Alright, Jehovah Exists - Why Worship Him?

[Purple Knight]

Let's assume the God of the Bible exists. Taking aside that he has named himself God, why is he God?

What makes an entity God?

And if this entity exists, why worship him?

[JehovahsWitness]

This is actually one of the things I'm talking about, which seems to fly in the face of the obligation to examine] which I did get JW to admit to.

Jehovah created humans with the capacity to reason and yes an expection they properly use their reason to make wise choices. That said since the God if the bible is compassionate and reasonable the scripture implies He will not condemn the ignorant for their bad choices. That is the Jehovahs Witness position. I get the feeling you are trying to connect such bad choices with being judged as incorrigibly wicked, if this is so, we claim no ownership for such a conclusion.



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[Diogenes]

Jehovah created humans [unfounded assumption] with the capacity to reason and yes an expection they properly use their reason to make wise choices. That said since the God if the bible is compassionate and reasonable the scripture implies He will not condemn the ignorant for their bad choices.

Now the argument has completely jumped the tracks. The Bible is replete with examples where God condemns people because of their ignorance or for reasons not of their making. God 'hardened' Pharaoh's heart. He struck and killed Uziah for touching the Ark of the Covenant in order to save it. He ordered Isaac killed despite his innocence. He disfavored Cain because he brought fruit instead of lamb. He condemns 'flat nosed' people and those with crushed testicles, not because of choices they made, but because of divine whim. 'Jehovah' is not compassionate. He is arbitrary, capricious, unfair, tribal, and a fictional character. 'He' exists only in the minds of members of the tribe.

[Purple Knight]

Jehovah created humans with the capacity to reason and yes an expectation they properly use their reason to make wise choices. That said since the God if the bible is compassionate and reasonable the scripture implies He will not condemn the ignorant for their bad choices. That is the Jehovahs Witness position. I get the feeling you are trying to connect such bad choices with being judged as incorrigibly wicked, if this is so, we claim no ownership for such a conclusion.

No, not quite like that. I just think we can, if we try, lift our own selves out of our ignorance. Whether or not we go to Hell if we don't happen to make that leap is not of consequence to my argument, and it's probably a lot like your answer on the thread about Forest Gump's mum trading her body for a better life for her son because she didn't see a better way, which is that God understands how difficult some things are for people. Judging by how many people lead unexamined lives, God would be a royal buttlump if he actually condemned them all for not having it occur to them that everything they were taught might be wrong.

My point is, we do have that obligation, even if it's a difficult path. (Especially if it occurs to us, perhaps.)

So we really ought to be looking at what we're taught, all of us regardless of which side we're on, with the finest tooth comb we have. Frankly I see you as much less reactive than most of the atheists here, but the point is, nobody should be reactive. Everyone should be sifting everything. The slavery thread is a particularly good example of pure reactivity and no sifting: Slavery bad me taught so, God must be bad he say slavery okay. And if you actually try to make them sift it, all you get is empty definitionalism: Whatever is called slavery must be bad even if they had better protections for their slaves than the workers at walmart get today.

Now the argument has completely jumped the tracks. The Bible is replete with examples where God condemns people because of their ignorance or for reasons not of their making.

I think he just smushes them in reality which in the Christian canon is arguably different than actively saying they actively did a bad and need to burn in Hell as eternal punishment for some deliberate sin. It's possible the Amalekites got physically smushed because they hurt the Chosen People but then all got to go to Heaven anyway because they weren't individually responsible for being wicked.

But I have to say it's functionally a cop-out, because this doesn't help us navigate reality in a moral fashion. It might end up being true that not everyone God physically smushes ended up condemned, but it doesn't help me because I have to live in a single reality where I can't just hurt people because of what they did, then claim it wasn't their fault and I sent them to Heaven. If I have to hurt someone for something that isn't their fault, then I actively did a bad, and I should be punished. 'Cause I know that's wrong.