If you were to have the power to do so, would you...

[robocop (actually)]

create a living being in your own image and give this being a free will?

Why is man bad?

All because of the free will given him by God. Man is a bad design from the beginning.
A free will is the pinnacle of human imperfection.

If I were building a computer and I don't want it to commit errors, I would strive to program it not to do such.

I would want my creation to conform strictly to MY will.


I can see how religious faith can get really trying and very tough to maintain in such a world filled with misery, suffering, war, poverty, selfishness, greed, cruelty, death, destruction, illness, deformity of babies, handicaps, gross bodily functions (as BO, vomiting, defecation and urination), filth, squalor, crime, unjust killings, unjustified anger, hatred, bullying, cowardice, destructive natural events, loneliness, ignorance, thoughtlessness, carelessness, negligence, irresponsibility, lies, deception, violence, hunger, famine, drought, pestilence, overpopulation, pollution, government corruption and environmental decay.

Is the devil really the Father of All the World's Troubles? Isn't God more powerful than the devil? Why does the devil seem to prevail in this world?

The world really looks and feels like hell to me.

I would like a clone more than a baby if I could afford it.

 

[blü 2]

Why is man bad?

Why are nearly all people pretty darn good nearly all the time?

All because of the free will given him by God. Man is a bad design from the beginning.

Alternatively, because H sap sap has evolved as a gregarious primate, living in societies where many different interests, within or external to the tribe, can lead to conflicts.

A free will is the pinnacle of human imperfection.

If God is omniscient and omnipotent then it's impossible for Man to have free will, since it will be impossible for anyone or anything to do anything that God did not perfectly foresee and intend before [he] made the universe.

If, as I strongly suspect is the case, the word 'God' does not denote any real being, then humans will make decisions as the result of chains of cause and effect in the brain, and if quantum randomness is capable of interfering with those chains, having a random element as well. So in my view no one's will is actually 'free' in any ultimate way.

If I were building a computer and I don't want it to commit errors, I would strive to program it not to do such.

So you'd program it to let one of its children die so that two unrelated children could live?

I would want my creation to conform strictly to MY will.

Who wouldn't? Who doesn't?

Is the devil really the Father of All the World's Troubles?

Nope.

Isn't God more powerful than the devil? Why does the devil seem to prevail in this world?

Do you mean POTUS or Boris Johnson?

The world really looks and feels like hell to me.

If I knew a reliable site on the net that could test you for depression, I'd post it here for you.

But if you'd prefer to cheer up ─ I know that's not a given ─ you could always read Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of our Nature.

 

[Hockeycowboy]

Most parents' rules tend to be rational and beneficial. Not so for most biblical rules. One such example is not rotating crops and wearing mixed fabrics, and the disproportionate, excessive punishment for breaking such nonsensical rules. Also, my dad never threatened to douse me in gasoline and set me on fire if I didn't lick his boots.

Sorry I missed your post...

(I’m surprised you didn’t mention circumcision. You know it doesn’t apply to Christians, right?)

The “nonsensical rules” you did mention, have to do with sacred matters: tithing duties and separating the priestly tribe from the other Israelite tribes. Again, these wouldn’t apply to Christians.

You’re infusing interpretation of texts, that don’t apply. Psalms 146:3-4, Ecclesiastes 9 5,10 & Genesis 3:19 (and others) indicate the dead have no thoughts, no consciousness, and “go back to the ground / dust.”

Hard to cause pain to something that is not aware of anything! I’m sorry you were taught those lies...it’s influenced your POV.


Take care.

 

[Jos]

In a sense, I don't blame atheists for being optimistic and I understand why they would be optimistic. They don't believe in an afterlife where everything's made right and as far as they're aware they only have their one life on earth and that's it so it's in their best interest to be optimistic since being negative will diminish their quality of life and make life bad for them. Also from an evolutionary perspective maybe a person who's more positive has a higher chance of passing on their genes and also too atheists would have to be optimistic for their children and hope that they would have a better life than they did.