Is God Just Selfish, Arrogant and Petty?

Question

I was raised in a christian household.But I was just wondering...Here's my reasoning:
1.God said were are nothin but dirt, and sinners who can never be as perfect as he is. But at the same time he wants us to worship him. If were are just mere humans, why does he want us to praise him.
2.Death isn't such a big deal to him, but to us losing some1 we love is devasting.But he values praising him more than death.
4.If he is all knowing, why didn't he do anything to stop Adam&Eve. (PLZ DONT SAY FREEWILL, cuz ultimaly it's not freewill)He knew it was gonna happen, so does that mean he ultimatly wanted us to feel pain, so he can again get PRAISES?
5.Think about this:
Step 1:Humans sin
Step 2: He punishes us.
Step 3: But no, wait God sends his son to die so God wouldn't have to punish us.(hunh? Honestly does that make sense)

Plz offer clarification, I wanna understand and live a Christian life, but my recent trubles have left me with many questions? IS IT ALL ABOUT PRAISES?

Answer 1

If God's plan for mankind doesn't make much sense to you, consider that it comes from the imaginations of men, and not from an actual God (which doesn't exist anyway). The reason why they want you to constantly keep praising God is because if you constantly praise god and thank him for everything that is good in your life, three things will happen. #1: You will become more convinced, simply through sheer force of repetition, that God exists, even though there is no more evidence to support that hypothesis than when you began praying. #2: If you thank god for every good thing that happens in your life, you will begin to associate good things with thoughts of God, for much the same reason as Pavlov's dogs began to associate the sound of a bell with thoughts of food. #3: You will begin to find the idea that God doesn't exist inconcievable, on the grounds that if he doesn't you have just spent several years of your life talking to air like a complete idiot, and you do not think you are a complete idiot (this is a very common rationale for political as well as religous beliefs).

It is no accident that EVERY major world religion, without exception, requires some degree of repetitive ritual, for it is only through such repetitive ritual that beliefs that have nothing whatsoever to do with reality can become cemented in the mind. I do not mean to suggest that religions (other than scientology) are _designed_ to keep people believing falsehoods - if they were, more care would have been taken to maintain their internal consistency - but rather that a sort of natural selection has taken place. Any given religion, at its founding, may or may not have included directives to prayer/meditation/spellcasting/church/other ritual, but because all religions are without basis in reality, the adherents of those religions that included no such directives generally stopped believing in them and the religion died. Thus all remaining religions are those that include some elements of brainwashing.

In any event, you seem to have realized some of the contradictions inherent in Christianity and are now experiencing one or both of the following emotions:

#1: Guilt, because regardless of what you have been taught to say in public, the fact that you have been told all your life that the purpose of humanity is to glorify God, heard innumerable times an association between being good and being Christian, and believed that worship of God is necessary to salvation (if applicable), has convinced you subconsciously that it is _morally wrong_ not to believe in God, and that therefore if you are having doubts about your faith, there is something wrong with you.

#2: Confusion, because if there are such obvious contradictions in biblical doctrine, how did it come to pass that a good third of the world's population, including a number of otherwise brilliant scholars, come to believe in it?

For the first one, rest assured that there is nothing wrong with being an atheist. Absolutely nothing. You will not be arrogant, or a fool, or unpatriotic (although you should be unpatriaotic - loyalty to an abstract concept like that of a nation only serves to incite people to forget the more concrete existence of humanity, and to divide it into groups of "us" and "them," with "them" treated as objects to be killed for the greater glory of the military), or have the devil whispering in your ear, simply because you assert that there is no god. You will most certainly not be ungrateful to God, because that would require a god to be ungrateful to. Nor will you be at any risk of being cast into hell, for the simple reason that there is no hell (unless you count the town in Norway). Indeed, you will have the moral high ground, because you have refrained from believing anything that cannot be established based on good and sufficient evidence (Clifford argues this far mroe effectively than I can: see http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/w_k_clifford/ethics_of_belief.html for more on when it is proper to believe a thing. This essay also resolves many of the naive questions about whether trusting the findings of science also requires "faith" and the like.).

