No Greta dear, thats just far to simple and blinking obvious.I think the bible got it wrong when it suggests omnipotent Gods dont like setting any traps.
I suggest Gods are tricky beings who would also very likely enjoy a good old matador bullfight or bloodthirsty gladiator fight, and beside so happens they only created heaven large enough to hold a certain amount of humans.So they needed to make matters a little difficult for some, to help weed out a few folks who could then be sent off for some good old-school justice, by slowly roasting in hell.
Besides somethings needed for fuel to help keep those fires burning brightly down there in hell also.And so what better way than to make salavation a little difficult for some folks.
Many things that are not "beings" with their own "conscience" such as gravity, are easy! for all humas to observe.
Which seems to suggest Gods which are said to be omnipotent "beings" that also do have a "conscience" , must obviously actually purposely choose to hide themselves from many folks.Who they must then hope will soon become available as future fuel ! for Gods use in fire stoking material.
I remember one of my first instances of questioning my religion as a child. I asked my local theological expert, my grandmother (who taught sunday school), why God stopped talking to people directly. I think I was about 6 years old. I don't remember the answer she gave, probably because I didn't want to lose respect for my beloved gramma.
Then years later my mom married a man who had a psychiatric disorder. He saw ghosts, and heard God's voice.
If gramma were still alive I'd ask, "Why did God stop talking to sane people and start talking only to insane people?"
The non-psychotic people who claim to "hear" God usually mean it metaphorically from what I've seen.
So which is true?
1) God speaks only to psychotics and always has done so. The prophets of the Bible were psychotic.
2) God used to speak to sane people but he decided to switch to just psychotics because he likes invading minds with intrusive unwelcome messages.
3) God doesn't speak to anyone because there is no God. Psychotics "hear God" because their backgrounds create the contexts for their hallucinations.
I remember playing 'hide and seek' when I was six. I don't remember anyone still being unaccounted for, who hasn't shown up, of the countless numbers we played over the intervening years.
"Why did God stop talking to sane people and start talking only to insane people?"
I became a Christian in a Charismatic background... there was a family in our church who had a blind, deaf and dumb daughter.
They specifically claimed that God often spoke to her... I remember the reason they gave was because God met her where she was at, she needed to hear his voice to keep her calm in this world.
If I may play the Devils-I mean Christian- advocate... they might say we no longer need to hear God's voice directly because we have his Holy Spirit and his Word.
Thing is I think God has a bit of a Multiple personality disorder himself because he seems to tell his followers different things.
here is the response that i sent to greta. no reply from her yet.
Why did God create atheists? God didn’t create atheists any more than He created believers. What God created was freewill. How can a person have freewill without the genuine possibility of choosing to reject Him?
This idea is totally unfalsifiable. There's no way to prove that you honestly gave religion a chance. It doesn’t matter whether it’s falsifiable to someone else. What matters is that you have free choice.
there's no way to prove that atheists are sincerely open-minded and willing to consider religion. Atheists subscribe to a worldview that asserts there is nothing supernatural. No person can substantiate such a belief. As long as people allow themselves to be deluded thus, they are not open minded or willing.
Why don't we all perceive him? I comment on this several times at my blog. Sometimes people are too smart for their own good. Sometimes people want scientific evidence of something that’s not completely scientific.
No matter how many times we gave God the old college try-- we don't believe! Here are my thoughts on that subject:
http://thegdebate.blogspot.com/2010/07/l-11.html
The human mind is very prone to believing what it already believes. There have been several prominent, brilliant atheists who have become Christians so this is not entirely true. These people were hostile to Christianity and allegedly “followed the evidence”.
Those are exactly the times we should be most skeptical. That's not when we should be opening our hearts. That's when we should be on our guard. The Bible agrees. 2 Peter 1:5, 1 John 4:1, 1 Thessalonians 5:21. People frequently criticize Christians of being anti-intellectual but, those who do so are not acting in a Christian manner.
http://thegdebate.blogspot.com/2010/08/l-17.html
the God of fundamentalist Christianity is a sadistic nutjob what makes you say this?
why is there suffering there are two kinds of suffering. Gratuitous suffering is the bad things that people do to each other. That is clearly a product of freewill. Inscrutable suffering is
why is there evil evil/sin/immorality are all literally separation from God or God’s will or God’s ways. The possibility of separation is a necessity of people having free choice. If we can’t choose to separate ourselves from God, then our freewill is a sham.
