So, Jesus said things are gonna get very bad and we shall suffer greatly. But why? What's the point of prophesying terrible things as inevitable? It seems to me God (if we assume Jesus was at least 1/3 of God), alas, has cursed mankind. Otherwise why not move a finger and prevent it from happening? Thoughts?
There are no gods, we killed them, now we need to replace them. "We are as gods, we might as well get good at it." Stewart Brand https://longnow.org/projects/
Why not move a finger and prevent humans from having free will? Well I cant say for sure, but I enjoy having free will, even if others choose to do evil. I dont think its a curse.
That's what I want to know. For example, if people, by their free will, choose not to Have an Apocalypse, not to have "wars and rumors of wars", not to have tribulation, etc., what about then? Will God cancel the Apocalypse? May be but then Jesus will be a spreader of "fake news" and a "false prophet". So which is worse?
Apocalypse refers to the destruction of the world. Not sure whether that means the erasing of everything that exists, the destruction of planet earth (possibly in the distant future after we expand off-world) or if it means the destruction of 'worldly things' like materialism, status and desires of the flesh. Whatever the case my be, at some point 'the world' will be essentially replaced by 'Heaven.' Whether that be the eternal spiritual realm most people think of, or a utopia we build by embracing New Testament concepts like selflessness, the golden rule, forgiveness and unconditional love. I don't think its a question of 'can we avoid the apocalypse', but more a question of 'what will the apocalypse be?' Its possible that this is up to us.
He's a sadist. No healthy parent punishes their kid for making mistakes especially when they didn't bother to put the dangerous stuff away. P.S. God doesn't exist.
Wait, it's getting WORSE? It certainly is not. Worse was the black plague and dozens of other periods in time where people were at war, kept slaves, persecuted people for worshipping a different invisible friend, things like that. We have pretty damned good and better than any time in history.
Isn't this just one of the problems with the "God hypothesis"? The rational process would be to examine what we would expect to see were there to be a God of the biblical definition. Christians love to point at the various things they like as confirmation. But, I think that's really no more than selection bias.
The curse is defined in Genesis. Men have to work hard. Women suffer in child birth. The New Testament tells us what to expect in the days before Jesus comes back. Good Christians have tried to prevent wars, and sometimes succeeded. Mostly our efforts to make people Christian have failed and our efforts to make Christians good have not been too successful either.
Good ideas. However, it does seem somewhat like a copout. Christians have preached the war against the Vietnamese, the war against Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, West Bank, Gaza, etc. Christians have called for the end of US participation in NATO and the UN. I think there is weakness in suggesting that all the Christians who promoted those wars were bad Christians.
When the enemy is of a different faith Christians tend to get militant. If I had credentials I would have written a book called George W. Bush and the new Crusades, but I don't so I can't.
Mankind creates his own ''curses".............but seems to like having a a "God" to blame for all ill s that mankind is responsible for........ Mankind starts insane wars.......... based on some crazy beliefs. Mankind is inhumane to itself..........as it has not yet fully learned to be compassionate ,understanding and accepting of others. Evolution is a slow process......and this applies to mankind too.
doesn't have to take away the free will of good people, but of priests molesting little boys and girls in a church.... why not
Sorry, I interpreted "priests" as a reference to the known problem in the Catholic church. That gives a lot of protestants a false justification for a deep sigh of relief! But, we don't seem to have one good noun describing the primary speakers in the various Earthly religions and their numerous denominations. Maybe "priest" is as good as it gets.
No such thing as a "curse". That is the language of myths. and various "beliefs". ie: the language of metaphors.
Because its all relative. Molesting kids is worse than, say, stealing from old ladies because molesting kids exists. If God made it so we were unable to choose to molest kids (and similar), then stealing from old ladies (and similar) would be the worst thing ever and we'd ask 'why does God let people decide to steal from old ladies?' If that wasn't possible either, it would be 'why does God let people I love break up with me?' And eventually we're back at square one with no free will, being 'perfect' but only because we're programmed to be, and we cease having a will or the ability to make any meaningful choice at all.
Have you heard of Bernie Madoff? And, where did you get the idea that sexually assaulting young kids is better than stealing from old ladies?
I think you misread... The point is that whatever the worst thing God allows us to do to eachother is going to be the worst thing, and we're going to wonder 'why does God allow it?' For all we know, there are worse things than molesting kids that we have been forbidden by God from choosing to do, like controlling other people with our minds or going back in time and screwing with people's histories, for examples. If we werent able to molest kids, then something else would be the evik we wonder why is possible. If it wasn't possible for us to do any evil, then could it really be said we're doing good, since we'd only be capable of doing it anyway? We would be robots bymy reckoning.
