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Atheism/Existence of God Debates (Please Read OP)

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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 25,848 ✭✭✭✭Zombrex


    homer911 wrote: »
    If you look at the Old Testament situation, the Jewish people had to repeatedly offer sin sacrifices, because no sacrifice was good enough for past and future sins. The forgiveness of the sins of the world, past and future, required an absolutely perfect sacrifice - God himself

    You are missing the point of the question. The question is why? are any of those things the way things are.

    Or to put it another way, if God is omnipotent, surely the following could just as easily been reality

    The Jewish people didn't have to repeatedly offer sin sacrifices, because a single sacrifice was good enough for past and future sins. The forgiveness of the sins of the world doesn't require an absolute perfect sacrifice

    If God decides the rules he decided one reality over another reality. It didn't have to be this one.
    homer911 wrote: »
    The cost comes after, not before. Depending on the circumstances of the individual, the cost can be high or low (for example, a Muslim converting to Christianity), but there is always some element of cost because we are called to deny our sinful nature for Christ.

    Which means it isn't a free gift. If we are required to deny our sinful nature for Christ, then Christs gift isn't free, any more than me saying here have 50 euro now stop smoking. It is essentially a bribe, rather than a gift. But then I guess bribe doesn't sound as nice :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,115 ✭✭✭homer911


    Zombrex wrote: »
    This might not be the thread to get into this...

    A short answer is that God is a God of Love, but he is also righteous and just. God doesn't want to send anyone to hell, nor does he, we condemn ourselves to hell by rejecting his gift.

    Christians believe that God put us on this earth to love him and love our neighbours as ourselves, to grow more like him each day, with his help. There is no point in giving people the option of love, without the freewill to choose or reject it. As God is perfect, and nothing imperfect can come into his presence (or he would become imperfect), we must be made perfect, and we are made perfect in Christ Jesus and his death and resurrection.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,115 ✭✭✭homer911


    Zombrex wrote: »
    Which means it isn't a free gift. If we are required to deny our sinful nature for Christ, then Christs gift isn't free, any more than me saying here have 50 euro now stop smoking. It is essentially a bribe, rather than a gift. But then I guess bribe doesn't sound as nice :)

    No, its definitely a free gift. To use your analogy, I've done nothing to earn the €50 , there is no debt to be repaid or consequence to the donor if I dont quit smoking. The reward is not the €50, but the hope of a cancer free life. Like the rejection of opportunity to quit smoking, the rejection of Christ has its own consequences


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 25,848 ✭✭✭✭Zombrex


    homer911 wrote: »
    A short answer is that God is a God of Love, but he is also righteous and just.

    Righteous and just by who's standards? If you are implying that God is righteous and just by standards other than the ones he just made up the you are implying that God is constrained by some notions of justice that are independent to his own. Which leads to the question where do those notions come from? Are they just the way things are, for no reason, and all things including God are constrained by them?

    If on the other hand God decides what is righteous and what is justice and it is those things simply by virtue of God deciding it will be, then anything God decides to do is by definition righteous and just. So my second re-written paragraph of Jews in the Old Testament would have been just as righteous and justice if God had decided that was how it would be.

    So again you aren't following the question. You are answering the question as if there is only one way things can be, which ironically for a Christian is like saying that God is constrained to do things a particular way.
    homer911 wrote: »
    God doesn't want to send anyone to hell, nor does he, we condemn ourselves to hell by rejecting his gift.

    Who decided that that would require God to send us to hell? If you say that God's justice requires that, who decided what form God's justice would take.
    homer911 wrote: »
    Christians believe that God put us on this earth to love him and love our neighbours as ourselves, to grow more like him each day, with his help. There is no point in giving people the option of love, without the freewill to choose or reject it.

    Who decided that we would exist in a universe where the rules of that universe said there was no point doing that?
    homer911 wrote: »
    As God is perfect, and nothing imperfect can come into his presence (or he would become imperfect)

    Who decided that?

