Except for the ones that believe you can’t do crap-all about whether you become a Christian, that god’s choice is basically random and that if you chose god, that means god chose you.
I once knew the daughter of a Calvinist (sp?) preacher who believed all that. Nasty fellow, hit his wife, had both his daughters convinced femininity was evil (she described it being “a battle” every time she did her hair or put on makeup), the entire family is on youtube protesting against the existence of some abortion clinic. She kept trying to claim I was broken and lost and all sorts of ridiculous things. When I asked why she never lifted a damn finger about her household situation she said it was because, and I quote, “I deserve the same things he does”.
They may be a fringe group, but his god, and consequently hers, was definitely a bigot by the definition you gave. I don’t know if the OP was referring to the god of all strict Christians, or the god of all fundamentalist nuts, or just the god of garden-variety fundamentalist nuts.
AFAIK, the position of the RCC is that you can go to heaven if nobody ever tells you about the Word, but if you know about Christ and don’t believe then you’re shit out of luck. Not so?
I don’t know you, kanicbird, and I’m pretty sure I’m not your child. But as kooky as you are, I’m pretty sure that if you looked out your front window, and saw me freezing to death in the street, you’d take me in rather than let me die.
Do you really think your god would be any less charitable?
Didn’t this character once tell some people that they were his “chosen people”, thereby specifically choosing one group of people he liked over all other people? That definitely seems discriminatory if not bigoted.
Of course, he’s guilty of much worse crimes than that.
According to Jewish tradition, the Hebrews were the only people who accepted the offer. As a result, we have over six hundred more laws to follow than everyone else. Oh, and I’m pretty sure Jews haven’t had it easy in the last four thousand years, don’t you agree?
That being said, this thread needs to specify that we are talking about the Christian concept of God.
In Dante the virtuous pagans were in the First Circle of Hell, certainly not in the lake of fire or being tortured but also not in heaven. I don’t know if they pussified the faith since then.
And God having rules about who goes to heaven and not telling most of the world about them reminds me of the Vogons somehow.
I learned that we got chosen in the same way you get chosen for a suicide mission. It is also interesting that the tradition has God doing the choice to show evidence of his power, which is similar to God’s actions in Exodus. Contrast to the current Christian view, which seems to be that if God gives any convincing evidence of his existence belief doesn’t count anymore.
The chosen people were chosen because they were the least of the peoples. Basically you had no chance in this world without me so I chose you (to make a fool of the devil and his ways).
Any religion calls themselves the chosen people. Ours just doesn’t proclaim to be better than anyone else, nor do we have the “key to Heaven” or a free pass to 99 virgins upon our death.
Anyone can become a Jew. It’s not a secret club. You don’t have to be Jewish to be a good person, or righteous, or useful, or any of that. Hell, belief in God is not required to stay Jewish.
In Judaism, being Jewish means that you are expected to adhere to the covenant. If you don’t, you’re not banned. Woody Allen is still Jewish.
If you want to join the tribe, then you have to be Orthodox. Doesn’t sound very fair, but then again, why would you want to be Jewish if you weren’t going to obey the rules?
I don’t think there are many white beetles though :), it was said that an entomologist once said that “the creator seems to have an inordinate fondness for beetles”. Beetles constitute about a quarter of all species on our planet.
The way you wrote “least” made it sound a lot different and your verse is completely out of context.
ז לֹא מֵרֻבְּכֶם מִכָּל-הָעַמִּים, חָשַׁק יְהוָה בָּכֶם–וַיִּבְחַר בָּכֶם: כִּי-אַתֶּם הַמְעַט, מִכָּל-הָעַמִּים. 7 The LORD did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people–for ye were the fewest of all peoples–
ח כִּי מֵאַהֲבַת יְהוָה אֶתְכֶם, וּמִשָּׁמְרוֹ אֶת-הַשְּׁבֻעָה אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע לַאֲבֹתֵיכֶם, הוֹצִיא יְהוָה אֶתְכֶם, בְּיָד חֲזָקָה; וַיִּפְדְּךָ מִבֵּית עֲבָדִים, מִיַּד פַּרְעֹה מֶלֶךְ-מִצְרָיִם. 8 but because the LORD loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
I don’t know somehow calling god a megalomaniac seems to me like calling a mob informant paranoid. You’re not paranoid if they really are all out to get you, and your not a megalomaniac if you really are god.
But as far as bigotry, the old testament god is definitely a bigot. How can’t he be with that whole chosen people thing going.
Well, okay, if the character under discussion is the Christian deity only and not the deity of Judaic tradition, then I’d still say that this character has serious discrimination/bigotry issues.
After all, this character starts off laying down some strict rules which, if not followed, send a person to be tormented for ever and ever and ever and ever (in the Christian tradition and not in the Judaic tradition). And these rules are so strict that apparently nobody in the entire world can obey them. And most people aren’t even told what the rules are… only the people in some geographically small area of the world (no Native Americans are told, for example, unless you accept the works of the Mormon founder). But there’s a “get out of hell free” card… only, again, only a geographically very small part of the world (at the time) can even know about this “get out of hell free” card, making the character of God seem very uninterested in whether or not the vast majority of people on the planet are tormented forever and ever and ever.
I’ve heard this before, but I’ve never been able to pin down if it was ever part of any official Christian doctrine. If it were true, it seems to me that the most evil thing a person could possibly do, is to become a missionary.
Nope – basically the position of the Catholic Church is that while Catholicism/Christianity is the SUREST way to get to Heaven, nobody knows God’s will.
As a kid, I was always given the impression that Hell was for really, REALLY bad people (rapists, murderers, etc)