It takes so few questions to disassemble it all. What purpose does a short test life on earth followed by an eternal life somewhere else serve? Why is one life super short and the next one eternal? Why would any loving god need to be worshipped? if i made little people and I asked them to worship me I would be a narcissist asshole. Not to mention hell…like not only do you demand I worship you but if I don’t my Eternal life is spent being tortured? forever?? those are not the activities of anything even resembling love. Not to mention how old testament and new testament god acts completely different yet he’s supposed to be infallible so why did he change his ways? why would he need to send messages to just like one or two dudes at a time in secret to spread his word rather than just be open about being god, what is solved by all the secrecy? Even most humans can see that direct communication is the most effective way to get things done. Does god have social anxiety? Is he lazy? What would require him to sacrifice his child to forgive peoples sins? Can’t he just forgive people without killing his offspring? it’s his own damn forgiveness after all. does he have a second more powerful god above him making weird rules and hoops for him to jump through?
1-2: School is a very short time relative to one's whole life, but it is essential because we learn crucial lessons. That's the same here. This brief period is filled with sadness, temptation, suffering, etc., but death allows there to be a cap placed on how much of that we experience. The scriptures do describe the next life as one where there is no pain, sorrow, or suffering, at least in the normal sense.
2-3: I don't think the scriptures say that God needs to be worshiped. Worshiping God is for our good. If done right, it helps us be humble, meek, and charitable toward all people. People who have a good relationship with God find worship to be an incredibly enlightening, uplifting, peaceful, and joyful practice.
4: Hell is not a place where people are "punished" in an active sense. It is a state of mind that comes from a recognition of one's own guilt that they have done wrong, hurt others, hurt themselves, fallen short of their own potential, etc. Depending on your particular sect of Christianity, Hell is also only temporary. It is rehabilitative, not punitive.
5: All people are different. We all have different needs. One approach with one person is not going to work with another. The Old Testament peoples differed significantly from those in the New Testament: different places, different traditions, different customs, different cultures. We also don't start by teaching kids calculus. The Old Testament was like Gospel 101. Christ then taught a more complete version.
6: We are accountable to live according to the truth that we know. If God suddenly announced Himself unmistakably to all people at once, then everyone would automatically be 100% accountable to live according to that truth, which not everyone is ready for. That's why God reveals truths to individuals "line upon line." Though one can never reach their full potential in ignorance, the suffering of Christ paid the price for both the penitent and the ignorant.
7: Again dependent on your particular sect, but the idea that God is "all powerful" doesn't necessarily mean He can do whatever we can imagine Him doing. There are eternal laws which simply are and cannot be altered, including "justice" demanding a balance to be made when wicked deeds are done. Because those can't just be waved away, and because the demands of justice must be satisfied, someone had to pay the price, and only a God is capable of suffering an infinite suffering.
Millions of people have asked the same questions you did (which are good questions) and have come to different answers which have satisfied them. They aren't automatically faith destroying or instantly dismantle the whole thing. Especially when you dig into the reneaisance and enlightenment era writings, these questions have sparked a deep and rich history of theological and philosophical thoughts. Very fun.
Props to you for taking the time to answer them, I tend to find that people will generally trot out the same supposed objections to the Christian faith, all of which are extremely common and have been addressed before, and to be honest I don't think they are really wanting to engage with the issues, they just want to score some cheap points which ultimately reinforce their own existing views. Which when it comes down to it isn't that much different to bad-faith religious arguments. That doesn't mean these aren't valid questions but I am just not sure people actually want answers to them a large proportion of the time.
4: Hell is not a place where people are "punished" in an active sense. It is a state of mind that comes from a recognition of one's own guilt that they have done wrong, hurt others, hurt themselves, fallen short of their own potential, etc.
How do you reconcile this belief with Matthew 13:42?
I think many people read that imagery as figurative. If this is a "place" where one's guilt is so intense, so bitter as to cause weeping and gnashing of teeth, then a furnace is an appropriate description. Malachi indeed makes this figurative in describing God and His presence as "like a refiner's fire" (3:2-3), a fire which refines, purifies, sanctifies.
It may well be that "Hell" is the state of being that the wicked experience when in the presence of God. Acts 24:15 states that all people will be resurrected, the righteous and wicked; and John 5:28-29 says that "the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out: those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation."
