(June 11, 2010 at 6:00 am)tackattack Wrote: True, but as far as we are concerned there is free will, and we are held liable to those actions since we're not a)eternal or b)omnipotent. Our perspective, for now, is the best we have to go off of until we find sentient life or AI.
I can see your point about the personificaions and I agree that the concept of God is a man-made concept. Just as the concept of black or chair is a man made concept. One is materialistic by nature another is not. I do actually believe that God's Love isn't a man made construct other than our interpretation of it. It's listed as an attributable noun in the Bible, "God is Love" . The parts where the Bible says God loves you or God is a loving God I dismiss as much as I do any other personification by adjective not proper identifier. I think our understanding of God has progreesed over years, albeit slowly and with the help of the scientific process. Using science to find "God" I believe Fr0d0 would say is an idotic excercise, but I think the scientific process can be useful in our approach to how God interacts wih the physical universe as we know it and helps define our ocncept of God.
Yes the choice is still ours. Your statement would be valid if God had no control over our choices, however he made us that way. He created us as sinners, knows when and how we will sin, and then condemns us to Hell when we sin ? this is sadistic, illogical, and certainly not what i would call "love".
Also, the concept of God is nothing like "black" or "chair". These are concepts that everyone can understand. You can ask two people with completely opposite views on every subject and they would still agree on what black or a chair is. What you describe is unique to you and many theists i know would disagree with your perception of God.
