How does believing in the Christian God make people good?

Question

1. You can murder 1000 people, repent, say you're sorry and still go to heaven. Repenting wont bring back 1000 lives

2. The 10 commandments are irrelevant because Jesus died for you to break them

3. God will forgive you for ANYTHING you do? Thinking that wont help your bad behavior

4. The bible teaches that Atheists are fools. Your belief promotes belief conflicts. Isn't that the worlds biggest problem?

5. You're taught that we're born bad? That wont help your self image or self esteem

There's more but i'm tired of typing

Answer 1

Believing in God doesn't make people good, it does just the opposite.

I know there are many nice people who believe in God, and they wouldn’t intentionally harm anyone. I suspect they would be just as nice if they didn’t believe in God, it’s just how their biological model works for them.

The real evil amongst us, are the vast majority of religious followers and believers who have clearly shown over time to be the major instigators of wars, violence, abuse, greed and practically everything evil on our planet.

We must stop innocent young lives, especially from birth, from being sucked into this evil religious trap. Humanity deserves at least an effort being made in this direction rather than just watching religion and the so-called do goody goody followers corrupting our world with evil.

God was also the greatest mass murderer in history.
References: Genesis 6:11-17 and Genesis 7:11-24
Some examples:

GE 6:13 - And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

GE 6:17 - And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.

Seems to me that God (for you believers) is annoyed with humanity other than his buddy Noah, and decides to kill (murder) every living thing on the face of the earth, except of course Noah and his family - got to have a few friends left.

Answer 2

GOOD THING FOR COPY AND PASTE!
1. You can murder 1000 people, repent, say you're sorry and still go to heaven. Repenting wont bring back 1000 lives

But repenting will bring life to the one who commited the murder. Those 1000 people were warned and are responcible for their own faith.

2. The 10 commandments are irrelevant because Jesus died for you to break them

Jesus died and rose from the grave and a new law was written in the New Testiment which is to now follow Him because it is His blood that was shed to cover all the sins of ALL generations. Jesus still taught about the commandments but since He became sin for us, we follow the new law.

3. God will forgive you for ANYTHING you do? Thinking that wont help your bad behavior

This is true. But if someone makes the decision to follow Christ, their behavior will change because of desire. If people think that it's ok to go out and live a sinnful life just because they know they are already forgiven, then they aren't truely a christian.

4. The bible teaches that Atheists are fools. Your belief promotes belief conflicts. Isn't that the worlds biggest problem?

Jesus said that the word of God is an offense to nonbelievers. Nonbelievers hate christians and this was why Jesus said to remember that the world has hated Him first.
And no, this isn't the world's biggest problem, The world has yet to face the worst of all through destruction as found in the bible plus the codes that have been cracked. What is coming is a terrifying thing and too many people are waisting their time argueing about who believes in what instead of looking it up for theirselves. Some of these codes have already come to pass and I'm sorry to say that 6 years from now, the 3rd of the population will be wiped out. This is a HUGE problem!

5. You're taught that we're born bad? That wont help your self image or self esteem

No ... we were taught that we were born in sin, not bad. We are born of the nature of sin. God hates sin. He doesn't hate us. So we are not bad. Our sin is bad.
Having a low self esteem and self image is because of sin.

Answer 3

1. It requires more than lip service. Repenting means being sorry.

2. The commandments will never become irrvelevant. Jesus died because we break them, this does not give anyone the right to break them at will. Anyone who thinks this doesn't have a clue to the basic foundations of Christianity.

3. Having a parent who loves unconditionally and always forgives actually encourages most. When you expect the best out of people it tends to bring out the best in them. When someone loves you thast much you have no desire to disappoint them.

4. Our belief promotes conflict? No. Some of its followers have, though. We are to spread the word. If it is not accepted then we are to move on. Conflict is man, not God or His word.

5. We are taught that man has a sinful nature. As far as self image and self esteem are concerned, we are beloved by the almighty God. What could ever possibly make anyone feel better about themself than that?

