# God
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [August 16, 2012, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643 "2012-08-16T02:56:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2012, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643/81 "2012-08-18T17:52:32Z")
I was raised a Catholic but as an adult have not practiced any religion. I do believe in God but have no clear concept of what he is or what plan he might have. In my day to day life on a semi concious level I like to relate to life on a Christian based morality. I don’t believe anything in the bible to be fact. I do struggle to make sense of it in some metaphoric fashion.
My personnal belief is that overtime those of us who choose to believe in a higher power will be forced to modify our concept of the bible and religion in general. The thought of an entire human race not believing in God scares me, the thought of humans accepting the liklihood of a superior being in a different demension I find comforting. Spirits and souls as we understand them are inventions of man doing the best he could do at that time. I certainly do not rule out the existence of a non physical essence, not subject to any physical laws including size and demensions of time and space and energy. I pray daily and often find myself apologizing for being so unclear in my faith. The ego of a scientist or intellectual is very infantile when looking at the scope of how little we really know, which is closer to zero than it is a full understanding of our universe.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2012, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643/82 "2012-08-18T17:57:26Z")
> [@badger5149](#):
>
> The ego of a scientist or intellectual is very infantile when looking at the scope of how little we really know, which is closer to zero than it is a full understanding of our universe.
I rate those who are looking for answers _much_ higher than those who refuse to do so out of deliberate ignorance.
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### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2012, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643/83 "2012-08-19T02:35:06Z")
> [@Trinopus](#):
>
> U.S. culture shies at eating horse meat, for no rational reason whatever. … Hog jowls!
There is a rational reason for not eating horse: it does not taste good. OTOH, hog jowls are very tasty.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2012, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643/84 "2012-08-19T05:35:20Z")
> [@dropzone](#):
>
> There is a rational reason for not eating horse: it does not taste good.
Based on what objective standards? I’ve never eaten horse meat myself but I’ve read accounts of people who have. The consensus seems to be that it tastes pretty good.
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### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2012, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643/85 "2012-08-19T06:14:53Z")
Also, if it didn’t taste good, we wouldn’t need laws forbidding it!
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### Author:  [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2012, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643/86 "2012-08-19T12:56:32Z")
It doesn’t taste like beef or pork, but it can be very good.
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### Author:  [@feppytweed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/feppytweed)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2012, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643/87 "2012-08-19T15:35:10Z")
I just realized… God tested Abraham to see how strong his faith was… but the bible says not to test God. What a hypocrite.
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### Author:  [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2012, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643/88 "2012-08-19T18:56:09Z")
> [@feppytweed](#):
>
> I just realized… God tested Abraham to see how strong his faith was… but the bible says not to test God. What a hypocrite.
And I tell my son he has to go to bed at his bedtime, but he is not permitted to tell me to observe any bedtime. Am I a hypocrite for issuing these edicts?
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2012, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643/89 "2012-08-19T19:14:32Z")
> [@feppytweed](#):
>
> I just realized… God tested Abraham to see how strong his faith was… but the bible says not to test God. What a hypocrite.
Not at all. The Bible says this as a precaution to people. Imagine what happens if you test God’s faith in you and it turns out God doesn’t believe you exist…
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2012, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643/90 "2012-08-19T20:32:05Z")
> [@feppytweed](#):
>
> I just realized… God tested Abraham to see how strong his faith was… but the bible says not to test God. What a hypocrite.
Students don’t get to test teachers either.
My first Hebrew School “history” lesson was about how Abram tested the idols of Ur. He doubted that they ate the food place below them, so he dusted the floor with flour, and observed footprints the next morning. He believed in God not because of lack of tests, or even faith, but because they chatted.
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### Author:  [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2012, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643/91 "2012-08-19T20:51:59Z")
> [@Voyager](#):
>
> Students don’t get to test teachers either. . . .
Hades they don’t! They do it every single day, and all day long! Many’s the teacher-in-training who has washed out because they can’t cope with the inventive minds, social challenges, clever digs, passive-aggression, and other behaviors natural to children!
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### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2012, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643/92 "2012-08-19T23:51:58Z")
> [@Learjeff](#):
>
> See, now, that makes perfect sense to me, except for the fact that nobody answers the phone. Maybe my time hasn’t come, but meanwhile, I’ve been slowly building a whole world view that doesn’t need something of which I have no evidence. But at least this makes some sense. My question is, how can you tell if that it’s real or an illusion? (My best guess: you can’t tell for sure, but you live according to what you believe.)
