Pretend you're the God of Christianity... (ritual, rejecting, Creator, Earth)

[logician]

Originally Posted by TurkeyOnRye

;1136258Of course, not many people take the bible as all literal truth today; .

Define, "not many" I would put the number in the hundreds of millions, if not more, sad to say, old myths die hard.

[Ratiocinative]

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was put there to give Adam and Eve a choice to obey God or to not obey God. If the only choice is to obey God then there really isn't any choice at all and there would be no point in creating Earth in the first place. God wants people to choose to worship him voluntarily, so a choice was needed for people to be able to make.

Other than that, I'm really not sure what you are asking or implying. Please be more specific.

[M O N S T E R]

God himself created man and woman and placed them in a garden, in "his own image", but got righteously angry at them when they ate, against his wish, and after being tempted by a talking serpent that god himself had somehow allowed to slither about in the garden, a tasty, beautiful fruit, though he himself had placed it there but neglected to instill in his creations the knowledge of good and evil so that they would know it was wrong to eat it. Being omniscient, of course, he knew all this before he started, but was apparently unable to do anything about it because he had planned it this way from the beginning, and apparently god cannot change anything he already knows, in spite of the fact that he's omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent.

Later, God himself impregnated a virgin so that he himself could be born a human, a ManGod. This was necessary, apparently, because only his own ManGod blood could appease himself and deliver humans, who he created, and who he knew would muck things up by eating the fruit, from his own righteous anger.

Of course, he waited several thousand years to implement this divine plan, in the meantime taking the righteous action of drowning every creature on the planet except a few he could stuff on a boat. Not to mention handing down a Law that served to further condemn every one of us, and in which Law he himself had them frequently sacrifice animals to appease himself, though he knew the blood of animals didn't really appease himself.

Much later, god, in a garden, prayed to himself to "take this cup" away from himself, though he himself knew that he himself had planned the coming events from the beginning and knew that not even he himself could save himself, even though he was god and omnipotent, omniscient, etc. Accepting this, he said, in effect, "Not my will, but my will."

God then sacrificed himself to himself to save us from himself. (or had himself sacrificed; not much of a distinction between the two, really) Before dying, he himself asked he himself why he had forsaken himself.

He himself, being dead, then raised himself from the dead less than 40 hours later, though he himself had said he'd be dead for three days and three nights, which he could do because he was still alive, and later he himself pulled himself up into heaven where he himself apparently already was, and where he himself is described as now sitting at the right hand of himself.

He himself then sent himself (or a ghost of himself, if you please) back to earth to be a comfort to us, though he himself is still sitting at the right hand of himself.

And, glory hallelujah, he himself promised that he himself will return someday, though he himself is already here, and will still be there, to snatch up those who believe the god blood sacrifice story he himself told us, and kill the rest of us who don't believe the god blood sacrifice story, no matter how nice we were otherwise. But, since killing us isn't enough to appease his righteousness, he himself will then judge us, though according to ManGod he himself will also not judge us, and being a god of love will cast most of us into hell for an eternity of suffering. He has to, of course, because he is a righteous, just god, and can't figure out a way to save anyone who hasn't been redeemed by god-blood, even though he is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent, and loves us all.

[Papersock]

Originally Posted by M O N S T E R

(cuz if you made your existence too obvious, you’d take the faith out of faith)

This argument never made sense to me. People could still refuse to worship such a god even if it did make itself obvious.

[Mike182]

seems like a fair enough representation of the Abrahamic God as any other i've seen.

[Alceste]

Logician, TurkeyonRye, I think if you are in the states your perspective will inevitably be skewed by the special brand of fundie legalists you just don't find elsewhere. Ie. In Canada I met only ONE of them, and he'd hit his head rather hard as a child.

With regards to the violence in the old testament, the majority of Christians believe the gospels (ie. the part of the bible specifically telling the story of Jesus) signified a new era - a change of heart for god, if you like. Jesus preached the gospel of love, he was merciful and compassionate, and he was the embodiment of God. With Jesus appearance, the god of the Old testament ceased to be. That is why it was such "Good news". (Good news! God's not a serial killer after all!)

