RE: Seeking meaningful advice from atheists
May 6, 2022 at 4:23 pm
(This post was last modified: May 6, 2022 at 4:24 pm by Ad Astra.)
Thank you everyone for your kind words so far.
There are more examples where God seems to nitpick at the minutia of my private conduct, particularly when he deems it “sinful.” Based on my knowledge of God’s personality, having been praying to him either every day or multiple times a day, I believe it’s accurate to characterize him as an ethical perfectionist. The reason why I specifically brought up the subject of alcohol is not because I really really enjoy it (nor do I ever get drunk) but feel deeply disappointed by being forced to never drink again; it was raised because Jesus turned water into wine during a wedding (John 2:1-11), and there is also the fact that Jesus and his disciples drank a glass of wine during the Last Supper. In fact, Ecclesiastes 9:7 appears to encourage drinking in moderation: “Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do.” God telling me not to ever drink wine again seems very unfair, especially considering his way of reasoning about it, and even more so considering the Bible approves of it (which is apparently “misinformation”)
I will give another example where God nitpicks at private conduct that shouldn’t concern him, calling it sinful.
I like to play crime simulators like the Grand Theft Auto games, and plenty of others. God spoke to me in a vivid dream telling me how wrong I was to play these sorts of games, since he thinks they are “sinful.”
At first I didn’t believe the dream was from God, because if it was it doesn’t make sense. Video games are only entertainment. I could play a game where the characters go on a multimillion dollar heist, but I would never do something that bad in real life. In fact, I’m so good about following the law that I haven’t ever been pulled over by a cop for speeding during my decades of driving. I don’t shoplift or otherwise engage in other petty crimes.
It's very easy for me to distinguish between reality and fiction. Why would God think I’m committing a bad sin by simply playing a GTA game?
The bad dreams God made kept happening, and then he told me outright not to play anymore, leaving me feeling disappointed and hurt.
For the next several days I repeated to God in prayer everything I said the second and third previous paragraphs. And I think he eventually got the message and doesn’t find fault in me for entertainment. But still, it is deeply irritating that I would have to explain to God why I, a grown-ass man, should be allowed to play a video game! I’m 33 years old, not 6 years old.
Other people in this thread asked about how I can hear God’s voice audibly, then suggested it could be hallucination. But it isn’t hallucination. Here is how I can tell:
One night me and God were discussion a religious subject as I prayed. He said something like, “sift through book, chapter, and verses such and such.” Sift is not a word I had heard before. In fact, I never used it in my entire life. I had to go to an online dictionary to figure out what he meant.
Often God will speak to me in words I haven’t heard before. In my opinion, this means it’s God’s voice. How else could an unknown word entered the prayer discussion?
There are more examples where God seems to nitpick at the minutia of my private conduct, particularly when he deems it “sinful.” Based on my knowledge of God’s personality, having been praying to him either every day or multiple times a day, I believe it’s accurate to characterize him as an ethical perfectionist. The reason why I specifically brought up the subject of alcohol is not because I really really enjoy it (nor do I ever get drunk) but feel deeply disappointed by being forced to never drink again; it was raised because Jesus turned water into wine during a wedding (John 2:1-11), and there is also the fact that Jesus and his disciples drank a glass of wine during the Last Supper. In fact, Ecclesiastes 9:7 appears to encourage drinking in moderation: “Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do.” God telling me not to ever drink wine again seems very unfair, especially considering his way of reasoning about it, and even more so considering the Bible approves of it (which is apparently “misinformation”)
I will give another example where God nitpicks at private conduct that shouldn’t concern him, calling it sinful.
I like to play crime simulators like the Grand Theft Auto games, and plenty of others. God spoke to me in a vivid dream telling me how wrong I was to play these sorts of games, since he thinks they are “sinful.”
At first I didn’t believe the dream was from God, because if it was it doesn’t make sense. Video games are only entertainment. I could play a game where the characters go on a multimillion dollar heist, but I would never do something that bad in real life. In fact, I’m so good about following the law that I haven’t ever been pulled over by a cop for speeding during my decades of driving. I don’t shoplift or otherwise engage in other petty crimes.
It's very easy for me to distinguish between reality and fiction. Why would God think I’m committing a bad sin by simply playing a GTA game?
The bad dreams God made kept happening, and then he told me outright not to play anymore, leaving me feeling disappointed and hurt.
For the next several days I repeated to God in prayer everything I said the second and third previous paragraphs. And I think he eventually got the message and doesn’t find fault in me for entertainment. But still, it is deeply irritating that I would have to explain to God why I, a grown-ass man, should be allowed to play a video game! I’m 33 years old, not 6 years old.
Other people in this thread asked about how I can hear God’s voice audibly, then suggested it could be hallucination. But it isn’t hallucination. Here is how I can tell:
One night me and God were discussion a religious subject as I prayed. He said something like, “sift through book, chapter, and verses such and such.” Sift is not a word I had heard before. In fact, I never used it in my entire life. I had to go to an online dictionary to figure out what he meant.
Often God will speak to me in words I haven’t heard before. In my opinion, this means it’s God’s voice. How else could an unknown word entered the prayer discussion?
