What does God look like?
We have always imagined a benevolent, white-haired old man, with a kindly smile for those he welcomes to his ethereal abode. Or, if as the feminists proclaim, God takes a female shape, we wouldn’t be particularly disappointed. After all, kindly old Grandmother Outrage is as close to the real thing as we’ve ever known.
In all likelihood our Outrageous writing will land us in the cosmic cellar. But in the unlikely event we ever meet God, we’re kinda counting on a kinder and gentler entity.
Given our view of Utopia, we always wonder why so many associate God with unbelievable violence and brutality.
The “Holy War” in Algeria has resulted in the death of 60,000 people, mostly innocent civilians, since 1992. The most recent attacks have come as members of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) have killed and butchered, all in the name of God.
This past weekend in the town of Blida eleven teachers were killed in front of their students. In another attack the assailants slit the throats of a husband, wife, and their two daughters, and kidnapped three young women.
At about the same time as the above attack 15 men slit the throats or decapitated 56 members of a family that lived in five adjacent houses near Algiers. Five more young women were kidnapped.
The same night ten others were killed in the town of Tlemcen.
Last week the fanatics slaughtered 200 people on the outskirts of Algiers.
When the GIA needed a place for its troops it simply ordered the residents of the village of Ouled Allel to leave or die. Those that didn’t leave at first got the point after GIA troops began massacring those who stayed.
Typically the GIA attackers mutilate and then burn the corpses of their victims. They also burn alive some of their victims, including children and babies.
GIA spokesmen hailed the latest massacres as God’s work.
(Source: CNN.)
I would like to make several points. First, I don’t know
why you would post the ranting of the foul-mouthed moron who
has the first reply in this list.
Second, in response to another letter, socialists of
various kinds (facist, communist, etc.) have murdered a
somewhere between 68,000,000 and 150,000,000 million of their
own citizens in the 20th century (some 30,000,000 alone in
the Soviet Union (as well as killing millions more in wars)
all in the name of “socialism” and “humanism”
Finally, most “religious wars” are really political or ethnic
conflicts. The troubles in Northern Ireland are labeled “Protestant”
vs. “Catholic” but are pretty much between the native
Irish and the Scots and English who were moved into
Northern Ireland to help England control the Irish.
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sweet lil innocent Rose (and others like you): “It always amazes me what people will say
they are doing in G0D’s name. God is a loving being that wants us
to have faith, that he will take care of us if we only beleive in him.
Killing anyone is not GOD’s way.” That’s really nice that you believe
that. But the fact of teh matter is, that’s not how the world works. For one
of you there are many people who do despicable things and claim they are
doing those things in the name of god. Now, think about this: is it better for you
to have “someone take care of you” or is it better to deprive those people of an
excuse to commit horrible acts. Granted, removal of god will not stop all the killing
but it wont let those b*stards justify themselves anymore. So crawl
out of your comfortable shell, and TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF AND THINK FOR
YOURSELF. that’s what u have brains for.
p.s. believe in yourself. try it for a change.
When B.Hodge (rizzothegreat@hotmail.com) said that:
… Blaming God is blasphemious[sic] which is
punishable by death.
Let me posit that if God punishes by death and we blame God for killing,
His killing is still violence and is still killing. By the act of stating that God
kills as a punishment, B.Hodge (rizzothegreat@hotmail.com) proves that
God is violent.
Remember, Jesus said that he is here to put the sword between father and
son and mother and daughter. That sounds like a far from peaceful confrontation
to me.
Dont blame God for the actions of men. Blame the men, if you want to place blame, if you are perfect. And you ain’t. So beware that you don’t turn out like them. (!)
God’s work my patootie. Those people are sociopaths and murderers. Anyone that comes to my neighborhood and wants to say they “Speak for God” will get to “Speak with my M16.” Arrogant religious freaks of all denominations need to stop forcing their ways on others. God works in mysterious ways, and converts come when they are ready.
Ain’t religion wonderful?
Why are you blaming God for the ungodly acts of men?
Do you think God is “The Great Puppetmaster”?
Try thinking for a change!
Thank you for giving us the facts which may allow us to avert similar attrocities in the USA if push comes to shove and citizens must defend themselves against the weirdo’s now in control of the federal government and several states.
