(January 22, 2016 at 2:19 pm)Cecelia Wrote: You're ignoring my point entirely.
Hardly. I'll respond again below.
(January 22, 2016 at 2:19 pm)Cecelia Wrote: God allegedly told the Israelites to commit genocide against the Cannanites. Sounds like a really nice guy.
1. Genocide is a loaded word that you've chosen for effect.
2. For all you know, people were begging God to do something about the Canaanites.
3. God isn't a guy. He is God, and that means you can't view him like you would some dude he lives in the same apartment building as you.
(January 22, 2016 at 2:19 pm)Cecelia Wrote: Since the days of actually recording history and witnesses, God has not made any such announcements to people. Is God afraid of recording devices or something?
Not likely. God is probably more concerned with not coercing anyone. However, the Bible is chock full of "actually recording history and witnesses". Just not electronically (which can be faked or altered, btw).
(January 22, 2016 at 2:19 pm)Cecelia Wrote: Instead people today merely try to attribute (falsely) things to him, such as you did with World War II. Attributing the Allied Victory to God. But God wasn't involved at all, at least not in the manner of the cannanites.
You know this how?
(January 22, 2016 at 2:19 pm)Cecelia Wrote: Which suggests to me one of two things:
#1. The Israelites merely attributed their actions to the will of their 'God', and no such command was actually given.
or
#2. The Israelites were commanded by God, but then God had absolutely zero to do with anything since the advent of recording devices and mass communication quite mysteriously.
The most likely answer, of course is #1. Much like with the course of many other things in the OT where people attributed things to 'god', but God never showed his face much like he doesn't today (most likely because he doesn't exist. Non-existent entities have a hard time showing up!)
Or 3. God interacts with His people all the time in ways that you personally refuse to accept. Your belief that God hasn't "showed his face" since the days of Joshua is just YOUR personal opinion - one that many, many people would obviously disagree with. But we're on the verge of wandering off the Canaanite track here.
(January 22, 2016 at 2:19 pm)Cecelia Wrote: The God of the Bible (as a work of fiction) is immoral. He's an author-insert Mary Sue who can do no wrong according to the author because he is who he is. Really he's a badly written mary sue when committing genocide (multiple times!) is considered 'right'. The author clearly never considered a viewpoint other than their own. Which makes for a rather boring work of fiction. There's no morally gray area for the character of Yahweh, because Yahweh is the super popular, super powerful jock at the high school, and everybody loves him and anyone who doesn't is 'bad'. Of course this doesn't work so well when Theists argue for it, because today we consider other viewpoints other than our own. Heck even the villains of the bible are poorly written. Satan gets almost no screen time, and comes across as better than God. Most groups committed genocide against are supposedly so terrible, but we never hear about most of their deeds. They're just so one dimensional that it's like really bad fanfiction. And then the NT is basically bad fanfiction of already bad fanfiction.
Lots of opinion. No substance. And no rebuttal of the OP, btw.
(January 22, 2016 at 2:19 pm)Cecelia Wrote: So tell me. What makes God moral and just? The fact that the bible says he is? Because that's pretty bad fanfiction. I could write Sauron as the hero of Lord of the Rings in really bad fanfiction, but if I leave all the terrible stuff he's done and try to paint it as 'good', then that doesn't really make him a good guy at all. It makes him a bad guy with good publicity. Which is what Yahweh is. A bad guy with good publicity. In fact if Satan were real, I'd presume he'd want to present his side of the story by inspiring his own book.
Not exactly on topic, but I'll respond simply that God is BY DEFINITION moral and just, and we don't have to be discussing the God of the Bible.
So, no, God is not moral and just because the Bible says that He is. So, it's the other way around.
The Bible says that he is moral and just because He is.
