God the father

Any father that at one time or another not wanted to throttle his offspring is just not being honest.But do you really want a discussion on the subject and how some Christians see the issue or just want to rail at fundies?

A good friend and Episcopal Priest once covered the subject of hell and eternal damnation in one short statement; "Hell? Fuggitabutit!"

It's understanding that the Bible was written by humans of different eras, different beliefs, different cultures and to different audiences.

No, you understand that the folk writing stuff are different people with different cultures than folk today.

It depends on which parts you are talking about. Give me a chapter and verse and we can discuss that chapter and verse.

Again, it really helps if we were specific on Chapter and Verse, not being difficult but all too often it turns out that what is being marketed is something taken out of context.Yes, I agree that to us and to me, sending someone to suffer for an eternity is inconsistent with a father figure image, but remember, even the father figure image is but one snapshot again taken out of context.However, condemning those you hate to eternal suffering is not inconsistent with what many folk did believe at various times; even today we see folk asserting that position. Nor are religious beliefs necessarily consistent. In fact, inconsistency could be said to be a hallmark of religious beliefs.That is certainly true of what was written and included in various Bibles.

But the concept itself can only be supported by taking passages out of context.

Yup, quote mining and taking passages out of concept.As I said.

I was not the person that created a laundry list of passages taken out of context and, perhaps wrongly, I assumed that you were capable of looking at them in context as well as actually reading what I write.Perhaps you are not.Had you actually read what I had written in this thread you might have noticed that in Message 15 I said:

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However, condemning those you hate to eternal suffering is not inconsistent with what many folk did believe at various times; even today we see folk asserting that position. Nor are religious beliefs necessarily consistent. In fact, inconsistency could be said to be a hallmark of religious beliefs.

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If you like we can step through your laundry list and look at each one in context and see if they would be covered in what I have already posted in this thread.

Sorry but if what you posted is true then the god you are trying to market is simply petty, vile, evil and certainly unworthy of anything more than contempt.

I'm sorry Buz but that just makes the god you try to market look really dumb and limited in addition to being really evil and worthy of nothing but contempt.The Bible also tells us the humans are capable of determining what is just and that when god is being unjust, humans need to dope slap the boy and set her straight.Have you ever actually read the Bible Buz?

Have you ever read the Bible Phat?Genesis 3: (that's really early in the book and I've actually pointed it out to you in the past)

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22And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

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andGenesis 18 (that's early in the book too)

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20And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous;

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21I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.

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22And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD.

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23And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked?

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24Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?

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25That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

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26And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.

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27And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the LORD, which am but dust and ashes:

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28Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it.

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29And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty's sake.

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30And he said unto him, Oh let not the LORD be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there.

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31And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the LORD: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty's sake.

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32And he said, Oh let not the LORD be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake.

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33And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.

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And no, I don't know that Buz has ever read the Bible, and in fact all the evidence so far is that he has not. That's why he tries to not give actual Chapter and Verse to support his nonsense because every time he has what is actually written refutes his assertion.

Why, what does intelligence have to do with anything?The point is that if you are honest, then you must honestly acknowledge what the story actually says, and the story actually says that humans have the capability to know as much as god when it come to what is right and wrong, good and evil, and that humans need to point out to god when god is not being just.The story may not say what you want it to say but that is what it actually says.

Gotta ask if you have ever read the Bible. According to the Bible, god is not in conflict with Satan, and in fact Satan is simply a servant carrying out God's orders.

Yes, it shows that man has morality and that when what god is doing does not stand up to judgement by man, then man has not just the right but the duty to speak up.Remember that the God of Abraham was very human, did not know everything, got around by walking, got hungry and ate just like everyone else, and could be wrong.But in the story the God character is challenged, and is corrected. Abe points out that God is not acting justly.Now granted this story shows a much evolved God compared to the God of Adam, and of course the "God" character continues to evolve as the societies evolved.