Quote:God's incredibly specific laws of the OT were meant to distinguish the Jews as God's people who preserved God's law in a world that had forgotten it. But these laws were only part of the formula. In the OT, the physical was used to indicate the spiritual, but in the NT, Christ showed the full path to salvation was based on the spiritual.What? So god used his laws to choose a group of people and abandon the rest of the world. Then he tricked them into following the laws, when actually, if only they had lived till christ came, they'd find the true path to salvation had nothing to do with all those laws?
Quote:If Judeo-Christian theism was based off of the promise of heaven, the Bible would be more top-down. There is little, if any, mention of life after death in the OT, let alone promises of glory and joy, contrary to Islam.What are you replying to here? I said paul believed in heaven, it's not surprising he doesn't care about his life. He believes his life is a tool of god and the endgoal for him is to be with god in heaven. And i still have no idea what this has to do with anything? is it supposed to prove something that paul doesn't care about his suffering?
Paul did describe his hope in a "prize" in 2 Timothy 4:8, but, he is thankful in suffering for much better reasons than the stereotypical Christian motive.
"More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Romans 5:3-5
"We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies." 2 Corinthians 4:8-10
"That I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death." Philippians 3:10
"Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church." Colossians 1:24
Suffering brought Paul closer to Christ's suffering, and he was glad in the experience of it because his suffering was inherently good, not because it would soon be over. Or else he would have said a few Masses and killed himself.
Quote:God's laws in the Torah were made for the Israelite people to guide them spiritually, so it drew on much of what they already knew with their OT culture. Surviving in the desert was hard work, not to mention the constant fighting, so men played a critical role in supporting families. Women didn't fight wars, and so they generally worked at home, not to mention that men protected them from those who would overpower and exploit them. Men and women were equal, but fit into different caches of society. That's all.you don't know what equality means either do you? Yea, one thing your god is quite consistent about is never teaching his people much. Oh, it was hard to survive in the desert, let's resort to the ways you already know. oh, you think your women are worth less, ok i don't know how to explain to you, so let's play along with that as well. If god was as smart as all you people put it, you'd think he'll teach them something useful. Not like he's above meddling with their "fates".
Quote:God never destroyed man itself. He destroyed many bad people, but he didn't start over. Humanity continued with ordinary Homo sapiens, just as it had before. Noah himself was a vessel of God preserving the human race.Yea i know what you mean, sometimes when i'm writing and nothing sounds right, i'd delete the entire thing but the title. i'm preserving it you see, not starting over. The title's my vessel.
Quote:To wish bad of somebody else is a bad thing. Hate is not inherently evil. God hates.Nope, that's not bad either. You were the one who said hate is sin, sin is ungodly. that is word for word.