As to God, my usual question is Why, if he has omnipotent power and wisdom, does he do nothing but watch such attrocities as you have documented. When in the last 200 years is there a historic example of any god having intervened to stop the slaughter of enormous numbers of ordinary humans? Spainish conquistadors versus the Incas to the examples you cite, leaves no example known to me of divine intervention to save people from other people.
I also notice that these types of attrocities occur in ALL races on earth, exempting none. They were last in the USA during the civil war.
I hear a faint voice above the political din in the USA saying”
“I’ll be back”
Have you ever considered that earth may be an experimental lab for genetic projects, operated by aliens, and isolated in space to contain any mistakes?
OR, that it is overseen by aliens who make those exquisite crop circles, and fly those unbelievable ships, and who put on laser light shows above this or that large earth city, to let us all know they are there and in control?
Or, that they have done to their genetic experiments what we humans have done to our computers, that is, turn them loose with programming to find by chaos and accident solutions to situations that no math can fathom?
Or, that the constant wars between all species, is due to programming to intended to see what comes of letting such things do as they will?
With a hope they might discover some darkly hidden truth, which once revealed to exist, may then be treated with analysis to see how that can be?
Do you dare remain weak and humble and defenseless in such an experimental soup?
For the crop circle pix go to Art Bell’s page. They are beyond anything humans could duplicate and their number and distribution on earth are far to great for any but an enormous government project to have accomplished.
As to the light shows, they are beyond all earth technology.
As proof of the genetic experiments, the UFO groups have all the documentation of animal experiments.
And, the number of humans claiming to have been experimented upon is overehwlming.
Could it be, that humans and the ants are merely different experiments in this lab?
Is it possible that the lab owners cancel out their experiments not and then and try something new?
Or clean the cages of mistakes and save a few specimens that show promise?
NOAH?…for example?
my only question about religion is which one ever ethnicity has one but which one if any is true in my history class we studied about islam and how muhammad fell asleep and had a dream about allah and then founded islam because I had a dream about dogs conquering the world does that mean the will break their collars and enlsave us?
If this is God’s plan, I would hate to catch him when He’s unprepared.
So when Pope Innocent III sent the crusades into France to slaughter
500 towns, it was an ‘ethnic’ thing? Hitler promised the German people
that he would institute Christianity as the national religion (Mein Kamph).
Pope Pius XII encouraged Hitler at every step(any coincidence that the
other two allies with Germany were Spain and Italy?) The hundred years
war makes Hitler look like a boy scout. Five crusades and 700 years of
European dark ages, and some idiot is blaming Humanism? I love this.
The bad guys are apparently humanists and homosexuals. Why not include
cocker spaniels? Have you ever been approached on the street by
someone who asked “Would you be interested in becoming a lesbian?”
Pol Pot & Stalin were nut cases, granted, but nothing kills
like religion.
Once again, I’m defending something I question. Still, I’d like for the sake of philosophical debate to put this forth… if there is a God, why does he have any responsibility to humankind?
