I don't get why God would punish people like child soldiers that have never even heard of God or those who grew up in an environment making it impossible to follow God by sending them to hell. Or gay people for being born gay. Someone please explain this to me. Another point of concern. What about before marriage was invented? Sex before marriage was the only option. I'm not trying to disprove the bible I'm sure there's more to this.
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Doubt
- Thread starter pwncapone
- Start date
Hello!
God does not punish people. It is people who cause distress to people. The correct question I think is why does God allow people to cause distress. Using children for evil ends is as bad as it can get. If destruction comes from the sky, it won't be because of man's sin. It will be because Man causes children to sin. That is my opinion.
The Bible exists as a warning, not as a god.
AmbiguousGuy
Well-Known Member
Traditional, conservative, old-fashioned Christian theology is a mess and is fading away as new minds replace the old ones. It's possible that not very many Christians nowadays believe as you think they do about God and His punishments.
From my viewpoint, nothing needs explaining to you. You are correctly discerning that such theology is nonsense. God doesn't punish anyone except maybe the insincere and the oblivious.
BSM1
What? Me worry?
Even though it has already been said I'll say it again. "God' neither punishes nor does It rewards. Things are what they are and we make the punishment/reward judgement. I have asked this question before: "If God rewards in this life someone please tell me what Hugh Hefner did right."
oldbadger
Skanky Old Mongrel!
Hi! Where did you get hold of all this? God sending kid soldiers to Hell.... Gay people going to Hell.... and what about sex before marriage? Where from, please? Thnx
I don't recall ever hearing that God sends child soldiers to hell. I remember Jesus saying that those who cause children to sin are the ones who are the ones Jesus spoke against in the Bible.
Photonic
Ad astra!
Well, depending on the way you interpret the Bible, even a baby would go to hell. I know you personally don't hold to that belief (nor, I believe, do you hold to any literal interpretation of Christianity), but that's the concept Original Sin.
chinu
chinu
Punishment ?
Which punishment ?
I never heard of any punishment ?
As nobody was there to attend the marriage parties before that, So.. marriage parties were only possible after that.
Well.. marriage is not the part of sex, marriage is declaration among people/communities that this particular male is responsible to take care of the new born babies after now/marriage.
Well.. if this would have been not so.. than male must have run somewhere after enjoying sex with different females, And poor females might have been left crying alone with their babies to take care of them alone. :sad4:
Thus all this was done to bind the males in responsblities.
Breathe
Hostis humani generis
Neither do I; neither do I think they happen.
Don't worry about it; these are man's rules. Any God who did these things would be unworthy of worship.
Marriage was a social contract for many groups, not a mere ceremony. So before marriage was "invented", marriage already existed as commitment to stay with one another. So don't worry about it.
Don't worry; you're not disproving the Bible; at best you would be disproving a literalistic and theologically dry version of the Bible that people would exploit for their own gains.
Even still, many of your questions do not apply to only the Bible.
You are right, there is more to this. Much more.
God doesn't punish. There is no punishment (nor God in the biblical sense) - there's just life. Life happens. And during life, good things happen as do bad things. People tend to associate these things with a deity to allow for the unexplained to be explained via the deity - or supernatural means.
To those who insists on believing in God, God most certainly does punish by allowing negative things to happen. If this god didn't want these things to happen, they wouldn't. Yet these things DO happen. So we must conclude that God, if he is all powerful as the bible likes to teach, wants these things to happen. Thus he's responsible for them - good and bad. This included punishment.
Bible thumpers can likely find some biblical reference to show this "isn't true" or "factual", but most anything can be proven true/false based of the ambiguous biblical teachings and their personal interpretation.
Possible, but not probable. Especially in the south of the USA. There are many, MANY literal bible readers alive and well today - unfortunately.
Skwim
Veteran Member
Nahum 1:2-3
2 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God;
the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath.
The Lord takes vengeance on his foes
and vents his wrath against his enemies.
3 The Lord is slow to anger but great in power;
the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.
2 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God;
the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath.
The Lord takes vengeance on his foes
and vents his wrath against his enemies.
3 The Lord is slow to anger but great in power;
the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished.
Super Universe
Defender of God
So then any parent who has a child and "allows" that child to fall down and skin their knee must really "want" that to happen?
Super Universe
Defender of God
What benefit would human rabbi's who lived 4,000 years ago have for writing these things if they weren't true?
Maybe they wanted their own people to stay in line and obey their own traditions and keep themselves separate from other people? Most people couldn't read back then. The written word had power, the power to scare the unknowing people and even give them confidence in battle against their enemies.
methylatedghosts
Can't brain. Has dumb.
Any parent who is constantly hovering around to catch a child whenever it might fall and skin a knee is doing a disservice to the child.
BSM1
What? Me worry?
Although you are led to believe differently by the media and Hollywood, not everyone in the south USA is a mouth-breathing reactionary evangelical. Most are as religiously sensible as any other part of the US. For instance, you could have made the same statement about devote Catholics in the northern states or the weird cult types out west.