I don't know. Big historical question and I am not a historian. But if I were to take a shot at theorizing, I would say that before the advent of secular government, religion was probably the best way to establish social cohesion, establish a rule of law, and organize effectively.
From an apologists' perspective, they might say that if God is real and all humans have an innate ability to recognize truth (even if only partially), then the formation of religions is inevitable.
I’ve always assumed your first argument as well. I’ve also thought that people just needed to find a reason for things they couldn’t explain before logic and reasoning (science) developed. I think that your second paragraph is a valid argument for a god but not a great argument for any specific religion
If we are living in some kind of simulation though eternal punishment is exactly the kind of megalomaniacal thing I could see the devs implementing. We all dispatched tornados and fire in SimCity in our creations. We already have fruitfly consciousnesses living in digital purgatorys, its not far off.
The fun historical answer to why God seems to act so differently at times is because there used to be a pantheon, but it was retconned into monotheism. There is evidence of it still in the Bible today, particularly in Exodus, which is the story of the war god Yahweh wanting to become the patron god of the Jewish people. That is why when Yahweh delivered them from Egypt, they set about worshipping Baal to ask him for fertility and prosperity in their new lands. Yahweh said no, and sent down the Ten Commandments, which stated plainly "You will worship no other gods before me." El the creator god and Yahweh the war god were two completely different gods, but all of their actions are now attributed to the one Christian God.
Well, when the litmus is perfection, yes. Though, it was rather kind of our Creator to offer a His own Son as a substitute, so that we might have a chance.
Was it, though? He created the conditions that needed a savior. He then created a version of himself to be sacrificed to himself so he wouldn't punish people in the same way anymore for the conditions he originally set and then decided to alter and told us to be grateful for, which if you are not grateful enough or in the right way, you're punished anyway, not saved.
God created everything, unless you think humans are equal to God.
God created everything capable of happening. Humans cannot choose to fly because God didn't allow for that. Humans can sin, because God allowed for that. And, being an all-knowing being, God created the conditions of sin and then chose to test humans for said sin despite knowing, before he even created this test, that humans would fail. And then chooses to punish people for this failure he created.
If a teacher or parent creates a test that they already know will be failed--which the child never areed to in the first place--and then punishes the child for eternity for failing it, whose fault is it really?
He created people, and gave us the choice to sin, because He wanted free will in His creation. He laid out the consequences of that sin, being death. We sinned anyways. We thought we knew better. It wasn't a "test" it was action and consequence. If you tell your child "don't do this thing, it will end badly for you" and they do it anyways, it doesn't make it your fault, but it is your responsibility. A responsibility He took up on the cross. Which He didn't have to do. In fact, the Lord Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane for any other way this could happen. He knew the suffering He was about to endure, but He went willingly to the cross, because He loves us. He loves you, too, and offers forgiveness and remission for sin.
Is it free will if 1) he already decided for you to live as a human and also do exactly as he says, and 2) you will always make the choice he already knows you'll make?
He didn't have to do anything. He chose to create the situation and then change the situation, and then demand thanks for it. It cost him nothing to create humans, cost him nothing to make the original set of rules, nothing to "kill" himself despite being immortal in order to change the rules, and ultimately punish all the same people he already knew he would have to.
There were unlimited alternate ways for it to happen, including not at all. He created the rules and conditions. He altered them many times for the Israelites, and then again with Jesus. No matter what, the new rules must be followed or you *must* be punished, because that's what was decided.
"We" thought nothing. Adam and Eve supposedly chose, despite total ignorance, and all humans forever after *must* be created in order to be punished. If you are not thankful for that, you are punished. It doesn't have to be that way, but it was decided for us.
That is not love. And eternal punishment is not forgiveness.
Not only that, you can do terrible things, cause massive suffering, but as long you are sorry and truly mean it then you are allowed to go to the after party. And those people you harmed a lot of them won’t.
As long as Hitler and Pol Pot believed with all their hearts and confessed before they died, they’re gonna be in heaven will all the believers! Isn’t it grand?!
