Satan is a cop out. Either your god created Satan to take the fall or Satan exists as ANOTHER uncaused cause independent of God. How many of those are there? If Satan controls your god-created world, one of two things must be true - either your god allows it for his own purposes which is simply evil or your god is unable to take back his own creation and is not omnipotent.
😁 I’ll let you guys settle your vast theological differences derived from the same source material. It does make one wonder who gets it right and how you must wonder what will happen at the end if you guessed wrong. Even worse…what if you’re BOTH wrong?!?!?
You're funny. Obviously, our hearts can deceive us (need I provide evidence this is true) and God meant we have to re-orient our hearts to trust Him and not ourselves. My middle schooler understands this concept. Not really up for debate.
So Jesus was complicit in every genocide ordered by your god. There you go. The justification for what was ordered is immaterial - to murder every man, woman, and child in a city is inexcusably evil if you have a shred of morality.
An omnipotent god could have sent a Jesus to every population in the whole world to spread “the good news”. That would have been a lot harder to dismiss. That would have prevented a lot of internecine bloodshed and atrocities between various religious groups over the centuries.Jesus was sent to the whole world.
2,000 years later and we're still talking about him.
Although I again respectfully disagree with Jesus' identity here, he was sent first to the lost sheep of Israel. It was only when the nation as a whole rejected him as the Messiah did he turn his attention to the "nations" or gentiles.
you can also build a boat out of the pieces of the true cross, but see my earlier post. No one is saying these things are magical.
What would be the fun in that? The way God set it up through His chosen people allows for billions of humans to share the good news!
How many houses of worship that aren’t Christian? A lot more.
Many sitting empty as your rhetoric drives people away.
Of course it is. Like I said: this child lives - praise god! That child dies - that’s on us!!
Could have. Could have had a finger in the Pulse nightclub shooting as many Christians believed. Mysterious ways, you know.
Everyone who ever practiced genocide justified it. Every single one. And they’ve done it by calling out the wickedness of the people they’re murdering. I do find it interesting that you justify the order to exterminate the Canaanites because they supposedly sacrificed their own children. Seems that, given the order by god to kill every man, woman, and child among them…they were just doing your God’s work. We had to kill the children to save them?
It's pretty clear we will never reach any kind of agreement on it. Sorry you see God as a tyrant.
Fortunately the archeology and genetics indicate that there was no annihilation. The isrealites developed out of Canaanites.
I don’t see god as a tyrant…I see the Christian version of the god they created as a tyrant…and this god uses the same propaganda to dehumanize the people he wants destroyed as every tyrant has through history. It’s not surprising that the OT Jews would conceive of such a god…it is exactly the same kind of rule they had been subjected to for their entire lives and the lives of their ancestors. They couldn’t imagine any different kind of ruler.
So the canaanites were dehumanized by God for sacrificing their own children to a demon god? They were punished but God didn’t force them to burn their own children. You’re making excuses for those people?
Good stuff…but none of that changes the fact that the Old Testament says they were ordered by their god to do it. And more…
Who says they were sacrificing their own children? The god who wants them exterminated. The god who then proceeds to order that all of their children be killed.
There is absolutely no evidence of any kind that the Israelis were ever enslaved in Egypt. None. No evidence for Moses. No evidence for an exodus. And of course the god they made up wouldn’t be cruel to them - he was THEIR god.
*sigh* I’m not bitter in the least. I’ve simply applied basic logic and factual evidence to the myths of the Bible. And I don’t give a flip what foolishness people choose to believe as long as they don’t try to force those beliefs on others and their beliefs don’t harm others. On that score, I have a negative view of Protestantism…Roman CatholicIsm…Islam…pretty much every organized religion that ever existed. I’m glad you’ve come to “know” a god who gives you comfort. I have absolutely no need for that kind of comfort.
I don't understand how one can read the old testament and come away with a positive picture of that God. I guess if you are okay genocide and generational punishment. This is a God that David's son because his David sinned. The mental gymnastics are impressive.
So I’m assuming with your viewpoint you pretty much believe you have your 70-80 years of existence and that’s it huh? Glad you don’t need any comfort. I’m sure life is nothing but grand for you full of purpose and meaning .
The greatest scientist of all time wrote more about the Bible than he did science.
Sir Isaac Newton.
Isaac Newton's life was one long search for God
From physics and alchemy to theology and eschatology, Isaac Newton’s research was rooted in a personal pursuit of the Divine.bigthink.com
There are no, 0, zilch. First hand accounts of Jesus.
I have to disagree for the following reasons. You will never hear an atheist on a street corner with a bullhorn proselytizing about nothing.
You guys make all kinds of assumptions and you are universally wrong. I know exactly as much about what happens after we die as you do…specifically not one single thing. All I can do is enjoy my “short years” and try to live as moral a life as possible…pretty much the same thing you’re doing. I don’t worry about what comes after…it makes no sense to me to worry about something I can’t possibly understand. Other people find comfort by telling themselves they have some special insight into what comes next. If you need that, good for you. The idea that I HAVE to practice that self-comfort is exactly what I was talking about earlier. Stop pushing your needs and beliefs on others. And stop assuming you know something others are missing. You really don’t.
There are multiple independent second hand accounts that reference the writings of historian Kallisthenes of Olynthos who accompanied Alexander on all his travels and knew him personally. Those various references are consistent with each other in their details. There is a tremendous amount of archeological evidence attesting to the existence for Alexander the Great as a real person. The idea that the evidence of Alexander is no better than the evidence for Jesus is laughable.
You really don’t pay attention to anything I post, do you?What year was the first biography of Alexander the Great written?
300 or 600 years after he died?
The Gospels were written only decades after Jesus died.
Anyways, I'm not sure what your point in this thread is. If you want to be an atheist, I wouldn't recommend it, but you have free will.
If you're arguing Jesus didn't exist, that's a battle you will lose.
I would argue there is indeed evidence for the Jewish ancestors in captivity in Egypt and a subsequent exodus.