    You may think these are flippant questions, but they really aren't. They are actually very serious theological questions, given what properties Christians have proclaimed God to have (omnipotence, omniscience etc).

    You are working on so many assumptions about how things must be, eg. God can't be in the presence of imperfect things because that would make him imperfect? Why, is that a rule of nature? If so who decided that rule? What would happen if there was a universe where God being the presence of imperfect things didn't make him imperfect? Why aren't we in that universe?

    God has to send people to hell if they refuse his gift? Why, is that a reul of nature? If so who decided that rule? What would happen if there was a univesre where God didn't have to send people to hell for refusing his gift? etc etc

    If God decides everything, why are there so many rules that constrain God?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 25,848 ✭✭✭✭Zombrex


    homer911 wrote: »
    No, its definitely a free gift. To use your analogy, I've done nothing to earn the €50 , there is no debt to be repaid or consequence to the donor if I dont quit smoking. The reward is not the €50, but the hope of a cancer free life. Like the rejection of opportunity to quit smoking, the rejection of Christ has its own consequences

    Yes but who decides those consequences. This is the point of Puddings question.

    Imagine you smoke and your father has the power to give you cancer or not. He says if you don't stop smoking, the consequence of this is that you get cancer. But then you are only going to get cancer because your father is going to give you cancer in the first place if you don't stop smoking.

    So you can say that your father is giving you the gift of a cancer free life if you stop smoking. But your father could just as easily let you continue smoking and just not give you cancer. The negative outcome only exists in the first place because your father decided it would exist. He could have just as easily decided they wouldn't, and there would be no down side to smoking.

    By definition there can be no reason God has to punish us, because there can be nothing God has to do. Saying he has to because of justice or because of holiness is nonsensical because God decided those things in the first place. God has chosen that holiness demands he punish us. God has chosen that justice demands he punish us. He choose those things when he invented what justice would be and invented what holiness would be, in the same way in the analogy your father decided what the consequences of smoking would be.

    The negative outcomes of not accepting God's offer of salvation only exist in the first place because God choose that they would.

    It is not a free gift. To be a free gift God would have to be freely helping you avoid something outside of his control. Not only is he not doing that, he is requiring you do something in return. Your father won't give you cancer for smoking (which he decided would be the outcome of smoking), so long as you tell him how great he is every morning. Not really a good deal, is it.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 25,848 ✭✭✭✭Zombrex


    Think of it this way

    You and your brother drink water (or any other innocuous activity)

    For some reason your father doesn't like this, so he decides he will poison the water.

    He tells you both about this, but says it like it is just an inevitable consequence of drinking water. "Sons you have drunk the water, you will die".

    He then says "But, if you gratefully accept this gift I will give you a water antedote that will spare you from the poison. This is my free gift to you because I love you."

    Your brother is over joyed. How wonderful our father is, we were facing death because we had drunk the water, but now our loving father will give us this free gift of saving you from death. Of course we will be grateful! That is pretty much the way every Christians speaks about Jesus, only focusing on the gift of salvation from hell, rather than why hell exists in the first place and why we are sent there.

    You on the other hand go "Er, hang on a minute. The water is only poison in the first place because you decided to poison it and make dying of poison a consequence of drinking water. You now want me to be happy you are giving me a way to avoid the poison you decided to put in the water, but you want me to 'accept' this gift by being grateful to you for providing it. If I don't you will let the poison kill me"

    That is pretty much the non-Christian view of what Christianity claims about God. Doesn't make much sense, does it?


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,115 ✭✭✭homer911


    Your analogy ommits a few key points of the Christian message..

    God loves us. He wants us to love him.
    Our love for Him is meaningless without the option not to love him (free will)
    Our love is put to the test through this gift of freewill, and we fail

    In your analogy, the father doesn't tell the sons about the poison until after they have drunk it. That is not love. The father appears to have given them no alternatives to drink, that is not love. In your analogy, the only consequence is physical death - both Christians and non-Christians are subject to this.

