Creation/evolution3

[watchamadoodle]

@Drich, as I am remembing the whole story of Exodus, how can you take that literally and have any love for God? God hardens the heart of Pharaoh, so he can punish Egypt with plagues - culminating in God's Angel killing every firstborn in Egypt ... even animals?

So?

What if God harden the hearts of the members of ISIS from this point on? What would change?

Just because God hardened pharroah's heart did not mean Pharroah loved the jews.
Ender's Game is a recent Harrison Ford Movie in it is a great quote that sums up what happened here:

Colonel Graff: Tell me why you kept on kicking him. You had already won.

Ender Wiggin: Knocking him down won the first fight. I wanted to win all the next ones, too. So they'd leave me alone.

After the 10 plagues and the standoff at the Red sea 'Pharroah left them alone.'

There are numerous stories in the Bible where God seems to be a very evil being. You can't take these stories literally and still love such a God. You might worship this God out of fear, but you could not love it.

Why not?

There is only an issue if I suppose that 'my morality' is indeed greater than God. if I am in place to judge God then I become the authority and therefore can not love or worship Him as my Authority.

What I have learned is our acts, in of themselves hold no righteous/moral value. It's what God says about them that makes them right or wrong.

Man has a tendency to give value to the deeds themselves. Why? so that they can later be maniuplated to justify his wants.. In truth there is nothing in the bible that has been attributed to God that man himself hasn't done for some 'justifiable' reason.

So if you want to continue believing in God, then you need to stop taking the Bible literally - just like Roxy suggested in an early post.

And, what if I know I can have God's full backing and support if I continue that path that I'm on? Why would I want to change?

Like with the Jews I have spent 40 years in the desert (tough times) and I have been shown the promise land. why would I want to abandon my post just before I got to step in?

Especially after all the crazy stuff I have witnessed and been apart of.

Didn't Paul say God's law is written on everybody's heart (i.e. intuitive)? My intuitive sense of right and wrong wants to puke when it reads the story of Genesis.

This idea that we should abandon our own innate sense of morality is really dangerous IMO - especially when the Bible is so ambiguous and people claim to get guidance through the Holy Spirit.

I don't expect I will change your mind though.