How do we know God is "Good"?

That is an incorrect statement. I believe God intended us to be nice to each other. Isn't that how you feel inside, that we should be nice to each other? Yes, I understand your point, but God old us not to shoot each other, even though he gaves us the chance to.It's like Jar said, there is no good without bad. They must co-exist, in order to exist at all. Otherwise we are just paintings on a wall.

An earthquake is a thing.I know where you are going with this. Disasters of any sort are the most difficult to undestand. But remember, many things come from a disaster. Hero's are made, thieves, peoples generosity can shine, and a grave reminder of just how fragile life is.Yes disasters can happen for several reason, and we will never be able to see the bigger picture.But I do not understand why you would mention earthquakes after I mention free will. They have not to much to do with each other in this conversation.

Ifen, you are a very deep person. Your thoughts are beautiful, and your knowledge awesome. Your collection of knowledge can be both advantageous to you, or detrimental to you.Do you believe in God?Our minds are also a screen. An awesome screen that God gave us to project images on when we read stories in a book. Unlike the screen, we get to retain the images, and apply the story to our lives. Any story that is not from God, or cannot in some fashion be applied to the glory of God, can be detrimental to us. All we have to do is ask.

There is something else wrong with that analogy. We are not children.
we have full understanding of right and wrong, and children do not.Try something else.

My initial feeling from God was that, earthquakes just happen, and we do not know why. But it is part of our existance here on earth.Then I read the bible a little and found at least this, which came from Jesus himself:Matthew 24
6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.I think the garden of eden was the perfect place for us, until we screwd ourselves. What I get amazed by is how well that story explains everything that happens to us, or gives an exuse to as why. The "moroons" from thousands of years ago, must have either been very smart, or indeed hearing the voice of God.

Genesis 2
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."Genesis 32 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

I would agree, but not completely discharge the notion of it actually happening. From the very first reading of that when I was a child, I felt it was a metaphor. But a very accurate one, of the fall of nature.
In other words, it happened, but maybe not exactly like that. But there was harmony and perfection, and mans bad decision and defiant heart ruined it for us all. Like you said, the truth cannot be put into words. The truth lies within our own hearts. Once in touch with it, it will set you free, the way Jesus claimed.
Truth is a word, a feeling, a spirit, and a component of what we are made of. Truth comes from God.

quote:

---

7 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'

​

"Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return."

---

God cursed the ground. This is part of the birthing pains that I quoted before. It is why we have earthquakes. It is the reason for all the bad in the world, that happens by what most of us percieve as pure chance. We then use that as an exuse to not believe in God.These past couple threads has helped me to figure that out. I hate the word religious tradition. It represents all that man has created about God, and how we should worship him, or find him. What Jesus taught us was very simple, and true, and is a great way to live our lives. He promised us the Holy Spirit, told us it was the truth, and we should live by it, otherwise we do not really know him.It is very hard for me to comment on other religions. People keep telling me that the only way is through Jesus. I remain on the fence about that.If someone is born into a life of deception, how would that person ever get to know Jesus. But that is irrelevant also. The good has been placed in our hearts, and we should follow it.My Musslem friend had a dream. He and another Christian used to debate about which religion was right(reality). But in his dream, he saw Jesus, and his friend. They both presented their arguements. Then Jesus looked and my Musslem friend and said, you are right.I am not a dream interpreter (I will be taking courses soon though) But the immediate thought that I got from the Holy Spirit was that Jesus was showing him his heart was good, and maybe his friends wasn't. When I told him this, it made perfect sense to him.What does all that mean? I don't know.I can't compare what I feel to what other religions feel, because I just don't know. I do know Musslems that have turned to Jesus, and heard what they expressed about it. To them it was the missing piece of a puzzle. Its not like their religion is wrong, it's just missing a piece, I guess. But like I said, I am in not in a position to judge it. I also do not believe surveys all that much, they can differ from what real life people tell you.

Is death good or bad?
Is bad evil?
Did they think death meant evil or bad?
God must have explained what death was, or they already knew that it wouldn't be a good thing.A kid needs to put his hands in a socket usually only once. Is the socket evil, or just bad?

It seems to cover most if not all of the basis. Not bad for some morons from thousands of years ago, who "supposedly knew nothing about anything". We know so much more now, right?

That response is hysterical.
He told them not to touch it. If he stops them from touching it, do we have free will?If you love something, let it go, if it doesn't come back, hunt it down and kill it. If you believe in that statement, then you can see how we were created in God's eyes.You train a dog. You take him to the park, and let him off the leash. You call him, and he doesn't come back. What do you do?
But if he does come back, you experience bonding and joy with the dog. That is what you experience with God once you decide to go back to him. He let you go when you were born. When you come full circle, and find him again, you are "born again", he lets you know it.

I'm not saying it happened exactly like that or not. But do you believe that when God first created us, that we lived in a perfect enviroment?Or you don't believe in creation, but most everything else from the bible. I'm trying to get a sense of your belief's even though you have put down a lot of words on it already.Did you ever think it possible that science is right about everything, except that God did create us, and everything else evolved?

Thats a tough question to answer.
My first memory was when I was about one year old, my mother was holding me up at a fence, and I could see about 9 lines of drag racing cars lined up. My mother said my father was drag racing, and I thought to myself, a drag race is between 2 cars, why do I see so many? I remeber trying to tell my mother, but I don't know what came out of my mouth.I didn't find out how old I was until recently, when my father told me how old I was when he last drag raced.I think at that stage, knowing as much as I did, I had free will. You mean the species before us? We are not talking about stopping someone from doing something, we are talking about removing all chance of ever doing anything bad or evil. If there is no bad things for us to touch or eat, then we would never have to choose between right and wrong. It is the essence of our existance. Then you are taking it literally. You missed the moral of the saying.
If you love something, then you can let it go. If it doesn't come back, then it probably didn't love you. Not that you would ever go hunt something because it didn't come back, thats not the point. I don't understand why you would see it that way only.

So you think raising your kids to tease others is a good thing?

Didn't you just read what he said?
He follows Christ and the NT.