Over 16,528,972 people are on fubar.
What are you waiting for?
Christians claim God created humanity to worship him with free will but humans became something God did not intend (an arrogant statement implying humans outsmarted God). By disobeying they rendered God's perfect creation to be imperfect. God planned creation, and planned salvation.
Let's look at the Scriptural evidence. You can read the story of Adam and Eve and the fall from grace in Genesis chapter 3.
God told Adam and Eve to not eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, lest they die, giving them "free choice", instead of exercising his will over them.... (You do not have free will if you are commanded to do something and expected to obey. This is circumstantial will.)
The serpent told Eve that God knew they would not die but "...God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, & you will be like God, knowing good & evil." After eating the fruit of knowledge of good & evil, God himself proclaimed to his pantheon of male & female gods (whose image humans were fashioned from) that "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good & evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand & take also from the tree of life & eat, & live forever."
It was the desire for knowledge & the gaining of a conscience - knowing right from wrong - that caused Adam & Eve to "become like God" which was a duplication of Satan's Insurrection (a story from Christian theology, not supported by the Bible). This caused God such a big scare that he denied them eternal life (until Jesus came, & the bible gives no explanation of why god, all of a sudden, deems in okay to give people eternal life.) The irony of this story is that God put it all on himself, by creating them, the consequences of which he should have foreseen.
This God who Christians proclaim plans, sees & knows the future was outsmarted by two ignorant people whom he failed to give a conscience & thus the ability to make informed decisions. How can innocent people sin if they do not know the difference between right & wrong & how can he expect them to obey? A God who is so concerned with disobedience is a God who did not create humanity with a free will who could make their own mistakes, take responsibility and learn from them. God's foresight and planning doesn't go well.
Adam was an afterthought gardener & Eve an afterthought helper when the lower animals didn't suffice & childbirth was a curse! God curses all of humanity because of Adam and Eve's alleged sin and later throughout the OT kills innocent children and people for the sins of David or other responsible parties. If Christians want to condone such injustice, perhaps then, we should burn a few Christians at the stake or feed them to lions for Hitler's crimes. After regretting creating humans, he destroys his first batch of humans in a global flood.... Which he regrets & promises not to do again. He decides he can do better, but his plan of salvation is made more on a whim, & while he wants everyone to be delivered to heaven, in the end only a few will make it, while many perish in eternal torture. So much for God's perfect plan. God's plans often go awry in the bible.
Unable to take responsibility for his own actions, he passes blame, curses humanity and in all his alleged infallible good-will, love, compassion, understanding, infinite wisdom & justice....he finds it impossible to forgive & decides to come up with a drawn out plan of murder, violence, torment, mystery and miracles so he can come down to earth, be killed & deliver humanity from their sin. Apparently, his love for blood is more important than finding an easier and more graceful way to inspire his creation.
The biblical/Christian God is subject to ridicule and laughter since his Almighty wisdom and plan was outwitted by two people whom he failed to give a conscious - the ability to know wrong from right, and therefore the ability to exercise free will and make informed decisions. God's Almighty wisdom, omniscience, omnipotence, foresight & intentions was outsmarted by his first two human creations who were as dumb as rocks.God blames them for his own shortcomings of divine wisdom and then curses humanity for their crime. This is a god I hope I never have to face as judge in his Holy Law System of “Justice”. For any Christian to validate and confess that they believe in this type of injustice shows their corruption, inability to know right from wrong, the damage Christian theology has done to their psyche and should not be allowed to have a seat as part of a jury or as a judge in any criminal case.
If humans were to be responsible for their actions, fairness and justice requires that god gave them the ability to know wrong from right to enable them to make informed decisions, be less gullible to deception, understand obedience, be able to exercise free will, enable them to build their own character and be responsible for their own thoughts, emotions and actions; and enable to manage their own personal behavior.
The NT tells us that God created sin when he created the Laws (of Moses) and before that time, there was no sin because no one knew what it was. This makes Adam, Eve and all those killed in the flood blameless.
God was unable to stop an insurrection in his own domain that was made by imperfect angelic ingrates he created & instead of destroying them, he threw them in an ill-conceived pit that they proceeded to escape from. God allowed Satan to be on earth to tempt Eve & God placed more temptation in the Garden in the form of two trees. Why he was afraid of them gaining a conscious because it was a threat to his omnipotence but didn't warn them to not eat from the tree of eternal life raises questions. (Paul says sin was decreed so that Jesus might come & grant grace. Paul is therefore claiming Eve was framed as her actions were forced because of God's predestination to give birth to Christianity by conceiving sin. This makes her mother of all who is cursed with death by sin, playing a double role as mother of all the living)
The book of Job tells us that Satan can only do what God allows him to do. This entire book tells the story of God allowing Satan to persecute a sinless man, who faces many horrid sufferings so that God could prove himself. God tempts and proves.
