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God Is A Psychopath

One can blame anything, if there's a religion involved.

A recent post on FSTDT, an apologist maintains:

When God’s people fell into sin and idolatry, he would send foreign nations to slaughter and enslave them. But these invaders were themselves subject to God’s wrath, and it is precisely because they slaughtered and enslaved God’s people (propelled by God’s power) that divine judgment soon visited them as well.

So by acting IAW God's desires (according to Vincent Cheung), they offended God and sinned against God, and God punished them... For doing exactly what he had a reason for them to do.

And of course, God punished Adam and woman for making a choice that he designed them to be incapable of properly evaluating.

So, sure, God made man moral, made man's moral code, but it's man's fault for any decision he makes.
 
Lion IRC... you think Hitler was a fine upstanding moral citizen... that pretty much killed any interest in what you have to say on the topic of morality
Has Lion IRC ever made an argument that actually suggests he isn't an atheist troll? He seems to either be a really really bad apologist or he is just making up arguments for fun.
 
My little puzzle about God's creation of man and God's choice of our moral nature still stands. What moral nature we have is strictly due to God. Free will then is attached by the hip to our moral nature. So one cannot blame man's free will for moral evil and let God off the hook for the existence of moral evil.

It's not a puzzle....gawd doesn't exist and didn't create humans.


Not really a good answer.

"God exists".
"Does not"
"Does so!"
"Does not!"

Ad nauseum

What is needed is good reason to demonstrate "God does not exist."
I think there are many good reasons to rationally demonstrate that God as defined by the pest religions does not exist. Merely stating "God does not exist" will never change minds of the true believers, and misses a chance to put forth a good argument for benefit of onlookers who might be reachable by reasoned argument.
 
My little puzzle about God's creation of man and God's choice of our moral nature still stands. What moral nature we have is strictly due to God. Free will then is attached by the hip to our moral nature. So one cannot blame man's free will for moral evil and let God off the hook for the existence of moral evil.

It's not a puzzle....gawd doesn't exist and didn't create humans.


Not really a good answer.

"God exists".
"Does not"
"Does so!"
"Does not!"

Ad nauseum

What is needed is good reason to demonstrate "God does not exist."
I think there are many good reasons to rationally demonstrate that God as defined by the pest religions does not exist. Merely stating "God does not exist" will never change minds of the true believers, and misses a chance to put forth a good argument for benefit of onlookers who might be reachable by reasoned argument.

I wasn't trying to change the minds of true believers, I was responding to this thread specifically, and after 9 pages, all the good arguments have been rehashed and ignored by the bleevers anyway.
 
I called him out on exactly one thing he said and doubled down on...
My bold.
He also intimated that he could defend this position. When challenged with actual evidence, he turned tail and ran away.

You wish!
Gutless atheist fora ban me. They NEVER chase me down the street saying wait, come back, we haven't finished our argument.

He did however, come out with the first truthful thing I've ever seen from him....

I'm running away like atrib said I would. Because cowardly loin IRK is a scary cat and can't cope with internet atheists.

Trust you to jump on that thinking that it wasn't sarcasm.
WAIT - I thought you had me on ultra-permanent extreme eternal ignore.
And here you are...look at yourself!
 
Lion IRC... you think Hitler was a fine upstanding moral citizen... that pretty much killed any interest in what you have to say on the topic of morality

Like Hitler, he's a true xtian.

No. It's phands who thinks that. And it's atrib who thinks that Pol Pot was a fine humanitarian. And remember how Tom Sawyer was acting like a Mao Tze Tung fanboi? And your avatar - well that says it all.
Good times here at TFT :)
...love when rational thinkers can have such honest debates in good faith.
 
Yes it fits quite well.
Where in Christian theology does it place humans, angels, animals, satan or anyone else on par with God's perfection?
Who told you there were perfect beings other than God?

Reread my post again. Slowly. Until you...

Until I what? Until I agree with you?
That's not how persuasive reasoning works. You don't just beg someone to keep reading your post over and over again until they 'get it'. Your presumption that the only reason people might disagree with you is obviously because they haven't understood what you wrote is...well, intellectually conceited. I understand your opinion/claim.

...If God creates all, is wise and is good, our nature should be different from what it is and moral evil would be rare.

That's your claim. But you saying that in Cheerful Charlie Land something "should be different" or "rare" is simply your belief. I can gainsay your opinion and just assert that our nature is free to be whatever we freely choose.

Again God must make a choice, one of three possible choices. This is about following the logic of a morally perfect, wise, creator God to it's logical conclusion.

No. You have not demonstratied the conclusive, coercive logic which prevents an all powerful God from creating beings with free will. Why can't He do that? He certainly has nothing to fear from humans who choose to disobey Him.
What would be illogical is if God created beings with zero free will who were programmed to worship Him robotically
 
...
Again God must make a choice, one of three possible choices. This is about following the logic of a morally perfect, wise, creator God to it's logical conclusion.

