What kind of God were you told to believe in ?

Crystalium

An interesting proposition :

"Never condemn an Atheist until you find out what kind of God he was told to believe in"

Christianity is about loving and serving the Christian God and loving and serving one another. Many Christians are a poor example of Christianity, and do neither.

Give people some evidence, but what kind of scientific evidence would prove to the truly sceptical something/someone was God and not some sort of super alien with impressive powers claiming to be God ? None I can think of, including a public demonstration of planet creation at will, resurrection, time travel, or even planet juggling. These would be impressive acts to be sure, but still not evidence that the entity is actually God.

I think to believe such an entity is God, at some point requires faith and belief, no matter how much evidence is presented.

endacl

The kind you wound up on Sunday.

kylith

I dunno really, no-one seemed sure. He loved me unconditionally, but I had to do what he said. He was merciful, but he'd burn me for eternity if I sinned. The whole thing was a bit confused.

donspeekinglesh

An utterly implausible one.

Corkfeen

Well the kind doesn't really matter to me. As there's not a logical basis for it. However just to watch your attempted conversion process at work, i'll go with it.

He was a tyrannical bastard, in fact he'd make Lord Sauron look like a saint(irony alert in terms of using that word!). Sent his son down to die for the sins of man. He'd expect Lot to offer his daughters up to be raped. Viewed sodomy, sex outside of marriage, masturbation etc to be awful sins. Basically he was a guy with warped priorities that tended to be a bit of misogynist and had no issues with denigrating portions of man because they didn't suit his plan.

The linear narrative of his story was awful as well, seriously his character was poorly written. He was a psycho killer in the old testament and then apparently became a 'nice' guy in the new testament? Besides some of the questionable teachings of course.

endacl

Sorry OP. my previous post may have been a little flippant. What kind of god was I told to believe in? Same as you I suppose. An imaginary one.

lazygal

A ridiculously inconsistent one.

Zamboni

Robert Powell

Crystalium

kylith wrote: »

I dunno really, no-one seemed sure. He loved me unconditionally, but I had to do what he said. He was merciful, but he'd burn me for eternity if I sinned. The whole thing was a bit confused.

That's a major problem, and it's not the truth. Nowhere does the bible talk about God's unconditional love. It does however talk about God's judgement and justice. Jesus taught more about hell than anyone else in the bible.

Crystalium

Corkfeen wrote: »

Well the kind doesn't really matter to me. As there's not a logical basis for it. However just to watch your attempted conversion process at work, i'll go with it.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm not here to do conversions. I'm interested in points of view. I got your's, thanks.

magicbastarder

eric clapton.

magicbastarder

Crystalium wrote: »

Sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm not here to do conversions.

i read 'conversions' as 'conversations' which was momentarily puzzling.

eireannBEAR

i was brought up with my king god zorax hes a half man half beast with rocket packs built in to his feet and he also has claws arrrrgh.... he will scrob you. fear him,appease him... for he is zorax!!!!

eireannBEAR

Crystalium wrote: »

An interesting proposition :

"Never condemn an Atheist until you find out what kind of God he was told to believe in"

Christianity is about loving and serving the Christian God and loving and serving one another. Many Christians are a poor example of Christianity, and do neither.

Give people some evidence, but what kind of scientific evidence would prove to the truly sceptical something/someone was God and not some sort of super alien with impressive powers claiming to be God ? None I can think of, including a public demonstration of planet creation at will, resurrection, time travel, or even planet juggling. These would be impressive acts to be sure, but still not evidence that the entity is actually God.

I think to believe such an entity is God, at some point requires faith and belief, no matter how much evidence is presented.

i made a joke post,but not aimed at you and while i dont agree with you i have 100% respect for you,if faith works for you,it works for you. dont mind people on this.

endacl

G'wan so OP. Which madey uppy holygod would have made all the difference? Which one would've fooled us all?

Karl Stein

Crystalium wrote: »

a public demonstration of planet creation at will, resurrection, time travel, or even planet juggling. These would be impressive acts to be sure, but still not evidence that the entity is actually God.

If we were able to detect such phenomena then attributing them to 'God' would be what religious people would do and trying to find a proper explanation is what science and reason would do.