    So no, your analogy of the Christian message does not make sense..
    If this is the non-Christian view of the Christian message, then it just emphasises the need for evangelism


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 25,848 ✭✭✭✭Zombrex


    homer911 wrote: »
    God loves us. He wants us to love him.
    Our love for Him is meaningless without the option not to love him (free will)
    Our love is put to the test through this gift of freewill, and we fail

    Irrelevant to the point. I could have added at the start that the father claims to love his children. It doesn't matter to the analogy because what matters is the actions of the father, not his claim to love his children. The father could say he poisoned the water and wants his children to be grateful for the antidote because he "loves" them, and whats them to "love" him. But I think you can see that isn't how we would think of love.

    It doesn't matter if God claims to love us, what matters is how he behaves. That is before you even get to the fact that most Christians define love as what ever God does in the first place, which makes the definition rather circular.
    homer911 wrote: »
    In your analogy, the father doesn't tell the sons about the poison until after they have drunk it. That is not love.
    Yes, that is the point.

    God did not consult us about sin or hell or his system of justice. He didn't say "You guys ok with me poisoning the water?" We were just created in a universe where sin means hell and told the only way to not end up in hell is to take the "gift" of salvation (ie we are just told "Yup the water is poison, luckily I have the antidote").

    God just poisoned the water and then said Luckily I have the antidote. I'm glad you agree that isn't love.
    homer911 wrote: »
    The father appears to have given them no alternatives to drink, that is not love.

    Yes again that is the point. The father gives them no alternative to the water being poisoned. Their "options" are take the antidote or die. The father decided that the water would be poison, something the sons had no choice in.

    The question of why the water was poison in the first place is ignored, at least by the brother who represents Christians.
    homer911 wrote: »
    So no, your analogy of the Christian message does not make sense..

    It does homer, I think you are just not prepared to properly look at the Christian message because frankly you want the antidote more than you want to question why the water is poison in the first place.

    It is interesting that you can see these things as not loving when presented the same concept but not as part of the Christian message.


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,245 ✭✭✭✭Fanny Cradock


    Zombrex wrote: »
    It does homer, I think you are just not prepared to properly look at the Christian message because frankly you want the antidote more than you want to question why the water is poison in the first place.

    Ironic that you should say this because it occurred to me that your own particular understanding of Hell - as outlined in your poisoned water analogy - is both deficient and inaccurate when we consider the classical notion of judgement and absolutely silent when we consider alternative views of what Hell is.


  • Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 25,868 Mod ✭✭✭✭Doctor DooM


    Ironic that you should say this because it occurred to me that your own particular understanding of Hell - as outlined in your poisoned water analogy - is both deficient and inaccurate when we consider the classical notion of judgement and absolutely silent when we consider alternative views of what Hell is.

    Does the nature of hell matter in this discussion as long as it is agreed hell is a thing no one would ever want to endure?


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 25,848 ✭✭✭✭Zombrex


    Ironic that you should say this because it occurred to me that your own particular understanding of Hell - as outlined in your poisoned water analogy - is both deficient and inaccurate when we consider the classical notion of judgement and absolutely silent when we consider alternative views of what Hell is.

    If you think that you are missing the point of the analogy.

    The actual poisoning of the water is not relevant. You can replace poisoning with anything you like. You can replace it with being licked by kittens for all I care.

    The point is that if God is omnipotent and created everything then nothing has to be the way it is and everything is only the way it is because God decided it would be that way and not other way. Therefore Christians appealing to these notions of how things have to be as if they just have to be that way is silly (and deeply ironic considering you are limiting your own omnipotent deity)

    This is a continuous problem on this forum, you guys like to say God is the creator of everything but then you limit God so much as to how he could have created everything.

