...and the heated conversations that follow. The truth is all organised religions have turned shallow. Divinity comes from within. Peace and tolerance are it's starting points. Let's learn to be humans first before we start defending the Divine.
PS : the picture is a representation of all organised religions, and not for a specific few.
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No. It targets Christianity, for one, and is uncalled for, attacking all religions. Not all organized religions have turned shallow. A few bad apples dont make the whole bunch bad, so don't tell us about tolerance. Practice it. And no one has to "defend the divine". He's divine without needing anyone to defend him. Further, divinity doesn't come from within. If so, everyone would be divine and that's not possible. We don't appoint ourselves as "divine", nor is divinity earned. It's posts like this, that stir up division. People don't know the difference between Religion and a real relationship with God. That's why all the confusion and fights.
He's technically omnipotent, he could've created us without sin. And he could've also created free will without sin too, before you use that as a comeback.
@Elessar He's omnipotent, but that has nothing to do with man's responsibility for his own choices. If you robbed a bank, you couldn't blame me nor anyone else. Common sense.
So you would rather God create man to be a Robot without choice, huh? He didn't want robots, or he would have created us that way. Man had free choice and it is man who chose to sin. God didn't force him to lie, cheat, steal, rape. In the beginning all WAS perfect....until man decided to sin. God never created sin. He created us to live in peace, harmony, joy, and love forever. Man messed that up real good. Not God. Can't blame him for that.
@ReflectionsInTime If he was as "omnipotent" and "good" as he's described, he could've indeed created a universe without evil, without rape, without murder. And without the possibility for men to screw up. He's also allegedly "omniscient" so he knew beforehand what would've happened and created us the way we've been created irregardless.
@Elessar You're still blaming God for man's sins. He created the beautiful Garden of Eden. No sin. Perfect. Where no death was there. Until....man decided to sin. Being He knew from the beginning by seeing into the future, that man would sin, just means He had knowledge of what man would do with the free will God gave Him, but that doesn't make him responsible for man's bad choices. God could have left man in his sinful condition, too, but thank God, he didn't. Or would we prefer the alternative? God also prepared a way out for man. We need to look more at the torment and excruciating pain Jesus went through to save mankind from hell, when he went to the cross to pay for our sins, rather than blame him for man's evil choices. He didn't have to do that, but He did. He even volunteered. If that's not love, I don't know what is. God does not create evil. Evil is found in the heart of mankind. Jesus didn't deserve man to betray him nor the beatings he received on behalf of man, either. There's two sides to that coin. Jesus did no wrong, yet he paid the full price for man's sin, on the cross.
@ReflectionsInTime The fact "man decided to sin" is a clear flaw in his design (then non-omniscent), something he couldn't avoid (then non omnipotent), or even, something he deliberately allowed (then non good).
There's a paradox possibly older than Christianity itself describing this, and it's unsolved, wonder why.
I don't need a wall of text to try to explain something that clashes with simple common logic. Failing, nonetheless.
@Elessar The flaw is not in God's design. It is in man's nature and heart that he decided to sin. To excuse himself, he blames God, who is perfect and can make no mistakes. Man goofed, not God, no matter how man denies it.
@Elessar God didn't create man with flaws. When man chooses to sin, he also chooses the consequences. That's free will. Though man fell, God loved him anyway and proved it by the shedding of His blood on the cross. Salvation does not require that we understand every finite detail. The main focus should be, that without Jesus' sacrifice, we'd all miss heaven. We'll know all the particulars, everything, when we get to heaven. Man can't get there on his own. I'm thankful for Jesus. He saved my daughter from dying, when the doctors said she'd be dead in a week. Her organs already shutting down. We asked Jesus to save her. He did. Naysayers may refute that, but that's ok. We know what really happened. A true miracle. I've seen others, as well.
@Elessar Well, he can, but God wanted to give man free choice. We see what he did with it. It wouldn't make sense, either, for God to create robots. No point. God loves to create. That is part of His nature. Man was his crowning glory, the bible says. He never created anything that was flawed. We may bbn look at it like God made a mistake, but our thoughts are not God's thoughts, and His ways are not such that we should judge him. We don't know all the details. But...we know the most important ones. How to have heaven as our eternal home, where there's no more tears, no more sadness, no disease, no sin, no death....just the way it was meant to be in the beginning, before man messed it up.
Gotta go now. Goodnight. Nice chatting with you. Take care.
@Elessar 😄 Yeh, well, with free will comes choices and responsibilities, like it or not. It's actually a good thing. It's the way we learn and grow. Not stay stale and unproductive. How does one know and appreciate joy, least there's something to measure it by? Humans are happiest when they can set goals, achieve, and thrive. Not sit around like a useless statue. 😂
