Board Thread:Bible Questions/@comment-35576995-20180513184349/@comment-35576995-20180602141546

SouthWriter wrote: First, Have you read the articles I have twice recommended?

Strictly speaking, God seldom "outright kills somebody". In the Old Testament, he usually dealt out punishment by means of armies of men acting on their own volition. There are some places where direct action is used, but they are rare. In the final judgment, as in the great flood, many will suffer physical death, but they will live on as spiritual beings.

In asking why we should trust God rather than demand things of him, you show a total misunderstanding of who God is. God is infinite, and we are finite. That means He knows every thought we have. That means He is the Creator and we are the creatures. He made us and not the other way around.

What can we know? We can know that we exist and that we don't know much directly. This is because we are finite, and very limited. However, God is not limited, and He has made Himself known through His creation and through His working through His people in the past. If we look with an open mind, we will see the evidence.

God has provided a world in which we can live and grow. He sends rain to make the crops to grow. He patiently lets us mess up our lives trying to live without Him. So, sure He respects us. He has lain down a few very simple rules, summarized in this: Love God and love people. So, can you do that? That is respect.

Meanwhile, most people in this world live only for themselves. They want what others have and tend to hurt others when they don't get what they want. And, for the most part, they "get away with it". It is convenient to not believe God is there, watching over everything and keeping records.

You keep coming back to "belief" being a compulsion. On the most basic level, you are correct. To believe is to be persuaded. It is to trust what one perceives beyond a doubt. That trust is what is called faith. It is beyond natural abilities to take the word of one you have never met. That is why God personally meets with those he considers "friends" and gives them the gift of faith. Without that gift, no one can believe God. And if you don't believe God, you won't "believe in" Him.

Please consider again the three articles I referenced above. And please contact me directly and we can talk over what is found in the Bible about those important subjects.

SouthWriter (talk) 02:11, June 2, 2018 (UTC) There's a difference between punishment and wholesale slaughter. Also, how is people acting on their own the same as somebody having them act?

I didn't say anything about demanding things of him, but rather asking of him. We don't expect our parents to condemn us to cruel and unusual things, so why should we trust a being who does just that?

Again, showing up once and expecting people from years afterward isn't how belief works.

Well, inflicting torture and genocide on certain people isn't respect. Now I know what you're gonna say, "but it's the equivalent of a parent punishing his or her child", well again, there's a difference between punishment and cruelty.

I don't get this part. If somebody hasn't been given sufficient proof of something, why should they be expected to believe it regardless? People can have doubts about something, and that's not "convenient".

The problem though, is that the Abrahamic faiths present a false dichotemy, the notion that you must either "choose" God or "reject" him, without thinking about the possibility of doubting whether or not it's true. An omniscient god would easily see this flaw in his system.