    The point of the poison is simply that the water does not need to poisoned. It is only poisoned because the father decided to poison it. Reality, sin, hell, heaven, judgement, love, rejection etc are only the way they are because God decided they would be that way.

    So anytime you say something like we must be able to reject God in order to have free will or, God must punish sin or Hell is where we go when separated from God, all you are saying is that the water must be poisoned as if that is the only option. Which of course it doesn't have to be poisoned.

    What ever you want to think of hell, we only need God in the first place because he set everything up so that we would need him. There is no reason why any of these concepts (sin, hell, punishment, justice, love etc) have to exist or have to be the way they are described by Christianity.

    Can you give me a reason why anything described in Christianity has to be the way it is?


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,245 ✭✭✭✭Fanny Cradock


    Does the nature of hell matter in this discussion as long as it is agreed hell is a thing no one would ever want to endure?

    At least one perspective of Hell is that of annihilationism. There is nothing to endure there. One might even consider this a mercy as opposed to remaining in the presence of a being they hate.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 25,848 ✭✭✭✭Zombrex


    At least one perspective of Hell is that of annihilationism. There is nothing to endure there. One might even consider this a mercy as opposed to remaining in the presence of a being they hate.

    That isn't relevant to my point. If you want to consider the "water is poisoned" to be analogis to "hell is annihilation" that is fine, the point remains.


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,245 ✭✭✭✭Fanny Cradock


    Zombrex wrote: »
    That isn't relevant to my point. If you want to consider the "water is poisoned" to be analogis to "hell is annihilation" that is fine, the point remains.

    And that's probably because I was responding to a question put to me by Doctor Doom. I'll try respond to your post later.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 25,848 ✭✭✭✭Zombrex


    Zombrex wrote: »
    That isn't relevant to my point. If you want to consider the "water is poisoned" to be analogis to "hell is annihilation" that is fine, the point remains.

    By the way if anyone thinks I'm talking out my arse, try this little experiment.

    Take the statement like (or any statement you like, in case anything thinks this statement doesn't represent their Christianity)

    I am an unrepentant sinner who rejects God and I'm being sent to hell

    and see how far you can get justifying that statement before you run into the dead end of either "...just because." or "...because God says so."

    Seriously, have a go. After every statement use the following statement to justify the pervious statement and see how you get.

    For example, he is going to hell because God is holy and must punish sinners. The next sentence should explain why God being holy means he must punish sinners.

    It should be eye opening for most of the Christians here.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,115 ✭✭✭homer911


    What's your point Zombrex?

    Christians believe that God is in charge of the Universe. For us adding "...because God says so." to a statement is not the Christian response. The Christian response will be "Amen": so be it, let it happen, because we trust in you, and you are Lord and you know what's best for us


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 25,848 ✭✭✭✭Zombrex


    homer911 wrote: »
    What's your point Zombrex?

    The point is that what Christians claim about God and God's love is nonsensical.

    I appreciate you don't care because it makes you happy, but you can't really expect others to simply go along with it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,115 ✭✭✭homer911


    Zombrex wrote: »
    The point is that what Christians claim about God and God's love is nonsensical.

    I appreciate you don't care because it makes you happy, but you can't really expect others to simply go along with it.

    On the contrary, all Christians care when others reject the gospel, and I find it interesting that despite your opposition/rejection you continue to go on asking questions. I would never expect others to "simply go along with it". Quoting the parable of the sower, this would be seed on rocky ground. Christians need solid roots. Recently there has been some talk of evangelisation and indoctrination. The truth is that Christians cannot , on their own, convert non-Christians, and sometimes arguing with non-Christians is very non-Christian. Christians can only try and live the gospel and share God's message as best they can with God's help. Its up to the individual, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to make up their own mind. The Bible says that God stands at the door and knocks (Rev. 3:20) You have to decide whether to open the door or not. Nobody is going to jimmy it open with a crow bar, and God is not going to keep knocking for ever, because he has given us free will to choose.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 25,848 ✭✭✭✭Zombrex


    homer911 wrote: »
    The Bible says that God stands at the door and knocks (Rev. 3:20) You have to decide whether to open the door or not. Nobody is going to jimmy it open with a crow bar, and God is not going to keep knocking for ever, because he has given us free will to choose.

