Why are Christians so unconcerned about the contradictions in their belief system?

Question

For example, most Christians believe that their God is all-loving and all-merciful. Yet most Christians also believe that this same God intentionally killed millions of people in a flood and condemns millions more to eternal torment in the fires of Hell, even good people like Gandhi.

Even a four-year-old child is intelligent enough to see the contradiction between these two beliefs. But most Christians don't seem to care if two of their beliefs contradict each other. Can someone please explain this to me?
Thank you.

Answer 1

because christians believe blindly
they also haven't read the bible so they wouldn't know about the contradictions

Answer 2

Well, you see, you are looking at the beliefs of some fundamentalist Protestant sects, and equating these with the beliefs of "Christians". If you really want to know what "Christians" believe, you should look at the teaching of the Christian Church that was actually founded by Jesus Christ, not the teaching of unauthorized manmade sects whose teaching conflict not only with those of pure and complete Christianity, but also with those of one another. If you look at the original Christian Church, the Catholic Church, you do not find the belief that non-members of that Church are damned. You also do not find the belief that non-Christians are automatically damned.

It is of course true that many people will end up in hell for outright rejection of God and His plan for humanity. But that fact doesn't negate the fact of an all-loving and all-merciful God. God love us so much that He gave us god-like qualities like free will and moral capacity. He loves and respects us so much that He allows us to use these gifts in complete freedom, without interference froom Him, even when what we choose is in direct opposition to His own will. And, He allows every person to choose to be with Him in absolute joy, love and fulfillment for all eternity - but only if we want to. A loving God would not force someone to accept this offer against their will. If He did so, salvation would not be a gift, and we would not have freedom. The fact that many refuse God's offer of eternal bliss, and foolishly exchange it for a few years of hedonistic pleasure on earth, doesn't make God any less loving, does it? The fact that God honors the choices freely made by human beings, and allows them to live eternally separated from Him if that is their preference, doesn't make God any less loving either.

Answer 3

It is a test of faith. No contradictions, no real good test of faith.
The bigger the contradiction, the bigger the test.

It is the same thing in diving. Certain dives get a higher score because they are more difficult. All-merciful versus condeming millions is very heavily weighted. Even a partial acceptance without exploding gets you a lot of spiritual points which leads to grace, I think.

I think it is important to point out that I'm not an expert.

Answer 4

You probably don't have the correct understanding. God is absolutely pure as well as loving. An element of that is an intense hatred of all kinds of wickedness. An atonement has been provided for us so that His justice can be spent on Jesus, and we can just know Him as a God of Love. But that is only available if we accpet grace .. its goodness to those who believe or (eventually, when many chances are turned down) severity.

Answer 5

It is not full of contradictions. You need to actually study the bible before you condemen it which clearly you haven't or you wouldn't be asking a foolish question. And studying takes more time than a week or even a month or two.

Go see a minister or a pastor and spend some time with him.

Answer 6

Srry sir, ur taking these things out of context and not looking very deeply into ur findings. God dosent condem good people to hell because they were following some one elses teachings (like gandi he wasnt a bad person he helped millions of people rise up and grasp freedom but that dosent meen hes going to hell just because he is hindu) and the flood is just a parable like the prodigal son. It never happend but that dosent meen it dosen thave a good mesage. The only reason people go to hell is because they have completly ignored and trampled the gift of love. Like hitler osama pol pot they are all going to hell cause there is no way there going to heaven. That dosent meen that every one can just stroll right into heaven. To do that u must be perfect and because we arent perfect even though we are good people there is a place called pergatory where we suffer for what we have done but will eventually get to heaven cause we didnt totally reject love.

Most people think of god like they were taught when they were in sunday school (not that that is a bad thing but its like trying to bike the tour de france with training weels) and they never look passed it to the true god. This is what happens when we die. Apon death u have an explosion of gods knowlange. U see everything that u did all the time u accepted love and all the times u rejected it. U see all the pain u caused by not accepting people for who they are as a person and loving them unconditionaly the way god ment it to be. And that hurts sooo bad seeing how painfull and horrible u were to people with outeven knowing it. But at the same time u see when u accepted love how u strengthend and made others happy the way u were supposed to and that gives u strength! At this moment after this explosion of knowledge u either accpet love or u reject it. If because of the way u have lived ur life and built up reactions u reject life even knowing what uve done then u go to a place where there is no love... and that is hell. But for all those who have loved others like u and me even though we werent perfect that experience of seeing all the hurt weve caused purifys us in a way and we are able to accept god a being of absoulute love!...

I hope that dosent sound to cheesy but that is the teachings of the catholic church:)

Answer 7

a four year old child can see the contradiction. a mature adult can see how it works.

zechariah 9 -- a lot of people were released from Hell
it's God's job to judge. like it's the policeman's job to shoot at a murderer to stop him
if good has no standard, there is no good.
the gospels: He died so you wouldn't have to go

Answer 8

have u read the bible? i mean come on dude, ur like just sayign stuff that u red in a evolutionism magazine, i no, i red the same one. he killed those that tried to kill the isrealites, also, pharoh lied, did u read that? anyway, god hates unrepentant sin. if u repent, and believe, ur saved. to use ur example, ghandi didnt, he may have been "Good" but that's by our standerds. not god's.

Answer 9

They see the contradictions....they either just ignore them or try to come up with moronic explanations, such as "well God killed all those people in the flood because they were heathens.....so he's still all-loving."
*yank* Yeah, he's all-loving.....but only to the people who bow down before him.

Answer 10

Because Christians do not know what to believe. They are brainwashed by the bible. They are narrow minded and have a hard time with reasoning.