God is dangerous

[Cacotopia]

The idea of god gave birth to the religions, so the cause of religious institutions is equally if not more dangerous.

 

[Stevicus]

I just posted what I have held as true for many years

If God be god...He is the most dangerous thing alive

your reactions please......

If God be god, then He wouldn't be dangerous to Himself or His own existence. He could create something, blow it up, and then start all over again.

Sure, it might suck for whoever or whatever God creates, but that's the plight of anyone or anything that isn't God. God is just a kid, and the universe is His playground.

I wouldn't say God is "dangerous" when viewed from that perspective. My only real beef with the idea of "God" is that He is presumably in a position to judge humans. Same for prognostications regarding a so-called "Judgement Day," in which He will supposedly blame humanity for all His own wretched follies.

I don't think God is dangerous, although He may be terribly unjust, somewhat immature, and prone to bouts of irrationality.

 

[WalterTrull]

Well, gravity can be dangerous too. More so, if you live in a tent on the roof of a tall building.
Actually, I think many of the concepts of God could be dangerous if they were true. However...

 

[Epic Beard Man]

So has much of the rest of life - I think we are actually better in most regards - some of us regret it all.

Yes we are progressing

 

[Epic Beard Man]

Mostly in the name of God.

Well Genghis Khan was not necessarily a theist and he killed 5% of the planet’s population.

 

[syo]

I just posted what I have held as true for many years

If God be god...He is the most dangerous thing alive

your reactions please......

absolutely agree.

but Jesus says to us that god is full of mercy. we hang on his word.

 

[Fool]

I just posted what I have held as true for many years

If God be god...He is the most dangerous thing alive

your reactions please......

anything that consumes you whole and alive, is definitely scary.

 

[InChrist]

I just posted what I have held as true for many years

If God be god...He is the most dangerous thing alive

your reactions please......

I don't believe God is dangerous, necessarily. I do believe God is awesome and powerful beyond human imagination. In the scripture accounts, humans fall on their face in fear before the presence of an angel, that is a created being. Hard to imagine seeing the Presence of God.

 

[LuisDantas]

I just posted what I have held as true for many years

If God be god...He is the most dangerous thing alive

your reactions please......

Sure, if you define it in such a way.

(Ignostic here.)

God is definitely a very dangerous idea.

When taken too seriously, yes.

 

[1213]

I just posted what I have held as true for many years

If God be god...He is the most dangerous thing alive

your reactions please......

God is good, I have no reason to think He is dangerous, except maybe for evil people, who want to murder lie and steal.

 

[idea]

I would agree that if God exists (a huge, way way out there "if"), then He/She/It would be the most dangerous thing (to humans) in existence.

This is mostly because His/Her/Its moral landscape does not need to be aligned with the human moral landscape whatsoever. And, if we can take The Bible as evidence, it basically proves that God's moral directives don't necessarily adhere to the human view of morality. Which makes Him/Her/It just as dangerous as any sociopath/psychopath, with the added bonus of this being having ultimate power.

Cases in point:

1. Wiping out an entire planet of men, women, children and most all land animals with a flood.
2. Killing the first born male children (some of which were babies - let's not kid ourselves about this) in The Passover. This was, quite literally, an act of terrorism. God held a gun to the children's heads and told the parents he'd pull the trigger if they didn't recognize His/Her/Its authority. God then pulled the trigger - targeting the children with His/Her/Its wrath (instead of those He/She/It was actually angered with) - and blamed the parents for the children's death.
3. Playing mind games with Abraham, requesting that he kill his own son and then reneging, but telling Abraham he was a good/faithful servant for making the attempt. How the correct response shouldn't have been for Abraham to tell God to go stuff himself I will never understand.
4. Never once appearing/acting to straighten out the record with slews of whole generations of people He/She/It supposedly "loves." What a crock.

I could go on... but there is no point. Even this much is proof positive (if we can accept accounts from The Bible as proof, of course) that God's moral compass is pointed somewhere off into the distance from where the human concept of "good" is aligned.

Playing the devil's advocate... or perhaps instead G-d's advocate, pretend you are hired to be G-d's lawyer - if you could fill in the blank with some missing piece of information, can you come up with any scenario/story that would justify 1→4?

Perhaps this life is not the end, perhaps death is the gateway to a better existence, perhaps we need some time to ourselves to figure things out, perhaps we really are refined in the fire etc. etc.

What if G-d really was loving, just, merciful etc. etc. then would it be ok for them to exist? or is there no type of being who should be that powerful?