As to Hitler, oh, sure, he spoke of Christians nicely in public… but in reality he pretty much made up his own cult, tossing in whatever elements of Christianity he liked and throwing out everything he didn’t, such as “Thou shalt not kill”, which is a major part of the credo of both religions. Hitler was a man who would say -anything- if he thought it would get the people on his side. He was criminally insane, and happy to utilize the bible if he could twist it to fit his sick notions of supremacy. He called his lunacy “Christianity” while simultaneously murdering real Christians, who felt empathy with the Jews and tried to help them escape. Their compassion was met with approximately the same fate the Jews suffered. Many, many Christians were put in concentration camps for their faith, especially ones who sympathized with Jews. Many died. If you want to convince me that religion is
Whether there is a God or isn’t, a lot of people apparently invented their religions, and still more chose to follow those established beliefs. Hence, the actions of the majority of people are their fault, not God’s–they chose to create something to justify their ideas. Even further, sick people–such as Hitler and the Crusaders–used established religions as a salve for their conscience, which would have been seared if they were forced to deal with the atrocities they were committing. They never actually believed their religions; they used their philosophies so they could sleep at night, or as a crutch. This doesn’t detract from the possible validity of any belief system; it’s a flaw of human beings. I’d personally rather see people follow that sort of thing than simply evolution, which states that it’s not wrong to kill anyone… ripping off the head of someone weaker isn’t morally wrong; it’s survival of the fittest. It’s natural selection. Atheists always borrow from theists in saying that killing isn’t ‘right’. If there is no God of any kind, then there is no higher law, there is only science, and hence their outrage has not a leg to stand on. By Darwin’s theory, all the Jews who died in the holocaust deserved to, because they were inferior and couldn’t protect themselves, so it was just the earth’s natural way of taking out the garbage. Same with all the witches and non-witches who were brutally slaughtered in Salem over nothing more than herbal remedies, and all those who are killed in holy wars, and so on and so on. Maybe that’s outrageous… in fact, if someone said that to me I would probably punch them in the face, and I do not believe that in any way, shape, or form… but -according to evolutionism-, that’s the way things are. If all you who regard evolution as the parent of the universe we know agree with the doctrine of natural selection, I’d like to know what right you have to be all self-righteous about religious people, since your paradigm justifies even more twisted notions than those Hitler held dear. Just think about that for a moment before you start flaming me. It’s something I once struggled with myself.
A lot of belief systems… such as Christianity and Judaism, apparently… portray God as being just yet merciful. If the deity of the bible is truly in existence, is it not possible that there were good reasons for the harsh judgments he dealt which transcend human understanding? There is a difference between murder and execution, a big one. If God created the laws of the universe, whether physical or metaphysical, then he created the whole idea of what is morally right and therefore his judgment is perfect and ours is flawed by our lack of omnipotence. By giving humans free will, he did open up a lot of possibilities for evil… but that may just go to show you exactly how important freedom is, if worth all that suffering. Still, the potential for wrong isn’t actual wrong… we’re the ones who pushed the ball over the hill, so to speak, if the bible’s account is correct. All the evil in the world today is caused by the actions of human beings, at least in some respect. Finally, the question of “If God is good, why does he allow things like the holocaust? Why does he let people get away with that?” Again, we’re not omnipotent, so no real answer can be definitely given. But I continue to think that there may be an answer for that question. In truth, I wonder if they really get away with it, or if that’s just our perception… how do we know what happens to men like Hitler after death? Maybe there’s a kind of justice beyond what we can see.
Wow. There are some amazing responses here. I love the use of interprative history to falsify beliefs and the rabid defence of religious doctrine.
It was humorous also to suggest that Hitler had a consience. nice work.
Religion is a persistent factor amongst all nations, races, states , peoples ….
These cosmologies/theologies helped people get on with life and also aided others in attaining influence and power.
I am constantly surprised by the capacity of homo sapiens sapiens to rationalize any form of behaviour and adamantly promote its truth, even in the face of vast amounts of contrary thought.
We exist, we socialize, and ultimately we die…and we pay tax.
The people who commited these
massacers are totaly f***ed up
in the head. God ought to
kick these criminals off
the planet. They probaly
should remember to bring
asbestos long johns when
the time comes when they are
being judged infront of
God and the ones they killed.
there is no god. the concept of race is fascist. property is theft.
government is government, and all government is coercive
force; it is never the subjects who commit the horrid crimes
which make up the “history” they recount to us, it is to the governments
of the world that the responsiblity goes. Kropotkin made it
quite clear in his book, “Mutual Aid” that the concept of
“the survival of the fittest” is really just a justification for hierarchy,’
just like “god”. In reality, cooperation and mutual aid, according to
Peter Kropotkin (and I would have to agree), have been the
main factor of evolution throughout time, much more so than
competition and “struggle for existence”. Those who got together
and worked for the common good were, in reality, the “fittest”,
and any jerk who tells you that human history mostly
consisted of wars is scum, and should think about how people
mostly have cooperated day to day, not constantly competed
and beat eachother down. If that crap was true, we would have
killed ourselves off long ago. Don’t believe the twofaced
authoritarianism of your “superiors”; don’t take it in and
assimilate it into your personality. HUMANITY
WILL NEVER BE SATISFIED UNTIL THE LAST
BUREAUCRAT IS HUNG WITH THE GUTS OF THE
LAST CAPITALIST. Shake in your shoes, capitalists and
stalinist bureaucrats of the world; the situationist revolution will crush
you to dust! Down with hierarchical social organization;
DOWN WITH THE WILLFUL ACCEPTANCE OF SUFFERING!
