According to fundamentalist Christians, God allows people to be tortured for eternity for the crime of a distant ancestor, unless they accept the torture and death of God's son (who is really God) in their place.
Torture and the punishment of a person for the crimes of another are forbidden in civilized societies (though both were practised by e.g. the Nazis).
Are we better than God, and shouldn't He be taking lessons from us rather than vice versa?
2007-11-27 04:50:45 · 29 answers · asked by 2kool4u 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
We are right here in the thick of it and where the rubber meets the road doing what we can to make the world a little better place than how we found it.
I often see god getting a lot of credit for everything but little or no blame for anything. Nice job if you can get it.
"Better" only has meaning in comparison to something else. When I see something that is a verifiable action of god then we'll compare. Until then it's a little too busy here at Earth central...
2007-11-27 04:54:21 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 1⤋
Wrong on at least 6 counts.
Prescinding from whether these teachings are true or not, here are the teachings:
1) People choose Hell by rejecting God, the greatest good, and they do NOT have to so choose. Free will is primary in any definition of what is evil.
2) Adam's sin resulted in a privation. You did not get passed on to you what you did not deserve anyway. But as the Catholic Church service has it, this is a 'felix culpa', a happy fault, because now you have a better paradise than you lost, which again you had no 'right' too. I assume you say we have the 'right'.
3) Jesus took on Redemption, one of the clearest teachings of the NT. You imply crudely that He was dragged against His Will.
4) Torture is primarily execrated because of Christianity. Check your history. The noble Romans of Cicero and Marcus Aurelius were the tortureres and the Christians in many cases were the tortured. Correct ?
5) You couldn't seriously mean we are better than God, that just a bait line.
6) Most of all, you are not asking a question, you are telling. From Socrates to Aquinas the primo virtue to learn a damn thing is docility.
2007-11-27 13:11:13 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
Plainly we are.
The Biblical god murders people he doesn't like, sends them away for torture for acts that their ancestors may or may not have done (unless they worship him and ghrovel properly), demands total control over your life and the lives of...well...pretty much everyone else in the world...and insists that he be loved and worshipped as a benevolent and wise master.
Sounds like Adolf to me.
Something that Christians tend to ignore: According to their own mythology, God set the whole thing up in the first place. If he was "all-knowing", then he knew EXACTLY what would happen when he put that rediculous tree in the garden. He had to have known that his "test" would be failed, which means that his "wrath" at Adam and Eve was a sadistic performance.
If I make a intelligent computer and it fails to run the way I want it to, am I justified in going berserk and deliberately torturing it? Inflicting horrible ills on it out of a fit of pique? Why wait for a few thousand years before fixing it? Why demand its absolute worship? Why inflict monstrous torture on it if it doesn't worship?
This would only make sense if I were some kind of sadistic maniac with an incredibly fragile ego.
This supposedly all-knowing, all-powererful entity could only imagine two possibilities for human afterlife? And stunningly unoriginal possibilities at that? With the sole criteria being personal and unthinking adoroation of himself?
The god you worship is a monster, and thank goodness he is the product of the paranoid imaginations of a tribe of desert nomads.
I prefer Eilistraee myself. She's fictional too, but least she's genuinely benevolent. http://www.eilistraee.com/
2007-11-27 13:11:28 · answer #3 · answered by Scott M 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
what are you asking?
what punishment for a crime of an ancestor?
what about Nazis?
what lessons to teach God?
are you atheist or you fill like being a god over God?
i am sorry but i don't follow the question
2007-11-27 13:33:51 · answer #4 · answered by qwq 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think most of us display more genuine love than the God portrayed thousands of years ago by Middle Eastern scholars.
I know I wouldn't have my only son tortured and murdered on a cross. I would would just have a new Bible written, if I wanted to change the rules.
2007-11-27 12:59:04 · answer #5 · answered by Honest Opinion 5 · 2⤊ 2⤋
What are you doing? Are you reading the old testament literally and saying that fundamentalist Christians must believe that?
How do you know what fundamentalist Christians believe if you are not one?
The question makes no sense. God gives everyone freewill. Part of that includes that you don't have the right to tell anyone what they believe.
If it is your freewill to be an idiot, then so be it.
2007-11-27 12:57:14 · answer #6 · answered by Stupid Flanders 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Huh? I realize what you're referring to...The concept of Original Sin...however the acceptance of Jesus supposedly absolves one of that particular malady. Of course real theologians know that isn't the case...Jesus died for nothing and wasn't any less human than you and I. The reason the Nazi's targeted the Jews was because they were CHOSEN as the living penance for that Original Sin. Everyday the Jewish populace of the world suffers at the hands of everyone else for that very reason. It's also the reason that they'll be the Keepers to the Gates of Heaven (if it exists) at the end of days. PEACE!
2007-11-27 12:57:04 · answer #7 · answered by thebigm57 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Straw man argument. You've reduced the point you are trying to refute to a caricature and then attacked it, coming to the conclusion that finite humanity can have more wisdom than God.
2007-11-27 13:14:29 · answer #8 · answered by smt 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
well said. That is why the arguement that people get their morals from religion couldn't be more false. If you read any hold book, you will come across atrocities that NO ONE in their right mind will call moral. People have always obtained their morals from our innate survival instinct. We don't want certain things done to us so we don't do it to others. Plus we want to succeed and be happy and helping others does foster that. Again if morals came from religion, then why did most religions approve of slavery, sexism, racism etc and still retain those teachings in their holy books?
I rest my case. But to answer your question, the god of the holy books are really just the super ego of power hungry, desperate and scared illiterate men from ancient times
2007-11-27 12:59:25 · answer #9 · answered by uz 5 · 2⤊ 2⤋
People who say God lets you be tortured for crimes of your ancestors are just iggnant.
2007-11-27 12:53:45 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 7⤊ 2⤋