(August 3, 2015 at 9:55 pm)Godschild Wrote:(August 3, 2015 at 9:28 pm)Salacious B. Crumb Wrote: I think you're missing the point. The "fact" that god actually hardened the pharaoh's heart in order to perform his magic show, to watch everyone suffer with the plagues is absolutely.. INSANE. He didn't just punish the bad, the innocent were hurt as well.
You and I see the scriptures in a very different fashion. I doubt you would punish the good people, along with the bad people, if you were a god. I can't understand how people just look at this as being perfectly ok, when most of them would consider punishing good people along with bad people, immoral, but when this god character does it in a book, written by man, it's perfectly ok. I call that a double standard.
No, you are the one who has missed the whole point, Pharaoh had a second chance before his heart was hardened permanently, Pharaoh was warned and he said he now knew the God of Israel. Yet he refused to let the Israelites go, Pharaoh could have stopped all his peoples suffering by releasing the Israelites.
You blame God because you do not want to believe in Him, I blame Pharaoh because he saw the power of God and disobeyed after saying he knew Israels God.
GC
Yeah, we don't see eye to eye on that. I can see where you're going with that, but having given you my opinion on a god hardening someone's heart, is just absolutely preposterous to begin with, so it's hard for me to take that story seriously. It's also hard for me to believe that god orchestrated a world-wide flood, which there is no evidence for, and having wreaked havoc with his plagues. They sound like tales of primitive men.
You keep accusing me of having never read the bible or not wanting to believe in your god. Which is not true. Although, you'd probably think the same of me, accusing you of not being skeptical enough about this voice you hear in your head. The thing is, is that you claim facts, with nothing to back it up. I'm actually perfectly open to a god being out there, but there is nothing sufficient for me to go on there. In fact, the evidence of your god is so non-existent, that you could practically say that he isn't there with at least 99% certainty, but of course, I can't be sure. The evidence of jesus is the exact same as other miracle men, written throughout history; there were stories written about this character on paper/papyrus, that is it. Again, I don't want to not believe in a god, but I surely don't want to worship your version of a god for reasons, that should be completely discernible.
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.' -Isaac Asimov-
