(November 12, 2009 at 9:18 am)Darwinian Wrote: How can you be commanded to love? That's like ordering someone to enjoy marmite!

And..

What if you don't love yourself?

Because "love" in the sense used is not a feeling. God is not commanding that we have a certain feeling towards Him or our neighbors. The Greek word being used is "agapeo" . So it is more of a decision to behave in a certain way toward another regardless of how one feels.

But you bring up a good point. While that is God's command, do we always keep the command? No. Not even Christians do. We all rebel at these commandments. That is the nature of our sinful nature and one of the consequences is the feeling of guilt. As I see it there are two ways of taking care of this. One is to conclude that God does not exist and, therefore, the command is not something that should be followed. After a time of thinking in this manner anyone can get rid of the feeling of guilt and then you are free to do whatever you want without feeling any guilt. The other is to avail oneself of God's remedy, i.e., Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. Trusting in this also can free one of the feeling of guilt. I chose the latter.

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(November 12, 2009 at 9:43 am)Dotard Wrote:

(November 11, 2009 at 11:55 am)rjh4 Wrote: "Why didn't God do things like I think they should have been done?" You would have to take that up with Him.

Problem is I've tried. The bastard won't debate. He is like the errant theist who walks up to you and spouts something like "You need to let go of your false pride!" then scrurrys off like a cockroach when you flip the lights on refusing all discussion on the matter.

He won't return calls, never writes to explain his position, won't respond to emails.

Many xtains have told me the same malarky. "You should take that up with Him."

I've tried. No response. It's as if he....... i dunno....... doesn't exist.

I guess I was a bit too flippant in saying "You should take that up with Him." But, honestly, I think it is not appropriate question to be asking why God didn't do things the way I or you think they should have been done. Why would God debate with you or me to begin with? If God exists and revealed Himself to us through the Bible, why would you think that somehow you or I know better than God at how things should be? If God exists and revealed Himself to us through the Bible, it seems to me more appropriate to accept that God knows better than you or me what is best. So I guess I would conclude that unless God has revealed in the Bible why He didn't do this or that instead of what He did, I cannot answer.

Yeah... i just tried emailing this 'God' character... and this is what hotmail had to say about him:

Hotmail Error Wrote:Please use the following format for e-mail addresses: [email protected]. If you're using category names or nicknames, make sure you don't have any typos.
Unknown names: God.

And you wonder why we atheists don't think he exist?

(November 12, 2009 at 12:27 pm)Saerules Wrote: Yeah... i just tried emailing this 'God' character... and this is what hotmail had to say about him:

Hotmail Error Wrote:Please use the following format for e-mail addresses: [email protected]. If you're using category names or nicknames, make sure you don't have any typos.
Unknown names: God.

And you wonder why we atheists don't think he exist?

That's a good one.

(November 12, 2009 at 12:27 pm)Saerules Wrote: Yeah... i just tried emailing this 'God' character... and this is what hotmail had to say about him:

Hotmail Error Wrote:Please use the following format for e-mail addresses: [email protected]. If you're using category names or nicknames, make sure you don't have any typos.
Unknown names: God.

And you wonder why we atheists don't think he exist?

Hmm if 666 is the number of the beast whats his email address?

Hotmail Error Wrote:Please use the following format for e-mail addresses: [email protected]. If you're using category names or nicknames, make sure you don't have any typos.
Unknown names: God666.

That doesn't work either... I wonder if he uses @live, @yahoo, @hotmail, God forbid he use @mac...

But I can't just send it to one of them... i mean: there's only one God... right? So what if I email the wrong one?

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But wait... he's everywhere and knows everything... so he KNOWS I'm trying to send him an email... but his all-powerful self isn't sending me an email address >_<

It's [email protected]

Just sent an email saying hello and it hasn't been bounced back

Sweet! I'm gonna send one too! ^_^

I suppose Darwinian has finally found God! Hallelujah!

(November 12, 2009 at 4:02 pm)Saerules Wrote: Sweet! I'm gonna send one too! ^_^

I suppose Darwinian has finally found God! Hallelujah!

But there's no answer

Well... how can you expect him to answer if he's not really there!?

Clive Barker explained why we don't hear much from God in his book Imajica.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imajica

I won't tell you why but the wiki will spoil it if you read far enough. That book was an awesome read.

Rhizo