quick,
Key concept for you to remember--God permitted sin; he did not cause sin--big difference. Our common forbear caused sin by ignoring God's covenant with him and following Satan's temptation. We are guilty, not God.
Perhaps. Yet then again,
nothing happens without god permitting it, does it? Everything that we say and do is part of god's plan, which he himself created. The sin of Adam and Eve was part of god's plan, was it not? Therefore, god most certainly
did cause sin, by A) writing it into his plan, and B) putting tempataion (and therefore opportunity) front and center. By allowing the 'Great Fall' to proceed, god is 'guilty' of causing sin, for nothing happens which god does not want to happen, or which god has not planned. You can argue that sin was caused by the serpent and by Adam and Eve, and the tree of life even, but god is the one who put them all together in those circumstances.
The bottom line here, is that god was 'pleased' by the sin of Adam and Eve. The word 'pleased' is a positive term, suggesting positive feelings. This means that god WANTED sin, and was HAPPY that it came about. If you are witness to a murder, but do not bring your testimony forward, and yet your presence at the scene is discovered, you could be tried as an accomplice. If your friend is emotionally bankrupt, and on the brink of suicide, but you tell no one and do nothing to help, then you would most certainly be to blame when they kill themselves. Likewise, if you lay a bunch of knives in the cradle of a small child, you are to blame when they cut themselves.
Your entire line of criticism revolves around a concept that God owes us something, and that your sense of equity is correct as a concept of cosmic justice.
I argue not that god owes us something, but that WE do not owe HIM anything.
Human morality and therefore the human concept of justice is derived much from the moral concepts taught within the bible and other holy books. Since god 'inspired' those books, then I think it is safe to say that I am holding him to his own standard.
The Almighty owes us nothing--we are his creation. Do you owe something to a painting you paint? God gives us salvation through his Son as his gift--He owes us nothing.
This is a most fabulous analogy, as I am a painter. I would argue that I do indeed owe something to my paintings. I owe it to them that I will use my talents to their fullest potential on them, and I owe it to them to keep them safe from harm. I owe them the right to be seen by others (if I deem them good enough, heh, heh). However, a painting is a far cry from a human being. All of those things which I listed as owing to my paintings are things that affect me personally, not necessarily the painting. This is because a painting is not a living thing. A human, on the other hand, most certainly is, and with that life, comes many needs and requirements that god doesn't seem to be managing properly.
He created us, therefore he does indeed owe us. You don't breed puppies and then expect for the puppies to just do whatever you say, and obey your commands of 'sit' and 'stay' because they 'owe' you for making their lives possible.
You would say that we owe god because he created us. Well, I say that I didn't
ask to be created. God did so because he wanted to. The alternative would be the concept that god created us with the idea in mind that we would feel like we owed him, and that is nothing but ego stroking.
His sense of Justice is surely greater than ours--he is infinite and eternal, and we are finite and live only a handful of decades.
A teenager who is left out of the loop and constantly told that 'they won't understand' or that 'they're too young' is going to become a little resentful. If god wants us to respect him so much, he needs to make his 'sense of justice' known to us so that we may properly understand him. Otherwise, it is his own loss.
You, of course, are prideful and an idolator, which is at the root of all sin.
Are you proud of god? Well then, it seems that you would be prideful as well. I am not sure what 'pride' I have revealed to you, but if you could please point it out to me, that would be great. (oh, and one other thing: not believing in god does not warrant pride, ok?)
It seems to me that in order to be an idolator, you have to idolize someting. You idolize god, whereas I do not idolize anything. Seems to me that
you are the idolator here.
So, who is the root of all sin, again?
You think you can be your own God, just as Adam did, rather than trust in the one true God
Well, the way I see it is this: I'd rather believe god is something which exists, rather than something which does not exist. I exist, therefore it works out great!
As a result, you stand in judgment over God, which is incongruous.
Incongruous with god's plan? Why thank you, I take that as a compliment. Yes I agree, I am sure that god didn't count on his little creations showing him up. WE SHALL NOT DEVIATE FROM THE PLAN!!!
