I've been thinking about this for a long time now...
Everyone seems to view "God" as some great guy who created absolutely everything and loves each and every one of us individually and equally. Hell is where everyone "EVIL" goes when they die, under certain circumstances.
We are Imperfect creatures. If God made us, he purposely made us imperfect. He blames us for our sins and makes us ask for forgiveness for our sins but we sin because we are imperfect because he made us imperfect o.O
God is omniscent. He decides what happens yadda yadda yadda... So he decides beforehand if someone will go to heaven or hell, meaning we have no control of our lives? So since I'm atheist I was decided long ago that I would be an atheist and I would be ****ed to hell but I had no control of it? Sort of Fatalistic and nasty.
Hell is always associated with bad, but how many atheists would prefer to live without the Christian god?
Having Hell as simply the absence of God you have to ignore the parts where it says you get tortured and burned.
Just because he isn't perfect doesn't mean he wants to be around sin. Wouldn't it make more sense for God not to want sin in his sanctuary if he is not perfect? He doesn't have the perfect way to deal with its presence.
He set the rules as to what is and is not a sin. Than goes on to make humans hardwired to do or want to do most of those things he doesn't want to be around.
This is actually part of what I meant to say too. It may be possible that by having us to interact with, God may be learning from his mistakes. If it was God and only God in the beginning, and if he wasn't perfect, it would make sense for his creation method to be amateurish.
You would still have to concede Gods status as being as close to perfect as something can get though.
Your arguments for explaining away God sounds an awfully like this. The Story of X
Sorry it took so long to respond. I left and then came back and watched the Story of, X and THEN wrote this.
@Mage:
Having Hell as simply the absence of God you have to ignore the parts where it says you get tortured and burned.
I know you may have heard this before, but I believe the torture to be metaphorical, the best expression of pain that humans could understand at the time. The pain described would only be the pain of living without a god. If God exists, then we live life with the possibility of being with him in heaven. In Hell, that possibility would be shattered. For people who prefer life without God, it would not be a punishment. For people who believed in God but didn't do as he asked, it might be a greater punishment.
He set the rules as to what is and is not a sin. Than goes on to make humans hardwired to do or want to do most of those things he doesn't want to be around.
That's sort of what I'm saying, though. I don't think he intentionally hardwired us to be that way, but didn't want to change the free will he gave us.
You would still have to concede Gods status as being as close to perfect as something can get though.
I'll have to re-read my post, but what I meant was that God is as close to perfect as something can get, and that we have surpassed what God was, but not what he is I'm saying that he's learning from his creations like some parents might learn from their kids later in life.
Very interesting video. Maybe it does sound like I'm X, but I have considered that my religion is incorrect, and even been a little atheist at one point. I'm also just presenting that, in my opinion, an imperfect god fits more with the Christian belief than a perfect one, despite most Christians believing God to be perfect. Although I am glad you always have vids for me. They offer interesting and valid points of view.
I know you may have heard this before, but I believe the torture to be metaphorical, the best expression of pain that humans could understand at the time. The pain described would only be the pain of living without a god. If God exists, then we live life with the possibility of being with him in heaven. In Hell, that possibility would be shattered. For people who prefer life without God, it would not be a punishment. For people who believed in God but didn't do as he asked, it might be a greater punishment.
What would belief make such a radical difference? Further more how are you determining what is and is not metaphor? The way the Bible is written you can pretty much call anything in there a metaphor, including God.
That's sort of what I'm saying, though. I don't think he intentionally hardwired us to be that way, but didn't want to change the free will he gave us.
Then he could have rewired us without damaging free will. Anyway given what we see in the Bible God interferes with free will all the time. It's just not something we actually see God concerned with. Also considering what some things that are regarded as a sin are, there are people who practically have no choice but to sin.
I'll have to re-read my post, but what I meant was that God is as close to perfect as something can get, and that we have surpassed what God was, but not what he is I'm saying that he's learning from his creations like some parents might learn from their kids later in life.
All accounts of God don't indicate such a status. I
I'm also just presenting that, in my opinion, an imperfect god fits more with the Christian belief than a perfect one, despite most Christians believing God to be perfect.
I agree, though I have to wonder what makes this being worthy of worship? Also we can explain pretty much everything that get's attributed to God to the point such a being become superfluous. To claim those things we can't explain yet was where God goes is simply a God of the gaps argument.
