Why do people say God doesn't exist? [Spirituality & Religion]

@NorthernBear You seem to mistake inaction for inability. God allows us to make our own decisions. If we all worked together we wouldn't have any of the problems you mentioned

You seem to have a problem with reading comprehension. And I'm afraid I can't make it much clearer than I already have. I'll add a few words. "If he is [able but] unwilling, then he is not all good, there's selfishness or maybe even evil there."

@NorthernBear Alabama people are gods we created everything stop denying us Gods

@NorthernBear This is classic personification. You're perceiving God through human emotions but God isn't human. Plus God did do something. He told you right from wrong, gave you a world with enough resources and let you decide your fate. Now is it his fault crime etc exists? No, because we decided on our own to commit crimes etc.

So if a parent leaves poison that looks and tastes like candy where her toddler can get at it, tells him not to touch it, then walks the hell away, it's not her fault when he eats it?

@NorthernBear We Alabama people are gods

@NorthernBear Are you using an analogy here? God didn't create a candy like poison and give you no knowledge of it. Instead he gave us the knowledge of good and evil and allowed us to live our lives as good as possible.

Not according to Genesis. According to Genesis, the fruit of knowledge is what was forbidden. He made it to look delicious, told Adam not to eat it, and walked the hell away. There was an antidote to the poisonous side effect of the fruit of knowledge, it was the fruit of life. God was so incensed that the man had come to learn about good and evil that He kicked him out of the garden and put two angels guarding it to make sure the man would never eat the antidote. If you read further in the "Old Testament," He subverts free will here and there, to make a point or just for His own amusement, but never to solve problems.

@NorthernBear Alabama people are Gods

@NorthernBear Yeah you seem to interpret the story of the forbidden fruit very differently. I mean you act like he purposefully tempted Adam with the tree and forced him to disobey. You didn't even mention Eve or the serpent even though their roles were pretty big in the story. Also notice the word "story" that I used as it is more than likely a fable than an actual account

Yeah he just innocently put something temping and harmful within the reach of children and walked the hell away. How was an omniscient being with the ability to see into the heart and know from the start what the end will be to know that these curious children, whom he made that way, would eat it?

The "New Testament" references the Adam story often, talking about it like it's history. The whole reason we needed a messiah was because we inherited Adam's sinful nature. The messiah himself referenced the story and basically affirmed its veracity. If you want to believe one part of the Bible and not another, that's fine with me. It's not completely internally consistent anyway. But a lot of the stories do tie together into a bigger story, and I feel that should be pointed out.

@NorthernBear It isn't the whole reason for the Messiah. Up until the idea of Baptism, the "original sin" of Adam wasn't even a thing. The Qur'an even states that Adam and Eve asked God for forgiveness and it was given to them. Almost all Jews believe you are born without sin and are only judged by the sins you have committed in life. In fact very few Christians believe in the idea of an inherited sin from Adam. Further, Jesus's sacrifice on the cross was so that all mankind could go to heaven without further bloodshed. It was based on the idea that all people required ritual sacrifice to get into God's grace. Jesus swiftly put an end to it and also proved he was in fact the lord by resurrecting. Jesus really loved crapping on silly Jewish laws from that time

There is the idea of the actual sin being inherited, and then there's sinful nature.

The actual sin is called Original Sin, and it is believed by over one and a quarter [b]billion[/b] (with a "b") Catholics. Between 15 and 20% of the population of the entire world, hardly "very few Christians."

Well, maybe not. Some of us might still be included in that number even though we don''t believe and don't practice Catholicism. The actual figure I found in a quick web search was 1.28 billion. Let's call it 999 million. Still a hell of a lot.

Sinful nature is one of the main subjects of the letters attributed to the Apostle Paul, his stating time and again that this is the reason God sent Christ. Statements like "through one man sin entered into the world," "In Adam all are dying," "Adam was not deceived, the woman was thoroughly deceived."

One of the big stories the small stories add up to is that the ritualistic animal sacrifice practiced by the Jews were a prophetic archetype pointing to Christ himself. He didn't "replace" them, as they did nothing but point to him.

What you call "silly Jewish laws" is more commonly called "the Law of Moses," and the Book claims it was handed down directly by YHWH to Moses. What Jesus "crapped" on was hypocrisy of the religious leaders, not really following the Law they swore to uphold. He was a little bit of a hypocrite as well, violating the Sabbath. I don't recall chapter and verse, but I could look it up. The Gospel writer, serving as narrator, says explicitly that Jesus was breaking the Sabbath.

This leads to one of the inconsistencies in the Book. The Messiah needed to follow the Law perfectly, in order for his sacrifice to cover our sins. He broke the Sabbath, that much at least is established.

Another inconsistency is that the Law itself states it should stand forever, the messiah will not cause one letter of it to pass away. Jesus himself indicated something similar at least once. The writers of the epistles said something completely different, that Christ's sacrifice replaces the old Law. Of course, that's the version most Christians believe.

Either way, it still comes back to inheriting sinful [b]nature[/b] from Adam. The stories about Noah, about Sodom, about Abraham and his descendants are also spoken of as being historical fact. It adds up to one big story that doesn't hold up under close scrutiny.

@NorthernBear You went very off topic there man so I'm gonna try bring it all back to the point at hand.

Inherited sin from Adam: most people don't believe we are born with this sin. Those who do also believe that baptism cleanses you of that sin.

Jesus breaking the law: he and his apostles did this all the time. But these were the laws practised by the pharisees that they claimed were God's will. You see the Jews had lost their way and that's why the Messiah came. Ironically it is the one big time God really did do something to fix the world.

Bible is historical fact: well we can't be sure that the events of the bible are real. At the end of the day we should ask ourselves "does it matter if the events were real?" and the answer is no. The teachings are apt whether based on fact or fable.