Answer 4

Believing in God will not make you good, and no Christian who knew anything would ever claim so. Loving Him will make you good, but that's another matter entirely than just believing. As for your five points, please allow me to answer them. Yes, you can murder 1000 people, and if you repent of that you will still go to Heaven- admission to Heaven is based on the fact that God loves and forgives everyone who is truly repentant and asks Him. . . regardless of how wicked they may have been. That may offend your sense of justice, but that only shows that God is more merciful than you are. As for your second point, the idea that you can do anything you like on the grounds that God will forgive you for it later anyway is a mistake. Nobody thinks that. Forgiveness requires real repentance, not a mealy-mouthed pretense, and insincere repentance fools nobody- least of all God. If, given another chance, you'd do exactly the same thing, then you haven't repented. Jesus didn't die so that you could break the Laws- He died so that you could be forgiven for having done so, if you repented. Third point- Yes, the Bible teaches that atheists are fools because they say there is no God. And for the sake of argument I'll waive the point that it might promote belief conflicts. But I deny that those are the biggest problem in the world. Lack of love is the biggest problem in the world, my friend- not disagreements, and you should recall that Christ Himself commanded us to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us and bless those who curse us, so that we may give honor to God. Some live up to that command and some don't, but that's what He ordered. Fifth point- we are not taught that people are born bad. We're taught that people are born with an inclination to sin, which would be hard for you to disprove, I think- Have you ever met someone who never lied, never lusted, never stole, never hated, never envied, never said or did or thought anything whatsoever evil or wicked? I don't think so. Whether that fact harms our self image or not is quite irrelevant- a good self image based on falsehoods is not worth having. Furthermore, if you also believe that you are a beloved son or daughter of Almighty God, forgiven of all those wicked parts of your nature and destined by Him to play a special part in the unfolding of the world, then I think that belief promotes a better (and more realistic) self-esteem than one based on illusions. Hope some of this was helpful to you.

Answer 5

lol-You have things very mixed up. Saying you're sorry doesn't do anything at all. Repentence means to "turn around". It is genuine, not stated. And we always pay a price for our sin on this earth. When David committed murder, his son was killed, and he had bloodshed the rest of his life. When he committed adultery, his family life was shattered, his children raped and murdered each other, etc. We always reap what we so. But true repentence and genuine belief that Jesus took our sins upon himself saves our soul. It doesn't remove the payment we make while on earth.

As for atheists being fools, anyone who goes down a path of unrighteousness would certainly be a fool.

We are NOT taught that we were born bad. We were born perfect and holy temples of God. The human race CHOSE to rebel against God. Therefore we must CHOOSE to humble ourselves before him and "turn around" spiritually by trusting in him this time.

Answer 6

OK, here's some of my thoughts. Feel completely free to disagree with me, provided you listen to my ideas the same way I listened to yours. Thanks.

1. You're right. And you will go to heaven, but I am pretty sure you will feel terrible about those 1000 murders for all of eternity. You won't be the happiest guy in heaven is what I think.

2. No, I disagree completely. First, yes, IMO Jesus died to bring a new covenant to the world, so that we wouldn't be bound by the law any more. BUT, they are NOT irrelevant because those commandments are still there to lead us to live godly lives. He didn't do so that we can break them and not get punished (we will get punished one way or another--either by the law, the natural ramifications of our actions, or God himself). He died so that we might be forgiven for breaking them. There's a big difference.

3. Yes, He has promised us that he will if we repent. But there's again a difference between believing that and then just continuing to sin at will and believing that and loving God for his mercy, and obeying his commands because of your love for Him.

4. Every belief promotes belief conflicts, because humans are naturally proud creatures and we don't like admitting that we are wrong, especially about something as sensitive as personal religion/lack of religion. The Bible teaches that its own religion is the truth and the way, and that one should spread his beliefs and the differences they have made in their lives out of personal conviction and love for God. How could it teach anything else? And, I want to stress this, it doesn't say to force it down others' throats. I believe that it says to help others out of love, and sincere wanting to show others what you've found.

5. No, I believe that we were created good, but chose knowledge of evil and thus became capable of sin. It's not supposed to help your self esteem. It's supposed to teach you to see who you really are--a fallen creature who needs God to become more pure and closer to Him. It's not about self image. It's about self realization, and acceptance of who you really are leads you to improve yourself.

Hope this makes sense. Good luck to you.

Answer 7

You seem to me to be making up things just to ask a question. I would suggest you go to the atheist web site and state your objections. Oh, I'm sorry there is no atheist web site for you to go to or you would not be coming to the Christian web site. To not believe you sure state some obvious facts about heaven a place you are not supposed to believe in. About Jesus, someone you are not supposed to believe in. About God and forgiveness, a God and an act that is contrary to your supposed beliefs or non-beliefs. The Bible which you are not supposed to believe in. I hardly believe you are an atheist, maybe black, but certainly not an atheist. I think you are a fraud and even possibly not black. Why don't you own up to your beliefs and let Jesus lead you in the ways of righteouness. It will be much better for you than spending your time asking dumb questions. By the way I'm glad you are tired of typing, you can now stop showing your ignorance.

Believing in God does not make people good. The act of believing in God pleases Him and is the only return He expects for all that He has given us and continues to give us. He sent His Son to die for our sins while we were yet sinners. He loved us that much and continues to love us even though some have chosen not to accept the sacrifice He made. Some will go to hell wishing they had made that choice to believe, I hope you are not one of those.