DOWN WITH THE STATE!
http://members.dencity.com/situationniste
— durruti
how
many
children
died
at
Sodom
&
Gomorah?
God
doesn’t
know
love.
I was just remembering how my Presbyterian aunt described a trip to mexico to help out a town that had nothing. They built a church. Now I ask you is this the most important thing for these people? What about a house or a school? Just wondered. . .
Saddening stuff. I’d like to throw in my 2 cents about some of the topics mentioned in these responses, though.
1) Is there a God?
Either right and wrong are relative or they are absolute. In other words, either the atrocities mentioned in the article are only wrong for certain cultures or certain individuals (and right for others), or they are wrong no matter what. If right and wrong are relative, then you should not condemn the murderers for their actions.
But you do. The very fact that you feel outrage about these horrors means that you really think that these murders are wrong. No matter what.
Okay, so how did we get the idea that some things are really wrong and some things are really right? “Society” couldn’t have created these ideas, because then right and wrong would be relative. It would vary between cultures as much as clothing styles, music, and language do. And evolution?! Animals murder each other all the time! Even if they’re of the same species (especially if they’re contesting territory).
No, the ONLY WAY we could have any ideas about absolute right and wrong would be if Something Else, something beyond Society or Nature, put those ideas there. And not only that, but that Something Else wants human beings to act in a certain way, which includes NOT murdering each other, among other things.
God (of some kind) exists, and He (or She or It or They) definitely wants human beings to behave in a certain way toward one another. Nothing else fits the fact that you can read about these murders and believe that they are really, absolutely wrong.
2) If God is good and omnipotent (as depicted in Christianity), why does he permit atrocities like this to happen?
God wants human beings to CHOOSE to do what is right, so they can form a relationship with Him. This is why we all have free will. But when you give people free will there will be some who choose to do wrong. Eliminating the ability of some people to do very bad things requires the destruction of free will…and just as no one would be evil then, so no one would be good either. We would all be robots. And that is not what God had in mind.
3) Why would anybody commit murders in God’s name?
Suppose that you believed that God was “on your side” (which really means “in your pocket”), and you had His special favor. Your ego becomes wrapped up in the idea that YOU are so much BETTER than everybody else!. Then, when evidence comes along that you are NOT doing what God wants, that He is NOT “on your side”, that you do NOT have his special favor, you can do one of two things: admit you are wrong, let your ego suffer, and change your ways; or ignore the evidence and keep right on believing.
Many, many people over the years have fallen into this trap and “kept right on believing”. The Pharisees are a perfect example: they ultimately murdered Jesus rather than admit they were wrong. Others murdered total strangers because the clergy back home told them that they were “doing God’s work”, and they didn’t want to bother thinking about how this jibes with a God who said “Thou shalt not murder.”
And others, who don’t believe in God at all, have also believed that they were smarter, better, and/or more moral than everybody else, and therefore anything they choose to do is right (and anyone who opposes them MUST be wrong). Hitler and Lenin fit into this category, as do a lot of politicians, lawyers, columnists, etc. today. These are the folks who will attack your character when you dare to disagree with them. (They won’t debate you, because they might actually be shown to be WRONG, and their fragile, overinflated egos can’t afford to take that chance.)
4) How does the Old Testament God and the New Testament Christ fit together.
This is a toughie. If you believe that there is any accuracy at all in the Old Testament, then God killed a LOT of people, both directly and through his soldiers, and a lot of those killings would strike us as being unjust. According to the story of Noah, God pretty much wiped out life on the entire planet.
On the other hand, we’ve got to remember two things. If God really did create everyone on the planet, then He is entitled to “un-create” them too. He can always re-create them later, for example. Second, if we get our sense of justice from God…then on what basis can we declare His actions unjust? We only know what justice IS because God is just and has TOLD us about justice. So us calling his actions unjust are like us cutting a branch that we’re sitting on.