The human mind is prone to numerous cognitive errors -- and many of those cognitive errors make people susceptible to religion. Atheism is a worldview just like religion is a worldview so, it’s a cognitive error also. Atheism is no less a dogma than any religion. The question is why you subscribe to one dogma or worldview over another.
We tend to see intention, even where no intention exists. We tend to see patterns, even where no pattern exists. We don't have a good intuitive understanding of probability, and tend to think events are more improbable than they really are. This is the teleological explanation for God’s existence. We know that design does not come from chaos. Yet, we see evidence of design in our existence. Where did the design come from? How could there be design sans an intelligent designer?
We give excessive weight to personal emotional experience, and aren't good at applying critical thought to those experiences. This is the anthropological explanation for God’s existence. We know that morality, intentionality, qualia, origin, purpose, destiny, etc, all exist and that they are beyond the purview of science. So, we need a worldview that addresses these aspects of life and nontheism isn’t it.
We tend to believe what authority figures tell us. Including that there is no God. Now, why would anyone believe that?
We tend to believe what we're taught as children. The education system has been usurped and is pervaded by secularism. Is that a good thing?
We tend to believe what people we know and trust tell us. This is not always a bad thing.
Atheism is not even a little inconsistent with the belief in gods who don't exist. Nontheism attempts to explain religious belief as a meme or spiritual placebo or whatever. What nontheism can’t determine is whether or not God really exists.
But the belief in God is very much inconsistent with the existence of atheists. Not so. 1 corinthians 1:18, proverbs 14:12, proverbs 12:15, matthew 7:15-29
Christianity fully anticipates that there will be nonbelievers
I have yet to see a religious believer give a good answer for why God exists What would be a good answer to you?
if you say "Mysterious ways," I'm going to scream there are some things in life that are mysterious and that is a good thing. without mystery, exploration ends.
6 comments:
No Greta dear, thats just far to simple and blinking obvious.I think the bible got it wrong when it suggests omnipotent Gods dont like setting any traps.
I suggest Gods are tricky beings who would also very likely enjoy a good old matador bullfight or bloodthirsty gladiator fight, and beside so happens they only created heaven large enough to hold a certain amount of humans.So they needed to make matters a little difficult for some, to help weed out a few folks who could then be sent off for some good old-school justice, by slowly roasting in hell.
Besides somethings needed for fuel to help keep those fires burning brightly down there in hell also.And so what better way than to make salavation a little difficult for some folks.
Many things that are not "beings" with their own "conscience" such as gravity, are easy! for all humas to observe.
Which seems to suggest Gods which are said to be omnipotent "beings" that also do have a "conscience" , must obviously actually purposely choose to hide themselves from many folks.Who they must then hope will soon become available as future fuel ! for Gods use in fire stoking material.
Ramen.Thy wills be done
I remember one of my first instances of questioning my religion as a child. I asked my local theological expert, my grandmother (who taught sunday school), why God stopped talking to people directly. I think I was about 6 years old. I don't remember the answer she gave, probably because I didn't want to lose respect for my beloved gramma.
Then years later my mom married a man who had a psychiatric disorder. He saw ghosts, and heard God's voice.
If gramma were still alive I'd ask, "Why did God stop talking to sane people and start talking only to insane people?"
The non-psychotic people who claim to "hear" God usually mean it metaphorically from what I've seen.
So which is true?
1) God speaks only to psychotics and always has done so. The prophets of the Bible were psychotic.
2) God used to speak to sane people but he decided to switch to just psychotics because he likes invading minds with intrusive unwelcome messages.
3) God doesn't speak to anyone because there is no God. Psychotics "hear God" because their backgrounds create the contexts for their hallucinations.
I remember playing 'hide and seek' when I was six. I don't remember anyone still being unaccounted for, who hasn't shown up, of the countless numbers we played over the intervening years.
Cheers
"Why did God stop talking to sane people and start talking only to insane people?"
I became a Christian in a Charismatic background... there was a family in our church who had a blind, deaf and dumb daughter.
