Some thoughts on Easter Sunday

[Ghel]

On the other side of the philosophical coin, how does believing in a being automatically mean you like it or agree with it? I can believe that the President of the USA exists. That doesn't necessarily mean I like him or agree with him.

[smileyeagle1021]

You've pretty much confessed you hate God, and despite your claim that you believe in a deity, that is not the Judeo-Christian God either, correct? Therefore, that's your answer.

I never denied hating the Judeo-Christian God (or at least what He represents).
The question was, how does simply denying that something exists mean that you hate it?
We aren't talking about me here, we're talking about the argument that denying God is equal to hating God.

[Ghel]

If God is omniscient, then he knows what it would take to convince each person to believe in him. If he's omnipotent, then he has the power to convince each person to believe in him. So if any person doesn't believe in God, it must be that he doesn't want them to believe, or doesn't care. (Assuming, for the sake of argument, that the Christian God actually exists.) If there's some "divine plan," then this must be part of it.

[Fryk]

Oops! Good point, Omniscient, etc. I apologize. The point I was trying to make, though, was, why wouldn't a loving God try to reconcile with those humans that have a problem with him?
"Oh, but he sent his son to do that!"

Nice try, but since they don't believe in Jesus, how does that even remotely help? The only thing the easter story does, really is add another layer of required faith to the whole thing. It helped the Jews of around 30 CE, but the rest of the world just had to take their story at face value. Not one time in 2,00 years has God actually tried to speak with humanity directly, or even gave signs that he's there. And if you believe the Bible, it gets worse, because apparently before that, God could come down and show signs whenever he wanted: burning bush, cloud of fire, pillar of smoke, etc.

[HYHYBT]

f God knows someone hates him, and he is LOVING AND JUST, why wouldn't he try to find out why?

I'm not sure what you mean here... why would anyone "try to find out" something they already know?

[Fryk]

*claps with jackfaire*


C'mon kids, everybody clap, or the Tooth Fairy dies!!!

[jackfaire]

I don't believe that the Tooth Fairy exists and would deny she exists...

*Starts clapping*

[Fryk]

Well, yes, Ghel. From your perspective, that's true. But I have to say, we are arguing on the merits of the Bible, which means, at least hypothatically presuming God's existence. That being said, however, it still makes the whole law unjust. Not unfair, UNJUST.

Hell, let's throw in hatred. If God knows someone hates him, and he is LOVING AND JUST, why wouldn't he try to find out why? Why would he not go to that person and say, as it does in the Bible, "Come, let us reason together"? But no. God says forget that. you say you hate me, I'm not going to even try to work things out between us (so much for that "relationship" evangelicals say God wants with humans). You hated me for 70 years, I'm going to punish you FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER AND EVER!!!!!

That doesn't sound like a just and loving God. It sounds like a child having a temper tantrum.

[Ghel]

You can hate the idea of something. For example, you can hate a character in a book or movie. But that character can't be offended by your feelings toward him, because he doesn't exist.

Denying that the Christian God exists is on par with denying that invisible pink unicorns exist. There's every bit as much evidence for invisible pink unicorns as there is for the Christian God. Which is to say, none at all.

[Fryk]

That doesn't answer the question. How can you hate something you don't believe exists?

[Hobbs]

You've pretty much confessed you hate God, and despite your claim that you believe in a deity, that is not the Judeo-Christian God either, correct? Therefore, that's your answer.

[smileyeagle1021]

Denying God=not liking him.

So, I have to ask. If you deny God, that means you don't believe he exists. How can one hate something they don't believe exists?
I don't believe that the Tooth Fairy exists and would deny she exists... that doesn't mean that I hate the Tooth Fairy, I think that it does a lot of good as a way of comforting children. Still, despite that, doesn't mean that will believe she exists.

[Rageaholic]

I have to chime in. The main problem I have with Christian thought is that we're supposed to put "god" above everything else we can see, feel, and touch. This to me is impossible because god expects us mere humans to gamble on faith. Unlike people, god isn't right there telling us what to do, we're suppposed to put our faith in some 2000 year old book that basically needs to be studied to be understood. It doesn't help that there's so many interprations of the bible.

So it's pretty obvious that we'd be confused at to who god even is. Yet because we don't really "know" who god is outside of books and a few personal accounts, it's hard to put him above everything we do know. And that's OUR fault that we don't know god? WTF?

[Fryk]

See, that's faulty logic right there. How does denying someone=not liking them? One does not necessarily follow the other. And how does a lifetime of maybe 100 years, max, lead to a punishment period of infinity years?

[Hobbs]

Denying God=not liking him.