What gives God the right to be "holy"?

Punishing your own creation for not accepting your "love". Lovely. The God you speak of appears to have some kind of borderline personality disorder.

If God is "goodness" personified then how can he justify vengeful punishment given those who don't line up with his ideals? There are plenty of "good" people who worship other deities, for example. Is it "good" to punish them? On the contrary, creating freewill and then punishing man for using it is a perfect demonstration of evil.The idea that God's authority derives from his personification of "goodness" is not particularly consistent with the doctrines you present.

Can we? Does God punish a hypothetically "perfect" individual, whom though sheer accident, has never encountered God's "love" but is "good" in all other ways? If free will yields no positive consequences then why should we be punished for sin? If we can only make sinful decisions then this is surely God's fault, not ours? Like a captive can rely on a regular beating, you mean?God seems to take very little responsibility for his own creation, handing out punishments for faults that he created within us. Such a lack of responsibility is hardly a hallmark of authority.Edited by RickJB, : No reason given.Edited by RickJB, : No reason given.Edited by RickJB, : No reason given.Edited by RickJB, : No reason given.

So basically God takes all the credit for the good and we take all the blame for the bad!A truly inspiring model of leadership and authority.

Surely not if he created us? As far as I can make out, God creates us, endows with the ability only to sin and then punishes us for sinning! Where is the responsibility? Most constructive partnerships that I've come across don't involve one partner threatening the other with punishment.It's certainly not the best way to stake a claim on moral authority....Edited by RickJB, : No reason given.

I don't think this refutes my conclusion. God, as you see him, is the source of all good and if humans use their God-given gift of free will they are doomed to sin and be punished. Why give us free will if its only outcome is to set us up for failure? It makes no sense. In your arguments you make references to "partnership" and "love" in combination with references to "punishment" and "eternal hell". Such a muddle hardly needs any rearrangement! Edited by RickJB, : No reason given.Edited by RickJB, : No reason given.

I would agree that Jesus is a far more sympathetic figure of authority than the God of the Old Testament, but this serves only to amplify the tension between "love" and punishment that we see in Christianity. I see your point, but this purely physical example gives no account of personal philosophy or morality.Edited by RickJB, : No reason given.Edited by RickJB, : No reason given.Edited by RickJB, : No reason given.

But didn't God create both the restraint and the will to break free from it? Didn't God himself create evil? You can wax lyrical about all the restraints you like, but all of this still has to be squared with the idea that God created everything.It's a rigged game. God's "holiness" seems to amount to nothing more than the justification of a desire to punish!

So from where does it come? Isn't God supposed to have created everything? Who can say? However, if we are getting into magic wands then why doesn't God simply banish evil from our minds and save us all alot of trouble? Please leave out these patronising asides, they add nothing to the discussion.Edited by RickJB, : No reason given.Edited by RickJB, : No reason given.Edited by RickJB, : No reason given.