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It would seem that God let himself be overcome by evil and responded with evil. Or evil must be good. God created the first division in his once united kingdom.
It appears that God does not follow his own good advise. Or does he? If God was following his WORD, then hell must be a good place somehow.
Strange but true.
Are their any theists who would like to show how this is not back sliding?
That is of course, a rhetorical question as back sliding cannot be denied.
If the only reason for faith is fear of hell; then piety should be despised.
And i'm sure God would send you straight to hell because the only reason believed was for the sake of rescuing your eternal soul.
Then the question is: DOES it?
Or is it even possible, that the effect is the opposite, that 'hell'-religion creates insane individuals.
Maybe the treatment of potential asocial and/or criminal mindsets is better left to more safe procedures. E.g. in the case of child-molesting, christianity hasn't been very successful...to say the least. And the clergy involved should more than anyone had been aware of the theological consequences of their 'sins', so this argument isn't very convincing from a rational perspective.
Originally posted by sk0rpi0n
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"You quote "Romans 12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" to make your case that God is not following his own advice.
Well, God does not need to "overcome" evil at all. ... but anyway, Ill play along and I'll try and help you answer your own question... "Is hell a good place or is God’s WORD worthless since he himself ignores it and breaks his own laws? "
First, imagine a person has brutally murdered a loved one.
Now if you define this act as evil....
Would you rather have...
God avenge you and your loved one, by sending the murderer to hell? (but will you still hold that God not following his own advice.)"
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I would not want to send anyone to hell as I consider it an immral construct as punishing forever serves no purpose other than revenge and to assuage the hate in our hearts. So yes, God would not be following his advise.
That is hardly doing unto others.
Is it?
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"or God overcome "evil" with good (like in that quote) and do a good thing to the murder, like say, place him in heaven or give him a happy life .... (but will you then think God is doing the right thing? )"
Yes. If God can ignore the souls wish for a good life and send him to hell, then he can just as easily ignore it's wishes and cure the defect that God himself put in him when he created him.
That would be the right thing to do.
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"So, Im curious to know...what do you choose?"
See above.
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"Not from a christian perspective, but if you are interested in hearing.....
Hell, as a theological concept, is something an individual chooses for himself through his deeds and attitudes towards God.
Those who dismiss hell as pure fiction are allowed to do so, but in this life only.
When someone has been adviced several times to avoid hell, and he still does the things that he knows would land him in hell, he does not have much of an excuse."
He has a perfect excuse. He does not believe there is a hell as your absentee God is quite the trickster and hides away without ever confirming the hear say of a book that is unbelievable in a literal way as it begins with a talking snake and ends with a seven headed monster. And in between, you have an immortal God who can somehow die.
If you do not realize that it is a work of fantasy with those, then there is nothing I can say further to show that it is a fairy tale for adults.
Regards
DL
Secondly, fear of hell is not the only reason for faith as assumed by many non-theists.
Quote: ["If hypothetically, if one of these potential 'troublemakers', personally pondered over the implications of evil and sincerely concluded that burning in hellfire is NOT worth worth the moments thrill of, say, killing someone.... there is a decent chance that he wont do it."]
Each to his taste. I prefer rational approach and pragamatic observation, instead of hypothetical IFs involving a great deal of mythological speculations. Theocracies have had their chances of demonstrating the last method's worth...with results hopefully showing never to repeat such social experiments.
Originally posted by sk0rpi0n
reply to post by bogomil
Quote: ["If hypothetically, if one of these potential 'troublemakers', personally pondered over the implications of evil and sincerely concluded that burning in hellfire is NOT worth worth the moments thrill of, say, killing someone.... there is a decent chance that he wont do it."]
Each to his taste. I prefer rational approach and pragamatic observation, instead of hypothetical IFs involving a great deal of mythological speculations. Theocracies have had their chances of demonstrating the last method's worth...with results hopefully showing never to repeat such social experiments.
I will sincerely support ANY non-religious procedure that can be used to spot and apprehend a potential killer/rapist/molester before his crime has been committed. If said procedure can transform him to let go of his bloodthirst/lust, all the better. Im curious to know of any method involving "rational approach and pragmatic observation" that can achieve that result.
Sadly, crimes come to light AFTER they have been committed, and lives have been shattered. And crimes, as you know, affect the lives and families of both religious and non-religious people.
Originally posted by Molimo
Hell doesn't exist it's a mistranslation i think it was actually a burning rubbish tip
Originally posted by SavedOne
Originally posted by Greatest I am
The moment God was questioned in any way, he responded with an evil punishment.
Evil as I class it in any case. He does not tolerate anyone doing their will, if it does not comply with his will. Obey or else. Not quite what scriptures say he should be doing.
First, can we agree that God is "that which there is no greater"? That God, if He exists (which I believe He does), must by definition be pure and perfect? OK, if we can agree on that then you have to measure everything you read or hear against that. If you read something that seems to conflict with the will of a pure and perfect God then you have to accept that either A) you have misinterpreted what you read, or B) what you read is faulty. Too many people try to find "loopholes" to "prove" that God doesn't exist, and they look for those loopholes in a Bible that they don't believe in to begin with. But the Bible isn't needed to believe in a pure and perfect God.