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atheism is a (religious position)

DNB

Christian
Strange, then, that anybody at all should have survived the flood, isn't it? I mean, God could have just wiped them all out and been done with it, since surely an omniscient God would know that the progeny of those 8 would be just as wicked as before!

Your "christianity" has given you a most depressing and disturbing view of what you suppose is "God's creation." This is very hard to understand.
The fact the that 8 people survived has given hope to all those who have descended from Noah - elucidating the ineffable and immeasurable mercy of God.
 

Mock Turtle

Oh my, did I say that!
Premium Member
You ask for evidence, because you assume that my claims are conjecture or indoctrination, are you serious?
I think you are serious (like so many in the USA), which is the issue. How about providing some evidence for your claims.
And you conclude that my views are pessimistic, when they are meant to reverse the effects of desensitization?
Your views are seemingly the catastrophic view regarding humans - as to which the worst we often see evidenced applies to all in some way. Which is just ludicrous. Have you travelled much or read much as to world news - apart from the headlines?
How oblivious are you?
Look in the mirror. At least I try to learn from every new piece of evidence that comes along rather that sticking to a literal interpretation of some old religious text - and one of many - so why did you choose that particular one?
 

F1fan

Veteran Member
The fact the that 8 people survived has given hope to all those who have descended from Noah - elucidating the ineffable and immeasurable mercy of God.
The Genesis myths are not factual.

But if you insist on interpreting them as true then it reveals that God is a screw up and tries to fix his mistakes, but only makes things worse.

Mercy? No. God is like the Great and Powerful Oz, just men behind curtains.
 

joelr

Well-Known Member
The fact the that 8 people survived has given hope to all those who have descended from Noah - elucidating the ineffable and immeasurable mercy of God.
Mercy? In that story he murdered all other people, babies, children, animals, to "start over"?
He also sent a plague to kill 70,000, twice. Sent Satan to torture Job because he was good.

He also forgot to tell his people about heaven until the NT, after the Hebrew were exposed to Greek religions who already had the concept of personal savior demigods who get your soul into heaven. Then suddenly heaven is also for everybody in this religion.

Except so is the eternal afterlife, especially if one has freedom of religion. Awful deity. Luckily he's made up.
 

Firenze

Active Member
Premium Member
The fact the that 8 people survived has given hope to all those who have descended from Noah - elucidating the ineffable and immeasurable mercy of God.
Or.... the fact that this 'all powerful' god was not competent or compassionate enough to find a way to punish its creation without bringing the terror of drowning to men, women and children served to let those descendants know that their god was a feckless thug with a gun, narcissistically demanding "Worship me or die".
 

Copernicus

Industrial Strength Linguist
The Genesis myths are not factual.

It's worse than that. They are a less elaborate, reworked version of the pagan myth originally recorded in the Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh. That was the Semitic version of the myth that had originally been handed down from the Sumerian epic of Bilgamesh.

See also the Wikipedia entry for Noah's Ark, which cites the Gilgamesh reference to Utnapishtim as the likely historical source.
 

DNB

Christian
I think you are serious (like so many in the USA), which is the issue. How about providing some evidence for your claims.

Your views are seemingly the catastrophic view regarding humans - as to which the worst we often see evidenced applies to all in some way. Which is just ludicrous. Have you travelled much or read much as to world news - apart from the headlines?

Look in the mirror. At least I try to learn from every new piece of evidence that comes along rather that sticking to a literal interpretation of some old religious text - and one of many - so why did you choose that particular one?
The Bible corresponds with reality - man is wicked, and we all deserve to die - but God is merciful.
Christianity is the one true religion.
 

DNB

Christian
Just as your God created them. So he’s responsible.

And why is mass murder something to be proud of? You should feel ashamed.


You’re evil, too, according to your claim above.
Man is wicked, and we all deserve to die - only a righteous person would make such an assertion
 

DNB

Christian
The Genesis myths are not factual.

But if you insist on interpreting them as true then it reveals that God is a screw up and tries to fix his mistakes, but only makes things worse.

Mercy? No. God is like the Great and Powerful Oz, just men behind curtains.
God is merciful - but the unrepentant will not be forced to accept His grace - you need to start showing more awareness
 

DNB

Christian
Mercy? In that story he murdered all other people, babies, children, animals, to "start over"?
He also sent a plague to kill 70,000, twice. Sent Satan to torture Job because he was good.

He also forgot to tell his people about heaven until the NT, after the Hebrew were exposed to Greek religions who already had the concept of personal savior demigods who get your soul into heaven. Then suddenly heaven is also for everybody in this religion.

