(August 22, 2015 at 2:38 am)Celestine Wrote:(August 22, 2015 at 2:29 am)Ashground Wrote: They'd rather hate what their deity hates instead of questioning his 'perfection' (I suspect plain fear of Pascals Wager).
But that is just my guess, I wish I knew.
If it is pascal's wager shouldn't they think perhaps that this monstrous mythological being is the one trying to pull the sheet over their eyes? I mean Satan in the bible is a very nice guy , he share's the fruits of the garden willingly with Adam and Even bestowing them with knowledge (technically I think it's just a snake but many Christians identify it with satan), and it is this Yahweh who damns them and their children to suffer for disobeying his will. In the desert Satan offers' Jesus a chance to be the king of the world and that he won't even have to suffer a thing. Satan never says anything bad about god as far as I know in the bible. According to every Abrahamic faith it is Satan whom we have to thank for all of our technological advances, and Satan if he is the snake becomes something like the Prometheus among Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Prometheus never really got that much thanks either now that I think about it.
But back to Pascal's wager I mean as far as they know this Yahweh guy is actually everything he says Satan is, and Satan is the one you know, who rules over heaven and that this Yahweh fellow is actually the ruler of hell and Satan who does not want them to suffer for all eternity and stroke the ego of the biggest jerk in human history tries to save them from this path, but because they die willingly accepting Yahweh's terms that he enters his kingdom there is nothing Satan can do as they make the choice on their own free will.
I've arrived at the conclusion that the difference between Yahweh and Satan is really simple to understand. Yahweh (one of his many names) is considered "God" whereas Satan isn't. But what is a "god"? History is full of them. The more successful ones were the guys who instituted a comprehensive system of laws that regulated the local yokels' behavior in all things. As a group the "God" of the Bible was simply the series of men who ruled the dominant empire in the Middle East at any particular time. He had the power of life and death over all of the local yokels and they jumped when he said jump, most of the time. The Bible does include some stories where the local yokels told the God character to get bent and the God character goes bonkers with rage and foaming at the mouth threats.
Now the Yahweh character became the big God because he issued the "Law," aka the 613 rules that the Jews were supposed to follow for eternity. When Moses started spewing them out a lot of the local yokels didn't take them too seriously. Remember the golden calf and the guy who picked up sticks on the sabbath? Moses went ballistic and went on one of his usually killing sprees. He was ISIS on steroids. That kept people in line for a while and then they told him to go F himself. More killing. And since the people couldn't overthrow the jerk they simply complied with his rules. Moses gained the title of "god" for his efforts but he gave the title of "God" to someone else.
Jesus comes along and he created a shorter list of laws that everyone was supposed to follow, simply because he said so and if they didn't he would toss their butts into the lake of fire. So for his efforts he became known as the "son of God". He said that people had to follow the old rules (he didn't follow them himself but he was "special" and therefore exempt) but if they didn't follow all of his new rules he would throw their butts into the lake of fire.
Why do muslims worship Allah? Because "Mohammed" (aka Uthman) said that all of the new Islamic rules came from the deity Allah. If people don't follow them they are killed. And since it's a peer pressure religion people comply in public.
So why do people worship BS "gods"? Because if they don't they are usually killed or suffer serious sanctions from the herd. Christianity is the weak link because in the modern world people can claim to be a Christian and simply fake it. They don't have to wear special clothes, do group rituals, go on pilgrimages, or kill goats (or their children).