Crystalium

eireannBEAR wrote: »

i made a joke post,but not aimed at you and while i dont agree with you i have 100% respect for you,if faith works for you,it works for you. dont mind people on this.

Likewise, I've no issue with you personal belief / non belief.

I don't mind any of the posts at all, the calm reactions and hyper reactions are equally interesting.

Crystalium

Cathal Cloch wrote: »

If we were able to detect such phenomena then attributing them to 'God' would be what religious people would do and trying to find a proper explanation is what science and reason would do.

God of the Gaps ? Yes mistakenly some religious people do that, but Scientists that also happen to hold a religious faith don't. e.g. Physicist George Lemaitre was the first to propose the big bang theory.

Karl Stein

Crystalium wrote: »

Physicist George Lemaitre was the first to propose the big bang theory.

Wasn't that because the universe is expanding rather than someone saying 'hey lads - I reckon there was a big bang....'

Kiwi in IE

I had a very fortunate upbringing and wasn't told to believe in any god.

goz83

The same dude in the simpsons. He favours the flanderseseses and you never see his face.

ElChe32

This one.

nagirrac

Crystalium wrote: »

God of the Gaps ? Yes mistakenly some religious people do that, but Scientists that also happen to hold a religious faith don't. e.g. Physicist George Lemaitre was the first to propose the big bang theory.

To expand on that a little, Lemaitre, although a Catholic priest, was very careful to not consider any theological conclusions from his theory. In his own words "As far as I can see, such a theory remains entirely outside of any metaphysical or religious question". A wise man indeed.

gctest50

A sexist, racist, murderous c*nt ?

.

kylith

Crystalium wrote: »

That's a major problem, and it's not the truth. Nowhere does the bible talk about God's unconditional love. It does however talk about God's judgement and justice. Jesus taught more about hell than anyone else in the bible.

Well, if they tried to sell the Old Testament Yaweh to modern Catholics they'd be looking at empty churches and collection plates; Vengeful God (tm) fell out of fashion some time in the 60s, I think.

Brian Shanahan

kylith wrote: »

Well, if they tried to sell the Old Testament Yaweh to modern Catholics they'd be looking at empty churches and collection plates; Vengeful God (tm) fell out of fashion some time in the 60s, I think.

360's? Remember the Roman christian god was there almost exclusively to explain the greatness of Rome and ensure unquestioning obedience to the emperor.

In fact, god's nature has changed so often I fully expect that in the infinitessimal chance that he exists he'll have a corkscrew for a neck.

Galvasean

I was brought up to believe in the lovely, fluffy, just 'loves everyone' God. Y'know, the one that isn't anywhere to be seen in the Bible.

Duggy747

God, the all-knowing, all-loving entity who would bring me good luck for school if Mammy lit a candle for me at Mass.

But he'd do bugger all for the starving kids in Africa I daily saw on TV and posters..................presumably because not enough candles were lit for them. :pac:

Also, Satan was the more fun guy. He had heavy metal, violent movies and video games which I was always told were no friend of God

housetypeb

I was always told by my mother that "HE SHALL NOT BE MOCKED" when my brother and I would speculate on the fact, that if he was all powerful, why did Satan think he had a chance of beating him. Apparently we should have tried living in the USSR where that kind of talk was encouraged.
Oh the fun we two atheists had in our rebellious teenage years with our religious mother.
__________________

fisgon

kylith wrote: »

I dunno really, no-one seemed sure. He loved me unconditionally, but I had to do what he said. He was merciful, but he'd burn me for eternity if I sinned. The whole thing was a bit confused.

Yeah, this.

I remember one religious ed. class when I was about 8 or 9. We were told by the teacher that "Fear of God", which came up time and time again in the OT, actually meant "Fear of losing God". Clearly nonsense.

I also remember thinking, even at such a tender age, that this man either was lying to me, or else really hadn't got a notion what he was talking about.

The fact is that human beings can say anything they want about whatever god they choose to believe in, and in general do. There is no-one there to smite them.

robindch

fisgon wrote: »

[...] "Fear of God" [...]

An uncommonly accurate description. Much of the "love of god" that religious people refer to seems, to me at least, indistinguishable from Stockholm Syndrome.