How can God know everything AND be 100% good, and how do we even determine if God is "good"?

arpgme
Does God know what it feels like to lust? ( lust is going after physical pleasure - evil)

Does God know what it feels like to have hatred in the heart? (hate is absence of love - evil)

Does God know what it feels like to be rich with a lot of money and material goods (putting the body over the flesh - evil)

How can God know what these feel like if these feelings are wicked and God has 0% wickedness in him but only 100% goodness? Either God feels these things and he is not 100% good, or he does not feel these things and he is not 100% knowing.

And if you say "God doesn't have to follow his own rules" , then how can you even know that God is good if your morality comes from him and yet he is beyond his own system of morality?

From my point of view. Depends on your definition of god. If you take a wider definition then god is a work in progress trying to evolve itself to symbiosis. If you go with a narrow definition then a part have already arrived at symbiosis and the rest are in progress to become.

reply to post by Cuervo


I understand that you say God is both good and evil according to the holy books. However, when did he act out of pure evil? When was he just carelessly destroying humans?

I fail to see this.

3NL1GHT3N3D1
What I find interesting is the Christian dogma that Jesus was fully man and fully God. If Jesus was without sin how could he have been fully man? Aren't all men under the curse of sin? If so, Jesus could not have been fully man because he was free from sin from birth.

Christian doctrine fails on so many levels it's almost comical.

And here I thought Jesus said he was one with god not god itself. Being one with god in unity do not mean you are all parts of what god is. All humans are from what I know born disconnected from god and will have to be connected again during their lives to be. A way for them to experience ego/self and duality. Even in connected form do not the ego/self exist even if it is transformed due to the connection with the divine?

Am I agreeing with you or not. I do not even know myself.

bitsforbytes
reply to post by Cuervo

 

I understand that you say God is both good and evil according to the holy books. However, when did he act out of pure evil? When was he just carelessly destroying humans?

I fail to see this.

Really? Just from tact alone, I normally don't quote scripture that emphasize the examples you asked for. Commanding strange and grotesque acts like collecting foreskins as if they were Apaches collecting scalps (who ironically were considered savages for that act by invading Christians) or commending the dashing of babies' heads on rocks or horrible demands put on rape victims, or the command to kill others for their beliefs, or even just good ole' genocide... there are countless examples of evil and "careless" destruction of innocent human life condoned by the OT god.

This isn't a secret and, like I said, it's not something I normally bring up to Christians because it's an obvious go-to they have to deal with when speaking to non-believers and I'd just as soon not be "that guy". I hold no ill will towards any faith but I won't agree that the OT god can, by any measure, be considered wholly good. Unless you changed the definition. Which they did. Which is my point.

reply to post by bitsforbytes

I understand that you say God is both good and evil according to the holy books. However, when did he act out of pure evil? When was he just carelessly destroying humans?

I fail to see this.

When this god rained down fiery brimstone annihilating two major cities. Or do you believe the babies and toddlers in Sodom and Gomorrah were so far gone in their evil wicked ways? That's rather 'careless' if you ask me. Or the global flood and the genocide of babies included with that. That's rather 'evil' if you ask me. As Cuervo said, we have to forgo our sense of morality and invent a new meaning of goodness to justify it. I believe this is called Divine Command Theory. It's good because it came from god. That's a wonderful way to rationalize otherwise reprehensible actions.

reply to post by arpgme


Stepping outside the theological constraints I would posit a type of God that I believe would be 'wholly good'. If this god did but one thing, and one thing forever. Which is to exist. No intervention. No salvation. Just the perpetual emanation of creation. Without intervention or reward or punishment, creation is completely free to experience itself. I'm talking about the Universe itself. I believe it to be eternal. I can't imagine anything more 'good' than reality always existing instead of it not. So personally I do believe in a good 'god'.

Your specific questions seemed to be aiming towards religious gods and you were asking those that believed they were 100% good. I neither believe in religious gods nor believe they should be considered good if they did exist according to their respective holy books. Some serious mental gymnastics has to occur to overlook or rectify the evil therein. These holy books contain both wonderful and horrible ideas…. because they were authored by fallible people. Quite simple. Alas, it is our freedom to do so in gods name. We won't be going to hell because we invent ridiculous religions. We might create hell on Earth due to them however.

I want to point out, as we are already seeing from Christians in this thread, that they will rationalize god's wrath or negligence as ultimately good parenting and give what they believe to be analogous examples on Earth. Problem is it's not analogous. One could come to agree that a good parent might spank or ignore the needs as a lesson. No one would say an Earthly parent was good if they killed their kid or completely ignored their needs. That's not a lesson that's just malice or indifference. The counter argument to this will be that these can and will be reconciled after death. God is super mysterious but have faith because he's good for sure. Yeah well that's not what the good book shows.

reply to post by LittleByLittle


I would have to disagree with you here. No one is born disconnected from God nor are they EVER disconnected from God in a literal sense, it is the world set up around us, this planet and the society that has been built upon it that makes people believe in this disconnection.

Religion creates the illusion that God is separate from us when in fact our very existence is in connection with him at all times.

