Questions for God...
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JustAsking
Sexy Member
Actually, according to St. Paul, we do get a chance to know it all when we are in the presence of God.
"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."
--1 Corinthians 13:12
(I don't use the KJV except when I quote stuff, because it sounds so cool.)
lol, you're welcome. I just realized that my post sounded odd. I think everyone gets it, but I just wanted to know why we have proof of dinosaurs being in existence, but no ancient texts that talk about them? Did they exist before people?
JustAsking
Sexy Member
Yes, are right, Meg. Dinosaurs died out tens of millions of years before people. Modern humans (homo sapiens) have only been around in the last 50,000 years. Significant human impact on the world by humans goes back only 14,000 years. Oral history goes back less than 10,000 years. Written language is only about 4000 years old.
We are but a flash in the pan, so far.
So... how did God create the world in seven days, then, if dinosaurs lived for millions of years? In Bible-speak, does "one day" equal 10 million years or something? Hrm.
- What really happened to Amelia Earhart? Jimmy Hoffa? Judge Crater?
- Why is the clitoris so far from the vagina?
- What function does life have in relation to the universe? We can explain how all other sciences are related to each other except biology.
- Why the hell did you create three major religions with the same holy land?
- The platypus, bladderwort, and viruses?
- What did we do to deserve mosquitoes?
- Yes or no: Bigfoot, Mokole mbembe, Loch Ness Monster, Yeti, Kraken, astrology, ghosts, 11-dimension theory, Michael Jackson
- Who was really responsible for killing JFK?
- Where is Alexander buried?
- Was Abraham just insane?
- The Dropa Stones and Babylonian Battery. What were they for? Were the ancients far more advanced than we give them credit for?
- What is my dog thinking when I have sex?
- Why does the free will of the evil doer always trump the free will of whom evil is done to?
- Is there life anywhere else in the universe? Intelligent? Do they know about you too?
- Did you create life or did it just appear and you thought, "Huh! Look at that!"
- Why do you hold us to a higher moral standard than you hold yourself?
B_Think_Kink
Sexy Member
Does going to church and asking someone deemed a pastor really mean anything to you? Or is this just peoples skewed idea of how to please you?
B_Think_Kink
Sexy Member
JustAsking
Sexy Member
Most of the world's Christians belong to denominations that believe it is heretical to interpret the Bible as a literal and innerrant document. It was not written that way and it should not be read that way. It is also not a history book, nor is it a science textbook.
Insisting that Genesis is about talking snakes, for example, is like insisting that Of Mice and Men is about rabbits.
Here is St. Augustine scolding as far back as 400 AD for forgetting this from time to time:
It not infrequently happens that something about the earth, about the sky, about other elements of this world, about the motion and rotation or even the magnitude and distances of the stars, about definite eclipses of the sun and moon, about the passage of years and seasons, about the nature of animals, of fruits, of stones, and of other such things, may be known with the greatest certainty by reasoning or by experience, even by one who is not a Christian. It is too disgraceful and ruinous, though, and greatly to be avoided, that he [the non-Christian] should hear a Christian speaking so idiotically on these matters, and as if in accord with Christian writings, that he might say that he could scarcely keep from laughing when he saw how totally in error they are. In view of this and in keeping it in mind constantly while dealing with the book of Genesis, I have, insofar as I was able, explained in detail and set forth for consideration the meanings of obscure passages, taking care not to affirm rashly some one meaning to the prejudice of another and perhaps better explanation.
The Literal Interpretation of Genesis 1:1920, Chapt. 19 [AD 408]
JustAsking
Sexy Member
God would answer, "Jason, you didn't read the sequel to the Old Testament, where I chose to become mortal, enter history and die miserably for every last rat bastard on earth, no matter how moral or immoral they might be, because I love them so much. In fact, all you needed to do was to read John 3:16, and you could have figured it out from there."
Mr. Snakey
Expert Member
Well, the God I believe in would have no questions... just open arms and lots of love. :smile:
Mr. Snakey
Expert Member
JustAsking
Sexy Member
I don't think it could be said more simply and elegantly, Meg. This is the God I believe in.
To which I answer:
Feed John 3:16 to an infant in the hands of Mengele and see how it comforts him.
Feed John 3:16 to an infant in the hands of Mengele and see how it comforts him.
JustAsking
Sexy Member
Oh now i see what you meant by God holding us to a higher standard of morality than himself. Its a theodicy question you are getting at. Yes that is the hardest question of all. It might be the one I would ask God if I only had one question I could ask.
