(July 12, 2015 at 1:00 pm)Laika Wrote: I have a question for Christians. This is out of genuine curiosity:
If God were to manifest himself before us, will you "unconditionally" accept and worship Him, if He is not the God of the Bible?
Wow, I made the same point, earlier, but you made it far more succinctly than I did.
For some reason, I felt the compulsion to write a novel to make that same point.
Brevity is not my strong suit.
But I will take this opportunity to add to the point, now:
That THIS is the very reason I am an Agnostic who is NOT mad at God.
I allow for the possibility that God exists
....but I do NOT allow for the likelihood that God, if he exists at all, has ANYTHING to do with ANY of the religions of the world.
I can't fathom a truly genius, almighty god....who is as cruel, petulant or stupid, like the God of the Bible is.
I figure mankind just made-up the Biblical God....and that doesn't mean that there really isn't a God, out there, who is completely different.
The way I imagine God, he doesn't care if people believe in him or not;
He doesn't care about "sin" (another man-made concept);
He doesn't care about people taking His name in vain, or blaspheming.
The God I imagine, would, ironically, be most interested in talking with people like Dawkins or Hitchens...
....and would probably think religious people are annoying, pathetic and disgusting.
So, I imagine the courtyard in front of the Pearly Gates one day being filled with slack-jawed Theists who are trying to grasp the concept that God DOES exist, but is NOTHING like what they thought he would be!!
They'll be expecting God to hurl the Atheists into hell,
but would be dumbfounded to discover that not only are the Atheists NOT being hurled into hell,
but that God would RATHER chat with the Atheists, than will the Theists!!
They'll be incapable of comprehending that God isn't offended by the Atheist lack of faith, whatsoever.
I just cannot attach any credibility to the concept of a God
who cares whether or not mankind believes in him,
any more than I, as a human,
can attach importance to what the squirrels in the back yard think of me.