Is Yahweh a model God for today?

[Thomas123]

“The older I get, the smarter my father seems to get.� Tim Russert

I will debate on this thread, both the benefits and the necessity for us as a species on this earth to commit to a God based on the model that is the Hebrew God, Yahweh. We need Yahweh!

I welcome all contributions to this very broad subject.

Is Yahweh a model God for today?

[Elijah John]

“The older I get, the smarter my father seems to get.� Tim Russert

I will debate on this thread, both the benefits and the necessity for us as a species on this earth to commit to a God based on the model that is the Hebrew God, Yahweh. We need Yahweh!

I welcome all contributions to this very broad subject.

We need YHVH's combination of ethics as in the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule, and His compassion. As in the Torah and the Prophets, like Micah 6.8. Without ethics and compassion things degenerate into every man for himself.

And without constant gratitude in one's life, one becomes covetous. Gratitude is good for a person's peace of mind, and coveting leads to crime. I recently saw a video of a mob of urban youth attacking a young woman and beating her senseless over sneakers of all things. These are Godless youth with no compassion and no sense of right and wrong. God fearing people don't do things like this. People whose life ethic is the Golden Rule don't do things like this.

Coveting at it's most extreme leads to violence like this.

We need YHVH and His ways.

[marco]

“The older I get, the smarter my father seems to get.� Tim Russert

I will debate on this thread, both the benefits and the necessity for us as a species on this earth to commit to a God based on the model that is the Hebrew God, Yahweh. We need Yahweh!

I welcome all contributions to this very broad subject.

Moderator Comment

Hello Thomas. Welcome to the forum. First of all when you start a thread you have to pose a question for discussion.


You will find some people agree with you about Yahweh's being indispensable, while others don't think so.

I've turned your statement into a question so that we can continue with a potentially interesting topic. Go well.

Please review the Rules.


______________

Moderator comments do not count as a strike against any posters. They only serve as an acknowledgment that a post report has been received, but has not been judged to warrant a moderator warning against a particular poster. Any challenges or replies to moderator postings should be made via Private Message to avoid derailing topics.

[Thomas123]

Thank You for this assistance and your kind words.

[amortalman]

[Replying to post 1 by Thomas Mc Donald]

Is Yahweh a model God for today?

I agree with Richard Dawson in his book The God Delusion. The first sentence in Chapter 2 says it perfectly:

"The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty, ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously, malevolent bully."

[Thomas123]

Thank you amortalman,
for getting most of the cards on the table at the start of this debate. Yahweh has been accused of all these crimes and more beside them. It strikes me looking at the list that they all resemble the actions of people. Terrible actions have been perpetrated by people in the name of Yahweh. Direction has been extracted from Yahweh that has resulted in these things been done.

We are minions, by default, amortalman, and we have hidden our evil behind this God. The victims of this evil deserve apology and remorse ,both of which have rarely happened. Thank You for your post so early in the thread.

[Thomas123]

The atrocities of people are both timeless and borderless. People with and without Gods have committed these actions.

I remember reading a Buddist story about a man who had his car robbed in a caravan park. He became very upset. When he discovered that the thief was a raccoon looking for chocolate his rage immediately left him.

There is something particularly awful about a falsehood perpetrated under the prescribed permission of a God that is supposed to be good.

I am not an apologist for anything here but I feel it important to state this fact. No God, fictional or real, is exclusively evil.

[Tcg]

I recently saw a video of a mob of urban youth attacking a young woman and beating her senseless over sneakers of all things. These are Godless youth with no compassion and no sense of right and wrong.

This is an interesting conclusion. I can't help but wonder how you know these youth were Godless? Was there a post attack interview where their theistic positions were discussed? If not, what evidence led you to reach this conclusion?

God fearing people don't do things like this.

Another interesting conclusion. What evidence led you to reach this conclusion?

People whose life ethic is the Golden Rule don't do things like this.

People don't need to be Godfull to follow the Golden Rule.

We need YHVH and His ways.

Why? YHVH holds no monopoly on the Golden Rule:

• Golden Rule
  
  The idea dates at least to the early Confucian times (551–479 BC), according to Rushworth Kidder, who identifies that this concept appears prominently in Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, and "the rest of the world's major religions".[2] 143 leaders of the world's major faiths endorsed the Golden Rule as part of the 1993 "Declaration Toward a Global Ethic".[3][4] According to Greg M. Epstein, it is "a concept that essentially no religion misses entirely", but belief in God is not necessary to endorse it.[5] Simon Blackburn also states that the Golden Rule can be "found in some form in almost every ethical tradition".
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule
  
  <bolding mine>

Tcg

[Tcg]

I am not an apologist for anything here but I feel it important to state this fact. No God, fictional or real, is exclusively evil.

Given how many gods have been proposed, (Godchecker.com invites us to "Discover almost 4000 Gods, Goddesses and Spirits from around the world) it would take quite extensive research to draw an absolute conclusion on this.

One has to wonder, if we did this research, would we find any that are exclusively good. Or in the case of polytheism, would we find a system where all the gods are all good. Perhaps gods, like humans who developed them, are all a mixture of both.


Tcg

[Thomas123]

Tcg "Perhaps gods, like humans who developed them, are all a mixture of both."

I think I can use this point in my argument. Yahweh is the God that I propose as being the best for purpose for us today. I have many particular reasons to choose Yahweh over others. If I convince people that Yahweh is a real runner here then the only consideration that remains is to weigh up the pros and cons of God belief in general.

I am deeply aware that the above is a simplication of the dynamic of starting to believe in a religion or not. Most people are predestined to believe because of their geographical location and ethnic background. A person born in Iran today is likely to follow Islam.