26th January 2011
“It's common for Christians to compare the relationship between humanity and God to that between husband and wife. God is the 'man' of the house to whom humanity owes obedience, respect, and honour. Usually this relationship is portrayed as one of love, but in far too many ways, God is more like an abusive spouse who only knows how to love through intimidation and violence.”
January 26th, 2011 at 8:24
I entirely reject the comparison. I expect to be neither the master nor the slave in any relationship with people.
Non-existent fairies in the sky get nothing!!
January 26th, 2011 at 16:39
Here is a question the christians in the room. It runs along the same theme as this quote.
So you get into heaven. A year, or decades down the road, you have a bad day. You instinctively cuss and take god’s name in vein. Is the threat of getting your ass kicked into hell still possible? Will the vengeful god overact and body slam you off a cloud and watch gravity pull you down into the abyss with us? Are you always under the threat of admonishment if you screw up? Are there any pertinent biblical passages that explain this scenario? I’d hate to think that you will be “under the gun” so to speak, for an eternity.
January 27th, 2011 at 0:49
Holy – bad example. How could anyone have a bad day listening to harp music…for eternity.
January 27th, 2011 at 4:50
This is what makes me believe God is made in our image instead of vice versa. IMO the God of the Bible is a cross section of human behavior that shows the good and the bad ways people have, and will, act. The problem for potential “backsliders” (or converts) is, reconciling immoral behavior to a God that is supposedly only good, or at the very worst, only has the best in mind for his creation (this is assuming most religious people believe God has no part of evil incorporated into It).
The only rationale I can think of are:
1) It is not omnipotent. In this case I think it would be wrong (or at least ignorant, which is not a great thing to be) to ascribe this status to It.
2) It is omnipotent, but doesn’t take measurable action to minimize suffering or to keep bad shit from happening to good people. If so, It is not necessarily evil in the traditional sense, but is definitely not worth the time and energy we invest into it. In a way I consider this evil.
Then again, a believer can just say we don’t know Its ways. At the same time I just found Romans 8:28 (NIV):
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
Favoritism, prejudice, and the like are generally viewed to be bad things. Why would you want to worship such a being? And that isn’t even directly mentioning hell… but as always, His ways are not Our ways (they say). For all the bereaved father knows, his kid would have been a mass murderer. Who is anyone to think negatively about anything a deity supposedly allows to happen? But who’s to say those mass murdered wouldn’t in turn have done more harm than good in their lives? Then again, if an organism does nothing else besides reproduce during it’s life, hasn’t it fulfilled its purpose – at least from some type of biological or evolutionary perspective?
But how could people know Its will? It seems like pretty much all religions will ultimately fall back on It being unknowable and incomprehensible. In the end deities are IMO subjective creations of the people that bother to recommend it to others – usually those who don’t have the faculties or mindset of thinking critically. A mind virus? Or bacteria.
Sorry for the derail ya’ll… I’m not usually in such a mind state to form something so semi-coherent… I just spent three hours in an excellent conversation about such things. Ultimately I’ll take the deists word for it. If a supreme being exists that did/does what is attributed to it, it is outside the realms of humans to try to grasp and understand. They can study all they want but will never have an ounce of comprehension regarding their god. I’d give It serious props for the mechanics of it all providing that creation could be attributed to it in a scientific manner.
BTW… where did Noah keep the pair of brain parasites? I don’t think they could survive in the open air. Someone mentioned today what several very large parasites look like on a CAT/MRI/whatever scan when they’re just about done killing it’s (human) host by munching through its brain tissue. Yeah. God LOVES us ever so much!!1! Oh, and the victim was seriously a missionary that was working in a pretty nasty country. LOL.