Or a bad point for the quality of the modern translations.
The fact that there are contradictions in the Bible is a good point? Tell me, just as a hypothetical, what would the Bible have to contain that you might consider it to be a bad point?
The fact that they looked directly at the discrepancies and didn’t question them says something about their intelligence, not their integrity.
Sort of, but that is a very one sided view. Another way of looking at it is He was going to lose a child to death. The way to save that child required a donation from one of His other children (us). Yes we go through the hell of the operation, but the end result is both children live forever and no one is lost eternally.
It also shows that His plan is perfect and He is all powerful, as we as imperfect and very spiritually week beings, He uses to defeat the power of Satan and get all His children back perfectly.
The inconsistencies in the Sherlock Holmes stories or Star Trek scripts are usually not considered as evidence of their historical validity.
For Genesis, perhaps the need to include both versions of extant myths about the creation trumped the need for a logical consistency which hadn’t been invented yet.
I wonder how many copies a “Nitpickers Guide to the Bible” would sell. No new research would be required.
Since He created Satan, and allowed him to destroy His children, doesn’t speak very well of the God you Believe in. He is said to know all things even before they happen so if man is imperfect it is not man’s fault, but the fault of such a creator. It sounds like this God loves to play games that are harmful to His children. A cruel being. such a human father would be put in jail!
Satan is the child that He is saving
Assuming that there was a god, I’d prefer if he were a lot like the Greek gods. They were assholes, but at least they were very human-seeming assholes, something I can relate to better than the idea of a god arbitrarily disposing of anyone who didn’t believe he existed because he was doing it for “the greater good, which we couldn’t possibly understand.”
I’d rather have someone I can relate to punish me for a reason that I understand (even if he or she is a jerk) than some random person thinking he’s doing what’s best for me without me having any idea why he or she thinks it’s best for me. If that makes any sense.
In short, yeah, that’s a dick thing to do, and I hope that it turns out that that type of god doesn’t exist. If he (or she) does, I’ll have some ‘splainin’ to do.
the god of the Bible is every much as human as the Greek gods. Forget about what the preachers say on Sunday and his apologists claim. The bible presents a god who is vindictive, petty, jealous, etc. All very human traits. If a god does exist, it’s not the one of the Bible, or Koran for that matter.
By the time the Canon was chosen, the individual books were already too well known and widely distributed for there to be any opportunity for editing. They did exclude from the Canon books that were too divergent from the orthodox theology that was developing. The differences in the Canonical Gospels were minor in comparison to say, the Gnostics, and all of them were already widely established and popular. Editing them wasn’t an option, and excluding any of four would have caused greater headaches than it was worth.
At that time (about the year 350+ AD) most people didn’t read, and the Monks who copied the different writings perhaps never knew what the other monk was copying and was unaware of the different storys.
Strange that He didn’t get rid of Satan before He created humans. And it doesn’t add up that The god you believe in, made imperfect beings then punished them for the weakness that he created in them! Why didn’t God destroy Satan as soon as He learned Satan was evil! Of course he should have known that Satan would rebel and become evil, so Your God must have wanted evil to exist!!
Listen to what you are saying, in earthly terms you are saying to God to kill your infant child (Satan) forever. Now it is true that God did kill/have killed His Son Jesus, but in a way where Jesus would come back from the dead, Satan doesn’t seem to have this privilege as Satan is separated from God and God’s Kingdom.
Because God loves Satan and wants him to return and has made a way for him, this alone speaks for universal salvation as if God has a way for Satan how much more will He be willing to save all of us? God does not eternally get rid of any of his children EVER, as that would be Hell for God. God will do anything to get them back and has the wisdom and power to do it by having the child decide to come home, which also preserves free will.
As God almighty you have 3 choices with 3 outcomes:
1 - Kill your infant child that you Love and lose him forever
2 - Force your infant child by mind control to behave for eternity.
3 - Flatline a child (Jesus) and bring Him back to life so you can have your infant child (Satan) back for good and everything is restored.
Looking at the above I noticed that it is very relevant to how we treat children today 1 + 2 sound very much like the way we treat children, abortion and drugs such as ADD drugs, while choice 3 offers the hope and IMHO the power to save the children as Jesus’ death can correct all.
GODDAMMIT! NOT EVERY BELIEVER ACTS LIKE THAT!!! I’m sick and tired of this bullshit you keep pushing. Guess what? I believe in God. And I don’t give a shit WHAT people believe, or don’t believe. People can worship an old sweat sock, for all I care, as long as they don’t bother people.
You’ve been here what, over five years, and you’ve been around how many Christians, Jews, Muslims, whatever, and yet how many people here have ever tried to push their beliefs on you?
Not everyone believes the same way, and I’ve HAD it with your generalizations. You’re no better than those who assume that all atheists are evil and are only atheists because they’re pissed off at God.
:rolleyes:
So what? It’s the ones that do who matter, it’s the ones who do who control the course of the religion and represent its core values. There’s enough to pass bigoted laws like bans on same sex marriage. There’s more who do want to shove their beliefs down the throats of others than there are those that don’t. And most of those who don’t hand money to the ones that do so it doesn’t really matter.
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Sounds like Lisa Simpson and Homer Simpson.
Where does that idea come from? In the stories about Satan, God seems to put Satan on an equal par with Himself,like testing Job, when God knew ahead of time Job would not cave in! I understand the Bible readings that man needed saving not Satan!
God seems (In Genesis) to punish humans because he wanted to keep them ignorant. This was when He is quoted as saying",but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest there of, you shall surely die.
It would seem to me that Satan couldn’t die, and it was humans who God thought needed saving! Why couldn’t God save Satan before He created humans? Sorry, but your explaination makes no sense to me!
Your sense of logic doesn’t register with me!!
This makes no sense to me whatever! Your God then, is not all knowing, all loving and likes to play cruel games,God could have created Satan to be better than He is said to be, but chose to create him, even though he would know he was creating a monster and could well have created Satan with out a flaw.