A god who is unable to stop evil is not omnipotent. A god who is unwilling to stop evil is malevolent & cannot be reconciled with the idea of a good-will that is infallible. A god who uses evil to prove himself is vain & a jealous God who is so easily angered & confines most of humanity to infinite torture for finite sins is unjust & not compassionate. If a god is unwilling and unable to stop evil, then he cannot be adored or even admired & it is doubtful that he is capable of promising a peaceful utopia.
The NT tells us many times that God predetermines who is saved & he hardens the hearts of those who are not supposed to get the message. The names of those who were chosen have been in the Book of Life since the foundations of the world. This is an unjust arrangement if everyone is to be saved, and Jesus said that the path was narrow & few would enter heaven. This injustice makes God appear deceptive, malicious & malevolent.
A God who runs & controls everything cannot be reconciled with the human ability, & duty, to make informed decisions based on free will & as long as there is free will, God's plan is subject to frustration.
Jesus promotes the idea that God is a year round Santa Claus who will grant believers anything. If every plea from believers changes God's mind, this paints a picture of a purposeless, undependable Almighty who is prone to swaying indecisively from one course of action or opinion to another & responsibility for the course of events belongs to people, not God. Either he manages the world in the best possible way or he lets prayer influence him to manage things in a different way. Christians claim that he knows what you want before you ask for it, but if you don't ask do you still get it or not? Either God gives it to you either way by deciding what you need, or he doesn't control everything. They say he knows what you will do before you do it, but his omniscience about the fall from grace tells us the contrary.
Petition prayers cannot be reconciled with a God who should be able to handle things without suggestion & requests from mortals. Ability to change the mind of the Most High or to help him make decisions, is an arrogant notion for people who feel they need to tell God his business while claiming his wisdom in beyond our own. "Guide us, bless this food, lead us not into temptation, abide with me," such assertions & specific requests for special personal favors are insulting to an all-knowing, all-wise deity. Praise of thanks are just as pointless to an alleged unselfish God. It is even contradictory for God to demand recognition & constant worship for his gift of his death at human hands. Jesus made it clear that such gifts should be anonymous & alms done in secret. Then he contradicts himself by making belief in this "perfect gift" of his blood so important that rejection of such belief condemns the unbeliever to hell.
A God whose mind is so easily influenced is a God without plan or wisdom or ability to see into the future. A god, who contrary to some scripture, is after all changeable. Even King David made God think twice about one of his actions. So much for authority & infinite wisdom.
Throughout the OT, God forces events to happen, & causes people to act in ways that anger him & then kills innocent people & animals for it. Is there any idea more corrupt or unjust than being blamed for the actions of your accuser or that you are forced to do and kill innocent people for the iniquities of the guilty? A God who plans & knows the future & who murders is a malevolent God who premeditates murder & cannot be reconciled with a God who is benevolent. A future knowing God who premeditates murder, and orders the Jews to kill Gentiles, while giving laws against murder is a deceptive God, who's word is not good and who's morality is schizophrenic. God cannot do or be that which makes fallible his morality, benevolence, love, compassion, etc & therefore is not omnipotent. The NT & apostles whitewash this tyrannical God as a God of Love.
Jesus' teaching of the need to be reborn again & converted like children denies the ability of God to create perfection at the first attempt. Since heaven was the scene of the first civil war & the first generations of humans were faulty, God appears to be a blunderer. He unjustly accuses humans for all this mess, when he failed to plan well & give them the tools needed to please him. Jesus tells us to not use our reason or intellect. Remain as a child, with no moral sense, ability to distinguish by discernment or make rational decisions, or experience to guide you.
Being ignorant like a child negates the whole field of reason & experience as useful to humanity in making decisions that govern personal behavior, & eliminates the need for education of any kind. Children cannot distinguish between reality & fantasy, & their minds are immature & not trained to consider & arrive at reasonable conclusion.
Churches who teach people that they are helpless & cannot use personal power, self-improvement or intelligence to build their character, learn valuable principles of social interdependence without god are institutions of ignorance, human indecency & are racists towards the human race. They show a lack of understanding of human nature, as Jesus did. Christianity enforces the same type of behavioral problems of causing addictions to blind faith that cause addictions to drugs & alcohol. When you blame outside sources for your thoughts, emotions & actions, you look to outside sources to help save, change or distract you. There is a snag of such magnitude that it makes the Christian theology completely useless....RESPONSIBILITY.
The bible tells us to rely on faith, not reason. Faith - which is not based on knowledge, experience or rational thought from arising doubt, replaces the search for truth. Faith is a cop out. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith then you are conceding that it cannot be accepted by its own merits.
Ignorance is content to stand with its back turned to the truth. If believing that Satan is God is his greatest concern & being afraid of the truth because it "creates doubt" is his biggest fear, then it seems implausible to believe in a jealous, wrathful, unjust, malicious & malevolent God without questioning faith. According to the bible, those who question faith & go against the church are to be killed. If love & compassion are Christianity's ultimate goals, than using fear, guilt, shame & delusions of worthlessness are its ultimate perversion.
