Since so much focus lately seems to have been on the god of the biblical text, let us start with that god. For the purposes of this topic we shall start from the position that a god exist and it is the one from the bible. Give your reasons on why this god should not be praised and ignored or why this god should be praised and followed.
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I will borrow from an unknown writer: the difference between me and that god is that if I saw a child being raped, I would do everything in my power to stop it.
Along that same line:
"If I had the power that the New Testament narratives say that Jesus had, I would not cure one person of blindness, I would make blindness impossible; I would not cure one person of leprosy, I would abolish leprosy." - Joseph Lewis
Thanks for that Spewer. I was unfamiliar with Joseph Lewis. Read a bit about him just now and am looking forward to reading more.
lets be honest the God from the bible or any text seems ignorant and has a big ego and doesnt use logic
Yet CyberLN would a proactive gawwd make it worthy for you praise and bow to?
Excellent question Ellie! I guess if there were a god who was proactive and I saw actual evidence of that, instead of the lack of evidence, I would become a believer. That's not to say, however, I would like that god. That god would have to step up and be a decent god, not a jerk. But bow down to it? Nope.
Are you kidding me? As a former christian, simply reading the Bible proves that, aside from being evidenceless, is highly immoral. Ever since mans begining "Morality" has been a developing endeavor to try to bridge the gap between our base human nature to provide for ourselves and our family (tribe if you prefer, i like the term Social Group or even Society) and interact with people from outside other Societies. While in the Bibles day it was a revolutionary text on the conduct of humans, it's very highly outdated. The old testament was especially brash in the treatment of homosexuals, women, and other Societies. I would even go so far as to say it was to the Jews what Mein Kompf was to the Nazis, especially in its views of Jewish as "God's Chosen People" and the blatant disregard for human life the Jewish showed in exterminating the Societies already existing on the land god "Promised" for them. The new testament embraces some new ideas about humbility, loving equally your neighbors, a slight increase in womens roles, but it really only applied to within the christian community, which in turn became gods chosen people....
If the god is as loving and as merciful as the born again Christians make him out to be, then he is worthy of praise and devotion. However, born agains are known to disregard the numerous bibilical verses that make out their god as the jealous, irrational, bigoted and merciless.
The Judaic god makes it clear in the 10 commandments that he's a jealous god, the only god, and there should be no other god before him. I always wondered, that if he were really the only bearded white guy in the sky, why does he need so much ego stroking, and why is he so threatened by us entertaining the possibility of other gods?
Anyway, the born again christians don't really paint the picture of a loving merciful god, just an egotistical one. He doesn't give a damn what you do or how awful it was or who you did it to, but as long as you love and praise him he'll save you from the torturous eternal pit of hell he's created for people who don't.
No thanks.
"If the god is as loving and as merciful as the born again Christians make him out to be, then he is worthy of praise and devotion."-
Would that love and mercy be negated by the fact that this god rules your entire existence and can & if it deems it necessary punish you for a thought?
I think that is what parker is iterating, that the god the christians and muslims preach places an emphasis on love. Though in most holy books, god is more intolerant and vindictive than loving and merciful.
@ Ellie, as Travis stated, Christians package the Christian god as all loving, ignoring the glaring evidence the Bible presents. This will sound strange coming from an atheist, but reading the Bible does show the truth about the (fictional) Christian god's nature.
So I think this trial is concluded.