Yea, super wise. Let's divide all of mankind into two groups - good and bad. For the good people, eternal bliss. For the bad people, eternal torture. God's threshold is 75% good deeds vs 25% bad deeds. Joe performed 23,476 deeds in his life. 17,372 were good. 6,104 were bad. That's hell for Joe, who only got to 74%. Mary, also performed 23,476 deeds in her life. She got to 17,650 good deeds with only 5,862 bad ones. The extra 300 or so good deeds put Mary over the top, and she gets eternal bliss. Better luck next time Joe.
Or maybe you don't interpret the bible that way, let's try the even less moral view of morality.
Joe performed 23,475 bad deeds in his life. His last deed, number 23,476 was to beg forgiveness from God and welcome him into his heart. That's heaven for Joe. Mary, on the otherhand, performed 23,467 out of 23,467 good deeds. She lived her life without a single bad deed. She got close when she was 5 years old and thought about taking a toy away from her younger sister, but she held out and shared like a good girl. Other than that it was smooth sailing to a perfect score. Mary's an atheist so of course that'll be eternal torture for her (one cross each).
The bible says one of the 10 most important commandments is to honor your parents (uh... my parents are horrible people who stole from me so...). Parents of course come in all shapes and sizes. Some of them beat (or worse) their children, but the bible says honor them so... it must be moral.
Don't take lord's name in vain? This is worthy of a commandment? This is in the top 10 things you shouldn't do? Super important moral code for humanity to live by there.
How about "don't hurt children" or "try not to enslave your fellow man". No? not that important? Actually the bible kinda teaches away from those. Honestly I think a grade-school student could do better coming up with a moral code.
*For full disclosure, this post was heavily influenced by the writings of TheraminTrees and Christopher Hitchens.
Good thing you don't know what's truly in Joe's and Mary's heart, so you can only just speculate and second guess, like sciences theories of the unanswered.
Try other religions that need works and deeds to make it to their gods.
Islam is perfect for Joe and Mary, as their deeds will be weighed on a scale, and even so, Allah still has the final say, even if the scales are in favour of good.
Let me help you with the commandments:
Children, obey your parents
in the Lord: for this is right.
2Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise
3That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
In the Lord, meaning parents who follow Gods commandment, especially the one below:
AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.'
31"The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these
So, if you follow this commandment, I'm guessing you can see that there is plenty room for "don't hurt children", "don't enslave fellow man", don't hate a person in your heart, don't commit adultery in your heart, don't lie in your heart etc etc.
Honestly, I think even the hardened heart of a sinner or determined scientist to disprove God can see this in his heart, yet the pride and his carnal mind, allows him to refute this through free will. No excuses on J day. None brother.
I'm sure people from 3000 years ago could come up with whatever. They certainly were unable to predict the most likely end states for the universe though. This is something you can test yourself. First, go find some hypothesized ends to the universe and then compare them to predictions made 1000's of years ago.
Ignorance won't help you. You can't possibly provide informed dialogue on things you know nothing about, but your post made it seem like you tried to.
Specifically what is this predicting? What modern theory is this supposed to represent?
This is why you get the responses you do, you keep putting forward ideas that you've heard, but never bothered to check. Flaws pointed out with them over and over, but you won't address them. We could go back to my last post. What is the genius in an Earth with an expiration date? If God is responsible for the Earth's orbit, it should be a pretty easy thing to at least keep it someplace where it will be habitable wouldn't?
As before, the fall creates only more problems. No answers. Why make flawed humans? Why lump innocent people with "guilty" people? etc.
This is one of the core problems. There is not a shred of proof in what you typed.
You have stated something that is consistent* and possible, but it is not the only possibility. In other words, while humanity's inability* to leave Earth is consistent with some being keeping up tied to the planet, it is also consistent with leaving the Earth being costly and difficult. Proof of your idea would be an observation consistent with your idea that is not consistent with other ideas.
* I am being generous, we've already been to the Moon, let achieved escape velocity from the solar system, so what you said isn't even true. People can leave Earth if they want to.
Still struggling to understand the fall I see. Is free will a flaw? Don't you like to watch any movie, or sleep with any female, or hate or love whomever you prefer? Be obedient, or completely make fun of people or their beliefs by choice?
How is free will a flaw, if you use it admirably?
I'll post it again, only because I love the Word:
31And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold,
it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17But of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof
thou shalt surely die.
So, are you basically saying that God shouldn't have given us, including Satan, free will?
In that case, we'd all be robots in the garden, till this day.
Nope, you can kill or love, hate or forgive, marry or divorce and believe Gods word or not.
Enjoy your free will, because life is short, so short that tomorrow is not promised to anyone.
It's so typical, when you see how Adam blamed Eve, then Eve blamed satan.
Likewise today, people who don't believe in God, spend most time talking about Him, as well as blaming Him for everything. Oh that day, no excuses will be made. Incredible.
@Scaff
Bud I've got a simple question for you.
So you know the bible talks about the mark of the beast (anti-christ), taken on ones right arm or forehead.
I'm sure you've seen this technology take full effect recently, coinciding with end times biblical prophecy.
Now I know you don't believe in the God of the Bible, or His future prophecies, so my question is, do you think people are just going on with this technology unaware, or are they actually reading the bible and trying to fit it's description, or is this just plain luck?
Also this one:
15And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
16And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
17For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
John is obviously shown a vision during the great tribulation. He doesn't know what is a bunker, so he says caves. Why else would presidents and celebrities and their body guards etc hide in caves, when they can afford bunkers using your tax money.
Same story, do you think it's just coincidence, or are they reading and going according to what the bible says, or is it just plain luck?
