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Post by kristine on Apr 17, 2010 16:59:46 GMT -5
Yes, but that's not the point. The point is that God wants us to have the free will to do good things because we want to, which means we must have the choice to do bad things. No, we could have the choice to sit on our butts and do nothing (although some would say that's a form of evil). - the point is that the choice doesn't have to be good or evil - there is a wide range of gray between that black and white. Why aren't we hard wired to be compassionate and empathize with one another if there is an benevolent god instead of survival instinct brutal when push comes to shove?
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Post by RavynousHunter on Apr 17, 2010 17:12:56 GMT -5
Because God's a jolly old sadist.
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Post by tolpuddlemartyr on Apr 17, 2010 17:19:41 GMT -5
To answer the original posters question originally posed by Epicurus, re: Gods ability or desire to prevent evil. I don't think that not preventing evil is out of character for God if we define God as a god, meaning a supernatural deity. Taking a broad look at mythology gods are kind of like superhero's, except they act just like a lot of supe's would act if they actually existed, i.e. like tyrannical, vengeful, self-obsessed assholes.
Zeus was a rapist and a vengeful bastard who didn't mind condemning his enemies to eternal torment, Odin was a cunning sod who won many of his struggles by guile and cheating. If you look at Yahweh as a god, rather than the God then his behavior is entirely in keeping with being a god. Gods are bastards!
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Post by RavynousHunter on Apr 17, 2010 17:22:16 GMT -5
Which is why Pascal's Wager is bullshit. At least if you have any fucking self-respect.
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Post by The_L on Apr 18, 2010 8:36:51 GMT -5
Which is why Pascal's Wager is bullshit. At least if you have any fucking self-respect. Dude, there are so many reasons why PW is bullshit. Why single out one, particularly?
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Post by RavynousHunter on Apr 18, 2010 18:59:27 GMT -5
Because it makes shit simple. Oh, and (most) people are more likely to go with an appeal to self-respect than reason or logic, because logic requires thinking, and thinking is hard.
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Post by Admiral Lithp on Apr 24, 2010 22:42:03 GMT -5
Most of the people the Greek Gods subjected to eternal torment at least deserved it. Tantalus was a cannibal, if I remember correctly.
The real bastard was Athena.
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Post by unskilled78 on May 5, 2010 14:00:55 GMT -5
God wants to be worshipped. (This is not pride, because pride is an over-inflated sense of self-worth, with an omnipotent being, you literally cannot over-estimate its worth ) Praise and worship are meaningless when the worshippers do not have the ability to choose not to praise God, so humans were created with free will (the ability to do evil, or not.) Without knowing how bad creation can be ("faceless" evil), we would have no way to measure how "good" God is, so an imperfect world was created.
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Post by Vene on May 5, 2010 14:22:10 GMT -5
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Post by Dragon Zachski on May 5, 2010 14:26:29 GMT -5
No, actually, unskilled's definition of pride applies to Yahweh as well, considering how imperfect the Bible has described him to be. You know, entirely forgetting about people, putting a goddamn (excuse the pun) tree in the middle of a garden and telling Adam and Eve to NOT touch it, LYING to them about what it would do, requiring the sacrifice of his own son before he could even START to forgive people, and so forth.
So, to describe himself as perfect when he is clearly not IS overinflated self worth. At least the deities in other religions rarely pretended to be perfect, just "I'm better than you" or "I did this, so worship me."
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Post by aboveathletics on May 7, 2010 15:24:47 GMT -5
Whence Cometh Evil “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” Epicurus – Greek philosopher, BC 341-270 if you ask me this is epic pownige to all god believers ;D ;D prove me wrong. Not necessarily, especially not from a zen-like outlook. If life is truly eternal as theists claim, then evil in this world is fleeting in the grander picture. Perhaps incarnating in this physical world is like spiritual weightlifting. After all, it is only in a world where evil exists can character be truly tested. Goodness is meaningless in the absence of evil just as pleasure is meaningless in the absence of pain. Just my thoughts on this argument.
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Post by Admiral Lithp on May 10, 2010 0:59:30 GMT -5
So, basically, it all comes down to God wants his fan club, but you have to be honest about it, & you're screwed if you aren't in the fanclub.
Prideful or not, God is certainly a douche.
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letipex
Full Member
The true ouroboros
Posts: 197
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Post by letipex on May 10, 2010 7:44:38 GMT -5
And that's why I prefer the greek gods. They ARE douchebags, they don't deny it and you can try to open a can of whoopass on them if you get the chance. (Only don't make any long term plans for afterwards, cause they will f**k you up mightily for it)
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NonProphet
Junior Member
Living on Caffeine & Henna
Posts: 56
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Post by NonProphet on May 10, 2010 13:12:17 GMT -5
And that's why I prefer the greek gods. They ARE douchebags, they don't deny it and you can try to open a can of whoopass on them if you get the chance. (Only don't make any long term plans for afterwards, cause they will f**k you up mightily for it) Unless you're Kratos, of course.
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Post by The_L on May 10, 2010 15:52:43 GMT -5
And that's why I prefer the greek gods. They ARE douchebags, they don't deny it and you can try to open a can of whoopass on them if you get the chance. (Only don't make any long term plans for afterwards, cause they will f**k you up mightily for it) Unless you're Kratos, of course. Then, the world is doomed.
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