For the second: Please note that for most of Europe's history in the last 2000 years, it was actually illegal and punishable by death not to be a Christian - most of the great classical thinkers were Christian for the simple reason that they would have been executed if they weren't. Even in more recent times, people continue to believe because of the religous upbringing given them by their parents, enormous social pressure, extreme gullibility (consider that over half of all people believe in astrology, which can be and has been repeatedly proven false), and the fact that most people have no concept of a proper epistemology - they have been trained to believe things simlpy because a parent/teacher/preacher/textbook/paid celebrity says it is true, and not how to verify things are true with their own eyes, or where that is impractiacal, how to discern how and whether the authority knows the information to be true. Most people believe that science is just something that someone made up - they have no idea what it means to test a hypothesis, or why it is good for a theory to be falsifiable, or even what the difference between a fact and a theory is (hint: it's not that we have more confidence in the facts). Our current school system doesn't help much either - most of the things learned in primary and secondary school are simply regurgitating facts recited by a teacher with no understanding of how those facts were arrived at - this process reinforces the dangerous misconception that things are true because someone says they are.

Anyway, I know that I've probably not given you the answer you want to hear, and that most of my answer is beyond what you asked, but I think it needed to be said, if only so that in the future you will know where the other side is coming from.

Best wishes -
Pascal

Answer 2

No, God is not selfish, arrogant nor petty.

Do you think all the sinning and Jesus dying for our sins made/makes God happy? God knew from the beginning that we will be sinners but because He's a God of His word and He's not a coward, know very well how painful it will be for HIm, He went ahead and created us anyway.

Yes, humans sin and He punishes us, why? So we can realise what we have done, repent and ask for His forgiveness. And yes He likes being praised, there's nothing wrong with that especially since He's our creator. If God didn't care He wouldn't forgive us over and over and over and still send His one Son to die for our sins.

And to clarify on something, God is not the one that wants us to feel pain. Read the Book of Job in the Old Testament with an open-mind and you'll understand why humans go through pain. God bless.

Answer 3

It IS all about Him, and it IS all about praising Him.

Let me say two things. Yes, of course God knew what Adam and Eve were going to do (just like He knew before He created Adam and Eve what all of us were going to do as well, and how we would die, etc.). But He chose to create them and yes, it IS free will at the same time He knows beforehand what will happen. There is a sense (more than one, actually), in which it is not free will, but with Adam and Eve it was more free will than with any of us, (that's for another time).

But, God IS God and He's worthy of praise no matter what. As one person put it, if God was ever not pre-occupied with His glory, even for an instant, He would be an idolater.

He IS all that and that is why He is to be worshipped in all circumstances.

As far as whether it makes sense for God to send His Son so we can avoid punishment, it actually makes perfect sense.

God's goal in creating man was to create a race of people to be with Him in Heaven forever. . a race of people who would choose Him over anything else, and go through anything to be with Him. That's who He wants with Him in Heaven, and that is who He will have with Him in Heaven.

Again, we also can't understand or see everything God is doing, and we certainly can't sit in judgement on Him and what He does, because we are finite, extremely limited and we can't see things clearly. He is omnipotent and can see and know all things, and He can see things clearly. We may not understand, but He does, so how can we or anyone sit in judgement on Him when we know nothing and don't see clearly, but He does see clearly.

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

1.True, He says that our righteousness is as filthy Rags, but still He loves us. He fed the Israelites, He restored everything that Job had and then some.

2. The death His saints is as a sweet aroma to Him, For they now see Him face to face. There is no more worry, pain, suffering, sin, death, tears. They are with Him.

3. As for Adam and Eve, He loved them enough to let them make their mistakes and learn from them, God is STILL in control. He always has, and He always will be in control.

4. Think about this.
Step 1: God know your every pain and passion and loves you anyway.
Step 2: God has seen every hidden sin and wants nothing more than for
you to Let Him Love you
Step 3: Old Testament law, The wages of sin is death. thus the sin sacrifice was established. New Testament states that Jesus became the last sacrifice once for all time. (Accept the Gift of salvation and gain entrance into heaven.)

Why worship Him?
1. Because He loves us more than any other creature in all creation. (we alone can make such a boast)
2. Because He sees our sin and depravity and loves us anyway.
3. Because nothing can separate us from the love of God. Neither Height nor depth, nor heaven of hell, not even the self can remove us from his love.

God loves you and though we were yet sinners, He sent his love to us that we could know salvation.

