Problems With The Bible Pt 5 - Sodom and Gomorrah

[John V]

You really have no idea what I was getting at, do you?

Yes, I do. I disagree with what you're getting at.

Anyway, here's the thing.  The mere fact that you have to apologize for your god, the mere fact that no two Christians agree on the supposed basic tenets of the faith, the mere fact that there are ~40,000 sects... all of that points to a being whose supposed infallible word is incredibly unclear.  I, for one, would think that the purported creator of all things could manage to be unambiguous.  He created the universe, but can't do a little text editing.  Remarkable.

And again, you're assuming that a god would necessarily communicate with us in a certain way. As I noted, the Proverbs passage specifically says that god wanted it to take work for us to get truths from his word. I don't see why that would be surprising. It's not uncommon for a teacher to assign a research project when he already knows the correct answer. He does so because he sees value in the research process itself, in addition to the answers to be found.

And the only real defense for it that you or any theist has is to rely on the old 'mysterious ways' canard while quoting bible verses, as though the handbook of your faith - which is a poorly written collection of self-contradictory myths - has any authority beyond what it attempts to give itself.  Which is why I posted the circular logic image, because that's mostly what you're doing.

See above for an explanation of why god might make it difficult for us to get truths from the Bible.

I don't expect god to be exactly like computer code.  I do expect it to be more logical and reasonable than I am.  I'm pretty smart, but I don't consider myself to be the smartest guy on the planet.  Hell, there's a bunch of people here that are much smarter than I am.  Better read, better at punching holes in bad arguments.  But if I, of somewhat above average intellect, can see holes wide enough for an 18-wheeler to drive through, then that's a problem.  I shouldn't be able to outwit god.

So far I haven't seen you outwit god.

And, yeah, bring on emotion!  Faith is supposed to be uplifting and joyous, right?  Well, if it really was, then the threat of hell would be completely unnecessary.  I should want to join the flock because it's fucking awesome, not because my eyelids will slowly be sliced from my body as it burns in a fiery pit.  If the only options are join or torture, doesn't that signify a problem?  Because in my world it certainly does.

Your world is your world. In my experience, people are motivated by different things. Some come to the faith initially due to fear, then grow into joy. Others get to skip the fear. Unlike you, I don't expect every person to behave as I would.

The god in your bible makes no sense.  He curses man for a crime that would've been easily avoidable with a little foresight and baby proofing.  He destroys a couple of cities because they're sinful, but lets a pair of daughters rape their father.  Then, he floods the entire planet because it's evil, except for a select few, so, woohoo, more incest.  It takes him sending his son/part of himself down to earth to get murdered before he chills out, but that sucks so bad, he mostly undoes it three days later.

I'm not asking for programming-level logic and consistency.  Dr. Seuss level would be a good starting point.

If you studied those things, you would find answers. You'd still be free to disagree with them, but at least you would have learned something. But ridicule, memes, and youtube videos are cheap and easy.