 

[David T]

One could argue it is the human mind that made God, so how can God be dangerous? It's a mental puppet.

So You are A mental puppet?

 

[Twilight Hue]

So You are A mental puppet?

Well some people are called sheeple so it's an arguable debate although it's not related to controlling an imaginary deity of whom people are the string holders. Cut the strings, God is dead and inanimate like a puppet after the show is over.

 

[David T]

I just posted what I have held as true for many years

If God be god...He is the most dangerous thing alive

your reactions please......

beautiful and dangerous. The contra lily a spectacular plant a carnivore as well. Frank Herbert writ dune based on a trip he made to the oregon dunes. Across the highway is a park full of these. A kind of fly he'll. Nature is always one step ahead of us!!!

 

[A Vestigial Mote]

Playing the devil's advocate... or perhaps instead G-d's advocate, pretend you are hired to be G-d's lawyer - if you could fill in the blank with some missing piece of information, can you come up with any scenario/story that would justify 1→4?

Well, my defense for God would be along the lines of: "Your honor, my client should not be expected to behave according to the ideas of what is 'good' set forth by a bunch of much lower beings (i.e. humans). Since my client is the creator of everything (including this court room and you, yourself, judge), He is also literally the creator of 'good.' And as such, He can interpret the concept however He sees fit." However, please note that as a human attorney, I would only be making this case based on the fact that it is the best available for my client, and not because I agree that it is at all "right."

Perhaps this life is not the end, perhaps death is the gateway to a better existence, perhaps we need some time to ourselves to figure things out, perhaps we really are refined in the fire etc. etc.

This looks good on the surface, but isn't it sort of like saying it is okay for a psychopath to cut small patches of flesh off of his victims, as long as we know that someday he'll be caught and his victims will be given a chance to heal and not be tortured, put under police protection for the rest of their lives? Not so sure that idea holds water.

What if G-d really was loving, just, merciful etc. etc. then would it be ok for them to exist? or is there no type of being who should be that powerful?

If such a being exists, we don't really get a say as to whether it is "okay" for it to exist or not. It already would exist, and whatever that meant is whatever that meant. If it liked the human ideals of "good", we'd be in luck! If it didn't - we'd better be darn sure we don't tick it off. Though it would be a moot point either way, really, if the god chose never to reveal itself or interact with the human race in any objectively meaningful way. Sort of like the situation we have now. We can't even know whether or not we are angering God, because we get no verifiable feedback. Was it God who whipped up those hurricanes? No clue. And even if He did, do we know why for sure? Nope. Did God cause that virus to start spreading and kill all those people? Dunno. Was it God who made me throw up my breakfast the other morning - maybe because I called Sally Schlesinger a poop-head? Anyone's guess is as good as mine.

And while we're on that subject, how moralistic is it to SECRETLY punish or reward someone? Can you imagine if that was how we reinforced concepts with our own kids? Jimmy gets an "A+" on his science test, so we plant a $10 bill on the ground that he can find on his way to school. We see Betty smoking after school, so we plant a spider in her covers that night before bed. Think about it... that is EXACTLY how some people believe that God works, and they're fine with it!!

 

[idea]

This looks good on the surface, but isn't it sort of like saying it is okay for a psychopath to cut small patches of flesh off of his victims, as long as we know that someday he'll be caught and his victims will be given a chance to heal and not be tortured, put under police protection for the rest of their lives? Not so sure that idea holds water.

Not quite - more like is it ok to gut a house if those aluminum wires needs to be replaced with copper, and the led plumbing need to be replaced etc.etc. if we are all saved in the end, will the end justify the means?

If such a being exists, we don't really get a say as to whether it is "okay" for it to exist or not. It already would exist, and whatever that meant is whatever that meant. If it liked the human ideals of "good", we'd be in luck! If it didn't - we'd better be darn sure we don't tick it off. Though it would be a moot point either way, really, if the god chose never to reveal itself or interact with the human race in any objectively meaningful way. Sort of like the situation we have now. We can't even know whether or not we are angering God, because we get no verifiable feedback. Was it God who whipped up those hurricanes? No clue. And even if He did, do we know why for sure? Nope. Did God cause that virus to start spreading and kill all those people? Dunno. Was it God who made me throw up my breakfast the other morning - maybe because I called Sally Schlesinger a poop-head? Anyone's guess is as good as mine.