They specifically claimed that God often spoke to her... I remember the reason they gave was because God met her where she was at, she needed to hear his voice to keep her calm in this world.
If I may play the Devils-I mean Christian- advocate... they might say we no longer need to hear God's voice directly because we have his Holy Spirit and his Word.
Thing is I think God has a bit of a Multiple personality disorder himself because he seems to tell his followers different things.
here is the response that i sent to greta. no reply from her yet.
Why did God create atheists?
God didn’t create atheists any more than He created believers. What God created was freewill. How can a person have freewill without the genuine possibility of choosing to reject Him?
This idea is totally unfalsifiable. There's no way to prove that you honestly gave religion a chance.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s falsifiable to someone else. What matters is that you have free choice.
there's no way to prove that atheists are sincerely open-minded and willing to consider religion.
Atheists subscribe to a worldview that asserts there is nothing supernatural. No person can substantiate such a belief. As long as people allow themselves to be deluded thus, they are not open minded or willing.
Why don't we all perceive him?
I comment on this several times at my blog. Sometimes people are too smart for their own good. Sometimes people want scientific evidence of something that’s not completely scientific.
No matter how many times we gave God the old college try-- we don't believe!
Here are my thoughts on that subject:
http://thegdebate.blogspot.com/2010/07/l-11.html
The human mind is very prone to believing what it already believes.
There have been several prominent, brilliant atheists who have become Christians so this is not entirely true. These people were hostile to Christianity and allegedly “followed the evidence”.
Those are exactly the times we should be most skeptical. That's not when we should be opening our hearts. That's when we should be on our guard.
The Bible agrees. 2 Peter 1:5, 1 John 4:1, 1 Thessalonians 5:21. People frequently criticize Christians of being anti-intellectual but, those who do so are not acting in a Christian manner.
http://thegdebate.blogspot.com/2010/08/l-17.html
the God of fundamentalist Christianity is a sadistic nutjob
what makes you say this?
why is there suffering
there are two kinds of suffering. Gratuitous suffering is the bad things that people do to each other. That is clearly a product of freewill. Inscrutable suffering is
why is there evil
evil/sin/immorality are all literally separation from God or God’s will or God’s ways. The possibility of separation is a necessity of people having free choice. If we can’t choose to separate ourselves from God, then our freewill is a sham.
The human mind is prone to numerous cognitive errors -- and many of those cognitive errors make people susceptible to religion.
Atheism is a worldview just like religion is a worldview so, it’s a cognitive error also. Atheism is no less a dogma than any religion. The question is why you subscribe to one dogma or worldview over another.
We tend to see intention, even where no intention exists. We tend to see patterns, even where no pattern exists. We don't have a good intuitive understanding of probability, and tend to think events are more improbable than they really are.
This is the teleological explanation for God’s existence. We know that design does not come from chaos. Yet, we see evidence of design in our existence. Where did the design come from? How could there be design sans an intelligent designer?
response to greta part 2
We give excessive weight to personal emotional experience, and aren't good at applying critical thought to those experiences.
This is the anthropological explanation for God’s existence. We know that morality, intentionality, qualia, origin, purpose, destiny, etc, all exist and that they are beyond the purview of science. So, we need a worldview that addresses these aspects of life and nontheism isn’t it.
We tend to believe what authority figures tell us.
Including that there is no God. Now, why would anyone believe that?
We tend to believe what we're taught as children.
The education system has been usurped and is pervaded by secularism. Is that a good thing?
We tend to believe what people we know and trust tell us.
This is not always a bad thing.
Atheism is not even a little inconsistent with the belief in gods who don't exist.
Nontheism attempts to explain religious belief as a meme or spiritual placebo or whatever. What nontheism can’t determine is whether or not God really exists.
But the belief in God is very much inconsistent with the existence of atheists.
Not so. 1 corinthians 1:18, proverbs 14:12, proverbs 12:15, matthew 7:15-29
Christianity fully anticipates that there will be nonbelievers
I have yet to see a religious believer give a good answer for why God exists
What would be a good answer to you?
if you say "Mysterious ways," I'm going to scream
there are some things in life that are mysterious and that is a good thing. without mystery, exploration ends.
Post a Comment