Of The Omniscient God In The Film 'God On Trial'

Submitted By dylanmatthewgordon
Words: 2119
Pages: 9

The Omnipotent and Omniscient God God on Trial is the account of Jewish prisoners who are captives of the Auschwitz death camp located in Poland. Fully aware of their situation, and where they will be in maybe a day if their lucky. The cell block decides that they need to find somebody to blame for their sorrow and woes. They instead do not blame an earthly person but a divine creator of worlds; they choose to blame their own God. This was the very same God that had freed them from the tyranny of the Egyptians, and then had led them to the promise land of milk and honey. Many knew that their ancestors had endured many hardships, but this time they had believed that he had taken it two far, and was at this point breaking his covenant he had made with the Israelites the ancestors of the Jewish prisoners sitting in a congregation holding God for his despicable acts toward the Jewish people. They hold a trial for their God, and constantly present new evidence for each side which sways many people in between either side of the argument. Even the strongest of these prisoners had succumbed to the fear and impending thoughts of the trek to the chambers. Throughout the film they also fade in between the Death Camp while active, and the camp being visited by a tour group. This in a sense gives the film more credibility and the factor that can allow the viewer to really absorb what had happened there during this time.
After the dust settles and each side has presented their own side the council of three reaches a verdict, they pronounce that God is in fact guilty of the accused crimes of genocide. As a viewer you can almost see this inevitable outcome from a mile away, honestly it’s simply logic that they would accuse God of this in the first place and then to reach a verdict of guilty. When as many people as there were placed in such an enclosed place each faced with the same fate, and the setting being in a chaotic and unfamiliar environment, and psychology or sociologist could have predicted this trial.

The feelings that these men had are easily relatable to any person that has ever walked on earth. The one major difference is the situation that they were placed in and the extent in which they are feeling these emotions. For example somebody could easily be angry with God, simply because he is an easy person to blame. Who wouldn’t simply point the finger at an omnipotent and omniscient deity, who loves everyone, especially the Jews who he named his chosen people. These people were put into a predicament where there was nobody at their fingertips who they could openly blame. They could have easily blamed Hitler, but what’s the point of placing blame upon a man who openly speaks what he does and has convinced thousands to believe his fiendish deeds. They cannot point the finger at the guards for they are only following commands. Then the thought that looms in every person’s head as soon as they are faced with adversity, ‘why is God doing this to me?’ they do not ask how did I put myself into this situation but rather why is God doing this. This is simply a generalization of what humanity does when faced with adversity but in the case of these prisoners at Auschwitz it is completely reasonable that they find God to be the herald of sorrow. They try to make the best out of the entire situation but it is completely ineffective. No matter how much they’d like to be at home next to the hearth, or in a place of sheer bliss and splendor, they cannot. They can’t see their family ever again. With full knowledge of what their fate will be and where their journey will end they lay quaking, tensing every time they hear the bogged down steps of passing guardsmen. They are frozen in a state of translucent terror, stricken by a fear induced paralysis. They cannot take anymore, enough is simply enough. They decide that they need to find somebody to blame. You could at same points compare the behaviors of these men to children who are not