RE: What would you do if you found out God existed
October 6, 2017 at 1:01 am
(This post was last modified: October 6, 2017 at 1:41 am by Whateverist.)
(October 5, 2017 at 7:26 pm)Losty Wrote: I can't continue hating something I didn't hate to begin with.
The what if of it is so hard to answer because there's just nothing within my comprehension that could ever explain away all the terrible things that have ever happened.
But...let's say he did exist and he somehow did explain it. I would be okay with that, I would believe if I was given all the evidence and all the answers. Assuming for the sake of argument that I didn't just write it off as myself having gone insane.
Would I want to worship him? No. Would I understand his need or desire to be worshipped? No.
I already regret all the things I've done wrong in my life, I don't need a god to tell me to feel remorse over the mistakes I've made.
Exactly.
(October 5, 2017 at 7:27 pm)SteelCurtain Wrote: If God showed up, proved himself to exist, proved himself to be only the good things in the Bible and denounced and proved that he did not command that women be subservient (1 Cor 14:34) or that slavery was allowable (Ex 21) or that the cost of apostasy was death (Deut 13:9) or that gay people should be stoned to death (Leviticus 20:13), or that bats were birds (Lev 11:19), etc etc etc. If he proved to me that these were in fact the codified prejudices of ignorant people, then I'd be grateful. I'd then ask if he were omnipotent, and if he says yes, I'd ask why he didn't make Stephen Paddock's gun explode in his face, mortally wounding him, or better yet, just made him disappear as soon as he broke the window. I'd ask why, if he wanted everyone to be saved, did he make it look exactly as if he didn't exist, what with the sheer amount of randomness and pain in the world. But if he answered all of these questions (and probably a lot more) satisfactorily, as I am assuming your hypothetical is proposing, then I'd happily follow him.
I'd know that the Bible would then be mostly useless, and I'd ask him to point out the parts that were "inspired," if any. Maybe I could write a new one. I'd be pretty famous, having talked to God and whatnot.
Since no mention was made of his explaining/justifying what was attributed to him in the bible, I assume he would disavow the bible entirely. Otherwise I'm fine with accepting the hypothetical premise that all was explained to my satisfaction for the sake of this mental experiment. After all nothing really rides on it and obviously it isn't really going to happen whether we wanted or didn't want it to happen.
(October 5, 2017 at 7:28 pm)The Gentleman Bastard Wrote: As I said in another thread, whether any gawd is worthy is more important than their existence. If your buy-bull gawd were proven, as described in the buy-bull, it still wouldn't be worthy of worship.
Yep, existent or not, whether or not this divinity is worthy is something that cannot be "explained' to us. That is where the rubber meets the road.
(October 5, 2017 at 7:36 pm)Losty Wrote: What is interesting to me is that proof that a good god exists would be proof that a Christian God does not exist.
Well a bible-defined Christian god at any rate, which seems to be the only kind anyone wants to allow anyhow.
(October 5, 2017 at 8:13 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote:(October 5, 2017 at 8:09 pm)Losty Wrote: @CL do you really think it's fair of you to make the assumption that people who don't believe in God feel no remorse for things they've done wrong?
No, it isnt fair. But I didn't make that assumption. What I meant was would you feel remorseful towards God for those things.
Sorry, I should have made that clear.
I think there is an important difference between not wanting to disappoint ones god -as I certainly would not want to do in the case of the worthy (non-biblical) god I can imagine- and feeling remorseful towards that god. Remorse is something I feel because it is I that did the thing that I cannot take back but wish I could. There is no way I can imagine directing that feeling toward god. My regret for disappointing god would be something additional but not the remorse itself. Do you understand what I mean?
(October 5, 2017 at 8:20 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote:(October 5, 2017 at 8:15 pm)Losty Wrote: Ok. I wouldn't. Can you explain to me why a person would feel remorseful towards God for a mistake they made that did god no harm? I don't get it. If I had sex with Carl's wife, why would I be sorry to God for that? I genuinely don't understand.
Because the belief is that our wrongdoings hurt God. Specifically those wrongdoings that hurt other people, because each one of those people are God's children.
...Anyway, that's the idea behind why we ask forgiveness from God, so that's what I was going for when I mentioned feeling remorse on the OP.
Yikes. God has just got to toughen up. If he wants to create creatures with our limited capacities and imbue them with free will, he had better be able to handle some disappointment. Don't let God make his hurt your problem. You have your own hurts to deal with. God is a big boy and can handle his business, believe me.
(October 5, 2017 at 9:21 pm)Astonished Wrote:(October 5, 2017 at 9:10 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote: It was a gorgeous reply. I loved it.
I get you wanting to love your unrealistic idea of your god. Every battered partner wants to think they can fix them, change them, believe in them and hope for the best in them to manifest itself and stay for good. But I look at you with your black eye and broken teeth and I want to weep; and I look at what that poisonous partner you idealize has done to you and want to shove his face into a meat grinder.
Poignantly insightful.