And while we're on that subject, how moralistic is it to SECRETLY punish or reward someone? Can you imagine if that was how we reinforced concepts with our own kids? Jimmy gets an "A+" on his science test, so we plant a $10 bill on the ground that he can find on his way to school. We see Betty smoking after school, so we plant a spider in her covers that night before bed. Think about it... that is EXACTLY how some people believe that God works, and they're fine with it!!

As a parent, I don't reward my own children for every good thing they do, nor do I punish them for every bad thing... If I had to pay them every time they cleaned their room, or if I grounded them/spanked them every time they did not get 100% on their HW what kind of a person would they be? Hopefully they will clean their room on their own - not because I pay them for it - but because they enjoy the natural rewards their work will bring them... I think natural rewards and consequences are better than artificially rewards/punishments. To raise someone to be independent is to allow natural consequences to take shape rather than imposing artificial ones.

 

[Starbuck]

What God are you talking about and how do you define a God? Travel back 500 years in the past with the current technology we have and you would be considered a God with unthinkable power.

In my opinion any God (or being) who preaches ignorance in the place of gaining knowledge is dangerous. As well as any being or God who is hypocritical is dangerous. Look at any being and judge them by their actions and not what they say. This is why so many are critical of the Abrahamic religions. Thou shall not kill is suddenly interrupted by countless genocides. Their God or the idea of their God is dangerous yes. The whole concept of I love you but if you don't love me well you know how that ends.

Meanwhile there are plenty of good concepts regarding different Gods. Such as one having the ability to achieve inner harmony. Making those beings or ideas a non-dangerous God entity. The circular and very evident concept of cycles in eastern philosophy provide a glimpse into nature of things.

 

[Cacotopia]

Playing the devil's advocate... or perhaps instead G-d's advocate, pretend you are hired to be G-d's lawyer - if you could fill in the blank with some missing piece of information, can you come up with any scenario/story that would justify 1→4?

Perhaps this life is not the end, perhaps death is the gateway to a better existence, perhaps we need some time to ourselves to figure things out, perhaps we really are refined in the fire etc. etc.

What if G-d really was loving, just, merciful etc. etc. then would it be ok for them to exist? or is there no type of being who should be that powerful?

I wouldn't want to be god's lawyer the reparations package to be paid out is massive, maybe that's why the churches ask for money all the time. That one case of planet annihilation alone. I mean the whole world can claim reparations for murdering their ancestors. And the Egyptians, Jeesh, what a case to defend. Infanticidal Genocide. Good luck buddy. I would question your morals if you tried to defend god. Oh man and then Slavery? Oh and the clauses in how to trick people into being slaves forever? Just wow. Get a slave, then get him a wife a couple years into his term of slavery, but when he is to be set free you own his wife and kids. And should he wish to stay with them he's gotta choose enslavement for life. Dirty trick right there.

If a lawyer volunteered to defend god I bet the ethics committee would be calling up that guy to be scrutinized. God's moral compass is complete broken, if you were to compare them with the supposed laws he gave to humanity. What kind of leader do you people respect sirs and ladies? One that breaks all of it's own rules?

 

[Stevicus]

After thinking on this topic, I'm wondering if God really is dangerous:

 

[idea]

I wouldn't want to be god's lawyer the reparations package to be paid out is massive, maybe that's why the churches ask for money all the time. That one case of planet annihilation alone. I mean the whole world can claim reparations for murdering their ancestors. And the Egyptians, Jeesh, what a case to defend. Infanticidal Genocide. Good luck buddy. I would question your morals if you tried to defend god. Oh man and then Slavery? Oh and the clauses in how to trick people into being slaves forever? Just wow. Get a slave, then get him a wife a couple years into his term of slavery, but when he is to be set free you own his wife and kids. And should he wish to stay with them he's gotta choose enslavement for life. Dirty trick right there.

If a lawyer volunteered to defend god I bet the ethics committee would be calling up that guy to be scrutinized. God's moral compass is complete broken, if you were to compare them with the supposed laws he gave to humanity. What kind of leader do you people respect sirs and ladies? One that breaks all of it's own rules?

If you were G-d, how would you change a person't heart? How would you teach them good and evil, how would you teach humility, love, etc.? The university of life vs. a classroom? Let's say one of your children is really really stubborn about learning this stuff - think of the most prideful person you know etc. how would you teach them?

The problems with condemning G-d
- incomplete and/or inaccurate accounts of eternal past, present, future
- free will, personal/humanity's responsibility vs. G-'s responsibility
- distrust/misunderstanding of educational process - university of life -
- distrust of ourselves, thinking we are not strong enough to handle or learn from trials