God is not confident that the truth will prevail when he claims it can only be revealed through mystery & a childish display of miracles. Why not be able to encourage humanity with wisdom that helps them control behavior patterns & make great achievements on earth that help us understand, & take care of each other better? Or how about real evidence for God instead of hearsay accounts & a doctrine and autobiography that no two people can agree upon?
Belief in God & Jesus as Savior is the only way for man to escape damnation, but Paul claims that it is impossible to comprehend God, which makes it impossible to understand him. This makes studying the bible, going to church, asking for clarity & proselytizing useless. This image of a humanity incapable of grasping concepts is a fit companion for the Christian requirement that people accept it on faith alone. Hunger for knowledge caused the downfall of humanity.
The putdown of intelligence & any use of the intellect is so woven into the Bible that it must be concluded that one must strive to be dumb, gullible, unquestioning & imprudent (lacking discretion, wisdom, or good judgment) to accept Christian theology & that those who are not are doomed. Intelligence leads to hellfire and Paul writes several times that God destroys & confounds the wisdom of the wise. The bible tells us that the "gift of reason" which apparently makes us higher than animals maybe be the match that lights the fire of hell for all who dare use it, since whatever is not faith is sin.
Beware of Christians who come from pride about fearing God. The human ego (the devil itself) fears God because it wants to be God. Whats the implication of fearing a god who they claim is infallible in love (but then later say he can't forgive, etc). This type of fallacy trains people to fear love and this kind of arrogant notion is what poisons our society with ideas of confusing pain, hurt and fear with love. How ignorant are people to be afraid of love?
Christians who cannot deal with ALL people with love and compassion are failing at Enlightenment/salvation, and like other Abrahamic religions, they come from pride, greed, selfishness, envy and support idol worship, cannibalism, vampirism, masochism and sadism. Non-integrous people (people who's consciousness is below the integrity line) come from ego and have not consciously evolved past their animal brain which is where the deadly sins stem from.
If there is only one correct way to live it is to consciously decide to be kind, open, compassionate, forgiving, gentle, humble and considerate with all people, all of life, including yourself, in all situations, in all contexts with every single being on this planet including yourself at all times, without exception. No bending the rules, even if someone spits in your face, you have to look at it as a test and you have to be kind.
You also have to be kind, forgiving and compassionate with yourself. That means that you continually, nonstop, forgive yourself, at all times, no matter what you do, no matter how awful you just behaved. You are to forgive yourself, no matter what, without exception.
Christians who say things like "One day we will have all the evidence we will need & you will be sorry" or "I hope you know Jesus" or "I hope you burn in hell" have some serious self-examination to do. God & Jesus both were impatient & used threats with non-believers. For all the time spend worshiping a "God of love" & "Prince of Peace" most believers never seem to learn the greatest lesson about evil....THREATS ARE THE HALLMARK OF THE WICKED. A God who creates a hell & who puts people there for mere error is a wicked God & anyone who believes in such a god is just as wicked.
Paul, the apostles (who did not accept Paul), today's evangelists & many Christians condone the injustice & murder initiated by God. For any moral leader to condone, in the pages of the "Word of God", the concept that wrong-doers are punished justifiably by a deity responsible for their sin violates the sense of decency of the most depraved heathen.
The bible gives many Scriptures that tell us that God predetermines who is saved & the names of the saved are already written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world. He hardens the hearts of those who are not supposed to get the message. This is an unjust arrangement if he wishes all to be saved as Christians claim who spend so much time, effort & money trying to achieve as useless endeavor.
The bible is a book about the Jews, their history, traditions, superstitions & religion. It is a contradiction that Gentiles should find any meaning in it for them. The treatment of Gentiles by God, the Jews & Jesus should cause any Gentile to want to throw the book in the nearest trash.
But Jesus & the disciples saw great opposition from the Jews & salvation for the uncircumcised Gentiles is a second-thought.. All the apostles teach that the promise of salvation is to the Jews & Jesus himself claimed he was only speaking to the Jews, so he wasn't speaking to us. Paul's experiences with Jewish & Roman authorities cause him to go among the Gentiles in spitefulness. Only by a complicated vision does Peter include Gentiles but is never happy with it. Jesus never claimed to have been here to save anyone but the Jews.
The bible itself undermines Christian theology. Christianity and Orthodox doctrine, themselves, depend on taking the bible out of its full context to support their own self-fulfilled prophecy of war & sadism in the name of peace & love.
The Anti-Christ is a self-fulfilled prophecy. Christianity promises to bring peace, compassion, love, and spiritual tranquility but prophecies war, judgment, fear, and sadism which is contrary to its self-interesting facade. You cannot bring peace when you prophecy a great war with evil. You cannot led people to love life and God's “beautiful created world” when you use fear of death and tell people how wicked the world is. You cannot teach people responsibility when teach them to blame outside sources for their predicament. You cannot teach justice and self-empowering principles when you claim that only God can change our character and believe in a God who's plan has been biased, unjust, malicious and unwisely faulty from the start.