Answer 5

1. God created us so that we could know Him. If someone built a beautiful house, for example, that design of that house would
speak of the designer's creativity. In the same way, God created us and everything around us in a marvelous and wonderful way (Psalm 139:14-I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.). And, as His creations, we speak of HIS creativity and majesty, except that as living beings we can do it vocally and through our actions as well. We praise Him because He is the one who gave us life.
2. Losing one that we love CAN be very hard, I know that from personal experience. But here's the wonderful thing: we are bound to time, so we mistakenly view this life we have here on earth as the "main show", if you will. But in reality, we really are destined to life AFTER physical death! THAT is TRUE life, being in heaven with God! This meager existence only gives us time to decide where we want to spend eternity. Death, in itself, is like being born all over again, this time into heaven if one is a Christian! If compared to a road trip, life on earth is only a motel along the way.
3. (there is no 3)
4. You apparently know the answer, and if you think that it's "ultimatly not freewill", then let me kindly inform you that you are mistaken. We DO have freewill, and we CAN do anything (within our human limitations, of course) that we so desire. God didn't stop Adam and Eve from sinning because they ALSO had freewill. God was saddened by their choice, and warned them not to sin as to keep them from having to suffer. But they didn't listen, thus demonstrating their ability of freewill. So, now, not only did we have to suffer the physical consequences of sin, but also the eternal consequences, which we as humans could do nothing about. So, God, seeing our suffering, sent His Son to suffer FOR us, so that we could call on Him to be saved, and the consequence of sin be washed away in His blood (John 3:16).
5.
Step 1: Human beings think they know everthing and choose to sin.
Step 2: We suffer the consequences that we chose to bring on when we sin; that come as part of the package.
Step 3: God has pity on us, and sends His Son to suffer for us(again, John 3:16).

Well, does it make a little more sense now? I really hope this helps, God bless!

Answer 6

The truth...... God sent his son as an example to us to teach us he did for US he repesented all our sins when he died God created you he wants you to give him PRaise he doesnt Punish those who doesnt worship him if you go and read the bible you will see he Punishes even his own people When the dont do what is right WHen Jesus Died as did our sins die so God does not punish us anymore because Jesus was the Ultimate sacfrice for our sins......And why is it Wrong to Worship the Creator that Created you? and we are nothing but dirt to him that like saying your dog is liek dirt to you but you still love him except in a much more intimate way

zifmer- The byzatines did not put together Christianity they are responsiable for the widespread of it but the Hewbrews who learned Jesus teaching And Jesus put Christantity together and were PErsucuted for many years by the romans (BYzantines is the roman empire in the east)

Answer 7

Yes, the greatest command came from Jesus before He ascended into the heavens, Mark 12:30-31, Jesus also came to abolish the law of the old covenant, so the idea here is that God gave Israel these laws, but we being the NT kids are to live according to the new covenant set in motion by Jesus.
Hope this helps, peace

Answer 8

Before Christianity was put together by the Byzantines, there was another side that believed that God was evil based off of the stories from the Old Testament. But Yes, God, if he does exist, is selfish, arrogant and petty. If he is perfect, why was he "lonely" before creating humans?

Answer 9

You were raised in a Christian home? you have to ask: if Is God Just Selfish, Arrogant and Petty? You sound like a person from a Christian background. You should know what to do. Have you consulted your preacher? If not, why not? Have you prayed about it? why not? have you been to church and repented? why not? You knew this, being from a Christian home. Right?

BTW: After reading where you communicate with your dead boyfriend 10 times after he died according to you, in your words, not mine.

I think you are in dire need to move back home or get help from a church.

Good Luck.

Answer 10

Nope, but here goes, He's Gealous, Just and Right...
death doesn't touch him, he is Hurting, he cursed the earth instead of us, he punishes us to bring us closer, linda like parenting... when you disobey you parents, you get punnished... did you ever have that?
God sent his Son ... makes sense, so that we didn't have to die forever, and go to hell... It was the only money that could get us back where we fell from.
It's all about praises, but not the way you put it.. when you see your son score in soccer league, you are proud of him, and everybody looks at you and says wow, you got some soccer player there! That's how! he is proud of us when we make him proud... he loves you more than anyone ever could even dream of... Knows you before you were born... you were in his mind...
Don't try to explain his dimension through yours... or, in this case, ours.. You can't understand him, you either accept what the Bible says about him, or not.
But I can see you're on a quest about knowing God. If you are honest He will show you whom he is. Read the Bible every day, that's how you discover God. There's no magical answer, and a simplistic one just won't do justice to him... Read it more than one time... and you will alwasy learn about Him. Read also for starters.... The Seal of God. http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/texts/efinck/GODSEAL.HTM
I don;t think you really read your Bible much.. to say that God says we are just dirt, you are forgetting all about the other stuff he says about humans...
What about Psalm 139??? What about Jeremiah, Isaiah? What about when he says "I love you with an everlasting love???" What about saying we are his friends?
John 3:16, "For God SO loved the world (meaning people) that He gave His only begotten son, for whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life??"
I could go on, and on.. but if you don't read and study for yourself you will never know, him personally.
There's no magic formula... there's faith... here's the magic.
Why don't you challenge god and ask him to revela himself to you???