Quote:As a parent you tell you kid if you do x one more time your punishment will be Y. They do X and you punish with Y. Is it not then also possible to regret having to punish your kid for what he has done?
Attempts to create analogies between God and human parents are always suspect, for the following reasons:
1. Godly punishments tend to be vastly our of proportion for the sins commited (what human parent would set bears on his children for making fun of an old man's baldness?)
2. God sets unreasonable goals for human beings (such as the proscription on covetousness) and punishes them when they fail. This is essentially the same as punishing a three-years old child for failing to master tensor calculus.
3. God knows in advance what his 'children' are going to do, thus parental-type warnings are superflous.
Specific to the statement quote above, I doubt that God (as usually defined) would be able to feel regret. It is generally accepted that God cannot act in any manner contrary to his nature, so how would it be possible for God to regret ANY action?
I suppose this is just another instance of religionists not really having a clear idea of what they mean when they say 'God'.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
