Our Father, Our King

Avinu Malkeinu.

In light of the tragedies that constantly engulf this world, how can we turn to G-d as a father? "Avinu" implies love and confidence, a feeling of safety in our Father's arms...

James Fitzjames Stephens, certainly, cannot accept "Love of G-d" as a human possibility:

"To say that the Author of such a world is a purely benevolent being is, to my mind, to say something which is not true, or, at the very least, something which is highly improbable in itself, impossible to be proved, and inconsistent with many notorious facts, except upon hypotheses which it is hardly possible to state or to understand, and of which there is absolutely no evidence whatever.

Therefore, to the question, ' Admitting the existence of God, do you believe him to be good ?' I should reply, If by 'good' you mean 'disposed to promote the happiness of mankind absolutely,' I answer No. If by 'good' you mean virtuous, I reply, The question has no meaning. A virtuous man is a being of whom we can form an idea more or less distinct, but the ideas of virtue and vice can hardly be attached to a Being who transcends all or most of the conditions out of which virtue and vice arise. If the further question is asked, Then what moral attributes do you ascribe to this Being, if you ascribe to him any at all ? I should reply, I think of him as conscious and having will, as infinitely powerful, and as one who, whatever he may be in his own nature, has so arranged the world or worlds in which I live as to let me know that virtue is the law which he has prescribed to me and to others. If still further asked, Can you love such a Being ? I should answer, Love is not the word which I should choose, but awe.

The law under which we live is stern, and, as far as we can judge, inflexible, but it is noble and excites a feeling of awful respect for its Author and for the constitution established in the world which it governs, and a sincere wish to act up to and carry it out as far as possible. If we believe in God at all, this, I think, is the rational and manly way of thinking of him."