How do we know God is "Good"?

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?

It's an interesting story but that's about all. Just about like all the other myths from other bronze age people from the same era. Absolutely.

---

Aslan is not a Tame Lion

riVeRrat But that is my point. If they already knew of good or had it explained to them what would be the point of a tree of knowledge of good and evil? In order to be consistent with the previous examples you must include a third party knowledgable of the danger that does nothing in the way of preventing the event.If you placed an adult in the same room who is not only aware of the danger but is aware of the event occuring and watches it occur yet does nothing to prevent it then we would have something akin to the biblical account.I maintain that a god who is fully aware of the outcome and then punishes the participants{his children}when they choose the outcome he was fully aware and which he made available to them when they lack of proper knowledge to make a decision is resonsible fully for the outcome.This is a god you would worship.Pity.This message has been edited by sidelined, 11-08-2004 10:41 PM

jar In what way does it make us different sir?

Well, I went through that pretty completely TTBOMK in this very thread. can I get you to check out the conversation between Gilgamesh and me starting at Message 9 through Message 49. I know that's asking alot but I do think for what is really a pretty complicated issue it's about as condensed as I can make it.

---

Aslan is not a Tame Lion

jarNot a problem my good man.I will take some time to do just that, though at the rate I have been reading lately I will probably have to open up a new topic to respond as this thread will probably clear 300 by then.LOL Thanks.

I think it was a very good exchange and Gilgamesh ask many very difficult questions and brought up major issues. I learn a lot discussing things with folk of the quality of you and Gilgamesh.

---

Aslan is not a Tame Lion

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?

But here are the short answers. No. No. I don't believe the Genesis creation tales at all or many of the other tales in the Bible such as the flood and exodus. No.

---

Aslan is not a Tame Lion

When does a human have free will? Prior to conception? Prior to birth? Prior to the last brain developments?How does stopping someone from doing something remove free will? If I want to enter a restricted nuclear bomb facility and the soldiers subdue me and hand cuff me and put me in jail have they removed my free will? If someone told me in all seriousness they believed in that statement I would think they had a serious character disorder, either narcissistic, borderline, or sociopathic. That is not a definition of love but of an ego based destructive possessiveness. And in the sense that the ego is the basis of suffering that attitude is evil in that it perpetuates delusions that create suffering.lfen

duplicateThis message has been edited by lfen, 11-09-2004 12:51 PM

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.

Getting back on topic...Here's a great snippit from the OT: The Christian God had two bears tear FORTY-TWO children from limb to limb merely because they were doing what children do: tease and taunt?I challenge any Christian, without making something up, to explain how slaughtering forty-two children is anything but the act of a psychopath.Anybody?