I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things

[Triumph]

No, no..
There is only One G-d that the Bible refers to, and that is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe and all it contains.

It is people that claim that G-d is this or that .. or that we should believe this or that.
satan encourages division, for obvious reasons. We should be constantly aware of this.
G-d belongs to nether 'east' nor 'west'.
Wherever you see the titles of nations in 'a church', then beware

Church of England .. Russian Orthodox Church etc. etc.
G-d does not look at our tribe, but at our hearts.

True, there is only ONE GOD. All others are fiction people believe is God.
People miss the fact that GOD created plants and animals FIRST before man was created.
But the invented Lord God that Abraham created says that man was created first before plants and animals.
The truth comes before a lie about it.
The truth existed before Abraham's lies existed.
Pharisees are sons of Abraham supporting everything Abraham said believing it is truth. Jesus is the one speaking truth
John 8/37 "I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you."
The truth Jesus tells the supporters of Abraham is called a lie by them.and they refuse to believe Jesus because they believe what their father Abraham passed down as truth.
They are doing the works of Abraham by supporting Abraham and not believing Jesus.
They threaten to KILL Jesus because they do not believe Jesus because they believe Abraham instead.
Jesus said, "But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham."
God speaks with Jesus but God did not speak with Abraham. Abraham lied when he told people God spoke with him giving Abraham a covenant.
In John verse 44 Jesus is calling Abraham the devil because Abraham lied when Abraham said God selected him. God never spoke with Abraham.
The sons of Abraham then call Jesus a devil. Jesus calls the sons of Abraham, liars. Jesus told them they are going to die in their sins if they do not believe Jesus..
I AM is God and before Abraham was born, the truth of God existed.
The Bible is not just about 1 religion, it is about 2 completely different religions and those 2 religions worship 2 different Gods.
Jesus worships the only God that ever existed. The sons of Abraham worship a man made God no more real than Zeus or Thor or Ra.
It is Abraham that invented his own Lord God to exalt himself, just like a Greek invented Zeus complete with volumes of literature to support the existence of his fictional God.

 

[KWED]

It is beyond my understanding why anyone would believe such a being exists.

It's pretty simple, and it was nicely put by Aristotle when he said "Give me the boy until he is seven, and I will show you the man".
Of course, there are the occasional cases of people who have suffered personal trauma or psychotic episodes in later life, but basically it is down to childhood indoctrination.

 

[KWED]

I've had it so easy that I must be one of the chosen people.

It's funny how god seems to favour well-educated, well adjusted people in stable societies. It is usually the devout poor on whom he craps.
A very rum cove, this "god" chap.

 

[KWED]

There is a prayer from the Bab that finishes with the required meditation on this topic,

".............Indeed shouldst Thou desire to confer blessing upon a servant Thou wouldst blot out from the realm of his heart every mention or disposition except Thine Own mention; and shouldst Thou ordain evil for a servant by reason of that which his hands have unjustly wrought before Thy face, Thou wouldst test him with the benefits of this world and of the next that he might become preoccupied therewith and forget Thy remembrance....."
—The Báb

Our choices are our path. In the first path every mention of God is inclusive of embracing all we face.

The later tests are what we all face with free will choices.

Regards Tony

Perhaps you are not aware, but meaningless religious platitudes tend to have little impact on rational thinkers.
Instead of constantly quoting some deluded, 19th century Persian hippy, why not try formulating your own ideas? Just a thought.

 

[KWED]

That was not it at all, but it was ill advised for him to say that. It is saying if you do bad things, and God wants to punish you for it, this material world will be favorable to you. The rationale behind that is that when things are pleasant in the material world, you think you don't need spiritual happiness, and thus you miss out probably because you won't be searching spiritual sustenance.

However, God can also be merciful to people who do bad things if He wishes and have bad consequences for what they have done.

It is too involved in a spiritual system of thought for people like him to appreciate it, or for you, either.

So god's best approach to people who do bad stuff is to encourage them to do more bad stuff?
Why would he do that?

 

[KWED]

This being has been given the name Abraxas.

And damn fine it is too!

 

[Triumph]

So god's best approach to people who do bad stuff is to encourage them to do more bad stuff?
Why would he do that?