You really mustn't lump everyone together like this. I'd say hundreds of millions is a gross exaggeration. I think the biblical literalist phenomenon is almost entirely contained within the southern US Baptist community (and I hope to God it doesn't leak!) My suspicion is that perhaps a low rate of literacy might contribute - the Bible is quite a tough slog even for the most avid reader.

[Halcyon]

Originally Posted by M O N S T E R

Much later, god, in a garden, prayed to himself to "take this cup" away from himself, though he himself knew that he himself had planned the coming events from the beginning and knew that not even he himself could save himself, even though he was god and omnipotent, omniscient, etc. Accepting this, he said, in effect, "Not my will, but my will."

God then sacrificed himself to himself to save us from himself. (or had himself sacrificed; not much of a distinction between the two, really) Before dying, he himself asked he himself why he had forsaken himself.

He himself, being dead, then raised himself from the dead less than 40 hours later, though he himself had said he'd be dead for three days and three nights, which he could do because he was still alive, and later he himself pulled himself up into heaven where he himself apparently already was, and where he himself is described as now sitting at the right hand of himself.

He himself then sent himself (or a ghost of himself, if you please) back to earth to be a comfort to us, though he himself is still sitting at the right hand of himself.

And, glory hallelujah, he himself promised that he himself will return someday, though he himself is already here, and will still be there, to snatch up those who believe the god blood sacrifice story he himself told us, and kill the rest of us who don't believe the god blood sacrifice story, no matter how nice we were otherwise. But, since killing us isn't enough to appease his righteousness, he himself will then judge us, though according to ManGod he himself will also not judge us, and being a god of love will cast most of us into hell for an eternity of suffering. He has to, of course, because he is a righteous, just god, and can't figure out a way to save anyone who hasn't been redeemed by god-blood, even though he is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent, and loves us all.

Well, when you put it like that it actually makes a lot of sense.

[Don Penguinoini]

Well, well done for saying God of Christianity and not just God. I appreciate that.

[Phasmid]

M O N S T E R, good posts. If you take the Bible litterally, you get the problems your posts were hinting at (that it's insane). But if you don't take it litterally, you create divides between people... and then there's the problem of which parts are litteral and which are symbolic... and all that creates confusion and yet God will still fry people who are confused, even though they have every right to be? Hence why I give up on all this religion crap. My family are non-believers, I'd rather not worry about them frying in Hell, I'll go there with them.

[Magic Man]

Originally Posted by Alceste

Logician, TurkeyonRye, I think if you are in the states your perspective will inevitably be skewed by the special brand of fundie legalists you just don't find elsewhere. Ie. In Canada I met only ONE of them, and he'd hit his head rather hard as a child.

With regards to the violence in the old testament, the majority of Christians believe the gospels (ie. the part of the bible specifically telling the story of Jesus) signified a new era - a change of heart for god, if you like. Jesus preached the gospel of love, he was merciful and compassionate, and he was the embodiment of God. With Jesus appearance, the god of the Old testament ceased to be. That is why it was such "Good news". (Good news! God's not a serial killer after all!)

You really mustn't lump everyone together like this. I'd say hundreds of millions is a gross exaggeration. I think the biblical literalist phenomenon is almost entirely contained within the southern US Baptist community (and I hope to God it doesn't leak!) My suspicion is that perhaps a low rate of literacy might contribute - the Bible is quite a tough slog even for the most avid reader.

I can only hope that America is a skewed representation of the amounts of literalists and non-literalists. The problem is that you're not just talking about those two groups. I think the majority of people fall somewhere in between. There are people like my parents, who don't take everything literally, but believe that the Bible is the word of God, and is to be taken as more than just some stories and myths to guide and teach us. They are also very intelligent, normal people in every respect. I think the way you said that people look at it is a good way, but not many people here see it that way, including my parents.