    I'm not sure what that refers to. The argument here is that Christian claims about God are nonsensical.

    Where does the holy spirit knocking on the door come into that? Does God make these arguments appear sensical, or does he just make you not care that they are nonsensical? If I cannot become a Christian without God turning me into one it seems even more odd that he would decide to refuse to save me from his punishment if I don't become one.

    It is like someone saying 2+2=5 and when someone else says "Er, no it doesn't" the first person, the person of faith, says once you accept it does you will understanding ...

    Not very convincing, is it?

    Also if Christian claims are nonsensical and require God in order for you to believe them then that still makes them nonsensical. You can say yes they are nonsensical but I believe anyway because God has done something miraculous, but that is a different argument to saying all this makes sense.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,255 ✭✭✭tommy2bad


    Zombrex wrote: »
    Think of it this way

    You and your brother drink water (or any other innocuous activity)

    For some reason your father doesn't like this, so he decides he will poison the water.

    He tells you both about this, but says it like it is just an inevitable consequence of drinking water. "Sons you have drunk the water, you will die".

    He then says "But, if you gratefully accept this gift I will give you a water antedote that will spare you from the poison. This is my free gift to you because I love you."

    Your brother is over joyed. How wonderful our father is, we were facing death because we had drunk the water, but now our loving father will give us this free gift of saving you from death. Of course we will be grateful! That is pretty much the way every Christians speaks about Jesus, only focusing on the gift of salvation from hell, rather than why hell exists in the first place and why we are sent there.

    You on the other hand go "Er, hang on a minute. The water is only poison in the first place because you decided to poison it and make dying of poison a consequence of drinking water. You now want me to be happy you are giving me a way to avoid the poison you decided to put in the water, but you want me to 'accept' this gift by being grateful to you for providing it. If I don't you will let the poison kill me"

    That is pretty much the non-Christian view of what Christianity claims about God. Doesn't make much sense, does it?

    Your right it don't make much sense! Because it's a misunderstanding of the christian view. The flaw is that the father poisoned the well, the christian view is more like a well that sprang whisky, fine and good for those mature enough to drink but forbidden to the children. Being warned but disobedient the kids drink anyway and get drunk and wreck the gaff. Daddy says "I'm so angry right now go to your room and tidy that up, I'll take care of this mess".

    You have a much more pertinent point in the idea that God is bound by some external force that He must obey. Now that's real stupidity.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 25,848 ✭✭✭✭Zombrex


    tommy2bad wrote: »
    Your right it don't make much sense! Because it's a misunderstanding of the christian view. The flaw is that the father poisoned the well, the christian view is more like a well that sprang whisky, fine and good for those mature enough to drink but forbidden to the children. Being warned but disobedient the kids drink anyway and get drunk and wreck the gaff. Daddy says "I'm so angry right now go to your room and tidy that up, I'll take care of this mess".

    That isn't relevant to the point. Using your analogy, why does the whiskey make the kids drunk, why when they are drunk do they "wreak the gaff", why does "wreaking the gaff" make God angry.

    You have just done what I've been saying, looked at the Christian story only in the context of limits.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,255 ✭✭✭tommy2bad


    No Zombrex, I'm actually trying to explain the story in a christian context. It doesn't have a use outside of that, so why would I try to make the story relevant to another context?
    Tempted as I am to extend the metaphor, I'll desist.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 25,848 ✭✭✭✭Zombrex


    tommy2bad wrote: »
    No Zombrex, I'm actually trying to explain the story in a christian context.

