Agnostic75 said:
The God of the Bible cannot exist since it would not make any sense for God to ask people to love him since he can only do good things. In another thread, you said that God did not have to create humans, but that is not a good argument. First of all, Craig, Moreland, and Aquinas basically said that God is the greatest possible being, and cannot improve. That means that God's nature compels him to always do the best possible thing, and creating humans was one of the best possible things that God has done. God must not only do good things since that is his nature, but he must also do particular good things. Otherwise, all good things would be equal, but of course, they are not all equal. Refusing to do good things would be against God's nature.
1robin said:
Tell that to the 3 out of every four people in history that have thought he made perfect sense.
What you said has nothing whatsoever to do with what I said. Even if 99% of the people in the world were Christians, my arguments would still be valid.
You have claimed that God did not have to create humans, but he certainly did since that was part of his nature, and he has to always act according to his nature. Even sinful, fallible, imperfect humans are often compelled by their conscience to do good things, not only good things, but particular good things. An omnibenevolent God would be far more compelled by his conscience to do good things, including particular good things. Surely God must always do the best possible good thing since all good things are obviously not equal.
Agnostic75 said:
Second, after God created humans, his nature also required him to provide many things for them, such as food, eternal life, and keeping his promises, so creating humans alone was not a good thing without those other things. Some babies are born with serious birth defects, suffer a lot for a few days, and then die. Merely being born would not be helpful to those babies if God did not provide them with anything else.
1robin said:
Whatever conditions or arrangements were justified before the fall were not after.
Justification is irrelevant to the valid argument that God has always had to do the best possible thing before, and after the fall. God had to create humans since he always has to do the best possible thing. Even if he didn't have to create humans, after he created them he definitely had to make some kinds of provisions for their survival, and well-being. John 3:16 says that God sent Jesus to the earth because he "so loved the world," and the Bible says that angels rejoice when people get saved. Such love by an omnibenevolent being must by necessity be manifested not only by doing good things, but also by doing specific good things.
Logically, no being is admirable if he does not have the option not to be admirable, and must always do what he does. Morality has no meaning without choice. Choice implies options. God never chooses to do good things since he must always do good things. The notion that an omniscient, omnibenevolent being would ask people to love him is preposterous, and illogical since that would be deceptive, and an omnibenevolent being would not be able to be deceptive. A God might exist, but surely not the God of the Bible.
Another excellent reason why the God of the Bible cannot exist is that a loving, fair, worthy, and just God would not set up a system where he would deny eternal life to some people based upon where they lived. For example, South Korea is one of the most heavily evangelized countries in the world, and has the largest Christian church in the world by far. Education and media are advanced. Surely many non-Christians who live in South Korea could not claim ignorance of the Bible, and it would be illogical for anyone to claim that all of them, or even the majority of them have not been properly evangelized. Surely many non-Christian South Koreans have Christian family members, or friends, who have discussed the Bible at length with them many times. From a Christian perspective, those non-Christians would not have eternal life if they died today. Logically, it is a given that at least some of those South Korean non-Christians would have become Christians if they had been raised in the U.S.
It is important to note that it is a given that at least some American non-Christians would have become Christians if they had been raised in South Korea.