Job, in the Book of Job asks the same question as his fortune is gone, his family is dead and he is lying in the mud with his skin falling off. Job is demanding an explanation from God as to why such misery and suffering could exist in a world made by a loving and all powerful God (the basic question of theodicy). God finally shows up and gives a rather pyrotechnic answer that can be summed up simply by "Shit Happens".
By that answer, God is saying that the universe (and especially man) is capable of cooking up plenty of conditions for misery and suffering without God's help.
whatireallywant
Sexy Member
Interesting! I grew up going to churches that believed that the Bible IS a literal and inerrant document. I thought most Christians did take the Bible literally, although I know of some who take it as parables.
I grew up becoming increasingly angry with the religion I grew up in, because of the sexism and repression, and the idea of eternal hell. I am now not angry with Christians per se, but am angry with the fundamentalists (of ANY religion).
Most of the questions I would have for God would have to do with these issues.
JustAsking
Sexy Member
Yes, I can understand your feelings both on the literalists and the fundamenatlists. Most Christians are not literalists, at least according to the denominations they belong to. Part of the misunderstanding is our relatively new and Western cultural notion that the only important truths are verifiable facts. It is even implied by the two choices you mentioned: literally true vs parables.
The irony is that even in our Enlightenment culture, we still learn the most profound truths from non-factual sources. We just don't recognize it. It takes great works of art to convey real cosmic truth to us, not science or history books.
For example, suppose you wanted to truly understand all aspects of human love, such as love of child, love of country, love of God, love of lover, unrequited love, dying for the love of one's country, selfless love, etc. And suppose you had a choice of two doors to go through to find that truth. One door leads to a room full of scientists, sociologists, mathematicians, etc. The other door leads to the world's greatest novelists, poets, and artists. Which door would you go through to find out about all aspects of human love.
The roomful of scientists would tell you all kinds of useful verifiable facts about love and its affect on the human body, etc.
The artists, on the other hand, would not tell you any verifiable facts, but instead would tell you profound stories about relationships, play heartbreaking music, speak achingly beautiful poetry, paint beautiful pictures, all illuminating the depth, breadth, and experience of human love from all kinds of angles and aspects. From them you would experience everything from the heights of euphoria of love to the depths of pain and suffering love can bring in times of tragedy, etc. And they would do all this without uttering a word that is literally true. You would come out profoundly moved and transformed in such a way that knowledge and truth about love would be a part of your very being. You certainly would not stop and challenge the novelists, for example, to produce evidence regarding the actual events in their stories.
I choose the topic of love because the Bible is a book about relationships between man and man, and man and God, where God's faitthful love for his unfaithful creation is the most important part of the message. Its about how our acknowledgment of that love is profoundly transforming but also a terrifyingly burdensome when we look at the misery and suffering in the world.
In modern western culture, we seem to only trust the person wearing a white lab coat and clipboard to tell us truth. But in the times the Bible was written, when the wise man said, "Let me tell you a story", everyone knew that they were about to hear something very important and very profound. The literary forms used in the Bible are known to us through other non-biblical literature as wisdom writing, prophesy, oral tradition, etc. Other cultures have this, too. Native Americans would start their stories of truths by saying "I don't know if this happened or not, but I do know it is true."
Most of the mainstream denominations believe the Bible to be inspired by God, and to be authoritative as God's Word in matters of salvation and God's Grace. Those denominations would consider it heresy to reduce it to a factual history book about talking snakes and men swallowed by whales. In fact, most of the highest forms of wisdom in the Bible is contained in its contradictions. All through the Bible is great dynamic tension between warring notions of such things as justice vs forgiveness, religious law vs human compassion, God's judgement vs God's Grace, etc. To ask if any part of those elements in tension are true facts is an almost meaningless question.
Jesus himself sometimes strongly echoes the Old Testament in his teachings, sometimes he reinterprets it, and sometimes he downright repudiates things from the Old Testament (his repudiation for retributive justice (eye for an eye) in Mathew, for example). Even the four Gospels and Acts, which are meant to be true accounts, are more like docudramas than they are pieces of journalism.
This, after all, is a book that contradicts itself almost immediately in the first two chapters of Genesis, where there are two different accounts of creation, one following the other, with the order of the creation of things are different from one account to the other. On the other hand, Genesis, manages to convey some of the most profound notions of God's relationship with his creation, and the uniqueness of man as a rational, creative, thinking being and the implications of that in terms of man being aware of the notions of good and evil.
As for your anger towards fundamentalism, I have to agree. The God revealed to us through Jesus is not all about sexual repression, excessive moralizing, and burning babies for eternity in hell. That's not the Good News of the Gospel. That is just downright nastiness and cruelty to teach that to people.
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