Why Would God Care?

But you haven't shown that God claims lust to be a sin or that God commands us not to lust.What you've shown is Jesus teaching that we have a responsibility to deal with our "evil inclinations".The seven deadly sins aka vices, are not from God. Actual sin is a direct violation of God's law.

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Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?

Uhm, It's written in the bible, the Bible is the inspired word of God allegedly no?If we're working under the assumption that God can and does talk to people. I think it's fair to assume that the Bible is God inspired.

here's a couple more seems to me Lust is not a good thing, and not approved by god

Your own examples make a distinction between lust and sin.

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Jam 1:15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin....

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A seed bringeth forth a tree, but a seed is not a tree.

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Gal 5:16 [This] I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

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Here again, lust is the (as yet unfulfilled) potential for "wrong", not the sin itself.

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Rom 7:7 .... for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

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Interesting here that lust is associated with covetousness and not with adultery. Lust/envy/greed are not all that different then. One wonders why they merited three separate "deadly sins".I'd say that lust is just a symptom of the disease (sin), not the disease itself. A cough can be a symptom of a lot of diseases, but it isn't a disease per se.Edited by Ringo, : Insertedspacesbetweenwordsforimprovedreadability.

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lol, that's what you're all about Show me where a religion says that you should avoid a behavior soley because god decrees it.

So God is happy with us lusting after our neighbours wife, but not "Coveting?"seems to me they are pretty much the same thing.in fact this quote: seems to be equating them, it seems to me that this is saying.
"Well I didn't think i had was breaking the law by lusting, but I suppose the law does say thou shalt not covet, so maybe i was lusting after all"but this isn't a biblical discussion thread so we should not stray too far.Edited by Creavolution, : No reason given.

Well, gosh. I know you are, but what am I?

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Deuteronomy 6:24
The LORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today.

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Samuel 12:14-15
But if you do not obey the LORD, and if you rebel against his commands, his hand will be against you, as it was against your fathers.

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Matthew 19:17
"Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."

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Thessalonians 1:6-9
He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.

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Acts 5:29
We must obey God rather than men!

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Whatever God says, you're supposed to obey him, even if there's no non-God reason for it. That's why, for instance, Moses did not give the people of Israel the Ten Helpful Suggestions.God says jump, religion says you ask how high.Of course, you know this already. This is another case where I'm absolutely sure that your only goal is to drown the topic in nonsense. Feel free post all the "LOL nuh-uh"s you want in response... I don't have any real interest in helping you further distract from the topic.Edited by Dan Carroll, : No reason given.

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"I know some of you are going to say 'I did look it up, and that's not true.' That's 'cause you looked it up in a book. Next time, look it up in your gut."
-Stephen Colbert

Thinking about this, I realized that if said dump was a bloody dump, I'd care a great deal about it. I don't believe in God, but slipping on my theist shoes, I could speculate that perhaps God cares because we are all a piece of God, representative of the creation's health.So, in essence, God cares about God.Edited by docpotato, : No reason given.

Fair enough. Although I'd say that this pretty much falls under the heading of "yes... we really are that important," maybe mixed a little with Jar's statements about a petty God.

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"I know some of you are going to say 'I did look it up, and that's not true.' That's 'cause you looked it up in a book. Next time, look it up in your gut."
-Stephen Colbert

For example?Those Bible quotes are about obeying god, sure, that's fine.Obeying god is not the same as avoiding a behavior soley because god decreed it. I can't think of a sin that doesn't have non-god reasons for avoiding it.You're strawmanning.

Speeding is against the law, not because it is inherently bad but because it can have bad consequences - accidents. Similarly, covetousness is not inherently bad, but it can lead to bad actions - adultery, theft, etc.In a way, the law is a supplement to common sense (and it's necessary because some people don't have any.)Give me a second while I reread purpledawn's mind.... Okay. Yeah, I think she's saying (sorta) that nobody has shown that God does issue tickets to everybody who goes one klick over the limit.[/purpledawn-mind-meld]The law is a guideline (yes, the Ten Suggestions) that we have the free-will to interpret in our own way and God will give us some leeway. As I said early in the thread, God doesn't "care" what we do unless it does have negative consequences for us or for our neighbours. And as I said later in the thread, He cares about that for the same reasons that an artist cares if his painting spontaneously combusts.

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It is if God decrees that you avoid a behavior. Which he does, quite frequently. As numerous as I'm sure the reasons are for not making unto thee any graven image*, this is irrelevant. If you have another reason for doing something, more power to you. But according to religion, it doesn't matter to God if you do or not. You have to obey because he said so.Either way, your attempts at distraction have passed their sell-by date. If you want to further debate whether or not religion involves suiting your behavior to God, take it to another thread.---
* - This is sarcasm, just fyi. Wouldn't want you to get all confused again.

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"I know some of you are going to say 'I did look it up, and that's not true.' That's 'cause you looked it up in a book. Next time, look it up in your gut."
-Stephen Colbert

So is this view of christianity anything other than your interpretation?I mean we can ask everyone on this board how strictly we should obey the commandments, and we will get a hell of a lot of answers.If a christian chooses to base their life on the bible it seems unreasonable that they should cherry pick or interpret as they see fit. The "Word of God" fast looses any authority.As Dan has said, If the bible (the Word of God) advises against an action or forbids an action we can only assume God cares whether or not we do it.
the question is: Why?

I'm thinking beyond Christianity, really. On the contrary, there doesn't seem to be any sense to free will if the Commandments are carved in stone. ( ) The words of men about the Word of God could stand to be tightened up. The answer is: So we won't hurt ourselves.

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Well I believe this thread is based upon the biblical, Christian God. So I'm not sure what's to be gained from moving outside that realm. well sure, there doesn't seem to be any sense to a lot of christianity as far as I can see. But, for the purposes of this thread we have made assumptions. You mean the chisel slipping as we make our graven images? or the adulterer slipping as he climbs out his neighbours window after a bit of coveting? Or perhaps the child who gets a whack for not honouring his mum and dad?