It's called "Holding firm in a belief that gives someone comfort in a crazy world."
For some, a comforting fairy tale is better than harsh reality.
God has a plan. An observation and a question.
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For some, a comforting fairy tale is better than harsh reality.
We are apex predators. Lions and bears have no defense against our weapons. We could wipe them off the face of the earth if we wanted. And we've virtually done that to many species. I don't see how that makes us evil
And it's a way to control people.
I think that was God's plan when he sent Jesus and he was definitely not imaginary.
People had been following the letter of the law (Ten Commandments) but leaving out the love that was supposed to be behind it. Jesus's Sermon on the Mountain was all about that. For example mankind understood the, "thou shalt not murder" commandment but Jesus said don't even be angry at people. Don't just forgive people a few times, forgive them over and over, treat them as you would treat yourself, love your neighbor as much as yourself, love children most of all.
Being kind to others was Jesus's plan over 2000 years ago, we just didn't follow the plan.
Em in Ohio
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I am aware of both. (-:
Quite the risk, creating beings with the power of choice.
If The Creator zapped whoever fell outa line, those remaining would behave out of fear
Have to let things play out
See how/why evil is evil
Mr. Ed
Be what you is not what you what you ain’t
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If god has a plan define god to me.
Knight
Well-known Member
I'll use the popular term "Creator" since that is recognized & the popular bible story is Noah & the Ark. Wouldn't zapping people in the form of drowning all but Noah & his family fit what we have come to know as evil?
No, silly, because God did it.
Murrmurr
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People who (for example) over-fish to the point where they deplete the waters of a species and then move on to deplete other waters are evil. They know what they're doing and they don't care.
I still firmly disagree that humans are apex predators. imo an apex predator doesn't need a weapon, its weapons and killing instincts are built in. It's built for predation and can kill animals way larger than itself. We need weapons and back-up because we lack the physicality and cunning to successfully prey on prey animals with our own hands and teeth. We aren't natural predators, we probly ate a lot of small things before we figured out how to fashion spears and whatever.
Can we kill anything we want to? Yes, with bombs, guns, and tanks, we can. That makes us dangerous, but we are far too fragile (imo) to be labeled apex predators.
True enough
There comes a time
Genesis 6:5
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Matthew 24:37
As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
Murrmurr
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Since the Creator did that, I'd compare it to backing up the files you want to save and deleting everything else.
David777
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The mistake is pointing to God as responsible when it was in fact humans that conveniently claim guidance from God since he is a supposed moral elite that they were inspired by or whatever. Why do you think God is responsible for maintaining or fixing those listed items. Did he interfere like that with any lower animal species? Of course not. Maybe God (that I expect is actual part of a race of limited UIEs) just helped create the Earth but rarely becomes involved in a long list of things religious dogma has supposedly added to his responsibilities (and gifts for his faithful). Of course for denominations that is a self serving agenda. The more good things they can put on God's list, the more reason their flock has reason to be there.
[Preacher] Ahh yes, God can do anything good for you that you can imagine, (well except that gambling bet you're making) but Jimmy you need to be part of our denomination.
[Jimmy] But the preacher at our other church down the street told Roy that God was good for bets at the horse track too so I'm thinking of attending his service.
David777
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I doubt any scientist is going to expect beings like that will ever be possible by any evolved Ultimate Intelligent Entity nor several others on that sci-fi that had magic like powers, nor powers like Scotty's matter transporter, nor the Hollow Deck, nor time travel. Even near or greater than light speed travel is likely impossible. Makes for easy scifi writing. An ancient UIE race billions of years old would be able to do many things that might seem like magic to primitives like humans but are actually using advanced technologies that are physically possible providing forces for actions. Several times I challenged members to provide some scripture (especially in Genesis) they think is impossible magic nonsense and I'll show how whatever could be interpreted in more believable ways.
Knight
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Doesn't explain the massive amount of children that would have been drown
Murrmurr
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The sins of the father (the earthly father). That was a common practice in biblical times.
Knight
Well-known Member
I guess that extends to a wife. Kind of hard to imagine everyone but Noah & his family met the criteria for mass drowning. But hey it's God & whatever God does is OK.
No learning lesson there about if you are upset with how what you made turned out just kill it & try again.
Other instances like the red sea & the death of the military that was doing the chasing. Surely the families suffered the loss of those that were drown when the sea collapsed in on them. Again the sins of the father foisted on wives & children?
That sins of the father thing should work for all the deaths in Sodom. But now happily not all living like they did in Sodom they are not all living in one area. An estimated 3.5% of adults in the United States identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual and an estimated 0.3% of adults are transgender. This implies that there are approximately 9 million LGBT Americans, a figure roughly equivalent to the population of New Jersey. Murdering that many now would surely change some minds.
I think anyone that can't see a pattern of killing that eventually amounted to not producing the desired results has to question if omnipotent fits as a description of a creator that is billions of years old now that watches everyone. An omnipotent would know what the outcome was going to be.
13 Bible Verses about God's Omnipotence
https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/God~s-Omnipotence
Murrmurr
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Since he's also All-Knowing, it's easy to justify the slaughter by agreeing that god knows something we don't.
Women were off-limits to many biblical era slaughterers, btw. They were only responsible for their own sins. Until the Crusades. Then they were pretty much fair game.
IDK. There was the slaughter of the Innocents in the NT., babies held by mothers though not all of the mothers died. But that was directed by Herod.
spectratg
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Arthur C. Clarke: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
Precisely
hollydolly
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more to the point, I want to know how did they get the Polar bears from the Arctic, penguins from Antarctica and the koalas & Kangaroos from Australia to come to the Middle East? And after the flood was over a year later , how did those animals get back there?