Answer 8

#1 If you were a chrisitian, most likely you will not go out murdering 100 people. If you were not, mmost likely you won't go back repenting but if you do the better for you you will be forgiven.
It wont bring back 1 thousand lives that God created where the lives will go is non of yo bizniz

2. THe ten commandments are very important. Jesus did not die for you to break them. He did to forgive your sins. and to save you. YOu have to abide by the ten commandments each and every day of your life.

3. REad the BIble to get a better understanding of what you are saying. Befo coming and posting it to the world.

4. I'm tired of typing to tell you all you said is very contradictory.
JUST READ THE BIBLE GET A BETTER UNDERSTANDING MAN.

btw. PEOPLE ARE BORN SINNERS> BUT YOU CAN CHANGE THAT BY PRAYING TO GOD ASKING HM TO FORGIVE YOU THROUGH JESUS CHRIST AND BY THE GRACE OF GOD YOU WILL BE SAVED.
hows that for your self esteem. *sigh*
FOR MANY WILL PERISH FOR THE LACK OF KNOWLEDGE.

Answer 9

No. Believing does not make you a better person.
JUST believing will not take your sins away.

You have to believe and to follow the teaching. Jesus taught us to love not to fight our brothers, Jesus taught us to care for the human beings no matter of the colour race or origin.
Are we cool so far?

Ok. Now people edited the bible. A few centuries ago , the bible and the church have been used to control the masses. It is not a secret although they would like it to be.

The Vatican still does. In several countries, the church has to approve the laws?!

You have to work for the church , you have to pay for the church so you don't go to hell!
If you do not come to the church, you go to hell!
MY A#$!
Jesus said that church is in your heart and your belief.

The Catholic church used to sell salvation! yes, you could pay to the church so your sins would be forgiven...would that make you a better person? NO!

Now you can go in any part of the world and kill people and "believe" that you will be forgiven because you killed in the name of...country, church, BUSH, whatever! But believing that will never bring you salvation.

The Christianism has been modified and adapted to what people found most comfortable and to enlarge the "narrow road" and to what people found most convenient at the moment.

The Christianism is not so easy to follow because it is so wide spread , because there are so many versions, because people used it to cause wars like our beloved president does.
Yes God spoke to BUSH and to BLAIR!
And because it has very strict rules and when you are alone in your belief (true belief) it is very difficult.

Christianism alone did not cause wars. People did and they used it as an excuse.

You cannot kill in the name of GOD and Jesus. You just cannot!

This is the way i see things. I am trying to be as objective as possible since I am a Christian. I do not go much to the church but I try to be a better person. I love my friends no matter their religion is. I look for the coulours in their souls.

Now, Christianism is not the religion! It is a way but not the only one. I say follow whatever religion helps you be a better person, that gives you the power to have a center for your universe that is not yourself (the center) and which you can use to rely on. A religion/way that helps you understand the world and live in Harmony.

Peace and Love brothers!

Answer 10

:)

Believing in the Christian God doesnt make you good... However truly committing your life to Him, and living in obedience to Him will make you good.

In response to your question above.

1. False. Saying you are sorry doesnt get you to heaven. Truly repenting of the sin and committing your life to Christ will. True repentence results in a sincere change in behavior, including restitution to those affected by your sin, where possible.

2. False. Jesus did not abrogate the 10 commandments.

3. False. God will forgive you if you truly repent. Thinking that God will forgive you and so you can live in current sin will not help you. God is not deceived by such behavior.

4. True (to the first part; note that the term "fool" in the context is refering to "unwise" not "unintelligent". Many atheists are very intelligent -- but unwise -- an evaluation of Pascal's Wager should be a reasonable demonstration of this.)

Regarding the 2nd part, all beliefs promote belief conflicts.

You may be aware that Atheism as a belief/ ideology has resulted in enormous amounts of blood shed. When Atheists have been in power in various countries around the world, they killed an estimated 70 million to 100 million people in just the 20th century.

5. True and False. The Bible teaches that we are inclined to sin. I find this to be true on a daily basis (both for myself and for every human and every society I have come across).

Self-esteem is not necessarily a good thing. In a limited sense it is good. But when self-esteem becomes narcissism (which appears to be the case for a lot of the western world) self-esteem is actually destructive (both for ourselves as individuals as well as for human society).

My self-worth arises ultimately from my relationship with the Christian God (not based on what any other human thinks of me, or based on my accomplishments). Out of this recognition of self-worth, comes the confidence to accomplish the things I accomplish (by the Grace of the Christian God).

Cordially,
John