If a God does exist, and is omni-powerful, would it not understand all humans actions and thoughts, right or wrong, and would God not sympathize with the actions of beings so vastly inferior to itself?
This omnimax Christian god is one cool dude you know! Not only does it create faulty Humans and then blame them for their faults but it also get's the faulty Humans that it created to accept that it's all their fault. Think about it! This god deliberately creates a woman that it knows will succumb to temptation and then blames the rest of Humanity...for all time, when she does so. BRILLIANT!!
You almost got the whole story. Then God sends his only Son down to earth to be sacrificed for your sin and mine and offers us salvation as a free gift.
.....and how ridiculous is that story? Have you ever thought about how bizarre the crucifixion story is? Imagine the all-powerful, all-knowing creator of the universe sitting on his magnificent throne in heaven. He looks down onto earth and says to himself: Those evil humans down on earth. I hate what they are doing. All this sin... Since I am all-knowing I know exactly what the humans are doing and I understand exactly why they commit each sin. Since I created the humans in my own image and personally programmed human nature into their brains, I am the direct author of all of this sin. The instant I created them I knew exactly what would happen with every single human being right down to the nanosecond level for all eternity. If I didn't like how it was going to turn out, I could have simply changed them when I created them. And since I am perfect, I know exactly what I am doing. But ignore all that. I hate all these people doing exactly what I perfectly designed them to do and knew they would do from the moment I created them. I HATE IT! I tried killing all the humans and animals once in the flood. That certainly did not fix the problem. So here's what I am going to do. I will artificially inseminate a virgin. She will give birth to an incarnated version of me. The humans will eventually crucify and kill the incarnated me. That, finally, will make me happy. Yes, sending myself down and having the humans crucify me -- that will satisfy me. I feel much better now. It makes no sense, does it? Why would an all-knowing being need to have humans kill himself (Jesus is God, after all) to make himself happy? Especially since it is a perfect God who set the whole thing in motion exactly the way he wanted it? The whole story of the crucifixion is absurd from top to bottom if you actually stop to think about it. If you believe the story of Jesus, Jesus clearly knew that he is God. In John chapter 14, verse 8 we find this: Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father." So it makes you wonder about Jesus' famous lamenation in Matthew 27:46: About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"—which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Since Jesus is God, what he really must have meant is: "Myself, myself, why have I forsaken me?" Which of course makes absolutely no sense.
pladecalvo, Part of God's perfect plan was making us not perfect, it's called free will. The law is also part of his plan as it points to the need of a savior since we could not meet the complete requirements of the law. I'd recommend C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity in helping with questions about things that "don't make sense".
That verse in John 14:8 is taken out of context, like many other verses have by MANY people. Jesus knew he IS (and still is) the son of God. If he was God, then why did he not ask everyone he met to worship him instead of his Father? Why did he pray to his Father if he was the father himself? He even asked his Father "take this cup from me if it is your will". Why on earth would he have asked this if he knew it was himself that gave the cup to himself? Jesus is God != Truth Jesus is Son of God = Truth Read more of the Bible and stop following what man says about these things. It's all in there. Col
OK, so - side topic now.... I didn't realise that you believed this. Isn't this contrary to JW doctrine? I mean, do you mean that Jesus Christ was is and always will be God? As much God, as God the Father? (Oh yeah, and his buddy HS).
The teachings of god vary alot with different religions. I think with christianity , the way God is defined is like a monarchy. God is the king that human beings serve , if you don't then you suffer. Maybe cause in the time when christianity started , thats the concept of how people lived by. If you do something bad or disobey you will pay harshly , that was the only way they knew how to handle things. But now our society is totally different , our understanding of our enviroment and world has shifted I can see why alot of people are questioning christianity.
Hmmm...me thinks you not know the symbols of mathematics. When I put != that means not equals. Hope this explains it. Col
you guys really believe that? are honestly cannot understand people who believe in religion I can understand believing in god, and maybe jesus, but the bible? come on
"Taken out of context" This favourite always comes from the same crowd that likes to push likewise extracted verses that support their particular view. Christians love to quote verse after verse ad nauseum from the bible. Yet the moment a verse is quoted from the bible that shows their bible or their god in a bad light, they start screaming 'you're quoting out of context.'
God can not be explained to someone who does not believe. God and all religion is solely a matter of faith. If you do not have faith, there is no way to explain something to you. You need to search for something that you believe in not to search for ways to prove faith or beliefs of others wrong. There are hundreds of religions around the world and millions of books describing those religions, I suggest you read some books and decide for yourself what you believe and if you can't find something, believe a combination of several or make your own. Humans need something to believe in, they need the security of something higher than them. Is it all true? Who is to honestly answer that? The truth is no one can tell you without a shred of doubt that their religion is the only true way; that is where faith comes in.
Theists obviously need the security of a higher being but atheists certainly don't. The atheist looks and sees that there is a lack of evidence for God where such evidence should logically be. Thus, the atheist concludes that the lack of evidence for God indicates that there is a lack of God. In the same way, I could say there is an elephant in your living room. But there is a lack of evidence for an elephant in your living room. Thus, you logically conclude that my claim that there is an elephant in your living room is incorrect. Substitute Elephant with God and living room with world and you've got the atheistic conclusion.