When was America great ?

[samhain]

(07-12-2023, 10:23 AM)Matt_Crimson Wrote: Sorry I saw you responded to me but never replied back so I'll do that now.

I think this still points to suffering being the root issue for people though. If someone is going to contest that its not suffering but that we weren't given the option, well then I'd say that brings into question the entire argument because it seems to suggest that someone would actually choose suffering over not suffering, which I highly doubt. And if one were to choose suffering, then what difference would it really make for God to have made that choice for you assuming you would have made the choice yourself? Sure it would give you another choice on the spectrum of free will, but in terms of the "goodness" of God, I'm not sure how that would make him look better.





I would say God knew they would definitely fail, but for whatever reason, perhaps just to have more beings to love/have worship him, he created us even though he knew we'd fail. In terms of being an all powerful God, failure seems quite insignificant when you can reverse that failure through salvation.

Now of course, people take issue with the idea of needing to be saved in the first place. That's something people will just have to take up with God. From my perspective, I'm willing to accept that because he is the creator of all things, has mercy on me and has offered me a way out of the suffering even if he put me in a world in which suffering exists.

Not to be disrespectful, but it all seems like either a manmade story (highly likely) or a crazy coincidence.  We have an omnipotent, sentient god.  He made everything in existence, including us, and he knows everything that ever has happened or will happen.  He is all.  Yet, he has the very familiar and very human emotion of neediness.  He needs to be loved for some reason.  If he doesn't get this love, then he will experience the emotion of jealousy, and he will exert anger at his creation in ways that are unimaginably horrific, as his followers will tell you.  

These are all things we do and understand.  It's almost like someone, a human, conceived of this deity at some point and gave him all of the personality traits that go along with being a powerful person.

We don't even let our lowly human counterparts react with violent anger, even if they are deprived of love. Not even when they break laws. Heck, we even un-alive them for it in some states. Yet we worship someone who promises to torture the vast majority of us forever.