We are all born with that connection, it is the world around us that psychologically disconnects us from the source of creation, ourselves and our consciousness.

arpgme
Does God know what it feels like to lust? ( lust is going after physical pleasure - evil)

Does God know what it feels like to have hatred in the heart? (hate is absence of love - evil)

Does God know what it feels like to be rich with a lot of money and material goods (putting the body over the flesh - evil)

How can God know what these feel like if these feelings are wicked and God has 0% wickedness in him but only 100% goodness? Either God feels these things and he is not 100% good, or he does not feel these things and he is not 100% knowing.

And if you say "God doesn't have to follow his own rules" , then how can you even know that God is good if your morality comes from him and yet he is beyond his own system of morality?

Yes God knows what all those feel like, and God also knows that they aren't really real. Only love is real, and God is love. In the end, in a single Holy Instant all of history will fall away like a dream, and only love will remain. God is all knowing because He knows what is real, and sees through the temporary illusion we call the waking world.

reply to post by arpgme

Does God know what it feels like to lust?

The Bible says that Jesus was tempted in all things, as we are.

Also in the same book it says that in practical terms, Jesus is God, as far as we are concerned.

We don't know, and probably cannot ever know. It's one of the reasons I don't really buy into the whole religion thing.

Having skimmed through a bit of the Old Testament out of boredom whilst staying in a hotel room, God seems like a bit of an a-hole in my opinion.

But hey, people will interpret the Bible any way they see fit. Some truly believe that God is the paragon of virtue and all-knowing, despite his exterior. It all comes down to how you personally interpret the stories.

The reason why you know the things you do is because you have reached a certain level of consciousness. The reason why you know more things than a cat or a dog is because you have a higher level of consciousness than they do.

Think of God as PURE CONSCIOUSNESS. The ultimate fountainhead of ALL consciousness. Therefore every bit of consciousness, yours, mine and everything that has consciousness (which includes all matter in whatever form it has manifested) belongs to and is directly of God.

What is there that Pure Consciousness cannot know?

reply to post by jmdewey60


So even God can feel temptation from the devil.
Interesting.

reply to post by arpgme


One thing God can't relate to.

God doesn't know the fear of death.

arpgme
Does God know what it feels like to lust? ( lust is going after physical pleasure - evil)

Does God know what it feels like to have hatred in the heart? (hate is absence of love - evil)

Does God know what it feels like to be rich with a lot of money and material goods (putting the body over the flesh - evil)

How can God know what these feel like if these feelings are wicked and God has 0% wickedness in him but only 100% goodness? Either God feels these things and he is not 100% good, or he does not feel these things and he is not 100% knowing.

And if you say "God doesn't have to follow his own rules" , then how can you even know that God is good if your morality comes from him and yet he is beyond his own system of morality?

God became flesh ...... a man. We know him as Jesus. According to the bible, Jesus was tempted and offered the world if he would only break a knee and bow to Lucifer. Jesus not only refused but scolded Lucifer until he left.

God is rich. His streets are made of gold. He sits on a throne. He knows what wealth is and he also knows what having nothing means as well.

I think we will all be surprised by what God knows.

God doesn't exist.. how can nothing feel anything.

Lucid Lunacy
reply to post by arpgme

 

One thing God can't relate to.

God doesn't know the fear of death.

edit on 25-1-2014 by Lucid Lunacy because: (no reason given)

Yes he does, he died on the cross.

God became flesh, he was murdered by the very people he called "his people".

I was not born with a spirit of fear. I am a child of God. When our human bodies dies, we do not die! We immediately become spiritual beings. Actually that is us.... the body is nothing more than a "container". You are inside yourself... (you physics majors go chew on this for a while). This spirit (YOU) will be judged by the creator (BTW - the creator is Jesus

Too much info?

AthlonSavage
God doesn't exist.. how can nothing feel anything.

I am sorry you feel this way.

I guess you have never been baptised with water by a man of God? NOT AS A CHILD BUT AS A GROWN ADULT HAVE YOU?

I am not trying to be mean.... but how can you say that God does not exist? Can you prove this theory of yours?

Peace

reply to post by Jesuslives4u


Yes I can, I look here there and everywhere unemotionally and open in view and see no God. I see no God because there is no God. People who believe a God exist have done so through delusion.

AthlonSavage
reply to post by Jesuslives4u

 

Yes I can, I look here there and everywhere unemotionally and open in view and see no God. I see no God because there is no God. People who believe a God exist have done so through delusion.

I have seen him. ('')

AthlonSavage
reply to post by Jesuslives4u

 

Yes I can, I look here there and everywhere unemotionally and open in view and see no God. I see no God because there is no God. People who believe a God exist have done so through delusion.

God is spirit, another words invisible to the naked eye.

I would recommend you go on youtube and review not one but all of the atheisim vs Christianity lectures and debates, especially the ones featuring the number one atheist Mr. HITCHINS.

Mr. HITCHINS spoke out against all religions and God. Isn't it peculiar he died of throat cancer at 62 years old?