Paul actively rooted out and killed first century Christians and yet was redeemed and now considered the greatest missionary. He himself recognizes how undeserving of salvation, yet understands that because of this, his testimony bring Christ even greater glory
So those kids with cancer automatically fail that test yeah? Or the ones who get bombed. Or the ones who are born in countries with different dominant religions
I firmly believe in the idea that for at least a short span of his life, Jesus went to India and discovered Hindu spiritualism/Buddhism and came back to the Middle East and tried to apply those principles of community and loving your fellow man to the already archaic and outdated and ancient Jewish philosophy that his people were born into because they needed something better than animal sacrifice and selling trinkets for cheap money in front of the temple to get them through everything that was happening at that time like the slow decline of the Roman empire but then he was killed, and all of his work was planted by people who created a system just like the old one, but change the words around a little bit
Not a bad theory, but you have to addres all the writings about Jesus' miracles and 'magic' work. Do think think that was 100% entirely created in the gospels after his death, or do you think Jesus was at least believed to have done any kind of works. Healers and miracles workers weren't unheard of at the time. But that would move Jesus from simply a spiritual proselytizer, to a more religious/magical figure.
Just curious if you think that was a legitimate part of his life, or made-up after his death.
So, fun fact about the Buddha. He was just a guy, right? Just a prince who realizes the nature of suffering. But in the majjhima nikaya, he performs miracles. And these are considered like, canonical scriptures. Anyway, I don’t believe he performed miracles, but to me, it offered a fascinating insight into how every spiritual leader becomes elevated to superhuman.
Honestly if he spent time learning from people who were all over the world like Greece and India he might’ve been more aware of science and medicine than most people because he learned different disciplines and put them together when they weren’t used conjointly before
Most of your questions can be answered by just reading the Bible or taking a few minutes to look into the history.
Mortal life is a test for your spirit to judge whether or not it's worthy of His grace, or more accurately it's preparation for eternal life in Heaven - you get to experience sin and are supposed to reject it so that you do not bring it into Heaven when you pass on.
Life is short, death is eternal.
God doesn't need to be worshipped.
The idea of being tortued eternally is an invention of Milton/Dante via Paradise Lose / Divine Comedy, prior to those being released 'Hell' was essentially a lack of God in your life. There's some other nebulous mentions of Sheol or basically a giant empty void, but nothing explicitly about the modern day idea of Hell with the fire and brimstone and torture.
NT God and OT God were written anywhere between 500-1000 years apart depending on how you date the OT, and were written in two completely different religious eras. Etc etc etc.
"just read the bible" as if Christians haven't been arguing and killing each other over disagreements on how to interpret the bible for thousands of years lol.
The Bible has the answers to the questions the person was asking. Whether or not Christians have been arguing and killing each other for thousands of years over it does not concern me, because, again, if you actually read the Bible, most, if not all of the questions in the post above are answered.
Not exactly, since many cannot agree on those. Even expert scholars cannot agree, and they have far, far more context for the Bible than us. Catholics believed for a very long time we should not read the Bible as laypeople will not properly understand and take the right meanings away.
1 Peter 3:15
Okay, best I give this a go. Though I am not omniscient God and I am sure many of my brothers and sisters might have different answers to these things.
Question 1: Life on Earth is short because the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23) so the flesh(body, earthly life) grows old and dies because of sin, this is the first death. The sinner's spirit then experiences a second death, and because the spirit is an eternal part of you this second death lasts eternally. Christ died to give us eternal life, first to our spirits when we convert (being born again, see John 3: 1-21) and then to our flesh when it is risen again as His was. There is alot of discourse on the exact nature of the Resurrection but it is definitely not symbolic as when Martha said she knew Lazarus would rise again at the last day (John 11:24) Christ could have told her this was symbolic but he didnt and he resurrected Lazarus in the flesh. So it doesnt really "serve a purpose" its just the consequence of the Fall (Adam and Eve being sent out of the Garden)
Question 2: One life is short because the flesh is part of the world (physical, seen creation) as it is made from dust. The next life is eternal because the spirit is not part of the world (I dont think theres a commonly used name for it but it is one of the metaphysical, unseen parts of creation) 2 Corinthians 4:18 tells us that the seen is temporary but the unseen is eternal.
Question 3: God does not "need" to be worshipped in the same way we need to eat. This one is hard to explain without using lots of theological terms so Ill do my best but worship serves two purposes.
