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Goodbye Jesus

God Doesn't Seem To Know The Future


Dibllsmek

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He only seems to know something when it happens. Not what will happen.

 

Discuss.

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Clearly the authors of the Bible weren't thinking about him as omniscient. In fact, the book of Mark seems to make a habit of portraying Jesus as not omniscient and not all powerful.

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Not telling everything you know is an admirable human trait. Maybe he knows but ain't tellin'. (for the sake of discussion, I'll pretend there's a "he")

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Oh, he knows alright but would have to kill you if he told you. Look in the old testament :HaHa:

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Guest Valk0010

Well I would say making predictions of things like the temple being destroyed like it did in Ad 70 (assuming no one just put words in is mouth) and revelation is god saying he would know the future. I have to wonder how stupid a god would be if he can't tell the future.

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if 'god' knew the future, then 'god' would have known that creating adam and eve would led to sin and then to the eternal damnation (according to xanity ) of the vast ( and I do mean most) majority of people -

 

which means that if god knew the future he/she/it is one mean bastard

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In the contrary, from my own experiences God seems to always stand in the future. That usually leads me to think alot about what pre-destination could be.

 

Moreover, a persuasive actions almost always involve things appearing in a futuric manner, exclusively. And I speculate that that's why the prophets always encounter things like prophecies and miracles. Miracles are just another more hidden form of these futuric manner I am talking about.

 

I posted this elsewhere;

 

One of the many ways how God "talk" to His prophets,

 

Acts 14:3

 

So Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there, speaking boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders.

 

 

This is one of His typical ways for unambigous communication, that is, the using of miracles. After signifying a message, followed is a miracle/sign/wonder closely related to the message being performed (automatically or under the request of the messenger).

 

Another example,

 

God asked Moses to lead his fellow Jews to crose the Red Sea. Moses was confused as it seemed that there was no way they could go across the sea. Moses thus requested for a confirmation of His command/message. Moses then was asked to point his staff to the sea. Then the miracle performed to confirm His own message is the separation of the Red Sea.

 

As a result...

 

I have to believe in Christianity because (one of reasons and events) somehow I was allowed to get to know this communication stuff....actually before I got to know what Christianity is (another example of a persuasive way of doing things in a futuric manner).

 

a quote of my own post on page 1 of this same thread,

However, God can communicate more unambigiously and more specific in a way that, somehow, future is involved. That's why whenever you hear the stories of the prophets, you hear prophecies. Prophecies have all to do with communicating with God. On the other hand He can only be reached when He wishes to communicate with you.

 

 

 

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You think he would have fortold his vulnerability to chariots of iron.

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The garden of Eden is a great example of God not knowing the future. In fact, I often say he senses an imminent danger after Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit.

 

Let's look at the Genesis account and break it down along the way....

 

Genesis 2:15 - 17

15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

 

Here, God is telling Adam that the tree of knowledge of good and evil will cause Adam's death. As we'll see in a minute, this was a fear tactic that didn't work. But thus far, God seems to be under the impression that his fear tactic may work.

 

Genesis 3:1

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

 

Where is God now? Why would he have left his newly created, and highly gullible humans alone with the most crafty of all wild animals? Either he knew this was going to happen and he didn't intervene (he wanted them to fall, knowing full well they would without his help), or else he was not present (not omnipresent) at the time and therefore didn't know what was happening (not omniscient either). Which one was it? Let's read on...

 

Genesis 3:8 - 13 (after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit)

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?”

 

10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”

 

11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

 

12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

 

13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”

 

The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

 

Why does God have to ask where Adam is? Why does he ask Eve what she has done? And later in verse 14, God curses the serpent...Why curse the serpent only after learning what has happened? From a Christian apologist's point, the first two questions are often answered as follows:

 

Is a parent unaware of what has happened when their child has done something wrong? Or is the parents fully aware of what has happened and simply trying to get the child to honestly admit what they have done?

 

The above quotation seems to satisfy most Christians, but it fails on another much more important level. If we draw a comparison between a parent and a child to God and his newly created humans, then we must admit that God is an awful parent, leaving the children to be tended to by the most cunning of all wild animals and not intervening. Therefore, if God is not an awful "parent" (so to speak) then the only other option is to admit that God really didn't know where Adam and Eve were, and he really didn't know what had happened. But it gets better!

 

Genesis 3:22 - 24

22 And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side[e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

 

In verse 22, God reveals the reason for the fear tactic...he didn't want his creation to become like him. (Actually, the serpent revealed this earlier in the chapter.) Obviously God didn't know this would be the outcome, but if things weren't already obvious, in the second half of verse 22, God seems to sense an urgency in removing the tree of life from Adam's reach, and so removes Adam and Eve from the garden. Does that sound like a calm, cool and collected god? Or a god who felt he should act quickly? This is a great example of God not knowing the future. Just my two cents.

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He only seems to know something when it happens. Not what will happen.

 

Discuss.

Considering that he gets upset several times in the Old Testament when things aren't going the way they're supposed to, it must be that he is surprised and not knowing beforehand the outcome.

 

The whole idea of prescience is definitely a later addition to the religious view of God.

 

Besides, how is it even possible that the authors knew what God felt or thought? Writing narratives of a person's inner thoughts and feelings are typical for a made up story, not an actual history.

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Oh he knows, but the truth would be so horrible and terrifying it would kill us all! Didn't see Raiders of the Lost Ark? Remember when they opened the Ark and their faces melted??? DO YOU WANT THAT FOR ALL OF US TOO??

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Guest Valk0010

I would say if god didn't know the future, the risk of what the bible god did, with all that he would be losing, and having to do is evil on its own.

 

Particularly if he is still omnipotent, while not omniscience that god could compensate for his lack of ability.

 

Strange it seems religious rationalizations put god in the box and make god seem more like mao or maybe superman.

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