Nyingjé Tso
Dharma not drama
Vanakkam,
Hm, I would like to say, this is my personnal understanding of this:
Well, which parent hit and lock his children in a dark basement full of rats and monsters forever when the children make a single mistake ?
If the children is treatened to be locked forever away at a single mistake all the time, he will forget about loving his father/mother and will only fear punishement, and see punishment in them. Parents become then dangerous and monsters themselves.
I don't think God is like that, I hope I'm not the only one ! xD
Child soldiers, people born without hearing of God, atheists are not wrong people doomed to be punished. The conciousness we call many names allow us to follow our paths.
Imagine a mother warning her little children that just learned to walk: "don't go near the stairs, you'll fall"
The little children then go away from his mother's arms, and venture by himself in the house, in the world. He go near the stairs and trip, scratching his knee.
He begin to cry and cry, so his mother come and take him with her.
What will she do to her children ? Hitting him and punishing him because he didn't listened to her ? That wouldn't be very good for the children, as he is already crying in pain. A mother would logically heal and comfort her children.
Why punishing him ? What caused pain to the children ? He caused pain by his own actions, not by the action of her mother. His mother didn't push him in the stairs ! (what kind of mom would do that?!)
The children punished himself: the result of his actions were negative, they caused harm and pain. What the need for an eternal punishement in the basement with monsters ?
I think that basically, we are already punished by our karma. Perform bad actions, you'll have bad results back. God is the mother/father that warn us, that comfort us, the person we come to and say "Listen, I've made a bad mistake, I'm sorry...".
Premarital sex ? Why is it advised not ? Because by having sex while being immature, with many many people, you'll have problems like being young pregnant and having diseases.
Does that mean each time you have premarital sex you are immature, and going to have diseases and being pregnant ? No. When you deeply love someone, when you don't force it, and take necessary steps and when you are loyal to your partner no matter what, you'll not make bad actions and not get bad results.
If you carefully go down the stairs, you'll not trip and fall.
Child soldiers are lacking love, and dragged into much suffering due to their young mind and ignorance, by people that have more power than them....Why would God punish them ? If they kill, their bad actions will come back at them in this life or in another, God doesn't have to do any punishment.
Ahah, Sorry, I may sound stupid, but this is how I feel about this Because, when you fear God, how can you be someone naturally good and go close to Him if all the time you are litterally forcing yourself to act like this or that ? If you think more about the punishement than about God, then when are you loving Him ? It can become an issue in spiritual life, I think
:bounce have a good day everyone !
Hm, I would like to say, this is my personnal understanding of this:
Well, which parent hit and lock his children in a dark basement full of rats and monsters forever when the children make a single mistake ?
If the children is treatened to be locked forever away at a single mistake all the time, he will forget about loving his father/mother and will only fear punishement, and see punishment in them. Parents become then dangerous and monsters themselves.
I don't think God is like that, I hope I'm not the only one ! xD
Child soldiers, people born without hearing of God, atheists are not wrong people doomed to be punished. The conciousness we call many names allow us to follow our paths.
Imagine a mother warning her little children that just learned to walk: "don't go near the stairs, you'll fall"
The little children then go away from his mother's arms, and venture by himself in the house, in the world. He go near the stairs and trip, scratching his knee.
He begin to cry and cry, so his mother come and take him with her.
What will she do to her children ? Hitting him and punishing him because he didn't listened to her ? That wouldn't be very good for the children, as he is already crying in pain. A mother would logically heal and comfort her children.
Why punishing him ? What caused pain to the children ? He caused pain by his own actions, not by the action of her mother. His mother didn't push him in the stairs ! (what kind of mom would do that?!
) The children punished himself: the result of his actions were negative, they caused harm and pain. What the need for an eternal punishement in the basement with monsters ?
I think that basically, we are already punished by our karma. Perform bad actions, you'll have bad results back. God is the mother/father that warn us, that comfort us, the person we come to and say "Listen, I've made a bad mistake, I'm sorry...".
Premarital sex ? Why is it advised not ? Because by having sex while being immature, with many many people, you'll have problems like being young pregnant and having diseases.
Does that mean each time you have premarital sex you are immature, and going to have diseases and being pregnant ? No. When you deeply love someone, when you don't force it, and take necessary steps and when you are loyal to your partner no matter what, you'll not make bad actions and not get bad results.
If you carefully go down the stairs, you'll not trip and fall.
Child soldiers are lacking love, and dragged into much suffering due to their young mind and ignorance, by people that have more power than them....Why would God punish them ? If they kill, their bad actions will come back at them in this life or in another, God doesn't have to do any punishment.
Ahah, Sorry, I may sound stupid, but this is how I feel about this
Because, when you fear God, how can you be someone naturally good and go close to Him if all the time you are litterally forcing yourself to act like this or that ? If you think more about the punishement than about God, then when are you loving Him ? It can become an issue in spiritual life, I think:bounce have a good day everyone !
Searching For Truth
Member
^ lots of good points!!!
Me Myself
Back to my username
I am with Od.