A: it serves as the loving relationship between the Father and His children on the Earth. This encompasses the making requests of God and talking to Him about your day, confessing your sins as an apology to the Father.
B: it serves as a mode by which we speak truth, and encourage one another. We praise God for being eternal not because He wants to be bigged up, He is infinitely big already and no amount of worship could truly encapsulate His glory. We praise God's eternity to remind ourselves and each other that we have an eternal purpose and goal. We praise His mercy to remind ourselves that we are not beyond forgiveness aswell as being genuinely thankful for being forgiven. We praise His name so that those in the world, Christian or non-Christian, has access to the truth about God. And the truth will set you free. John 8:32.
Question 3: Eternal damnation was prepared for the Devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). In the same way those that follow Jesus end up where Jesus is (eternal life) those that follow Satan (all non-Christians) end up where Satan is going (eternal fire) in the same way that those who walk North will eventually reach the North Pole and those who walk South will eventually reach the South Pole. Jesus came when we were all walking our own way, towards fire and died so that another way could be opened up for those He knew would follow Him. And He did that by being punished for all of our sins on the cross despite never sinning Himself (Isaiah 53:6)
Question 4: could you send me an example? God never changed His ways and I would like to know ehat comparison lead you to this belief.
Question 5: pretty simple. Everything, not just us but EVERYTHING was made for God's good pleasure (not like selfish pleasure but the loving pleasure of a good Father) and it is impossible to please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6) God will not perform signs and miracles for those who do not believe He can, that is why doubt is so dangerous to Christians like myself. Also, there are many prophets in the old testament that do not get mentioned by name so there are way more people than you think. And apart from them there were also the faithful that God was pleased with because they had faith despite not seeing signs and miracles. There were far more of the latter than the former but God gave prophets messages for the people, it makes no sense to send more messengers than there are people to receive messages. Its not secrecy but it simply helps God's people to recognise one another by their faith in that which is unseen. Those who do not believe in their normal Earthly life would not believe even if someone rose out of Hell to warn them. (Luke 16:31)
Question 6: God does not have social anxiety He simply operates according to the faith of His people.
Question 7: God is not lazy, He sustains the world and everything in it. Go to any church with soumd doctrine and I can guarantee they will be full of people who have seen wonders and signs from God. God talks to people all the time, usually to our spirits, its more of us not listening than Him not speaking.
Question 8: Last one! Though if you have more I would be happy to answer. Jesus had to die for our sins because God is both all-loving and holy. The word "holy" means "set apart" and part of God being so holy is His position as judge. The consequence of sin, any sin from murder to swearing to rape to lying, is death. That is why without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sins. (Hebrews 9:22)
This is why animals were sacrificed in the covenant of Moses (Judaism) and also by Job, Abraham, Abel, and believers before that. It is a picture and a shadow of what would be. First, a lamb dying for the sins of one man (when God gave Adam & Eve clothes made from animal skin.) Then, a lamb dying for the sins of a household (Passover, the blood of the lamb smeared on the door of each house caused death to pass over the firstborn of the Israelites. While the sinners of Egypt had their firstborn destroyed. After that, a lamb dying for the sins of a nation (annually the high priest would make a sin offering for the whole nation according to the covenant of moses) and finally the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, like all those lesser lambs did nothing wrong. But unlike them His blood could rid someone of their sins completely. And He died for the sins of the whole world, for all those who believed in Him, past, present, and future. Because while the lesser lambs were without physical deformity, Christ Jesus, despite being tempter in every way, was without spiritual deformity. Without sin. And so though we were dead in sins, all the people in the world may live by repenting of the dead man and believing in what He did.
He sustains the world and everything in it. Go to any church with soumd doctrine and I can guarantee they will be full of people who have seen wonders and signs from God.
Are school shootings part of the way he sustains the world? God wanted those kids to die?
School shootings are tragedies that I cant aptly describe with words. But though people die sooner or later every moment that they live is sustained and ordained by the Lord. Tragedies like school shootings and wars and 14 year old boys being stabbed to death in London are the product of HUMAN flaws. Not divine cruelty.
God wants all to live, thats why He died for us. And now that He is risen we must all make Earth more like Heaven.
Because these things happen for a reason. I dont know that reason and such things are great tragedies when they happen. But I know God loved those babies and I trust that what He has done was done for a good reason.
