The Checkmate Question

[SallyF]

The Checkmate Question

Is the biblical deity Jehovah just as imaginary as any other god …?

[Clownboat]

It's really quite simple. How would you feel if God was proven?

Relieved!!! Humans are known to deceive and have invented gods to deceive the masses as our history around the globe shows.

Do you think it might affect your free decisions?

Depends on which decision. According to the story, it didn't affect Lucifer.

For myself, I can't think of anything worse.

This thread is about humans imagining the gods (Jehovah specifically), and here you are...

Better, I think, to let people make their mistakes, and learn by them, and by so doing, approach God's perfection voluntarily, and freely, and of their own accord.

I agree with you up until you interject the gods. Why are you imagining a gods perfection when discussing letting people make mistakes to learn by them? One concept doesn't follow from the other.

Be well!

[Clownboat]

Uh huh. But the truth is that all of us see God darkly, through the sinful lens of our own characters. That does not make Him imaginary,

Which of the gods are imaginary in your opinion?
What makes them imaginary?

[Clownboat]

Uh huh. But the truth is that all of us see God darkly, through the sinful lens of our own characters. That does not make Him imaginary,

Which of the gods are imaginary in your opinion?
What makes them imaginary?

"All of the gods are imaginary, except for mine!"
Says every tribe around the globe as human history has shown.

I use to believe the same thing, but I didn't know any better. Once I learned about all the gods around this planet and how they likely came to be, I was freed from my bronze age thinking about one god concept out of thousands.

[brunumb]

[Replying to post 80 by 2ndRateMind]

How would you feel if God was proven? Do you think it might affect your free decisions? For myself, I can't think of anything worse. It would be a God that did not offer, but imposed, His morality. Being omnipotent and proven, it would be a God that enforced that morality.

It seems to me that the position of believers is not that they know God exists but they have accepted his existence just in case. I don't see how the knowledge of God's existence imposes anything on us at all, but even if somehow it does, isn't that what Christians have willingly accepted anyway. They have adopted his enforced morality and don't seem to be fazed by that fact. Why should it matter if all of humanity was in the same boat? Are Christians afraid of losing their special 'we are saved' status?

[SallyF]

Uh huh. But the truth is that all of us see God darkly, through the sinful lens of our own characters. That does not make Him imaginary,

Which of the gods are imaginary in your opinion?
What makes them imaginary?

"All of the gods are imaginary, except for mine!"
Says every tribe around the globe as human history has shown.

I use to believe the same thing, but I didn't know any better. Once I learned about all the gods around this planet and how they likely came to be, I was freed from my bronze age thinking about one god concept out of thousands.

Which goes to the very heart of the OP.

The biblical YHVH/Jehovah/Yahweh/Whatever god is just as imaginary as the millions of other gods that have entered the imaginations of imaginative humans.

Not a soul that I know of has EVER demonstrated that this single, male, genocidal bigot is ANYTHING more than the product of human imagination.

But call it "God" with a capital G, and pick and chose the bits of human-written "scripture" that one likes, and one can cobble together belief systems that are convincing to certain of those that WANT to be convinced … in my opinion.