Questions for Christians of the site

I've thought of these questions myself. I don't know where I stand on the issue of Christianity. I believe in the message of the J man, like love your neighbor, don't be a dick, etc. I also believe in the possibility of God, which is what I believe the force is. But I can't commit to Christianity, because I don't believe the bible is literal, I don't and can't discriminate against gays, I don't believe someone being gay is sinful. I have trouble with those areas of the story that defy science, or physics. Things like raising the dead, the resurrection, the miracles, and the virgin birth. I do believe miracles happen, but not in the literal way the Bible described them. I had someone tell me once, that if I had enough faith in God, my spine would knit back together, my leg muscles would expand and it would be as if I'd never been paralyzed.

Now that to me just goes beyond the realm of common sense and believability and into the area of fantasy. So I don't know if I could ever be a Christian, even though I was raised in a Christian home, because I can't believe in all the stuff that goes with it. I am however interested in what I've seen called Christian Mysticism.

SeventhSL wrote:
3. As a parent I tell my kids all the time “Don’t do that or you’ll hurt yourself/each other”. How many times do they listen? .

The tree of knowledge of good and evil is basically the source of all knowledge as all knowledge is subject to being either good or evil or having a bit of both qualities.

The tree of knowledge is then analogous to our school system from grade school to the best university.

God, in saying do not eat of it, is basically telling Adam and Eve to stay as mentally blind and morally stupid as they are shown to be with, they did not know they were naked.

As a parent, would you command your children to stay uneducated and stupid and never go to school?

If they did not listen, as you say children are wont to do, would you do like God is shown to do and murder A & E by neglect which is what he did when locking away the tree of life which would have kept A & E alive.

Regards
DL

steamboat28 wrote:

MadHatter wrote:

2. How do you get past the things that caused the death of children in the bible?

How do you get past the things that cause the death of chidlren now? People die in cataclysms. It's terribly unfortunate, but only recently have we developed the technology to predict natural disasters with any accuracy.

3. How do you get past Gods nonintervention in things like world hunger, rape, the murder of the innocent, etc?

Again, how do you get past our own non-intervention in those things? .

For starters, if most here were witnessing a crime and could intervene safely, they likely would. Some, depending on where they live, would be compelled by law if they are in a community where either Good Samaritan, citizen's arrest or Duty to rescue laws exist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Samaritan_law

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duty_to_rescue

To your number two reply.

God is actively killing those children. Any God who can cure as well as kill, and chooses to kill, iis what we Gnostic Christians call a vile demiurge.

If you ever meet Yahweh, tell him I have a bullet with his name on it.

Regards
DL

1. Do you believe that it is a choice to go to heaven or hell? If you believe it's a choice how can it be when its made with a threat over one's head. To me, it feels like love me or suffer and that is not a choice in my eyes.
It is kinda a choice. It's a choice whether or not you believe. If you believe then, it's your choice whether or not to follow God, if you dont believe, then Hell is not something to worry about because you dont believe in it

2. How do you get past the things that caused the death of children in the bible? Such as the flooding of earth, the death of the firstborn, the rain of fire upon sodom and its sister city, the setting of a bear upon youths for mocking a prophet? If you say you feel they are parables how do you separate parable from literal?
God flooded the earth because back in that time there was WAY too much sin in the world and God was displeased. So he cleansed the world by bring upon a flood, but at the end, he knew what he did was drastic and promised to never do such a thing again. And the death of the firstborn was a punishment for those who disrespected and disobeyed God.

3. How do you get past Gods nonintervention in things like world hunger, rape, the murder of the innocent, etc? I know I could not walk past someone being beaten in the street and not act. Never mind if I could end the act with a thought. No amount of us having free will can justify claiming to love someone but watching them suffer terribly when you can stop it with no risks to yourself. ( in my eyes that is.)
All the evil in the world was brought upon by mankind itself. We are the ones who originally sinned. Everything that goes on in the world may not be what God wants, but it is what we brought upon ourselves by the original sin.

Silas Eventhorne wrote: 1. Do you believe 2, 3

I don't think its a threat but a particular set of observations of the nature of a wider universe, nor cast blame for action or inaction, because I don't buy into the anthropomorphic interpretation of deities. I manage to take from it as much truth as I can but not be distracted by the celebrities

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEBg0KJgasI

hehe ooops sorry :pinch:

Silas Eventhorne wrote: 1. Do you believe that it is a choice to go to heaven or hell? If you believe it's a choice how can it be when its made with a threat over one's head. To me, it feels like love me or suffer and that is not a choice in my eyes.
It is kinda a choice. It's a choice whether or not you believe. If you believe then, it's your choice whether or not to follow God, if you dont believe, then Hell is not something to worry about because you dont believe in it

2. How do you get past the things that caused the death of children in the bible? Such as the flooding of earth, the death of the firstborn, the rain of fire upon sodom and its sister city, the setting of a bear upon youths for mocking a prophet? If you say you feel they are parables how do you separate parable from literal?
God flooded the earth because back in that time there was WAY too much sin in the world and God was displeased. So he cleansed the world by bring upon a flood, but at the end, he knew what he did was drastic and promised to never do such a thing again. And the death of the firstborn was a punishment for those who disrespected and disobeyed God.

3. How do you get past Gods nonintervention in things like world hunger, rape, the murder of the innocent, etc? I know I could not walk past someone being beaten in the street and not act. Never mind if I could end the act with a thought. No amount of us having free will can justify claiming to love someone but watching them suffer terribly when you can stop it with no risks to yourself. ( in my eyes that is.)
All the evil in the world was brought upon by mankind itself. We are the ones who originally sinned. Everything that goes on in the world may not be what God wants, but it is what we brought upon ourselves by the original sin.

This was good until you forgot that the fall is a Christian invention that was not the way the Jews read their myths, Jews saw an elevation and not a fall.

http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/10/20/comparative-theodicy/

‘Instead of the Fall of man (in the sense of humanity as a whole), Judaism preaches the Rise of man: and instead of Original Sin, it stresses Original Virtue, the beneficent hereditary influence of righteous ancestors upon their descendants’.

The Jewish God was a winner while the Christian God was a loser.

Regards
DL