Plot V: Character Vs. God (or in the old Greek the gods)

Personally I don't like this plot very much. because at first glance I think oh come on, what kind of plot is that? but you know what this plot has been around forever and is quite possible the plot that all of us deal with in reality. in some ways this is the plot of our lives.

This plot is the central theme to one of the great theological and philosophical questions: "If there is a God why good people suffer? or babies die horribly, or Concentration camps, or Genocides?" it is this idea that that an all knowing, all powerful and all loving God would not let bad things happen. It is a challenge called the problem of evil. of course for the most part they are challenging Christians with the wrong question. they forget hat God is holy righteous and good, therefore can suffer nothing sinful to exist: so if there is a God why are we not all burning in hell? because there is none righteous, not one. answer would be grace, and that God would love that which has rejected him enough to pay the ransom with his own blood.  But enough theology. we are here today to talk about Plot.


the basics of this plot (at least the 'christian' basic we will talk about the older sense in a minuet) is that we get a chance to actually ask the question why God? for example: Job.

Job, was a righteous and upright man, the most righteous man of his time. And his reward for being the Lord's favored? I am so glad you  asked: he gets ea horrible disease, his kids all die, and all his livestock die.  his wife tells him to curse god and die, his friends tell him to repent of his sins. of course he says "but i haven't sinned!" So finely he asks God, "I want an audience! I want to know why you let this happen." and what does god do? he gives Job an answer. he asks Job his own questions like, "remember when I made the great things of the sea? how much input did you give me on that?" Job has to answer "um I wasn't there." "that is right." says God, "now when I made the air you breath? remind me what was you help in that?" again Job can only say "I didn't help." and this goes on until God basically has shown that he is the creator of the universe and Job has no right to ask him why he does anything.

Now we don't like that answer much but latter in the bible we are told that "my ways are not your ways, and my thoughts are not your thoughts."  but again that is enough theology we are talking about plot.

the older form of this plot is Character vs. the gods. and this is more satisfying because the gods are usually flawed and can over come. The first example that comes to mind is the 5th season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Glory is not the smartest god but she is a god. there is a great scene in which the council has come to Sunnydale because Buffy has realized that she is in over her head and she needs to know what the council knows about Glory. after several hi jinks the representative sits down and sighs saying, "She's not a demon, she's a god." the weight of that sentience ends the episode, and the viewer is left with one thought; how the heck is the slayer going to defeat a god?

this is actually a great fantasy plot. (last example I promise) in the pod cast critical Hit (one of my personal favorites) the Characters must find a way to destroy a group of Gods who are encroaching on the world. they are the gods of the void who are mostly crazy. the Gods of the world in list these characters because they (the gods) are unable to defeat the void gods. So the questions are: how are they going to do this? what  are the items that they have to find to make a devise to defeat the void? is Randus going to be able to make this thing? Will Torq and Ket find a way to get the dark council on their side?

All in all despite what I said at the beginning of this not being my favorite plot, it is very viable and very interesting. and Hey who doesn't want to ask why bad things happen to good people or defeat and evil god?