>
> Thanks
You have to decide what works for you. If you get no answer - no one picks up the phone - that’s OK, I really would suggest looking elsewhere, but keep looking. Find out what works for you regardless of what others say and regardless of what science says. You don’t need evidence you need the relationship.
Is it real or a illusion, what does that matter as long as it work for you? And who is to say what is real or illusion.
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### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2012, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643/93 "2012-08-19T23:56:43Z")
> [@feppytweed](#):
>
> I just realized… God tested Abraham to see how strong his faith was… but the bible says not to test God. What a hypocrite.
Therefore not God, read 2 Sam 24 compared to 1 Cron 21 and you will see that Satan can get away with calling his doing the work of God.
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### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2012, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643/94 "2012-08-20T00:01:46Z")
> [@zweisamkeit](#):
>
> If God doesn’t even have the power to intercede on one’s behalf after making a deal with Satan, then how could one believe God “has the power to save you from this world”?
Because He saved Isaac by design of creation regardless of Satan. God says 'when I created you in the womb, I knew you, and before I set the foundations of the earth I knew you. The proof is in the results, not our understanding of the method.
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### Author:  [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643/95 "2012-08-20T00:38:04Z")
> [@badger5149](#):
>
> In my day to day life on a semi concious level I like to relate to life on a Christian based morality.
Except that “Christian-based morality” far, far predates the dawn of Christianity, even in written form.
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### Author:  [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2012, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643/96 "2012-08-20T11:57:36Z")
> [@Bricker](#):
>
> And I tell my son he has to go to bed at his bedtime, but he is not permitted to tell me to observe any bedtime. Am I a hypocrite for issuing these edicts?
Since God is said to know all things ahead of time,then there was no reason to test Abraham. Human’s do not have that knowledge. That is the big difference between you and God.
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### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2012, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643/97 "2012-08-20T12:07:25Z")
> [@monavis](#):
>
> Since God is said to know all things ahead of time,then there was no reason to test Abraham. Human’s do not have that knowledge. That is the big difference between you and God.
But Satan does not know everything, and we see in other places that Satan requests and is granted these ‘tests’ of people (Job, Peter, Jesus).
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### Author:  [@Latro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Latro)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643/98 "2012-08-20T15:15:08Z")
> [@kanicbird](#):
>
> But Satan does not know everything, and we see in other places that Satan requests and is granted these ‘tests’ of people (Job, Peter, Jesus).
So, Satan has valid reason to suspect God of lying?
When God says to Satan ‘you wil not sway him’ There is reason for Satan to think that God is not telling the truth? Therefore he tries it.
Why else would he try, if the all-knowing god always spoke the truth?
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### Author:  [@Demilade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demilade)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2012, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643/99 "2012-08-20T16:54:17Z")
> [@solsolsol](#):
>
> It’s been awhile since Sunday school, but I’ll give it a shot.
> If you’re asking where in the afterlife they went to after they died, I think I can give a mainstream Evangelical Christian answer to that.
>
> They went to heaven.
>
> They weren’t “born again”, you’re right, but nobody in their time was “born again”.
>
> Abraham, Moses and Elisha were all Israelites, God’s “Chosen People”. You were born “Chosen” or “not-chosen” by God, and thus there was no way for a “non-chosen” person to become “Chosen” person. However, a sinful “Chosen” person could fall out of favor with God and end up in hell with all the other heathens. To keep this from happening, a good Israelite made animal sacrifices to God as a symbolic gesture of atonement. They believed that the blood of the sacrifice washed away their past sins, making them eligible for heaven (until they sinned again).
>
> Jesus changed the rules. According to Christians\*, we now have a “New Covenant” with God. God sent his son Jesus to die on the cross as the ultimate sacrifice, he died for everyone’s sins, chosen or not. Because Jesus died for _everyone_’s sins \*forever \*there’s no need for atonement through animal sacrifices and there is no longer a chosen people (unless you’re a Calvinist), I.E. “The Old Covenant” is replaced by a “New Covenant”. Now one can simply believe in the Christian God–become “born-again”–and be allowed to enter heaven.
>
> Google “abrogation of Old Covenant”.
>
> \*The Christians I grew up with. Not all Christian denominations subscribe to this theology.
how are you born chosen if we all came from adam and eve
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### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/god/631643/100 "2012-08-20T20:44:05Z")
> [@Latro](#):
>
> So, Satan has valid reason to suspect God of lying?
> When God says to Satan ‘you wil not sway him’ There is reason for Satan to think that God is not telling the truth? Therefore he tries it.
> Why else would he try, if the all-knowing god always spoke the truth?
God is testing Satan’s faith 😃
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