...and now for something completely different: Free Will!

[Trailblazer]

We are talking about the coherence of your depiction of your god. Not your god. We don't have a god to examine. You know that, right?

No, I don't know that. When you speak about God you are speaking about God.
God is not MY God. I don't have a God any more than you have a God. I just have a belief in God.

 

[ppp]

We are talking about the coherence of your depiction of your god. Not your god. We don't have a god to examine. You know that, right?

No, I don't know that. When you speak about God you are speaking about God.

Nope. When I speak about a god, any god, I am speaking about the concept of a god as it is being described by a human being. I have no gods to examine. All that I have are a bunch of humans saying that their description of one or more gods points to something real.

 

[samtonga43]

Nope. When I speak about a god, any god, I am speaking about the concept of a god as it is being described by a human being. I have no gods to examine. All that I have are a bunch of humans saying that their description of one or more gods points to something real.

I am a Christian who understands exactly that what you are saying here, Policy, is completely, absolutely logical. I just do not understand why people say things like this. Most of us can tell the difference between 'God' and 'the God you believe in.'

 

[samtonga43]

No, I don't know that. When you speak about God you are speaking about God.
God is not MY God. I don't have a God any more than you have a God. I just have a belief in God.

And atheists have opinions about your belief. But their opinions about your belief do not equate to 'speaking about God'. Logic 101.

As you have been told over and over again, they are a-theists

 

[CG Didymus]

Killing someone is not the worst thing one can do. How about keeping us alive so we can suffer longer?

But, supposedly, for Baha'is, all we can know about God is what a manifestation of God has told us about him. Which then gets written down and becomes the Scriptures of some religion. So, the main book of Scriptures, the Bible, God did try and wipe everybody out. Which kind of shows me that Baha'is really don't believe in the Scriptures of the other religions. They just act as if they do. They've got their own concepts of God, which can and do contradict the concepts held by people in some of the other religions. And none of the religions can prove their God is real, but they all believe he is real.

 

[Truthseeker]

Really? You think existence or non-existence of God and his so-called messengers makes no difference in the situation, and it is all semantics. You have started realizing that the God theory has many holes. Good progress.

No, I mean that the situation is independent of what everybody thinks it to be. What we believe has no bearing on what God is like, whether there is a God, etc. I still believe in God just as much as before, and that there is one God.

 

[Aupmanyav]

What is wrong to have many, more fun. One comes riding on an eagle, other on a bull, yet another on a peacock, and the Mother comes riding a lion. What is your proof that there is just one God?

 

[KWED]

God hates sin. That's not the same as you hating a human. God has all knowledge and wisdom. You don't.

So hate is not necessarily wrong.

 

[Wildswanderer]

So hate is not necessarily wrong.

Not all hate. Hating something that harms you and others for example.

 

[ppp]

Not all hate. Hating something that harms you and others for example.

A snake bit me once. I was sick for several days. Why should I hate that snake?

 

[Alien826]

Not all hate. Hating something that harms you and others for example.

But ... didn't Jesus tell us to love our enemies? There are more verses to that effect than I can quote.

 

[Alien826]

Yes, I see the difference. However, when atheists talk about God they are talking about God.
There is no get out of jail free card. I mean they cannot talk about God and ten say they are NOT talking about God just because they claim to not believe God exists.

I give up on this one.

No, so we can worship God is not the only reason that God created this world. God created this world as a classroom so we can grow spiritually by living in this world and thereby prepare ourselves for life in the next world, which is a spiritual world.

That makes more sense. Though some of the lessons seem to be a bit too ... final? ... for us to learn much.

Sorry, but that does not fly. The premise upon which the Problem of Evil is based is that if God was benevolent there would be no suffering in this world. I consider it absurd to expect for there to be no suffering just because some people don't like suffering.

I agree, in the sense that it does seem unreasonable to complain every time we prick our fingers. But then, I don't think people take it that far. There are things that go on in the world that are so horrific that we don't have to search for trivia.

It appears as if God has kept you alive for a good amount of time. Are you suffering? Are you sorry you have lived this long? I hope you live a bit longer because I like talking to you, you ask good questions.

Right now I'm OK. I'm retired and am finally free of having to work for a living. Nothing really bad has happened to me, though I have had long periods when I haven't felt happy, mostly as a result of my own bad decisions. If I got to have another shot at life knowing what I know now, I'd take it, but I wouldn't want to relive the whole thing as it actually happened. I plan to live for a while, so get your responses ready!

You missed the point though. You said that God couldn't be totally evil because a totally evil being would destroy us all. I disagreed as a sadistic god would want us to suffer longer.

 

[KWED]

Not all hate. Hating something that harms you and others for example.

So hate doesn't have to lead to murder then? So they aren't comparable.

 

[KWED]

A snake bit me once. I was sick for several days. Why should I hate that snake?

Indeed. It was only behaving according to its innate nature.
You should hate god for creating poisonous snakes when he didn't have to. After all, not all snakes are poisonous. Anyone suffering from a poisonous snake bite is god's responsibility.

 

[Wildswanderer]

A snake bit me once. I was sick for several days. Why should I hate that snake?

It's just doing what it was supposed to. But if you had been addicted to heroin I would suggest that hating heroin is a good thing.

 

[Wildswanderer]

But ... didn't Jesus tell us to love our enemies? There are more verses to that effect than I can quote.

Yes. Notice I said " something" not " someone."

 

[Wildswanderer]

So hate doesn't have to lead to murder then? So they aren't comparable.

Hatred against a person is.

 

[KWED]

That makes more sense. Though some of the lessons seem to be a bit too ... final? ... for us to learn much.

It only "makes sense" once we already exist (although I don't think it does even then).
My issue is why did god create anything in the first place? All the arguments about testing, growing, working towards paradise, etc necessarily assume that we already exist.

I have yet to see an apologist present any kind of cogent argument.

 

[KWED]

It's just doing what it was supposed to. But if you had been addicted to heroin I would suggest that hating heroin is a good thing.

Heroin addicts love heroin.

 

[KWED]

Yes. Notice I said " something" not " someone."

Hating inanimate objects is a pointless exercise.
And again, such hate would not lead to murder.