Hopefully, this has helped some of you look at things a little differently. Thanks for your time.
The way I see it the universe could not have come about by accedent. The systems within systems, all balancing out and creating a 100% self sufficient world are too complex to have been just a throw of the dice. However that dosent mean that God has any feelings toward us. I find it hard to belive that folks who barly understood the mechanics of rain knew anything about the creation of earth. God is watching but he is playing by his own rules and not screwing with the laws of nature. Therfor the b*st*rds killing women and children in the name of god are either fools or are using a popular belife to justify there actions.
Some of the people I’ve read here who said things like “God doesn’t kill people” aren’t bothering to do the research.
God (at least the Judeo-Christian God) has killed lots of people for all sorts of reasons, and not always as a matter of justice. Here’s a sample of how God has killed people, as written in the Bible:
“There came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the 250 men that offered incense” (Num. 16:35). (Lesson learned: stay away from incense I guess.)
“The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died” (Num. 21:6).
“See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound and I heal….” (Deut. 32:39).
“The Lord smote the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord, even he smote of the people 50,070 men: and the people lamented, because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter” (1 Sam. 6:19).
“The Lord kills, and makes alive: he brings down to the grave, and brings up” (1 Sam. 2:6).
“The hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them….” (1 Sam. 5:6).
“It came to pass about 10 days after, that the Lord smote Nabal, that he died” (1 Sam. 25:38).
“Who smote great nations and slew mighty kings….” (Psalms 135:10).
“For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many” (Isaiah 66:16).
“I will dash them one against another, even the father and the sons together, saith the Lord: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them” (Jer. 13:14).
“I have sent among you the pestilence after the manner of Egypt: your young men have I slain with the sword….” (Amos 4:10).
“For our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29).
You get the idea. Want more examples? Check out these: Gen. 38:7,10, Ex. 22:23-24, Num. 11:1, Deut. 32:41-42, Joshua 10:10-11, 1 Sam. 5:9, Psalms 136:17-18, Hosea 9:16, Amos 2:3, Ex. 4:24, 2 Sam. 6:6-7, and 2 Kings 5:7.
Bottom line: the Judeo-Christian God isn’t a loving God, he’s Rambo – and he’s the same God the Muslims worship, btw. So it’s no wonder that these days most of the killing done in the name of God is done by Christians, Jews and Muslims, because they’re just doing what their God does.
Later,
Bear-E
PS: Here’s a factoid to ponder – Louisiana has the highest church attendance rate of any US state… and Louisiana also has the highest murder rate in America, more than double the national average. Which shows that while Christianity may not lead to violence, it sure doesn’t discourage it either.
Why is it that we can bomb the bejeezus out of a country that
displaced 2,000 or so of its civilians, and the world has no
real “proof” of what is going on, but when it comes to saving
the lives of hundreds of thousands of religiously persecuted
and murdered individuals, we don’t even bother, more or less
give it sufficient media coverage. GOOOOOD BLESSSS
AMEEEEEERICCAAAA!!!!!! LAND OF THE FREE!!!!!!
I may be biting off more than I can chew with this one but…
The re-accuring theme is religion, religion, religion.
THAT IS NOT WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES. God has always wanted a RELATIONSHIP with His creation. In John 23:13-15 Jesus calls His diciples freinds. And Jesus prays for us in John 17:20-2320. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21. That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23. I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
If you want to know how God the Father new His Son Jesus, examine the relationship and the love Jesus taught.
RELIGION WILL SEND YOU TO HELL!!!!
A RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE THAT WILL PUT A JOY IN YOUR HEART UNDESCRIBABLE!!!!
Now you can try to argue with me about this. That God is not that personal and intimate with us. But you see you cant argue with experience. I have experience the Love of Jesus in a personal way, felt His presence, and listened to His voice. That EXPERIENCE you can’t argue with.
If you would like to correspond with me, ask me questions etc., my e-mail is at the top of this entry. I have studied the Bible, and I know Jesus as my King, my Savior, and my Friend. I leave you with this…
I have investigated the command “Thou shalt not kill”, the correct translation is “thou shalt not kill unjustly” or You shall not commit murder. Thaink about that.