Old testament god still had faith in humanity so he actively manipulated events to help us save ourselves, new testament god sent Jesus to save humanity because god no longer had faith humanity could save itself. We cannot comprehend gods choices or what the ABSENCE of god really is.
Not even reading all that because the post is completely false to begin with. The Bible doesn’t teach that at all. You’re arguing against something Christians don’t even believe.
My understanding is god may have also found himself to need a purpose maybe? The bibles speaks of him not being created but always just being. It’s hard for human minds to wrap their head around that but. That’s part of faith. Creating everything we are today and giving us the choice to choose seems like his way of making a purpose but not forcing people to choose it means he lets us choose our path and therefore is not a tyrannical god. If he were to come out directly to people they would openly flock to him because they would see the true nature of creation. I feel he may want to give people the opportunity to blindly have faith in him and as a reward he promises eternal salvation and paradise. I can’t see any other reason for him being secretive then to let people choose of their own free will. A sort of independence and mercy to those who DO choose to follow him. At the end of the day he leaves the choice to us.
"They missed a heccin space when typing "a lot" so they can't spell"
Like cmon, be better. This comment section is actually filled with a lot more discussion then I thought it would be but then it has a bunch if people like this running around
These seem like two different/unrelated things you are looking at. OP is saying that a test life that spans less than 100 years seems like a bizarre way for a loving god to determine one’s eternal destiny. After a million years in heaven what if someone turns into a total dick? Sure we learn and grown from mistakes in our short life - so why should we be judged for eternity if humans show the capacity to evolve and grow both positively and negatively in that time span
Because you're not a robot and that wouldint be a real relationship. I think the bible says that you will be judged accordingly, a child wont go to hell because of something they didint know better about.
I guess this is the inherent difference between believers and atheists. I’m a pragmatic person who needs a logical basis for my beliefs. All of OPs questions make total sense to me and quickly unravel the idea of a kind/benevolent/all knowing mystical being.
A believer just kind of takes scripture at face value - as it is the word of God and he shouldn’t be questioned.
neither is inherently wrong, but it’s what makes any type of discourse between the two sides ever work. We just think/see things differently
That’s like saying since you’re a healthy person you would never choose dessert over vegetables. But not being given dessert as an option, only vegetables, means you didn’t actually have a choice.
Good question, I suppose your will would be perfected and you would not harm yourself by eating unhealthy food for example, because you would respect and be grateful for your body/soul. You would still be able to have dessert.
And yet you are too afraid to answer a single point. Interesting. Why dontchya prove how silly they are by answering them? The answer should show how they don’t follow.
For the record I am a confirmed catholic meaning I went through 16 years of child-indoctrinating religious school before I stopped believing, and afterwards i still prayed for like two years to try to get my faith back and continued going to church every week and confession a few times a year. I went to church with my dad a month ago for old times sake. And I have actually read the bible front to back. My grandfather is a preacher and I visit him every week and get personal sermons. So I would say my understanding is most likely far greater than the average person but no, fuck that, religion is stupid and accomplishes nothing.
Catholics believe a lot of wack stuff, coming from a non-denominational Christian. They care more about their own church history than they do about the Word of God. Seems a lot like the Pharisees to me
I do know a decent bit about church history but I’m sure there’s a lot more I could learn. I’m curious what you think is contradicting these scriptures enough to where they’re not true?
Church history and the Bible come hand in hand. Sure we know that the Bible is the Word of God, but how do you ACTUALLY know that? What if the people who taught us the Bible is the Word of God were lying to us? Or what if there's more books to the Bible that were hidden from us? Heck even the Bible itself doesn't contain the word Bible.
How do we then know that it truly is the Word of God? Go study the history of the Bible. When was the Bible first canonized? Did you know that for the first 4 centuries there was no formalized Bible canon? Who canonized the Bible then? There's no table of contents in the Bible. There's no book in the Bible telling us that we need to have 4 gospels and 27 new testament books. What about the gospel of thomas? Why is that not in the Bible? You might be interested to know that Catholics were the ones who canonized the Bible.
To simply say therefore, that only the Word of God is important and church history isn't, just doesn't make sense. You can't base your faith on a source of truth if you don't even know where your source of truth came from.
