God is basically a cosmic dictator

[ChelseaGuy]

Or he's like a dictator in the way that he desires us to love him and his church but if we freely choose to dissent from him or his plan for us, we are punished for eternity instead. 

 

I believe God represents the idea of what people would call a universal dictator, using his creation to execute only his plan. There is no meaningful individuality. He didn't even have to make it this way. He could have made us "allowed" to own ourselves without the negative or positive consequence of afterlife.

 

It makes me so frustrated that nobody in my life can see from my point. I'm tired of searching things like "God's plan sucks" and most results I get are basically "I understand it's hard, but..." no, no, I can't entertain why this God is anymore, even if I believe it's actually all true. 

[florduh]

That god was based on all the writers of the time knew or could imagine; kings, courts and authoritarian rule during the Bronze Age.

[TheRedneckProfessor]

Yes.  god is a dic.

[florduh]

[midniterider]

3 hours ago, ChelseaGuy said:

Or he's like a dictator in the way that he desires us to love him and his church but if we freely choose to dissent from him or his plan for us, we are punished for eternity instead. 

 

I believe God represents the idea of what people would call a universal dictator, using his creation to execute only his plan. There is no meaningful individuality. He didn't even have to make it this way. He could have made us "allowed" to own ourselves without the negative or positive consequence of afterlife.

 

It makes me so frustrated that nobody in my life can see from my point. I'm tired of searching things like "God's plan sucks" and most results I get are basically "I understand it's hard, but..." no, no, I can't entertain why this God is anymore, even if I believe it's actually all true. 

 

God's special plan for your life is the same as his plan for everybody else's life. 

[♦ Fuego ♦]

Even the "apostle of love" summarized how to love this god "This is love for god, that we obey his commands". 

He is a petulant narcissist with a lust for blood. He blesses mass rape and orders genocide, often in the same command. 

 

Happily, looking around at reality such as photos of earth floating in space, we can better understand that none of the Bible stories can be real.

 

When we look at history, and the complete dearth of any evidence supporting the Exodus or the gospels, we see that it was always just cult writings (like the book of mormon, the moonies, the manson family, etc) intended to convert through a combination of dangling a carrot of promises of paradise and threats of eternal torture. 

 

[florduh]

1 hour ago, Fuego said:

Happily, looking around at reality such as photos of earth floating in space, we can better understand that none of the Bible stories can be real.

 

Indeed. A tiny little land mass on a small planet in an infinite universe is where the entire mythology plays out. Of course it probably made more sense, or was at least somewhat believable, when it was thought our planet was the center of everything and no attention was paid to any place but the Middle East.

[Hierophant]

On 5/24/2020 at 8:06 AM, ChelseaGuy said:

Or he's like a dictator in the way that he desires us to love him and his church but if we freely choose to dissent from him or his plan for us, we are punished for eternity instead. 

 

I believe God represents the idea of what people would call a universal dictator, using his creation to execute only his plan. There is no meaningful individuality. He didn't even have to make it this way. He could have made us "allowed" to own ourselves without the negative or positive consequence of afterlife.

 

It makes me so frustrated that nobody in my life can see from my point. I'm tired of searching things like "God's plan sucks" and most results I get are basically "I understand it's hard, but..." no, no, I can't entertain why this God is anymore, even if I believe it's actually all true. 

 

@ChelseaGuy I have made a few posts related to this very idea. I understand where you are coming from, and I find it difficult to put the thought to words at times. In my opinion, the reason you are frustrated with other people is because you are asking them to think in a way they will not allow themselves to think. You average Christian is terrified of the God they serve and therefore will never let themselves entertain these thoughts. In their mind, they constantly want to get God off the hook so he can be defined as this purely ethical, moral, and "perfect" being. They want God to be some boy scout who helps old ladies get across the road and find their keys.

 

I know this because I did this. Eventually the cognitive dissonance became too much because the God defined by philosophers and theologians is not the God of the Bible. The God Christians worship is a modern construct of reformation after reformation. If we used inductive reasoning to tease out characteristics of the God described in the Bible, it would be a lot different than whatever nonsense you hear these days as "the truth."

 

As an example, what makes God good? If you strip away all the indoctrination we have all heard over the years, God's goodness is really just however God arbitrarily defines good. His goodness stems from nothing more than might makes right. He is the baddest mofo on the block and if he says something is good, well that is only because everyone else is powerless to tell him otherwise. If God is all powerful, than the Christian God freely chooses the characteristics he deems "righteous." Looking back at the Euthyphro dilemma, the answer in Christianity is that something is pious simply because it was declared pious by God, therefore that makes it pious. I do not know why Christians are so uncomfortable with that (probably because that means there is no objective standard of what is good and just, it just happens to be whatever God says in the moment - which has way more explanatory power to how the biblical God acts opposed to "he is the same yesterday, today, and forever" nonsense). Just accept it for what it is; problem is, they want it to be something else. As if the commandments of God flow from his character and he is a good father. No way, the Bible does not support that idea. That is some doctrine of those with itchy ears. They want a God who is rainbows and dolphin eyes, instead the Christian God is a dictator. Instead of turning the other cheek, he is going to stuff a spike up your butt and slow roast you for eternity....but don't worry, he still loves you. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL, sure.

[ChelseaGuy]

On 5/28/2020 at 8:45 AM, Hierophant said:

 

@ChelseaGuy I have made a few posts related to this very idea. I understand where you are coming from, and I find it difficult to put the thought to words at times. In my opinion, the reason you are frustrated with other people is because you are asking them to think in a way they will not allow themselves to think. You average Christian is terrified of the God they serve and therefore will never let themselves entertain these thoughts. In their mind, they constantly want to get God off the hook so he can be defined as this purely ethical, moral, and "perfect" being. They want God to be some boy scout who helps old ladies get across the road and find their keys.

 

I know this because I did this. Eventually the cognitive dissonance became too much because the God defined by philosophers and theologians is not the God of the Bible. The God Christians worship is a modern construct of reformation after reformation. If we used inductive reasoning to tease out characteristics of the God described in the Bible, it would be a lot different than whatever nonsense you hear these days as "the truth."

 

As an example, what makes God good? If you strip away all the indoctrination we have all heard over the years, God's goodness is really just however God arbitrarily defines good. His goodness stems from nothing more than might makes right. He is the baddest mofo on the block and if he says something is good, well that is only because everyone else is powerless to tell him otherwise. If God is all powerful, than the Christian God freely chooses the characteristics he deems "righteous." Looking back at the Euthyphro dilemma, the answer in Christianity is that something is pious simply because it was declared pious by God, therefore that makes it pious. I do not know why Christians are so uncomfortable with that (probably because that means there is no objective standard of what is good and just, it just happens to be whatever God says in the moment - which has way more explanatory power to how the biblical God acts opposed to "he is the same yesterday, today, and forever" nonsense). Just accept it for what it is; problem is, they want it to be something else. As if the commandments of God flow from his character and he is a good father. No way, the Bible does not support that idea. That is some doctrine of those with itchy ears. They want a God who is rainbows and dolphin eyes, instead the Christian God is a dictator. Instead of turning the other cheek, he is going to stuff a spike up your butt and slow roast you for eternity....but don't worry, he still loves you. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL, sure.

 

Are you able to imagine that this God might actually exist anyway?

[Hierophant]

8 hours ago, ChelseaGuy said:

 

Are you able to imagine that this God might actually exist anyway?

 

Are you asking me if I think the God of the Bible exist?