Praise Jesus!
God Bless you all. Bro Mike,
gsusfreak@ilovejesus.net
Regarding the outrage about the murders and murderers in Algeria……why did you have a picture of the Bible and a cross on it with the article? Wierd.
I too wonder why you have pictured a Bible in your article instead of a Koran. The basic truth is this: Allah and Jehovah are not one in the same. Islamic proseletizing has always been, believe what we tell you to believe or we will cut your heads off. Allah is not the creator of the Universe. End of point one. Point two: If the God of the Bible created the Universe and everything in it then only He has the right and authority to be both rewarder and punisher for what we do with the life He has given us. We only have the responsibility to find out what the rules are and then choose to either play by His rules or not. If you don’t believe this or if you believe any of the other myriad of religious philosophies out there than let me say this one thing. If God is not my Judge and if there is no afterlife in His presence, than why would anyone be outraged at anything I or anyone else chose to do, including the most heinous of crimes perpetrated on mankind. Then by who’s standard of right and wrong do you suggest that I or anyone else should choose to conduct ourselves???
it would be nice to understand what you are speaking of or at least clarify the terms in which you speak, you say God, but Allah is God to islam not to christianity…there is a difference, while there still has been great atrocites done even in the name of God in the christain realm it does not mean that God is not loving and graceful, man is just wicked by nature and will do whatever he deems nessecery to accomplish his will. imagine the world for a moment without the grace that God has bestowed on us, we are sinful people he is the one and only righteous being in the universe, therefore he is the only one worth praise and glory. but yet while we were still enemies to him (read book of romans) he sent his son to die for us, causeing us to be reconciled to him, for as his children we are seen blamless before his throne of judgment, yet we still live in the flesh and are still capable of sin and atrocites that make us greive
to bear-e
brillent, i believe you commited more informal fallacies in your message and said the least amount of personal information, all the referneces you meationed can be easily clarified by actually READING the rest of the TEXT in the CONTEXT in which it was written. you left out parts on purpose to strenghten your argument. the purpose of argument is not to get people of a like mind to agree, but people that disagree to believe you, you are not going to be able to do that by spouting of information that an educated student and lover of Gods mind (bible) knows is incorrect. also since i really don’t have time to address everything here, i will say this…even if it was the triune God that i worship he is righteous and blamless so as to decide to do as he pleases with life, he is the creator of all and he can also so destroy. it may be hard for you to believe this because you are a sinfull man that realizes that he is not worthy of such a responsiblity, i know that i am sinful and i would never desire that power. you may say that evil is a problem in the world but have you been willing to face the evil with in your self…email me if you have a way to deal with such outside of God
Yes I too feel terrible about the many things going wrong in this world supposedly some in the name of God. Some use his name to make things look better such as WAR, killings and murder thinking God is behind all of this but HE ISNT. Our God is a God of love not hate…there is also another “god” who blinds the minds of unbelievers that the glorious light might not shine through….is it any wonder the world is in such a state of affairs? Why blaime God…he created man but it was up to him to make wise decisions…now its man blaiming God for their mistakes thinking God will bless all the efforts…look at all the terrible things happening and man can’t blame anyone but themselves for getting into the mess they have made….it will take a higher power to rid the earth of all those who are determined to cause all the problems in the world…God sees everything people are doing whether good or bad..he will take action when his time is right as he has done in the past…we will just have to wait for Him to take action and in the mean time we can educate ourselves scripturally and know what is required of us individually to get to know our God Jehovah and know he purposes nothing but good and will soon usher in a better system whereby all the bad things that are happening will be erased and a new system will prevail where everything will be NEW and bright and beautiful with NO more sickness, death or badness. Now doesnt that sound alot better than what we are seeing today? Takes alot of faith to believe God will take over matters in his own time and put our faith in him…doesnt that sound GREAT?? Any comments I would enjoy hearing if you have any questions regarding the future etc…..Byeeee
Bear-E had a lot of scripture to quote, but too bad he didn’t take the first step to interpret the verses he so blantly took out of context. Hey, why don’t you take those verses and read the rest of the passage and find out what God was really saying? You’ll find that the point He’s trying to get across is that He has the power to put to death and to bring to life, as Bear-E said so himself, quoting 1 Samuel 2:6: “The Lord brings death and the Lord makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up.” I’ve got a great idea, why don’t you read the rest of chapter 2 in 2 Samuel. You’ll see that this verse is just a small part of a larger prayer spoken by Hannah, after she dedicated her son to the Lord in chapter 1. The only thing you proved is that the God that you hate is the one true God of all (Isaiah 40:28). If you’d like to discuss more of those verses you took out of context, I’d be glad to hear from you, or anyone else. In the meantime, Bear-E, I’ll be praying for you
Danny T
Bear-E, you talk about dying as though it were a bad thing.
