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Most of the times, ussually, when bad things happen, guess what. GOD DIDN'T DO IT!!!! We did, and so did nature. God had a really nice system going, but we sinned, so god let it become a mess as punishment for our sins. God does not wan't people to goto hell but he cannot do anything against his nature. He has 2 basic natures:
1. Just
2. Loving
If what you say is true about the nature of God, then you must reject the notion that He is also
all-powerful.
A just and loving God that was also all-powerful would not allow all of the innocent, blameless people, especially the infants and children, die in the multitude of ways that they do every day.
So, either God is all-powerful and chooses to not save the infants from a horrible death, OR he is just and loving, but not powerful enough to stop their suffering and death.
...of course, maybe you have a different idea of justice and love than I do.
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He cannot reject one or the other. So he sen't his son on the cross to carry out his justice, and at the same time, so his love. All you have to do is accept. IT IS SO EASY.
OK, if believing something like that is SO EASY, why don't you start believing in Zeus.
IT IS SO EASY!
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So if you find yourself burning up in hell, it's your own falt[sic].
So, I thought the Bible said that Jesus died for all of us?
Also, why would God make me with a skeptical mind, knowing that I would doubt his existence, if he was just going to send me to eternal torment and torture?
Sounds like a sadist, that God.
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God did everything he could for you.
He did? Wow, God isn't very powerful the way you describe Him.
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He isn't gona[sic] pop out a[sic] know where and say "FOLLOW ME". That makes sense ya know.
Why does it make sense?
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Just follow your children around all day and make sure they still love you.
God sounds emotionally needy, too.
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Wouldn't you rather them chose to love you without you popen[sic] out all over the place trying to re-inforce it.
How does a parent encorage a loving relationship with their child?
1) Telling the child often that they love them.
2) Showing the child, through their actions, that they care about them and are concerned with their well-being (feeding them, making sure they are warm and safe, teaching them, listening to them, etc.)
3) Making sure the rules of conduct are very clearly laid out, are age-appropriate and fully understood, and the discipline fits the offense, and is consistently applied, never in anger. The child should always completely understand why they are being disciplined.
I think that God is a pretty poor parent.
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God is not MAGIC, he is god.
How do I tell the difference between God's actions and magic?
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Is computer programming magic? No. Does everything on the computer happen naturaly from things that already exist no, not when the aumnipatant [sic] programmer sits down at C++ and makes new laws.
A human programmer is not omnipotent.
They cannot make their computer turn into, say, a tree using C++.
Therefore, they are not omnipotent.
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The universe is a creation of god, it is designed to be logical and we are designed to think logicaly,
No, actually, we aren't programed to think very logically.
We are programed to think pragmatically and to make quick, practical judgements about if something is dangerous, or if it is likely to be food, etc.
That's why the scientific method is so powerful and so useful; it accounts for and compensates for the multitude of very pervasive, natural human biases and thought errors that we are all prone to. Critical thinking skills have to be taught for the most part; they are not inborn.
Check out the following site to see a short discussion of the numerous logic and thought errors we humans regularly employ:
Logical Fallacies - Critical Thinking Mini-lesson - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com
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but sometimes, we don't know what were[sic] doing and we jump to errounous conclusions such as "Hey, everything just poped[sic] out of no where for no reason" when in fact it was god.
In fact?
Which facts can you show me that are evidence that God did that?
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Please forgive me of my mispellings but I type 2 paragraphs in like 20 secconds so I don't notice it much, and I don't have time to think cause I am typing so much. So that's why I leave out alot of information sometimes.
Perhaps thinking more and typing less would be better, then, no?
And there is this wonderful feature of most word processing programs called a spell checker.
Like it or not, the perception one has of the author of writing that contains many spelling and grammar errors is that they are careless, not terribly well-educated, or a young kid.
It is a good practice to learn to write well.
DO you think it should be like this:
God: Hey you wan't to come to heaven with me, just accept my son's substitue punishment for your sin.
Man: No.
God: No, I am forcing you to come to heaven with me.
No, I don't think it's like that, it's more like this:
God: Hey you wan't to come to heaven with me, just accept my son's substitue punishment for your sin.
Me: God isn't here in front of me saying that. Some person is telling me that their holy book says that, and that all the other holy books are wrong and his is right, except that he doesn't have any more evidence that his is right than any of the others, so how do I know who is correct?
This message has been edited by schrafinator, 01-08-2005 09:01 AM
"History I believe furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose."--Thomas Jefferson
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