by my former Evolutionary Psychologist professor at the University of Pennsylvania...

Love One Another

"Love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord." (Lev. 19.18)
"And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female he created them." (Gen. 1.27) Which of these is the Torah's most important verse?
Two prominent rabbis of antiquity had a friendly debate over this. Each defended one. They were very wise and learned rabbis. But they were both wrong. You need both verses, because together they make it possible for you to forgive God. And Human Salvation begins with that step. I shall explain. If God made Man in his image, this does not settle what the essence of God is. Perhaps God is a Devil. We do not know. We do know that Humans are devils, often.
We kill, we rape, we burn…, And so if we are made in God's image, God could be a Devil.
Now look at the other verse. It resolves the question. God commands that we love our brother like our own self. We do that sometimes, don't we? We do know that Humans are angels, often.
We also hug, and feast, and love…, Don't we? God commands that: hugs, and feasts, and love.
So that's the Human side that is in His image. God is good. And if God is good, then we can forgive Him. Forgive Him for what? For all the killing, and raping, and burning.
After all, He created a world in which those things are possible. He did it.
And it is very tempting to hate Him for it. A lot of people do. I know exactly how they feel.
But you see, if God is good, which we have established, then all the killing and raping and burning offends Him. And if it offends Him, then the way in which all this killing and raping and burning offends you - and which perhaps makes you accuse God - is a laughable microcosm of the suffering that God experiences. He suffers for you, just as you suffer for yourself, but in addition He suffers for millions of other souls now alive, and for millions of other souls who lived in other times. Anything that happens anywhere, to anybody, at any time, is part of God's intimate experience - don't forget that. But that is not all. God also knows perfectly well, better than anybody else, that this is all His fault. Ponder that. Don't imagine the suffering, you can't.
I know you tried anyway. It's interesting, just trying to imagine it produces indescribable awe because you imagine something enormous, unthinkable, and you know that your effort to imagine is pathetic, no matter that you have just shocked yourself out of your wits.
But that is not all. Don't forget that God is Creator. This suffering that you cannot imagine and I cannot imagine…this suffering God inflicted on Himself. All by Himself. Nobody made Him do it.
And He knew exactly what He was doing. Why? Why did He do it?
How can any Being deliberately inflict on itself that kind of Pain?
Only a Being whose Love were even greater than this Pain, which we cannot imagine.
Please. It is pointless even to try to imagine this Love.
Best just to bracket it as this abstraction that is somehow, inexplicably, even bigger than this other thing which is so big it was already completely unthinkable.
Once so understood, it is clear that one can never reciprocate this Love.
It is simply impossible. And therefore, if God deserves to be Loved back, then no Human can ever Love Him enough. (So there is always room for growth.) But we haven't answered the question. Why did God do this to Himself? Why not create a world instead that would not make Him suffer? There must be a reason. And there is. In such a world there would be no Choice.
Your Life would have no Meaning. Your Existence would be pointless. There would be nothing for God to Love. So, unless Humans are good by Choice, there is no point in creating them.
At least there is no point in it for God, because God wants companions that are like Him.
(Yes, that means you.) And God can choose. And God has chosen. And God is good. And you can choose. You too can choose. You can be good. Here's what you do. First, try to imagine God's suffering. Let the feeling overwhelm you. But do no let yourself get too sad. You have to be strong for God. Imagine as much of the suffering of God as you can, and then allow this imagination to stir your Compassion for Him. Naturally, you have never felt this kind of Compassion before. All this time you were feeling anger at God because he allowed evil, not realizing that evil is more painful for Him than for you - infinitely more painful. The only way he could create a meaningful world, was by allowing Choice. Once He allowed Choice, He allowed evil. There was no other way to create you. So let yourself fill with Compassion for God.
Raise your arms up to Him and imagine that you hold one tiny end of His burden, shoulder to shoulder. Tell Him you forgive Him. You understand that this was the only way. How difficult this must be for Him. Be washed in his Gratitude. If you have really forgiven God, then you are experiencing something quite unlike anything else in your Life before. You are feeling His infinite multiplication of the Love you gave Him back when you forgave Him and felt Compassion for His suffering. Soak in this shower. It's what the mystics call Grace. Enjoy it as you would a warm bath. Sensitize yourself to it. Notice how it makes you Holy, and in doing so makes you good.
This is the gift of Your Compassion. This frustratingly indescribable and sublime experience occurs only because you have forgiven God. It occurs because you tried to share His burden by imagining a vanishing fraction of it that is nonetheless, for you, a Universe. You tried to see and think from God's point of view. And you did it not out of hubris but Compassion. And you were bathed in joy because the Universe has Meaning. And you deserve it. And you will be good.
Because having understood such things, you realize the urgency of Human Salvation. So long as we continue to kill and rape and burn…this Being whose Love is an unknowable of unknowables…who deserves to be Loved Back…will suffer The Torment. So Love One Another.
Be Good. For God's sake.

by Francisco Gil-White