A separate point: “God killed,” you write, “not always as a matter of justice.” You then proceed to cite a half-dozen examples of God’s killing men as a matter of justice — yes, it’s quite evident when one reads the events surrounding your short quotes. Really, Bear-E, this is too Freudian. You *want* to be found out, don’t you? You really *want* to believe.
To the editor: Please improve the quality of the arguments you accept here; Bear-E has squandered our time.
Amen! Right on! It’s always easier to blame God for troubles than it is to blame the dickheads who perpetuate the crimes.
“The idea of God is the one wrong for which I cannot forgive mankind”.
-Marquis Donatien Alphone Francois De Sade
“I’ve always believed that A PERSON is smart; it’s PEOPLE that are stupid. Nothing bears this out better than high school and organized religion…”
-Marilyn Manson
“Spirituality is an excuse for unreason, a cop-out for zealots, and in direct contradiction to all animal logic”.
-Dr. De Sade
Sorry, that should read “Alphonse”.
Isn’t this called ‘Reality’? All this talk about a pure ‘Christian’ world is as real as the talk about a pure ‘Islamic’ world. Both are Originally semetic in origin and responsible for the greatest carnages history has ever witnessed.
Great.
I’m not even going to pretend that I had even heard about the GIA or any of these killings before I read this article, but I find it funny that they claimed the killing of innocents to be God’s work. Maybe they weren’t there for the commandment about ‘not killing.’ Then again, maybe in their own version of the Bible, God said, “Thou shalt not kill… psych!”
A life speaks louder than empty words and systems made by men covered in God or Jesus’ name. I just want to say. Lets get real. Did Christ ever make His own church? Yet, He said the gates of hell would never prevail. What is HIS church He was talking about? In John chpater 3, Nicademus was asking Christ about the Kingdom of God. Jesus said no man could see the Kingdom unless He was born again. Micademus thought He was a retard telling Him that no man could go back into a womb and be born again, but Jesus explained what is born of flesh os from the flesh and what is born or the spirit of from the spirit. So its clear to really know God, you have to be born spiritually inward so you can really know Him. Jesus didnt’ say works or get involved or be pressured by following laws or rules. He simply laid it out. all people and ministers especially have this thing where they have to over look and control ni Gods name giving Him a bad name by their decisions and words when in reality no man can be what Christ made a way for us to be unless we accept Him in our lives and the only way anyone will do that is seeing the Kingdom in reality come through others. Theres a price to pay to follow Christ cause many were killed, the disciples and even those today being martyrs for Christ, but preforming miricles and healings and bringing people back from the dead… just as Christ did. We look for God and miss Him or if we are over a religous system, we love control and to give it up means to lose everything… so they keep it going in the name of Christ while its was never meant to be in a true followers life. The Kingdom of God is in those who are born again spiritually and those who live in Christ as He is the Vine and they are the branches. They are free from the religous system and hated sometimes called rebellious. but this is the real walk of a disciple of Christ. They don’t parade themselves, but serve people considering others better than themselves. Recognize those who are humble and those who parade about thier works. Recognize Christ. Many false prophets come preaching Christ but their heart motives are controlling and ultimatly is revealed and exposed. So don’t say God doesn’t care, its just this amrecanized church system is stealling the purity of what God made us to be. He died so we can realy know him and His Kingdom, not to do works or be pressured from mans guilt by preaching thier insecurities they have been taught. Get to know Christ and let His Kingdom come forth. Then the world will really see the true disciples. Think about it. later.