Except so is the eternal afterlife, especially if one has freedom of religion. Awful deity. Luckily he's made up.
man is wicked, we all deserve to die - be thankful that God has spared you
 

DNB

Christian
Or.... the fact that this 'all powerful' god was not competent or compassionate enough to find a way to punish its creation without bringing the terror of drowning to men, women and children served to let those descendants know that their god was a feckless thug with a gun, narcissistically demanding "Worship me or die".
The wages of sin is death - they were warned, and Noah's relatives did not take him seriously.
God was being merciful by letting them live as long as He did. Even during the conquest, He waited until their sins reached an intolerable level
 

Firenze

Active Member
Premium Member
The wages of sin is death - they were warned, and Noah's relatives did not take him seriously.
God was being merciful by letting them live as long as He did. Even during the conquest, He waited until their sins reached an intolerable level
So we agree. This god couldn’t figure out a less violent way to punish people who made it mad. And what sense does it make to claim that an ‘all knowing’ god was so oblivious that it didn’t KNOW that its creation would continue to sin? Are you admitting that it wasn’t omniscient either?
 

joelr

Well-Known Member
man is wicked, we all deserve to die - be thankful that God has spared you
If that god were real he is wicked. If he was real I would not be thankful, I would say save one of the 10,000 children who starve every day instead.
But I don't believe folk tales in books without evidence.
 

joelr

Well-Known Member
The wages of sin is death - they were warned, and Noah's relatives did not take him seriously.
God was being merciful by letting them live as long as He did. Even during the conquest, He waited until their sins reached an intolerable level
another story, re-written from older flood stories Epic of Gilamesh for one. Fiction.


Noah - Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned

Gilamesh - . When the seventh day dawned I loosed a dove and let her go. She flew away, but finding no resting- place she returned.


Noah - And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

Gilamesh - looked for land in vain, but fourteen leagues distant there appeared a mountain, and there the boat grounded; on the mountain of Nisir the boat held fast, she held fast and did not budge. One day she held, and a second day on the mountain of Nisir she held fast and did not budge. A third day, and a fourth day she held fast on the mountain and did not budge; a fifth day and a sixth day she held fast on the mountain.



Noah - And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake;

Gimamesh - , I made a sacrifice and poured out a libation on the mountain top. Seven and again seven cauldrons I set up on their stands, I heaped up wood and cane and cedar and myrtle. When the gods smelled the sweet savour, they gathered like flies over the sacrifice.




Noah - And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
Gilamesh - When the seventh day dawned the storm from the south subsided, the sea grew calm, the flood was stilled;



Noah - And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.

Gilamesh - Gilgamesh, the son of Ninsun, lies in the tomb.


Noah's flood


Andrew George submits that the Genesis flood narrative matches that in Gilgamesh so closely that "few doubt" that it derives from a Mesopotamian account. What is particularly noticeable is the way the Genesis flood story follows the Gilgamesh flood tale "point by point and in the same order", even when the story permits other alternatives. In a 2001 Torah commentary released on behalf of the Conservative Movement of Judaism, rabbinic scholar Robert Wexler stated: "The most likely assumption we can make is that both Genesis and Gilgamesh drew their material from a common tradition about the flood that existed in Mesopotamia. These stories then diverged in the retelling."[69] Ziusudra, Utnapishtim and Noah are the respective heroes of the Sumerian, Akkadian and biblical flood legends of the ancient Near East.

Noah - The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Gimamesh - “Wisest of gods, hero Enlil, how could you so senselessly bring down the flood? Lay upon the sinner his sin, Lay upon the transgressor his transgression, Punish him a little when he breaks loose, Do not drive him too hard or he perishes; Would that a lion had ravaged mankind Rather than the flood, Would that a wolf had ravaged mankind Rather than the flood, Would that famine had wasted the world Rather than the flood, Would that pestilence had wasted mankind Rather than the flood
 

F1fan

Veteran Member
The Bible corresponds with reality - man is wicked, and we all deserve to die - but God is merciful.
Christianity is the one true religion.
And your God made humans how he wanted. How is creating wicked humans merciful when that design hurts children?

The more Bible literalists assert their interpretation is correct the more God is either inept or a sociopath. Or both.

Man is wicked, and we all deserve to die - only a righteous person would make such an assertion
So you are claiming to be righteous only because you interpret the Bible literally? It’s righteous to make God look like a total idiot or criminal with that sort of interpretation?

The wages of sin is death - they were warned, and Noah's relatives did not take him seriously.
God was being merciful by letting them live as long as He did. Even during the conquest, He waited until their sins reached an intolerable level
This interpretation is still a bad look for God because everything is how God crested it.

If God wanted a permanent Eden don’t you think God would have succeeded? Humans can be moral with free will, but God sabotaged Eden by making Adam and Eve naive and unable to resist temptation. Remember God created Satan and allowed him to tempt A&E. God knew they weren’t capable of resisting.

We blame God, not the naive.
 
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