God question - how much of your image of God is what you want God to be as a reflection of your attitudes?

Question

Many of the non-believers know where this is going, so to the agnostics and the atheists who deal with this every day, do you find that if someone is loving their "god" is loving and if they are homophobic their god "its in the book!~ leviticus 18:22 god won't accept that sin!"

your thoughts earthlings - ie - ever see a gay man say god won't accept me cause of leviticus 18:22 ? ? ? ?

(thats not an attack on gays or christians, just an observation)

Answer 1

I see this very often. As you well know, there are some Christians and/or Christian Churches that accept and do not judge homosexuals.

I do believe it is a matter of the individual and how they perceive and want their god to be. This is why we so many Christians picking and choosing which part of the Bible to follow.

Those who are kind and loving express God as a kind and loving God. Those who don't judge follow the not to "judge lest yee be judged" adage.

Those who are homophobic hide behind their Bibles and express God as being one who is unforgiving and judgemental. When my (ex)boyfriend and I were living togehter, his (Southern Baptist) Father stated that we were "living in sin" and that he "knew that God dissapproved of what we were doing". Since we was judgemental and unforgiving - he perceived God as being the same way. (Just an example.)

And we wonder why the Bible says that God created Man in His own image? Man is arrogant that way.

Answer 2

Yes I do believe that. When I was a child I was raised Baptist. Now there are different types of Baptist but my mother at that time (she doesn't now) went to the most extreme hellfire and damnation type of Baptist church in the area. People can't understand when I say I never believed the theology I was brought up with but it was telling me that God was a vengeful God, that people were so sinful most wouldn't make it to heaven anyways and that the old testament and its scripture was far more valuable than the "easy-going, loving scripture" that Jesus gave. I would not accept that because that is not who I am. I would never think anything bad about others I could not comprehend that that was the way I needed to see things.

The icing on the cake though, was when the Reverend told me I had no choices in life that from the moment of my birth my whole life was planned out and if I was a complete sinner there was no way of getting around that. I left the church, even though I was only 15, right after that.

Answer 3

My job is to form my image of God based on what He reveals of Himself, but I get what you're saying.

When I was a child, I based my image of God on my parents and what I learned in Sunday school. The result was pretty scary.

Later I pondered Who God is in relation to God being Love. And I guess that's still where I am. If God is love, then what can I learn about God (and about love for that matter) based on what the Bible says.

Of course I bring my own quirks and baggage into this. I suppose there is a sense in which no one can see God perfectly clearly. In "Till We Have Faces," C. S. Lewis's character Orual says:

"Lightly men talk of saying what they mean.

Often when he was teaching me to write in Greek the Fox would say, 'Child , to say the very thing you really mean, the whole of it, nothing more or less or other than what you really mean; that's the whole art and joy of words.'

When the time comes to you at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the centre of your soul for years, which you have, all that time, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you'll not talk about joy of words.

I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean?

How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?"

Answer 4

Man made God in his own image...

This is why when people ask how many religions there are in the world, I always answer '6 billion - but not all of them have names'.

We all view God through our own particular telescopes. And we all draw different conclusions of what we find.

Answer 5

For me very little. I see him as one who is physically similar to a man.

But God is a God of the Law. Now what I would like at all! I wish he could just say oh your really a good boy, that's OK I like you.

That would be nice but its not what he is!

Answer 6

Yes, religion or "god" is what each person makes of it for themselves in their own minds. Unfortunately they are guided by manipulative leaders who carve and roast the bible into what they want it to say, to bring themselves more money, or more followers. I wonder if christian gays quote the story of Jonah and the whale to validate swallowing seamen(SP). LOL

Answer 7

Leave the objectivity in the science lab. My God is very personal, and it is impossible to seperate Him, from my desire to know Him. I asked for forgiveness, He was there for me.

Unfortunate as it may be for the scientific mind, we are all stuck with the God of our own personal desire/fear. It's rather phobic, to be drawn to, and repelled by God. But that is the human condition....

Answer 8

Trust in God is an attitude of the heart and that is what I decide to have in my life ---complet trust in God. He has my life planned out and it doesn't take much thinking to know that I can't change His plans, so I enjoy my life.

Answer 9

It is an intriguing concept but perhaps we just focus on those aspects we most agree with.

Answer 10

Very controversial. ::Shiver::