The God Followers

[frank ward]

Looking through previous posts it astonishes me that there are still people out there who follow 'The Word of God.'

OK, if for a moment we accept that is there is such a thing as a God, what I cannot understand is how and why ANYBODY could regard this God as a just, merciful or benevolent being.

Given the horrors and slaughter HE presides over, or the misery inflicted daily on the lives of Billions - be it starvation, cancer, poverty, chronic illness etc etc - it beggars belief why people actually worship him.

Surely, if God exists, he is the enemy of Man?

Meantime I enjoy trips down the A9, seeing all the abandoned Kirks, and I rejoice. Latest good news is the closure of Latheron, Berriedale and Bruan churches. Maybe now they can be turned into something useful.

PUSSYCAT

PS: Just in case: When I die and go to heaven, I would dearly love to kick the man where it hurts !

[Saveman]

Hi Pussycat,

You make a very good point. Why would a so-called merciful God allow such misery to continue on the earth?
A lot of religions will tell you that it is God's will that bad things happen. Who wants to worship a God like that?
However, the Bible clearly teaches that God is not currently ruling over the earth, it says that an evil spirit creature is the ruler of this world - The Devil. Now that would explain a few things....

[BMcGillivray]

We need evil in the world, to understand what it is to be good.

There has to have been War, in order for us to know what Peace is.

There has to be sadness in the world, so that we can appreciate happiness.

We have to experience the negative, so we can see that we need to have the positive.

There cannot be one without the other, they define each other. Yin and Yang.

As far as i see it, we are meant to take a journey through life, not to have everything done for us, for us to become dependent on a higher being to maintain a perfect world, like a spoilt child unable to fend for itself.

We have been granted intelligence and wisdom, so that we can fight and strive to change our own world, right the wrongs, make a difference, its what drives humanity to do great things, this is the gift we've been given by God, its down to us to use it correctly.

People all throughout history, have had to witness these terrible diseases, painful losses, the suffering, pain, misery, and its what has driven pretty much every medical breakthrough, cure, development to come to be, and is still doing that, there are men and women out there dedicating their entire lives into stopping all of these things from happening to us. People are doing such great things for humanity because of the suffering they have had to experience in some way.

[Saveman]

We need evil in the world, to understand what it is to be good.

There has to have been War, in order for us to know what Peace is.

There has to be sadness in the world, so that we can appreciate happiness.

We have to experience the negative, so we can see that we need to have the positive.

There cannot be one without the other, they define each other. Yin and Yang.

Do we need to stick our hand in the fire to know we shouldn't do it again?
Evil doesn't balance the universe, it corrupts it.

As far as i see it, we are meant to take a journey through life, not to have everything done for us, for us to become dependent on a higher being to maintain a perfect world, like a spoilt child unable to fend for itself.
We have been granted intelligence and wisdom, so that we can fight and strive to change our own world, right the wrongs, make a difference, its what drives humanity to do great things, this is the gift we've been given by God, its down to us to use it correctly.

Tell that to the thirty-five thousand children that die every day because of starvation and malnutrition. Some gift!

[BMcGillivray]

Do we need to stick our hand in the fire to know we shouldn't do it again?

Yes we do, we learn by doing as we grow up, everyone at some point would've done something similar to your example or have been stopped and told sternly not to do it, its not something thats inbuilt, though not necessarily sticking our hand in fire, but getting close enough to fire to know its bad, and from then on we remember that fact. Another example is putting stuff in our mouth as a child, if we get a bad taste, we know not to do it again.

Evil doesn't balance the universe, it corrupts it.

We would not appreciate or understand the concept of "goodness" if there wasn't something negative to compare it to. There would simply be neutrality. I dont deny that evil corrupts, is bad, etc, all im saying is that without it, "goodness" would be an alien concept.

Tell that to the thirty-five thousand children that die every day because of starvation and malnutrition. Some gift!

Even now, people are striving to change that, trying to bring aid to them, to make a difference, those people, and the intelligence, wisdom and morality they were gifted with, the very fact that it resonates in our very soul as being wrong, is an example of the gifts we've been granted.

[MGB1979]

Looking through previous posts it astonishes me that there are still people out there who follow 'The Word of God.'

OK, if for a moment we accept that is there is such a thing as a God, what I cannot understand is how and why ANYBODY could regard this God as a just, merciful or benevolent being.

Given the horrors and slaughter HE presides over, or the misery inflicted daily on the lives of Billions - be it starvation, cancer, poverty, chronic illness etc etc - it beggars belief why people actually worship him.

Surely, if God exists, he is the enemy of Man?

Meantime I enjoy trips down the A9, seeing all the abandoned Kirks, and I rejoice. Latest good news is the closure of Latheron, Berriedale and Bruan churches. Maybe now they can be turned into something useful.

PUSSYCAT

PS: Just in case: When I die and go to heaven, I would dearly love to kick the man where it hurts !

If people weren't as bigoted as you appear to be then maybe the believers and non-believers could live in peace? Who cares if someone follows a God or not? Faith is a personal thing and as long as it doesn't impinge on your life you have no reason to rant.

I'm not what you'd call a religious man, but I think people should be allowed to believe in what they want without having to justify it.

[Saveman]

What is the point in working to change the bad things that happen if we need them to happen?

[canuck]

What is the point in working to change the bad things that happen if we need them to happen?

Because that is what reminds us that we are inherently good and we need to know that we are good.

[Saveman]

So evil originates with God?

[canuck]

So evil originates with God?

Oh, we could be here for months on this one.

The same question could be asked of your original reply when you suggested that evil ruled the world. God in God's power, if we were following the logic of pussycat, allowed that evil. Does that mean that God does not have power over evil? Or is God the originator of evil?

[Saveman]

Oh, we could be here for months on this one.

The same question could be asked of your original reply when you suggested that evil ruled the world. God in God's power, if we were following the logic of pussycat, allowed that evil. Does that mean that God does not have power over evil? Or is God the originator of evil?

There is a huge difference in allowing evil and causing evil.

To illustrate: Imagine a wise and loving father with a grown son who is still living at home. When the son becomes rebellious and decides to leave home, his father doesn't stop him. The son pursues a bad way of life and gets into trouble. Is the father the cause of his son’s problems?

Man has chosen independance from God. Today we see the results of that choice.

[BMcGillivray]

So evil originates with God?

Everyone would answer this differently.

You could see it in terms of God/Good and Devil/Evil.

You could see it in terms of God creating both Good and Evil, but directing the hand of neither side, granting us the ability to triumph over adversity or be destroyed by it.

You could see it in terms of God doing both Good and Evil, helping and hindering in equal measure on a whim, in a chaotic manner.

And all manner of other combinations...

[Niall Fernie]

Well it appears that we are now going to have to treat threads about religion in the same way as football.

It's now a taboo subject for the forum. Any further threads/posts relating to religion will be removed.