    "Explaining the story in a christian context" doesn't change the point. What you said doesn't make any more sense that the analogy I used. You just replaced one analogy (poisoned water) for another (whiskey that makes you drunk), while not addressing the actual point being made about God establishing all the systems at the start.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,205 ✭✭✭Benny_Cake


    Mod note: I've moved some of the discussion from the "Am I going to hell?" thread over here as it's turning into a straight-up Christian / Atheist debate. If anyone feels their posts have been unfairly moved, please send me a PM.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,255 ✭✭✭tommy2bad


    Zombrex wrote: »
    "Explaining the story in a christian context" doesn't change the point. What you said doesn't make any more sense that the analogy I used. You just replaced one analogy (poisoned water) for another (whiskey that makes you drunk), while not addressing the actual point being made about God establishing all the systems at the start.

    Fair point. You were close when you pointed out that God can't be held to any 'rules' if He is God. My contention and I'm aware that this isn't Christian orthodoxy, is that what we are talking about is not the way the universe/world/things are set up from the start. We are talking about a relationship and thats the water that was poisoned when we rebelled.
    The whole 'God is this and therefore can't... ' is nonsense, He's God! He can if He wants, thats the point of being God. However a relationship is not something that God has any control over, if He dose control it then it not a relationship, it's a manipulation.
    See where I'm coming from?
    BTW all this is my personal take, again not Christian orthodoxy though I can support it with texts from the more esoteric end of Christianity, some would say heretical end.

    Benny, good spot, this is going over old ground now.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 25,848 ✭✭✭✭Zombrex


    tommy2bad wrote: »
    Fair point. You were close when you pointed out that God can't be held to any 'rules' if He is God. My contention and I'm aware that this isn't Christian orthodoxy, is that what we are talking about is not the way the universe/world/things are set up from the start. We are talking about a relationship and thats the water that was poisoned when we rebelled.
    The whole 'God is this and therefore can't... ' is nonsense, He's God! He can if He wants, thats the point of being God. However a relationship is not something that God has any control over, if He dose control it then it not a relationship, it's a manipulation.
    See where I'm coming from?

    But the relationship doesn't decide anything.

    For example, some Christians who don't view hell as a place created for torturing sinners as a form of punishment often explain the descriptions of hell as suffering as merely a consequence of absence of God, and say this isn't God's fault because we choose to go to hell by not accepting God.

    Which all might seem reasonable. If you are in a blizzard and you walk outside you can't complain that it is cold.

    But if you examine such an idea in the context of God being the creator of all things, it makes less sense. Why does absence of God make someone suffer or feel bad? Who decided that rule of nature?

    That would be an example of "poisoning the water".

    Or consider what Fanny said above, that for those who view hell as annihilation that might be viewed as a mercy compared to being with someone you don't like for eternity. But why is being with someone you don't like for eternity something that makes you feel bad (I know it does, but then that is something God decided would be the case). Why is annihilation better? Why are the only two options annihilation or being with someone you don't like for eternity?

    Christians have a very hard time appreciating what it actually means to say that God is the creator of all things and that no system is above him or limits him.

    It is far easier to view God simply as a benevolent agent that operates inside the systems we are familiar with for our benefit. We die, but it is ok because God takes us to heaven. We feel lonely, but it is ok because God gives us companionship. We suffer pain, but it is ok because God rewards suffering.

    It is much harder to process the concept that if God is the creator of all then all these things were decided by God. We need a reason why things are here, but we don't really like thinking about that reason beyond high level notions of well God loves us etc.

    As an atheist this just is another window into what psychological role the notion of God provides to believers, why the notion of a god that intervenes is comforting and gives reassurance to believers asea in a random world, but the notion of a god who decided everything is in fact mentally stressful as we ourselves cannot process that concept easily. You can't look at a religion like Christianity for more than 5 minutes without coming to the conclusion that the notion of a god is there to facilitate the mental/emotional needs of the believer.

