Quote:The analogy isn't calling us dirt, because the material itself is irrelevent. Let's elaborate on the analogy. Let's say you're a parent dealing with 5 year old.
Hold your horses dear, you can't just do that. You're just changing the analogy. According to what it says we're analogous to what clay is to a potter, in god's eyes. A child is more to a parent than clay is to a potter.
Quote: How ridiculous is it for a kid to tell their parents that they had no right to make him, or that they can't tell him what to do? A five year old doesn't know anything about life, and obvious needs a lot of instruction, and also protection. That kid needs his parents to tell him what to do, to nurture and guide him to becoming a happy and healthy human being.
If God made us, he made us with a rational brain, capable of logic, critical thought, curiosity and asking questions. When a five year old asks you why he must go to school, you tell him. When he asks why you must not play with fire, you tell him. You answer his questions and he learns! Clay does not question a potter, and a potter certainly does not answer merely clay. It's the consummate stop-asking-awkward-questions argument. It's used by priests and bishops and popes and pastors and witch doctors to avoid answering questions. God knows everything, you know fuck all, so shut up and sacrifice your son....
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The difference is even more profound when you're dealing with God. Just as your parents had a right to tell you what to do because they give birth to you, God has every right to tell humanity what to do because he created us. Just as its ridiculous for a little kid to think he knows better than his parents, its even more ridiculous to think humans know better than God does, the author of life as we know it. This is what the analogy is getting at.
Your parents do not have the right to tell you what to do because they gave birth to you, they have the responsibility to tell you what to do, so that you can grow up to be a healthy happy member of society. If god is so concerned with telling us what to do, why did he give us free will? Surely he wanted us to exercise our own brains, to think for ourselves, to grow up and be happy people. The analogy likens us to clay, to be used on god's whim as he sees fit, your analogy likens us to a child, but children grow up. Both fail. It's simply a tool to suppress inquisitiveness in over curious thinkers. It makes sense.
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"Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."
Einstein
When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down happy. They told me I didn't understand the assignment. I told them they didn't understand life.
- John Lennon