No. You have not demonstratied the conclusive, coercive logic which prevents an all powerful God from creating beings with free will. Why can't He do that? He certainly has nothing to fear from humans who choose to disobey Him.

What would be illogical is if God created beings with zero free will who were programmed to worship Him robotically

Why would that be any less logical than creating beings capable of disobeying him, knowing how/when/why they will disobey him, and then meting out punishment to them for disobeying him? It is like the carpenter who curses the hammer for striking his thumb. Repeatedly. :stupid:
 
Why would that be any less logical than creating beings capable of disobeying him, knowing how/when/why they will disobey him, and then meting out punishment to them for disobeying him? It is like the carpenter who curses the hammer for striking his thumb. Repeatedly. :stupid:
Or like telling a kid "You can have the chocolate or the spinach" and then pouring gas on him and lighting it for picking the chocolate... "HAHA WRONG CHOICE FUCKER!"
 
The real problem here is that there is no good explanation of why God does not reveal himself in all his glory and just tell people what he wants them to do. That isn't robbing them of their freedom to disobey, just letting them know in no uncertain terms what the consequences of disobedience are. It makes less sense to hide behind a cloud and drop hints of his existence through institutions like the scandal-ridden RCC. So that particular model of God does seem to have him behaving like some kind of passive-aggressive monster. Theologians who try to stick with it have a hell of a time figuring out how to square it with a deity that is all-merciful and loving.

George Carlin did a wonderful send-up of such a God:

[YOUTUBE]QZ8hefESt7c[/YOUTUBE]
 
Gutless atheist fora ban me. They NEVER chase me down the street saying wait, come back, we haven't finished our argument.
Obviously they do the chasing down, and obviously you do the running, and obviously you've gone a very long time with no banning. So maybe just make your stance more clear?
 
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The real problem here is that there is no good explanation of why God does not reveal himself in all his glory and just tell people what he wants them to do. That isn't robbing them of their freedom to disobey,
As demonstrated when the people had seen aString of miracles, and walked across the Red Sea, turned to worship a golden calf before their sandals were dry....

Assuming, of course, that the story is more than just made-up-shit, it does seem to contradict a regular apologist claim that we would lose free will if He manifested...
 
I have seen it enough in face to face discussions with Christians. It is all self evident that god is involved in daily life. They see everything s validation, except science like evolution.

On guy I was talking to about creationism vs evolution pointed out the window and said just look at all that, it is obvious it was created by god.
 
Until I what? Until I agree with you?
That's not how persuasive reasoning works. You don't just beg someone to keep reading your post over and over again until they 'get it'. Your presumption that the only reason people might disagree with you is obviously because they haven't understood what you wrote is...well, intellectually conceited. I understand your opinion/claim.

...If God creates all, is wise and is good, our nature should be different from what it is and moral evil would be rare.

That's your claim. But you saying that in Cheerful Charlie Land something "should be different" or "rare" is simply your belief. I can gainsay your opinion and just assert that our nature is free to be whatever we freely choose.

Again God must make a choice, one of three possible choices. This is about following the logic of a morally perfect, wise, creator God to it's logical conclusion.

No. You have not demonstratied the conclusive, coercive logic which prevents an all powerful God from creating beings with free will. Why can't He do that? He certainly has nothing to fear from humans who choose to disobey Him.
What would be illogical is if God created beings with zero free will who were programmed to worship Him robotically

My logic is airtight. God creates us with a moral nature, which God must choose. That constrains our free will no matter what God chooses. Now God must know that, so if he chooses not to pick the choice of creating man with a good moral nature, moral evil must be the logical end result. Free will has been a problem for serious theologians for centuries. My formulation of the problem removes any wiggle room to blame our free will for evil, absolving God from any responsibility for existence of so much moral evil.

What I do here is grant the theists that we have free will, which is itself arguable, and then demonstrate that free will doesn't solve the problem of evil.

I can lay out the logic in the simplest, clearest way, but the problem is that often, people don't want to admit to facts and logic that undermine their beliefs and will not follow logic to it's inevitable conclusion.

The other horn of the dilemma is that God is said to be omnipotent, knowing the future in all its details. But if God creates all, God must choose a state of creation, from which all future events will unfold, strict determination. Of all the possible worlds God can actualize, he must choose one so all moral evil that exists in a given world is cause by God's choice. Free will is impossible. Compatibilism as a theological way out is dead.

Or, God is outside of time and all is at once, past and future is just an illusion. So God creates all at once, all that is. Then God creates all acts of moral evil.

No matter how we slice it and dice it, God as a concept and moral evil of mankind simply doesn't logically make sense. Theologians have spent centuries try to solve the problem but have failed. And for centuries have failed to take things to their logical conclusion.

