I want to believe in God, but I feel like the Bible has a lot of errors in it. Why do you guys think the God of the Bible isn't really as great as he claims to be?
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It isn't about greatness per se, it is about not thinking he is real.
In addition to the many contradictions, ritual human sacrifice, rape, murder and slavery for starters.
Why do you want to believe in god, Jacob?
I want to believe that there is someone who cares about people more than anything. I feel like there's something more to the world than chance and death being the end of everything for a person. I want to believe in eternal life. The problem is I don't see how God could be as loving as people say he is when he let's things like murder, rape, etc to happen.
If you want someone to care for you, let it be you who does so. Once you do that, you are open to let others, real people, care deeply and fully about you as well.
There is more to the world than chance, there is you, and you have the power to make it more. That power is in your hands.
Death is the end? In some ways yes, but the imprint you have the opportunity to make can and does live on. The pebble only strikes the surface of the water once but the rings that one strike causes go on and on and are many.
Putting your focus on a life after this robs you. It prevents your ability to fully embrace and immerse yourself in the life you do have.
At the very least, don't aspire to believe in the god of Abraham (Christianity, Islam, Judaism). There a many alternatives that are less corrosive to the mind, like Buddhism or Jainism, then there are theistic views like Deism or Pantheism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism
That way you get rid of:
* A vengeful, jealous, misogynistic, homophobic, small-minded god.
* Guidelines for slavery, sacrifice, stonings, rape, beatings, etc.
* Belief that the world will end in glory and all who are saved will go to paradise.
(Why care about the world when it's going to end?)
* Damnation, eternal punishment, the lake of fire, etc.
And instead get a worldview that is much more open minded and is compatible with science and progress.
According to the bible, he not only let these things happen, he condoned them.
I’ve never seen any credible evidence he exists, but even if he did, do you think spending eternity praising a celestial dictator to feed his ego out of fear for eternity would be desirable? That would be similar to living with Kim-Jung Un (really worse) forever. If your going to do that for eternity would that not get old? It would be like having a choice between hell one and hell two.
Were you in pain before you were born? Make the most of the life you have. You won against insurmountable odds when you were born. More than any lottery you could have entered.
I’ve never seen any credible evidence he exists, but even if he did, do you think spending eternity praising a celestial dictator to feed his ego out of fear for eternity would be desirable? That would be similar to living with Kim-Jung Un (really worse) forever. If your going to do that for eternity would that not get old? It would be like having a choice between hell one and hell two.
Were you in pain before you were born? Make the most of the life you have. You won against insurmountable odds when you were born. More than any lottery you could have entered.
I’ve never seen any credible evidence he exists, but even if he did, do you think spending eternity praising a celestial dictator to feed his ego out of fear for eternity would be desirable? That would be similar to living with Kim-Jung Un (really worse) forever. If your going to do that for eternity would that not get old? It would be like having a choice between hell one and hell two.
Were you in pain before you were born? Make the most of the life you have. You won against insurmountable odds when you were born. More than any lottery you could have entered.
Thanks for the input guys. I'll think about what you said.
i think a hitch slap is needed here
jacob try this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogd-yh7orfo
I'm not just picking on this post as i see it on many,but i really don't like seeing the word "god" being used with a capital G. To me it suggests something that exists.Maybe i'm just being pedantic but i never capitalise that word...just saying like.; )
Would you capitalize Harry Potter?
Yes,he exists as a fictional film/book character that millions follow,"god" is a description that covers many different figures in many different religions,not a single entity.
Idk I think most people just capitalise the word because it's a proper name like Jupiter or Zeus or any other god.
I think one of the best examples of Biblical inaccuracy is the birth date of Jesus. It is the most specific triangulation of a historically verifiable date I have ever found in the Bible. Jesus is said to have been born while Herod was ruling. He is also said to be born while Quirrinius is governor. Now, you would expect that, even if the Bible were written by humans with no divine intervention, that if it were even written close to the time of the proposed events this would be no problem. Instead, we know thanks to Roman records that Herod died in the year 4 BCE. Quirrinius was never appointed governor until the year 6 CE. Here we have a 10 year gap where neither of these two are ruling, and no time in history when the two ever ruled at the same time.
So not only do we have a triangulation of a date which has been shown to be historically impossible, ruling out the possibility of divine inspiration of an innerant book, but it also serves as good evidence that the humans who wrote it didn't write it down until long after the fact. How many years past 1 CE would it have to be to not know that The las King died 10 years before your governor was appointed? Imagine somebody today writing about an event that took place while Ronald Reagen was a member of congress and Obama had just taken office. If this person claimed they got their information from God, you would pretty easily dismiss them the claim as false.
yeah , it was written after 70AD, no wonder they did mistakes.
The funny part is that didn't bother correcting them because the gospels were never intended for the public.
An other obvious example of Biblical inaccuracy is the genealogy of Jesus, where one gospel starts listing names back to Abraham and the other keeps going back till ADAM.
Yes you read it right, till ADAM, in ADAM and EVE lol
This would not be a problem if they agreed on the list of names, but they agree only on 2 or so names in the list.
Who is lying?
"Why do you guys think the God of the Bible isn't really as great as he claims to be?"
Because "the God of the Bible" doesn't actually make any claims. Fallible iron-age humans from primitive cultures make claims on god's behalf. The way I see it, "some guy said god told him to tell you..." is just about the weakest basis upon which to build a belief system. Such a god is a mere puppet.
Ridiculous rules such as not allowing the handicapped to enter the inner temple or considering women "unclean" twice as long when they give birth to girls as when they give birth to boys should be clear indicators that people mistook their own silly prejudices for divine commands. Can it get more obvious that the god of the Bible is a mere projection of the barbaric culture that spawned "him?"
If you see a lot of errors in the bible then you don't have to push yourself into believing on its story about god. Search answers in anywhere and anything that can give you reliable answer.
You already understand, from what I can tell by your topic, why we are doubtful of the biblical god. In every claim that god did something, were it could be tested at all, it has been proven false. There are whole-cloth fabrications that are now, after being shown to be false, are being rationalized away by saying they are metaphor or poetry. Their god, the "hide-and-seek" champion of the universe, continues to hide in the ever-shrinking pocket of our ignorance.