Why Does God Require Faith?

[joko]

why does he want people to have to have faith in him?
why does he want to test them?
he is clearly a megalomaniac to demand such utter devotion and smite people and send them to hell for eternity any who don't obey him.
his punishment shows he clearly cannot cope with not being totally adored

so why make it 'the way'?
if he is omnipotent and made everything, why make it that way?
why not show himself - prove he exists and get all the praise and adulation he wants.

if he showed himself there would be no more atheism, no more people disbelieving - everyone would have to accept him in their lives - and since thats what he wants and demands, why not just make it so?

i know people explain this away with him giving people free will - but why did he do that? why do something like that?
why do it then get upset because it doesn't work as well as you'd hoped?
its like a child who wants to control the game who storms off home when the other kids don't play 'right'.

any thoughts?

[naomi24]

Beso, ours is not to reason why ... ;o)

[goodlife]

Redman good for you@ But where do the Bible stand on this issue?

In the eighth century B.C.E., when the prevailing view was that the earth was flat, centuries before Greek philosophers theorized that the earth likely was spherical, and thousands of years before humans saw the earth as a globe from space, the Hebrew prophet Isaiah stated with remarkable simplicity: There is One who is dwelling above the circle of the earth.” (Isaiah 40:22)

So you can see the Bible writer Isaiah avoided the common myths about the earth. Instead, he penned a statement that was not threatened by the advances of scientific discovery.

[Hypognosis]

You posted that reply in the wrong thread, goodlife.

Try the "Science in the Bible" thread, instead.

Incidentally, the flat-earthers would take the same description and say this paragraph proves that the earth is flat and disc shaped. Terry Pratchett would be chuffed with that! :D

[Hypognosis]

@Goodlife

And this one was right out of left field...

//True Christians are not driven into their faith by fear . If people adopt Christianity because of fear of communism, this is not pleasing to God.//

Fear of communism? Are you using language translation software to convert what you say into English for us? It mangled that sentence really badly.

A question for everyone else, is the word 'communism' ancient or was it coined by Marx, et al?

[goodlife]

You need to consider how your problems began.

Communistic leaders are convinced that they and they alone have the only solution for this world’s ills. They believe religion, as it is practiced in the Western Hemisphere particularly, is “the opium of the people”.

Despite this claim, the Communists are probably the most religious group on earth today. They worship their state with a fanaticism unknown among any other people on earth.


They venerate their human leaders, past and present, with a godlike adoration; and no Bible or holy book is accepted by any other nation with greater finality than the writings of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin are accepted by the Communist.

So where are you.

[Old_Geezer]

What makes you think it is punishment naomi ?

You see a glowing orange hot poker. You have free will to grab hold of it or not. But if you do so you are "punished" for not adhering to "poker's wishes" by badly burning your hand ?

[naomi24]

OG, pokers don't make rules.

//What makes you think it is punishment naomi ? //

Well, isn't it? Do as I say - or you're doomed for eternity. What's that if it's not punishment?

[Old_Geezer]

"Take my advice - or you'll find yourself doomed for eternity." Sounds like an attempt to get you to avoid the awful consequences of your possible/likely actions.

[naomi24]

Consequences that if God is indeed omnipotent, need not be consequences at all.

[Old_Geezer]

That seems a valid question except for it is basically the same old one that comes up time and again. Not so dissimilar to the old, "Can an omnipotent God great a boulder so heavy that it can not lift it ?". Some things are dilemmas. There may be a reason a God, even an omnipotent one, has no "real" choice. If one does not accept that then most discussions of this type are doomed to go nowhere.

[Old_Geezer]

Anyway I can see you are determined not to be saved, so it has to be hellfire for you. :-p

[naomi24]

Ha ha! Never liked the cold. ;o)

[Bazile]

He is God , so he can do anything he wishes .

Why should he be any other way ; being a god ?

[Hypognosis]

@goodlife

//So where are you. //

I'm in Europe. Where are you?

p.s. If you are genuinely in fear of arrest by communists then only quote your location to the nearest continent.

[Hypognosis]

Smart kid.

[mibn2cweus]

If one is to presume the existence of a god, the next illogical step would be to presume that he answers to his own god that rules over him, who answers to his own god that rules over him, that answers to his own god that rules over him, that answers to his own god that rules over him, that . . .

Well, you started it! :o/