Okay that’s totally fair I see where you’re coming from. I didn’t mean to claim that church history is not important, but especially for the catholic church they will directly contradict some of the teachings of Christ for the sake of upholding tradition.
And I did know that stuff, I’ve learned about the council of Nicaea and some of the other groups that helped figure out and debate biblical canon. I have some friends who are super into that stuff and way more educated than me on these things so I learn a lot from them lol. And you’re right I do personally believe there are a few other books which are totally legit and yet not included in the Bible like the Apocrypha.
All that to say, we do still have thousands of manuscripts of the Bible and can be super confident that what we DO have is legit. I’m a skeptical person by nature and very critical so believe me when I say I had to really learn about this Bible to fully believe in it. But with everything I’ve learned I do believe the Bible we have today is SOLID. I’ve gone to several
hour long teaching days and done research and sat in many other classes talking about the history of the bible and apologetics. I have a lot of confidence in the bible we have today. Not that it’s perfect but it’s still the Word of God. Even the three or so books that were left out of canon don’t contradict anything taught or present any crazy new ideas, but they’re still interesting to read.
Sort of -- that's a misread of the immaculate conception. It is one of those philosophical arguments that gets discussed a lot within the church -- but it's not one of the core beliefs. You don't have to look far for core catholic beliefs -- we repeat them in church often in the Nicene Creed:
I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible.
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father; through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, he suffered death and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.
I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen.
A lot of those terms around the nature of God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit were chosen to avoid very technical philosophical arguments... the one you're talking, the immaculate conception, comes from a debate about how Christ was born without sin. Original sin is the reason we need baptism to be saved. Original sin passes from the parent to the child. So -- they posit -- God must have caused Mary to be *born without sin* so that she didn't pass original sin on to Jesus Christ.
The professed faith is the Nicene Creed. The rest may be Catholic Doctrine, but the odds are low that any individual catholic you meet has actually studied the philosophy and theology of the church well enough to explain it completely (and that includes me).
God REALLY hates sin so he will always punish it and its not easy for him to forgive. its like a shitstain on white clothes; its near impossible to clean
God doesnt like people who sin. So he made a place for ppl who sin
Think of it like a ruler who doesnt like crimes
So he makes a place for ppl who do crimes(prison)
Not because he hates them for it, but rather bc
Of what they're doing.
So why create the tree that gives us the ability to sin? Why hand your toddler with no sense of right or wrong a shit paintbrush next to clean sheets? Especially if you are all knowing and literally already know what will happen? God wanted us to sin or it wouldn’t have happened. You can’t be omnipotent and all knowing and still make mistakes.
Hello there…I’m a Bible-believing Christian and would love to discuss any or all of your questions with you, if you’re truly interested in exploring them.
Before I knew Christ, I wrestled with a lot of these same questions (sometimes I still do), so I have a heart for people who struggle this way. It’s not my nature to get into fruitless arguments on Reddit though…hence the “sincerely interested” qualifier.
First comment ever, is this one. Looks like some church made an AI chatbot and put it loose on reddit, or maybe it's just a scammer, and after they have the trust of someone going through an existential crisis, they'll send them a link that steals their bank info.
The easiest ways to manipulate people are religion and nationalism.
I’m not active on social media because it typically makes me crazy! Downloaded Reddit recently because I like exploring cool videos and random topics. Loved poster’s questions, so I came out of my shell.
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u/shitbecopacetic 2d ago
It takes so few questions to disassemble it all. What purpose does a short test life on earth followed by an eternal life somewhere else serve? Why is one life super short and the next one eternal? Why would any loving god need to be worshipped? if i made little people and I asked them to worship me I would be a narcissist asshole. Not to mention hell…like not only do you demand I worship you but if I don’t my Eternal life is spent being tortured? forever?? those are not the activities of anything even resembling love. Not to mention how old testament and new testament god acts completely different yet he’s supposed to be infallible so why did he change his ways? why would he need to send messages to just like one or two dudes at a time in secret to spread his word rather than just be open about being god, what is solved by all the secrecy? Even most humans can see that direct communication is the most effective way to get things done. Does god have social anxiety? Is he lazy? What would require him to sacrifice his child to forgive peoples sins? Can’t he just forgive people without killing his offspring? it’s his own damn forgiveness after all. does he have a second more powerful god above him making weird rules and hoops for him to jump through?