God - All Powerful or powerless and weak?

Damocles said:
It does not. All the terms we would use to describe, say in my example, an alien life form could be used to describe "him/her/it/us".

The "god is so mysterious we can't even conceptualize something different than ourselves because our language only has words to describe humans" is just a weak excuse.

The English language is the most versatile of conversational tools, concepts inhuman/human/godhood, all can exist and be described in myriad form. Saying it is too difficult is just a weak cop-out.
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Taking God out of it for a min, you don't believe there are concepts or ideas or beliefs that we don't have words for?
 
Granule said:
If your kids are trying to do the right things, and their hearts are in the right place, then there's nothing to worry about. In the end, your kids are either with you, or they are against you. How much latitude can you extend to them if their defiance makes it impossible for you to be together?
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I certainly would not even consider sending them for an eternity of anguish, regardless of what they did.

I also would not torture them to prove to someone else that they love me. Nor would I kill them for disobeying me.


The whole "loving parent" thing does not work.
 
Granule said:
Are they right in the middle on your house rules? I'd love to hear how that works.
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If your child disobeys every single house rule, breaks laws (not harming anyone), and says they do not love you, would you sentence them to 50 years of being tortured?

Is that "Love" to you?
 
Thing1 said:
I don't even like to use the word "God" - too many connotations.

It would be kind of nice if we could break free of most organized religion. A lot of our current concepts about God came from times that were superstitious, fearful and generally not well-informed about anything. We wouldn't trust medieval doctors with our health - why do we trust medieval clergymen with our spirituality?
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a very valid point...
 
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Granule said:
Yes. God is a perfected being.
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According to what standard? Your perfection? Mine? Whose? Perfect means complete, finished, in the past. Who has made that decision? God is perfect - god is finished - we can all go home now and figure out how we will progress as a species.
Its OK, Granule, you dont have to come.
 
Granule said:
We're here to make choices.

I've chosen to try and follow the commandments of a loving god. You've chosen to reject the commandments of a loving god. We all have the right to choose.
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Just look how you have worded that. ' rejected the commandments of god'! What absolute twaddle! The basic guidelines of life dont belong to you or any comic book hero you choose to worship. You dont know what has been rejected or accepted.
You are coming across as one of the dangerous loonies. Is that your intention ..... or god's?
 
Granule said:
We're here to make choices. Why do you think we're here? (Hint: your atheism will placate you for only so long.)
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W are here to make choices? So you believe that some god or goddess created you. Complete. As you are. White, american aand christian. And that creator decided go create you simply so you could make choices?

'Y'know what we need on this planet? Summtin can make choices. Them dinosaurs I made, they didnt make choices and the just up n died out after 250000000 years. All that bacteria I made, that doesnt have choices. Listen I done made animals n birds n frogs n roaches and I plum forgot to give them choices.
Forgot all about it. Must be gettin ole I guess.
 
Granule said:
We're here to make choices. Why do you think we're here? (Hint: your atheism will placate you for only so long.)
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why do we have to be here for a purpose?

We may be the result of some alien college kids science experiment.
He got an F btw ;)

We may just be here for no particular reason.

Does it matter?

Is there a purpose for my having a pimple on my right butt cheek?
 
WinterBorn said:
I certainly would not even consider sending them for an eternity of anguish, regardless of what they did.
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If they choose the conditions that lead to an eternity of anguish, then you have no control over that. God doesn't, either. All God can do is create the best possible conditions for His children, while watching the decision making process unfold. We parents have to do the same.

WinterBorn said:
I also would not torture them to prove to someone else that they love me. Nor would I kill them for disobeying me.
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That test was more for Job than anyone else, and I'm quite certain he is sitting at the right hand of God, even as you are typing your rebuttal.

WinterBorn said:
The whole "loving parent" thing does not work.
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It doesn't work in the mind of a natural man.
 
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I hate the whole sanctimonious "you'll burn in hell for all eternity" thing about religion. If you read the history of hell, it was basically invented by the early medieval church to scare people into the pews.

There are so many problems w/ the concept - it's way too extreme. Let's say you "make the cut" and get to spend eternity behind those lovely golden gates (and believe you me, I can think of a lot of allegories on that to human existence). How are you supposed to enjoy that if you have loved ones who just "missed the cut" and are undergoing eternal torment? Do you just forget about them?

Also, what IS the cutoff point? If we're all sinners, is it a certain level of "sin" that cuts us off? One lie too many? Or can we have as evil an existence as one can imagine, and if we just "accept" God on our deathbed, we're cool?

I don't know. The whole thing is just too far-fetched. It's something man would come up with - not a God.
 
Granule said:
Jesus died for our sins, not for our sustained disobedience.
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If your god is all powerful, why did he only make one son when he could have made millions, and then why did he kill him at only 33. Why didnt he just make man devoid of sin (whatever sin is). That would have been much more sensible and would have saved millions of the lives you say he created. Or is your god like that artist who destroyed everything he owned for the sake of art?
Why has he allowed people to believe that the mother of his son was a virgin when everyone knows that virgin is not an accurate translation of the original text.
Why has he made science possible and people who dont believe in him generally much smarter than those who do.
These questions and more in the next episode of SOAP!
 
What I continue to find amazing is the amount of time that those who don't believe in God, on this board, spend trying to convince those who do believe that the believers are wrong.
I have yet to see as much effort from those who believe trying to make believers out of those who choose not to.

Belief and faith are individual.
You can believe that your spouse is the prettiest/handsomest person in the world; but does that mean that everyone believes the same.
Your kids can believe that you're the smartest person in the world; but that doesn't mean that it's accurate.

Some also seem to forget the concept of: if there was no evil, then how would we know what was good.
 
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