I am sorry, but my mind works in a fashion that takes these problems, lays them out to get to the heart of theology's claims and follows it out to the logical end. The problem of God and human immorality simply cannot be reconciled. God's commanding of genocides, massacres and cruelty cannot be reconciled with Bible claims of God's goodness, mercy, compassion, justice and fairness.

God is not a logically possible theory. For many years, I have read the works of sophisticated (and not so sophisticated) theologians to see if anybody can explain all of this away, and no, they can't.
 
No. It's phands who thinks that. And it's atrib who thinks that Pol Pot was a fine humanitarian. And remember how Tom Sawyer was acting like a Mao Tze Tung fanboi? And your avatar - well that says it all.
Good times here at TFT :)
...love when rational thinkers can have such honest debates in good faith.

That is not true. I never mentioned Pol Pot. You are the only one around here pretending to defend a fictitious mass murderer.

You are no more a Christian than I am. Sadly, there is a shortage of intelligent, articulate Christian apologists around these parts. So we have to make do with B grade apologist wannabes like you.
 
Quote Originally Posted by Lion IRC
Sheesh! There's nothing about God in the Old Testament I wouldn't defend.

So how do you account for verses that clearly describe God ordering executions, ordering murder?



Pick one.
And I will show you my rationale.
Use one of phands' examples.
They are a cake walk for me.

ETA - no don't! I'm running away like atrib said I would. Because cowardly loin IRK is a scary cat and can't cope with internet atheists.


Don't worry. It is something that can't be done. The bible is a collection of ancient works that express the beliefs of the people of that time and place. People who imagined a god in their own image, an autocratic ruler with the same ideals and moral standards as themselves, a god of war, conflict and strife, a far from perfect god.
 
The real problem here is that there is no good explanation of why God does not reveal himself in all his glory and just tell people what he wants them to do. That isn't robbing them of their freedom to disobey, just letting them know in no uncertain terms what the consequences of disobedience are.

Yep. If the thing that believers call God showed up on earth, it could easily let us all know that it exists and tell us in no uncertain terms what's expected of us. Yet, for all of recorded history, no god has ever done such a thing.

The End Times never come. The Rapture never happens. The Anti-Christ never appears. And you can apply similar non-occurrences to other religions as well.

The only consistent thing about the gods is that they all have an unblemished record of not showing up.
 
The real problem here is that there is no good explanation of why God does not reveal himself in all his glory and just tell people what he wants them to do. That isn't robbing them of their freedom to disobey, just letting them know in no uncertain terms what the consequences of disobedience are.

Yep. If the thing that believers call God showed up on earth, it could easily let us all know that it exists and tell us in no uncertain terms what's expected of us. Yet, for all of recorded history, no god has ever done such a thing.

The End Times never come. The Rapture never happens. The Anti-Christ never appears. And you can apply similar non-occurrences to other religions as well.

The only consistent thing about the gods is that they all have an unblemished record of not showing up.

Well, if you believe that the Bible stories are 'recorded history', as many idiots do, then God HAS turned up, spoken to one or a few dozen or even a few hundred people, and told them exactly what to do. And yet this oddly undermines the apologist case:

1) God's rules are, well, rather lacking. He never mentions anything about reality that might be genuinely novel or useful to his audience, and the rules themselves seem to reflect a frankly undeveloped and rather dated moral framework. He could have banned slavery or shellfish - he chose shellfish. He could have told his people to shit in deep latrines placed far from their drinking water sources, and to wash their hands before eating or performing surgery, and to boil and cool their water before drinking it, and to avoid mosquitoes and not to live close to swamps where they breed. He failed to advise or command any of these simple and easily comprehended things. But he repeatedly and emphatically reiterates instead the importance of obeying Him, and only Him, without question. And he has plenty of time for the bizarrely specific and frankly trivial - like not wearing mixed cloths, or being sure to chop off boy's foreskins. How is this stuff more important than avoiding sepsis, dysentery, cholera and malaria?

2) He appeared only to a very small and select group of individual prophets. Given the lack of communications and transport options in the pre-Christian era, surely He would have realized that the guys in the Middle East were not going to be getting His instructions and guidelines to the Native Americans or Australian Aborigines any time soon. Why didn't He at the very least appear to some of their prophets?

3) Even amongst the Jews, He only spoke to a tiny fraction of the population. He must have known that this would result in his message being either distorted, or doubted, or both. Why didn't He appear to every human on Earth?

These alleged behaviours completely fail to plausibility test; They just aren't fit for their supposed purpose. However there is one simple hypothesis that fits the known facts very well indeed - the hypothesis that there is no God, and that His alleged 'word' is in fact an attempt by a series of powerful 9or wannabe powerful) men to claim legitimacy for their own agendas - in a world where saying "I want everyone to do as I say' leads to everyone ignoring or arguing with you, it's a pretty good plan to say 'God wants everyone to do as I say he says'.
 
Lion IRC, since you seem to think that genocide is ok, yet murder is against the commandments. How many people does one have to murder before it becomes morally ok?
 
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