h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've read large portions of the Bible and attended a few church services, and have found it all very interesting. I like to explore what others believe as it allows a greater empathy with them, which I see as being very important. However some things still confuse me.

As you are considered somewhat of an expert around here on answers to Biblical questions, I was wondering if you could help me with mine.

Why would an all-powerful God create a world of people solely for the purpose of worshipping him? This would indicate to any rational person that He is lonely, depressed and has very low self-esteem; things that would generally be considered weaknesses and therefore cast doubt on his suggested omnipotence.

I have tried to resolve this paradox and just can't seem to figure it out. Please help! Thanks!

Nobody around here considers him an authority on Christianity...or the Bible. If you are interested in the Bible aspect, go and talk to Alji!!

Guy,

Almighty God did not create a world full of people with the sole aim of having people to worship Him. You have used worldly reasoning by wretched intellect, adding what you think to be 2+2, which is not 2+2 at all, and arrived at about 146!

Almighty God is called 'The Father'. If you like He is a 'family' person. He created the world initially to be a place where He could have children, and be with and enjoy them. He created a family, which was corrupted. What He is after is a people, a family, for Himself. At the moment He is choosing out a people for that family and saving them into it. When He is finished doing that He is going to destroy the rest.

Hope that answers your question.

I see the Satanist troll has already turned up to try and ruin this thread, and the other troll she mentions is not a Christian, but just someone with a little knowledge and access to an online Bible search faciltiy of some sort, and knows how to cut and paste, so you need not take too much notice of what they say.

Justin

Not quite right Justin, trolls say deliberately provocative things just to stir up trouble. Since you are the only one on pre-mod (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/Moderation-Guidelines#7 ), you are the troll. My posts may provoke you but I try to keep them on topic and also to illustrate an opposing view to yours. I have studied religion for more than 40 years and attended a presbyterian church for 12 years before that. Appart from Christianity, I have studied Druidism, Judaism, Kabbalism, Islam, Sufism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Zen and Yoga. I have also taught meditation.


Justin, you have said 'No Christian would particularly mind if you bulldozed all that which you think is a 'church' into a heap on top of the Vatican and burned the lot.', so anyone who did mind is not a Christian. Don't you think this is just a bit provocative?



Alji the Magus

Not right Alji.

The fact that you would even consider looking at other religions says that you have not found the One True God. If you had you would know immediately what these Satanic religions you have studied were, and would know that they are a sickening insult to the Cross of Christ. You would not dare to teach meditation, as you would know that God hates it.

But, as you are not born again of the Holy Spirit, and you do not KNOW the One True Living God, you have not trouble in mixing the Satanic with what you think is Christianity,and you think I am in.

Just because you do not KNOW God does not mean that I, and all Christians (real ones) do not. You may have been in that abomination called 'Christianity', but you are not in Christ, and you have never heard Jesus speak to you.

My point about heaping the religious tosh on the Vatican and burning the lot would offend those who are 'Christians' by their own definition, but not those who are the Lord's. They know by the Holy Spirit in them that that is quite correct. They loathe religious stuff.

Doesn't entirely answer it .. I'm not convinced at him being like a 'family person' when he does things like the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden ..

It would be like my dad putting broken glass and razor blades on the lawn when I was little and saying "don't go on the grass", and I would be replying "why?" and he'd be like, "just don't."

I mean, there would just be no reason to do that to the grass in the first place, it's just going to hurt people. Same with the whole apple and tree thing in Eden. He could have just not put the tree there and everything would have been cool. It seems to me like a totally contrived situation.

Like, he set them up to fail. I am seriously concerned about the nature of His character.

Guy,

You need to know Him before you do anything so stupid as to charge Him with unrighteousness. That is the same as you making all sorts of assumptions about my mother on the basis of a few letters you have found from her to me.

Almighty God did not set anyone up to fail. They submitted to Satan, Eve was deceived, and Adam committed high treason, and mankind became the legal slaves of the devil, hence the need for them to be legally redeemed.

God is allowed to do with what is His just as He pleases, though He because of His character all is done righteously.

However, you will believe that God is holy and righteous, as you are going to meet Him, and you will see for yourself. Either you will meet Him on Judgement Day as His enemy, and you will realise the folly of daring to accuse Him of unrighteousness, when He plainly is not, or your will meet Him when He draws you to Jesus, and you are saved while you are still alive here, then you meet Him as His. All you have to do is continue, hang around, all will be revealed, and there is no escape for anyone.

>'Not right Alji' - what's not right?

Don't you think >' You may have been in that abomination called 'Christianity',' is just a little provocative to those people who you believe are not 'real' Christians?


Genesis 4:17
And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch.

Genesis 4:18
And unto Enoch was born Irad: and Irad begat Mehujael: and Mehujael begat Methusael: and Methusael begat Lamech.

Genesis 4:19
And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one [was] Adah, and the name of the other Zillah.

Justin, you say that Cain's wife was his sister or his cousin but why would he need to build a city when there were only three of them there?

In verse 19 'Lamech took unto him two wives' - sounds like a fair bit of lust there.


Alji the Magus

Justin has already said that he "doesn't know any Christian who would bother his head about such things" which I take to mean that he isn't interested in what the words of the bible mean, or whether they make sense. Which is odd, given that by his own claims only people like himself are able to understand what they mean. But why would God express himself in such a manner? Why NOT make straightforward 'historical' passages understandable?

Noggin

I always thought lust was necessary for an erection...and therefore ejaculation...and therefore impregnation...but I could be wrong, being that I do not own the tool, and am but a mere receptacle for a man to possess.

And how I do enjoy being called a "Satanist troll"...


Justin, in the vain hope that you will answer me - how many True Christians do you know? And who are you to define what a True Christian is?

*prepares herself for nothing*

Completely forgot to post my original point.

*I* would be offended if all the churches were bulldozed, heaped on the Vatican and burned to the ground. What kind of fool are you Justin? There are some astounding pieces of work in the religious sector of life, and as much as I despise you all, I would never want to destroy the buildings you all inhabit...ESPECIALLY the Vatican. They are restoring some especially beautiful pieces of art in there, and when they finally get shut down, the world will be privy to some fantastic artwork.

Justin,

If God created the world and humans to be a family, why did he create a family so inferior to him. After all, he surely couldn't be corrupted by Satan, so why did ha make a "family" that could. Your explanation still suggests that your God has a huge inferiority complex. If he wanted a family, he would have made equals or near equals. Instead, he made distinct inferiors, forbided them knowlege, and made it easy for Satan to corrupt them. Seems to me that what he made was more like a group of pets than a family. And, if family members make a mistake, you don't condem them, or most of them to hell. That's what you seem to think your God decided to do after they ate an apple they shouldn't have. What ould the world be like if prents tried to condem their children to eternal damnation, or whatever its earthly equiivalent is, every time they disobeyed them.