As most of you know I am not very fond of God. My reasons are many and varied.
I have posted just a few Bible passages that portray god in a dreadful way. I realize that many of you will say the Bible is not really the word of God so all the bad press God gets in the Bible just isn't the God I know. What about the God you don't know. It is really touchy feely reading from the book of Psalms attribute those sentiments to a loving and merciful god but so much of the Bible depicts god as a psychopathic tyrant. My reasons for not liking god is because the god I know is a psychopathic tyrant.
My question is this. Why do you suppose that people who think god is so damn wonderful are afraid to discuss or even acknowledge his well documented dark side.
Christian beliefs are based on the Bible but Christian seem to pick and choose only the stuff in the Bible that makes God look loving and merciful when the whole truth is that while god claims to be merciful his actions documented in the Bible show him to be anything but merciful.
If you Christians really have faith you will not be afraid to entertain discussing God's dark side and explain why his legendary cruelty doesn't bother you.
Show the courage of your convictions!
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I think God is wonderful.
I am not afraid to talk about God's "well documented bad side" -- I just deny that she has one. I think half of what has been said or written about God is crap. What I don't understand is on what logical basis are you claiming believers have to accept everything the Bible says?
What is this "legendary cruelty" you speak of, and why am I not allowed just to deny its truthfulness? What is it you think forces me to accept everything the Bible writers said about God?
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You are denying that the bible documents many examples of God's wrath and cruelty.
The legendary cruelty to which I refer are the many many Biblical accounnts of God's many many killing sprees and maiming of his children.
You are denying that god has a dark side so then essentially you are saying your faith is based on denial. So in your view God never gets angry.
What do you base your faith upon? Is it perhaps fear and the comfortable feeling you get believing that there is some loving merciful being waiting to love you as you pass through the pearly gates?
From what you have written you seem to soundly and entirely reject the Bible except for the parts that make you feel good. So, unlike other Christians you don't have a father in heaven. What is your god in heaven? Mother? Sister? Aunt?
Are you offended when you are at a church service and the priest or minister says Heavenly Father?
How convienient it must be for you to rewrite holy scripture.
I get the idea that the Bible is of little interest to you.
If you read my other posts that quote the Bible you will see where I base my beliefs that god is mean and unjust.
Perhaps god is female and perhaps she has not yet discovered Midol.
You say "I think god is wonderful", I know he/she/it is not. If god is so wonderful ask him to stop giving children cancer. Take a tour of St. Judes children's hospital and then tell me how wonderful god is. Seeing the suffering those little innocents endure would bring even Hitler to tears. Apparently it doesen't have that same effect on your wonderful god. Why do you think that is?
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You are denying that the bible documents many examples of God's wrath and cruelty.
I simply deny that they are true.
The legendary cruelty to which I refer are the many many Biblical accounnts of God's many many killing sprees and maiming of his children.
I asked before and you didn't answer, so I'll ask again: On what logical basis can you require me to believe everything the Bible says?
You are denying that god has a dark side so then essentially you are saying your faith is based on denial.
Um, that would be one way to twist what I believe, I guess.
What do you base your faith upon? Is it perhaps fear ...
Of what?
... and the comfortable feeling you get believing that there is some loving merciful being waiting to love you as you pass through the pearly gates?
I shall overlook for a moment the gross caricature you paint of the faith of someone you don't even know. Why should the fact that faith brings comfort be any reason to reject it? Could I challenge your belief in your wife (hypothetically speaking) by suggesting that it is comforting for you to know that your wife loves you and will be faithful to you?
From what you have written you seem to soundly and entirely reject the Bible except for the parts that make you feel good.
Um, no. Jesus challenges me to love my enemies, to turn the other cheek, to take up my cross and follow him, and they're things I'm naturally uncomfortable about.
So, unlike other Christians you don't have a father in heaven. What is your god in heaven? Mother? Sister? Aunt?
Are you offended when you are at a church service and the priest or minister says Heavenly Father?
Where did that leap of logic come from? I affirm my faith in God as my Father week after week in the liturgy of my church.
How convienient it must be for you to rewrite holy scripture.
I get the idea that the Bible is of little interest to you.
Wrong. It is of great interest to me.
I honestly don't understand how you can keep insisting that I am under some obligation to believe the entire Bible. This all-or-nothing ultimatum is something I expect from a fundamentalist, who believes the Bible is the inerrant Word of God. Please explain the logical grounds for insisting that I believe the entire Bible.
If you read my other posts that quote the Bible you will see where I base my beliefs that god is mean and unjust.
I can see perfectly where in Scripture you would get the idea that God is mean and unjust, and I would believe the same -- if I believed the entire Bible were meant to be taken as truth, which I don't.
Perhaps god is female and perhaps she has not yet discovered Midol.
You'll have to enlighten me on "Midol".
You say "I think god is wonderful", I know he/she/it is not. If god is so wonderful ask him to stop giving children cancer. Take a tour of St. Judes children's hospital and then tell me how wonderful god is. Seeing the suffering those little innocents endure would bring even Hitler to tears. Apparently it doesen't have that same effect on your wonderful god. Why do you think that is?
I struggle with the existence of evil, too. I don't feel compelled to conclude that God is responsible for it, however, and I don't suppose that God is not affected by it in far deeper ways than I am.
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God did come first and then he thought up evil. That is the general view is it not?
You quote Corinthians but you seem to think any bad press on god is not true. It seems to me that you only believe the nice stuff is true.
You said: "I can see perfectly where in Scripture you would get the idea that God is mean and unjust, and I would believe the same -- if I believed the entire Bible were meant to be taken as truth, which I don't."
OK then, like I said before, you only choose to belive the stuff that makes you feel good.Then I suppose other people belive thing in the bible you believe to be true the belive those thing false. Like which of the ten commandments don't apply to you?
What is frightening and astounding is that because the Bible is so subject to intrpretation and so full of error that it is no wonder how god's word has so splintered people like in Ireland.
So you have become your own personal editor of Gods holy word huh? I see it differently. I figure if you can't believe major parts of the bible then you can trust nothing in it to be true. .
you said: "Where did that leap of logic come from? I affirm my faith in God as my Father week after week in the liturgy of my church."
I would think that you attend weddings, funerals, and baptisms. The words god the father as said quite often.
There are many references in the Bible that endorse slavery and as we know lot's of good American Christians did not find it morally objectionable to cram people in ships and treat them worse than animals. Jesus himself endorsed slavery in the Bible in his own words. Do you choose not to believe that too?
DO you choose not to believe all of god's carnage killing sprees and threats to kill?
You have assigned female gender to god> that got me thinking about all of "her" carnage and other bad behavior and it does sound a lot like raging PMS so I would think god could use some MIDOL or hormone replacement therapy. Maybe she should just get a facial and treat herself to an all you can eat buffet while she leave her kids in the car with the windows rolled up. The other diagnosis would be post partum depression. After giving birth to Earth and populating it and having no hubby to take it out on or no hubby to slap her around for acting goofy she let her wrath go quite wild on her kids. Maybe god needs to go on Dr Phil for an attitude adjustment.
Again I ask you to ask god to never let another child get cancer. If you ask him would you be kind enough to tell me what his answer is.
