That doesn't sound very compassionate to me.
2006-09-14 22:59:49 · 31 answers · asked by Grinner5000 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Christianity is a confused hotch potch of moral law and psychological insecurity and paranoia. If God loved us all indiscriminately, regardless of whether we were good or bad people, there would be no incitement to behave morally. Hence the carrot and stick system of heaven and hell that gives Christians an external motivation to be good (since apparently they have no internal self-regulating conscience????). In the words of Margaret Mead (anthropologist):
"It is an open question whether any behavior based on fear of eternal punishment can be regarded as ethical or should be regarded as merely cowardly."
What kind of God sends his own son down to earth just so that he could die through torture? Jesus died to pay off the debt incurred by human sin. But who decided that Jesus's death would cancel out our sins? Presumably God. But why would God devise this punishment, if God loves his son? Over to Slavoj Zizek...
"why does God not forgive us directly? Why must he obey the need to pay for sin?... if God were to pardon us directly, this would not transform us, making us new, better men - only the compassion and feeling of gratitude and debt elicited by the scene of Christ's sacrifice have the necessary power to transform us... It is easy to see that something is amiss in this reasoning: is this not a strange God who sacrifices his own Son, what matters most to him, just to impress humans?"
The Christian God is needy, he needs demonstrations of our love - this love seeming to matter more than ethics. I'd like to think that if there is a God, it would want me to use the brain it had endowed me with to base my morality on rational evidence. I'd like to think that this God would be clever and emotionally stable enough to consider the fact that I try to be a good person to be more important than whether or not I believe in it.
2006-09-15 00:25:31 · answer #1 · answered by comradelouise 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
He does not condemn and his love is forever, but people are condemned by their own thoughts and actions. There are laws in creation that can't be changed and whatever you sow so shall you reap it's by this that we shall be redeemed. Karma is a b***ch! but you better believe it can't be escaped, we are souls with a body not a body with a soul, the soul is eternal so therefore any wrong doing will be payed for as long as we exist. I do however believe there's a limit like with everything how many chances we get to be redeemed. There are many ways to worship which don't involve "going to church /mosque/temple etc religion and spirituality can be two different things.
2006-09-14 23:49:19 · answer #2 · answered by Isisstar 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First of all, we are not God. I do not know what God will do with you. If you just go by the rules, then everything is ok. If you don't, go out and kill and all that other stuff, then it is up to you to repent, and ask God for his forgiveness. Remember the thief on the cross that was being crucified with Jesus, asked him to take him to Heaven with Him and Jesus said, "You will be with me in Paradise"... You just cannot judge others, only God know what is in his heart, and what he will do. Yes, God is a compassionate God, but there are rules, just like we have in every city, you disobey them, and you go to jail. It is the same thing. The rules are the ten commandments and all the things that Jesus preached in the Bible. If you want to know more, read the Bible or get into Bible study. The Bible is the most fascinating book you will ever read.
P.S. Are you the "tin man", was he the one that did not have a brain...?
2006-09-14 23:20:15 · answer #3 · answered by shardf 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
What do you expect? People sin, and sin and sin, He keeps forgiving and forgiving but people are still not changing their evil ways. God does not ask too much from us, all He asks is to worship Him, to be faithful to Him, to Trust and obey Him, surely that's not too much to ask but still in the end people still think He's an unfair God who does not care about His people. He cares about all of us, it's the people (some) that don't care about Him.
Take an example, someone does you wrong, they ask for forgiverness and you forgive them, next time it's the same thing again, don't you think eventually you'll get tired of always forgiving? Of course you will because you'll realise that no matter how many times you forgive that person is not going to change. The only difference between man and God is He is able to forgive you all the time, He can even forgive you when you only have one hour before you die.
While humans can only forgive for a while and that's it we want nothing to do with that person.
So be grateful that you have a God who is God.
2006-09-15 01:59:19 · answer #4 · answered by sweetdivine 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
valid question. however this is often misunderstood. he doesn;t condemn. there are some basic principles, which he taught, that simply "are". if you follow his WAYS, you will be in a better state of health, mind and spirit. example: do not be gluttonous. not because he will condemn you, but you will condemn yourself. you will become fat unhealthy miserable etc. praying to him and asking for guidance and the strength to become healthier works. also, thinking about yourself all of the time makes you miserable in the long run. but helping others brings good feelings of worthiness and blessings come back to you. not necessarily from the same person but from somewhere. too much to be able to go into here, but i think you get the idea .
2006-09-14 23:08:57 · answer #5 · answered by nannyb52 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
God doesn't. We are all his children by adoption and therefore he loves us all equally. I believe you have to be truly evil (Hitler for example) in order to never be able to redeem yourself.
Just because you are misguided and choice to not believe is not a good enough reason for a loving creator to condemn you to everlasting torment.
That is a man-made thing and probably something the Jews told their children to keep them in line like some used to do with the bogeyman.
Another thing to think about here is God rules in Heaven, we are put here with free will, the devil, Lucifer was given free reign over the earth, so he is the *god* here. In this scenario we are already in hell and working towards another birth to a better world.
2006-09-14 23:23:26 · answer #6 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The very God who was good enough to give us free will and love him of our own accord.
It is actually our choice;if we do not live by the rules He gave us(for our own good)then we will be condemned to spend eternity in hell.
2006-09-15 00:08:29 · answer #7 · answered by kareen 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the bible does not teach that those who disobey God will spend a lifetime in torment in hell. the word hell is used as a translation of the hebrew word sheol and the greek word hades. these both mean the common grave of mankind, not a place of firey torment.
ecclesiastes 9:5 says the dead are conscious of nothing.
so those who disobey God or do not get a resurrection back to life on earth (not heaven as the church would have you believe), will remain unconscious forever. not in eternal torment.
2006-09-14 23:27:46 · answer #8 · answered by iamalsotim 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
God is not hindered by our human understandings (any of them).
Perhaps the "little lost sheep" Jesus went out to find was "the black sheep" of the family? (Just wanted to say that for awhile; don't know if that has anything to do with your qu.)
This may be an interesting answer to your question...(the whole site seems pretty good too.)
...see specifically "The 'Destruction' of the Wicked" http://www.goodnewsaboutgod.com/wicked.htm
(And come-on...ya gotta be wow'd by a website that has a page called "Armageddon:The Good News!" ...ya?)
2006-09-15 19:43:07 · answer #9 · answered by sincere12_26 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A god created by men to control fellow men. Be like me or you will all suffer unimagineable things for eternity!
2006-09-14 23:03:32 · answer #10 · answered by Ben H 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