    I don't know if you have seen the movie Ruby Sparks, but it is about a guy who invents the "perfect" woman, which is really just a reflection of his insecurities and emotional needs. It is a neat movie because it plays out how much of a fantasy those concepts are, and what they would actually be like if they were true. The girl is a mess as a real person because the ideals the man has as to the perfect woman are not good when actual made real.

    That movie always reminded me of Christianity and Christian relationships to the concept of god. Just like the man in the movie who is attached to the idea that they want a girl who adores them, Christians are attached to certain ideas about god because they are mentally/emotionally comforting, without much consideration as to what these ideas would produce if they were actually real.


  • Registered Users Posts: 10,245 ✭✭✭✭Fanny Cradock


    Thanks for the condescension.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,296 ✭✭✭Geomy


    Zombrex wrote: »
    But the relationship doesn't decide anything.

    For example, some Christians who don't view hell as a place created for torturing sinners as a form of punishment often explain the descriptions of hell as suffering as merely a consequence of absence of God, and say this isn't God's fault because we choose to go to hell by not accepting God.

    Which all might seem reasonable. If you are in a blizzard and you walk outside you can't complain that it is cold.

    But if you examine such an idea in the context of God being the creator of all things, it makes less sense. Why does absence of God make someone suffer or feel bad? Who decided that rule of nature?

    That would be an example of "poisoning the water".

    Or consider what Fanny said above, that for those who view hell as annihilation that might be viewed as a mercy compared to being with someone you don't like for eternity. But why is being with someone you don't like for eternity something that makes you feel bad (I know it does, but then that is something God decided would be the case). Why is annihilation better? Why are the only two options annihilation or being with someone you don't like for eternity?

    Christians have a very hard time appreciating what it actually means to say that God is the creator of all things and that no system is above him or limits him.

    It is far easier to view God simply as a benevolent agent that operates inside the systems we are familiar with for our benefit. We die, but it is ok because God takes us to heaven. We feel lonely, but it is ok because God gives us companionship. We suffer pain, but it is ok because God rewards suffering.

    It is much harder to process the concept that if God is the creator of all then all these things were decided by God. We need a reason why things are here, but we don't really like thinking about that reason beyond high level notions of well God loves us etc.

    As an atheist this just is another window into what psychological role the notion of God provides to believers, why the notion of a god that intervenes is comforting and gives reassurance to believers asea in a random world, but the notion of a god who decided everything is in fact mentally stressful as we ourselves cannot process that concept easily. You can't look at a religion like Christianity for more than 5 minutes without coming to the conclusion that the notion of a god is there to facilitate the mental/emotional needs of the believer.

    I don't know if you have seen the movie Ruby Sparks, but it is about a guy who invents the "perfect" woman, which is really just a reflection of his insecurities and emotional needs. It is a neat movie because it plays out how much of a fantasy those concepts are, and what they would actually be like if they were true. The girl is a mess as a real person because the ideals the man has as to the perfect woman are not good when actual made real.

    That movie always reminded me of Christianity and Christian relationships to the concept of god. Just like the man in the movie who is attached to the idea that they want a girl who adores them, Christians are attached to certain ideas about god because they are mentally/emotionally comforting, without much consideration as to what these ideas would produce if they were actually real.

    Some Christian and Sufi mystics often came up with the Idea of being detached from your notion of what God is, isnt, was, and should be....

    It makes life much easier for some believers to keep it simple, accept the outcome take life as it is.

    A guy I know ofter quotes Anthony Demelo's ideas of detachment and taking action.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 25,848 ✭✭✭✭Zombrex


    Thanks for the condescension.

    Being a Christian I'm not sure you are in the best place to be throwing around accusations of condescension there Fanny. Tell me again how you worked out the true religion on Earth, what the cause and purpose of human existence is and how you have a personal relationship with the omnipotent being that created it all :pac:


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  • Registered Users Posts: 4,255 ✭✭✭tommy2bad


    @Zombrex,
    "If You Meet The Buddha On The Road, Kill Him" Much wisdom in this little koan.


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