God's approach is to warn man creates the extinction of his specie in Thermonuclear WW3, the end of days war, knowing in advance none will prevent it from happening, what to do when it starts and what people start the war and how it unfolds and the result of it.

A seraphim like a F-35, flies with Distributed Aperture System in twain. It has coals of fire beneath it's wings= missiles, fully loaded it looks like a candlestick.
It comes in clouds including a vapor cone on the wings when breaking the sound barrier it sounds like thunder. It is a burner, a reaper of men.
The fighter jet never marries as it does not change sides in battle and even though there are thousands of them it can not reproduce itself. Genesis 1 tells us heaven is the sky above our head where birds fly. Fighter jets are called hateful birds and the cage of everything unclean when they carry a nuclear payload.
The Lord of Hosts is the commander in chief of the air force. When a coal of fire is on his lips, the command to kill, the pilot= angel= messenger with the message follow our laws or die, takes that coal in his hand and fires those missiles.

 

[viole]

If God is fair and just, and God loves everyone, why do some people have it so easy whereas other people have such difficult lives? I know the religious apologists have answers but I do not accept those answers. I want to know why even though I know I will never know why.

i suspect that having an easy life, actually favors atheism. I, for instance, had a very easy life until now. Almost boring, how easy it was. Like most in Scandinavia, whose strong social state sort of takes care of the social safety that citizens in other countries might not have. And the fact that Scandinavia is so secular, might not be unrelated to that. After all, if there are no foxholes, what is belief in God good for?

But to go back to your question, I think it is simple to answer. Either He is neither just nor fair, or He simply does not exist. And, in the latter case, bad luck just happens, in the same way a kid gets cancer and dies before she is 1, while his friend lives until he is 100, independently of his moral stature.

So, all you have to do is drop the premise, and everything will become crystal clear, and vastly more simple. Like a copernican moment.

ciao

- viole

 

[Trailblazer]

i suspect that having an easy life, actually favors atheism. I, for instance, had a very easy life until now. Almost boring, how easy it was.

I doubt easy or difficult has anything to do with atheism vs. belief, I think it is more related to our fate. I know many believers who have had it easy.

I have always been employed with a good income, had good health insurance, and I have more money and assets than I could ever use, but I have never had an easy life. Life is about more than physical comforts and material things.

My life now is a little easier than it has been for the last 22 years but it is no picnic.
I cannot even imagine what easy would be like.

You have had a very easy life 'until now'?

 

[viole]

I doubt easy or difficult has anything to do with atheism vs. belief, I think it is more related to our fate. I know many believers who have had it easy.

I have always been employed with a good income, had good health insurance, and I have more money and assets than I could ever use, but I have never had an easy life. Life is about more than physical comforts and material things.

My life now is a little easier than it has been for the last 22 years but it is no picnic.
I cannot even imagine what easy would be like.

You have had a very easy life 'until now'?

Our fate? That is ultimately being food for the worms.

And Yes. Very easy.

ciao

- viole

 

[Trailblazer]

Our fate? That is ultimately being food for the worms.

I did not mean our ultimate fate. I meant what happens to us during this life.

 

[viole]

I did not mean our ultimate fate. I meant what happens to us during this life.

So, don’t you think that postulating the non existence of God, nicely resolve your problem?

ciao

- viole

 

[KWED]

God said "thou shalt not kill."

He has also said to kill plenty of people, so a bit of a mixed message there.

President George W. Bush (elected by the Religious Right) told us lies to attack Iraq and Afghanistan,

He said god had spoken to him, and who are we to question god's will or his messenger?

and neither was linked to terrorism.

Not true. Both countries provided support for terrorist groups.

Even if they were linked to terrorism, God told us not to attack them.

That's not what he told Bush.

God emphasized that in Revelation when He (God) specifically told us not to attack Babylon, Iraq. Revelation told us that God would punish us if we attacked Iraq, for example, Revelation 15 says that there would be 7 plagues. I wonder if that means seven mutations of the same plague?

Having defied God (sinned worse than ever in the history of religion by attacking Babylon) we now face the end times. No other sin in history resulted in the complete destruction of earth and all life on it, but this is the worst sin in history.

Now people are being punished by God, in exactly the way that the bible said they would be. Now people are praying to God for relief. But, there is no relief. There is no end of God's vengeance because mankind defied God. Praying, therefore, will not help.

