The Trinity Explained

[DeistPaladin]

Then you obviously don't get it.

When I went to see the Passion of the Christ, my Christian friend saw a loving act by a god willing to do all of this for him. I saw a two-hour gay BDSM snuff flick where some poor guy got the hell beaten out of him and then put to a slow agonizing death. He found it uplifting. I found it depressing.

Maybe he "gets it" and I don't but I don't think so. I saw what was there on the screen, unfiltered by indoctrination as to what I was supposed to be witnessing.

Same with the entire concept of the loving sacrifice. It only makes sense to someone who's been conditioned to feel a certain way about it. To me, it only makes sense if there are forces beyond the sacrificee's control. A soldier who jumps on a grenade to save his comrades only does so because the grenade is otherwise beyond his control. The cause/effect in my example is clear. We understand HOW the sacrifice helps and why it was necessary.

With your example, it isn't clear how a man being beaten, tortured and nailed to a cross helps anything. Also, Yahweh can decide who to forgive and who to condemn. Neither cause/effect nor motive are clear. It's just senseless bloodshed and torture.