From your quotation (about creating prosperity and disaster) it seems as though these are random events. They are not random. They are disasters when God is punishing us for defying Him (God). We must understand the bible in order to understand why we are being punished, and understand that prayer will not help us once we sin. We must take the punishment that God promised us.

God, being god, he can do anything and stuff, so he can change his mind, which he obviously did when he told Bush to go to war with Iraq.

 

[KWED]

"I create evil"

Given that god can do anything, and the universe doesn't have to be a certain way - why did god create evil at all? What was the point?
If I was an omni-everything god and I wanted to create a universe (and I wasn't a psychopath), I wouldn't include evil in it.
Imagine a world without evil. Everyone getting along, everyone being helpful. No wars or murders or rapes and stuff.
What was god thinking?!

 

[KWED]

That could only be true for a god who is not Omni. For an Omni god what you claim is impossible.

This is a problem that many apologists struggle with.
The god they describe in this argument is merely observing our actions and then saying "I knew you would do that" - and anyone can do that.

 

[Trailblazer]

So, don’t you think that postulating the non existence of God, nicely resolve your problem?

ciao

- viole

No, because there would still be such a thing as fate, which means things we have no control over, or do you think you can control everything?

I am referring to those things I posted in the OP:
"But there are certain things to which man is forced and compelled, such as sleep, death, sickness, decline of power, injuries and misfortunes; these are not subject to the will of man, and he is not responsible for them, for he is compelled to endure them."

So, whether or not there is a God, we are compelled to endure these things.

 

[Wildswanderer]

It's pretty simple, and it was nicely put by Aristotle when he said "Give me the boy until he is seven, and I will show you the man".
Of course, there are the occasional cases of people who have suffered personal trauma or psychotic episodes in later life, but basically it is down to childhood indoctrination.

Lots of people are converted as adults.

 

[viole]

No, because there would still be such a thing as fate, which means things we have no control over, or do you think you can control everything?

I am referring to those things I posted in the OP:
"But there are certain things to which man is forced and compelled, such as sleep, death, sickness, decline of power, injuries and misfortunes; these are not subject to the will of man, and he is not responsible for them, for he is compelled to endure them."

So, whether or not there is a God, we are compelled to endure these things.

Nope. But that is the point. What we need to endure is sometimes easy, sometimes hard. But whether it is easy, or hard, is independent of God, it is just due to purely naturalistic, and therefore amoral and unintentional contingencies. Luck, basically.

That would completely defuse your question: why does God favor some, but not others, if He loves all equally?

the answer to that is obvious: because there is no God. Especially if He is assumed to be good and fair.

in other words, trying to find a solution for a God that allows all that, is just unnecessary complication of an ultimately simple state of affairs. A bit like when the ptolemaic system was requiring all those complicated epicycles to explain apparent planetary movement.

get rid of the premise that the earth is at the center of the earth, and everything becomes amazingly simpler. Same with God, Get rid of the assumption He exists, and everything becomes amazingly simpler.

ciao

- viole

 

[Wildswanderer]

Given that god can do anything, and the universe doesn't have to be a certain way - why did god create evil at all? What was the point?

Evil is simply the absence of good... God allowed it because he wanted people to be able to love him freely... That is impossible if they didn't have the freedom to also hate him.

 

[KWED]

Jesus tells us to hide in the mountains (because radiation can not penetrate thick soil or rocks.)

That makes no sense.
Do you mean that Jesus told us to hide inside the mountains, not just go up into the mountains?
Even then, there is thick soil and rock in other regions.
And lead is better than rock, so why didn't he tell us to build fallout shelters?

Jesus said leave, flee, and do not take anything with you (because fallout spreads so fast you will not have time to escape it if you spend time collecting valuables.) And Jesus said do not return back to your home to get possessions (that is because once radiated any item can kill you to hold it.)

You can't outrun the blast radius of a nuclear weapon. If you are not already in a shelter when it starts, you are toast. Jesus should have told us to live underground in preparation. His advice is pretty useless.

Part of WW3 is war with China in the South China Sea called the "Sea Beast " in scripture.

Why is it called "The Sea Beast"? That doesn't really fit.

That conflict is on the brink of starting with the threatened occupation of Taiwan.

China is not in any position to launch an amphibious attack on Taiwan. They don't have the resources.