Why do God's super powers give Him the right to control us?

Spiderman's Uncle Ben taught us all that "with great power, comes great responsibility."

So God somehow has these super powers and He does the exact thing you would expect someone to do who was not influenced by the wisdom of an Uncle Ben: He makes Himself ruler of the Universe and demands that everyone do what He says or He will torture them for all eternity.

Sheesh. Is there any greater villain even in comic books?

Someone needs to sit this God down and explain to Him that His super powers do not give Him the right to control humanity. That with great power, comes great responsibility.

I pray every night that God realizes His folley and chooses to live beside us rather than over us. We are all equal entities. Just because one entity has super powers doesn't mean He has the right to punish us if we don't do what He says.

 

Good lord, you are the most labile personality when it comes to faith!

 

You're giving him way too much credit. He's just a shill for the devil.

 

hmmmmm. Weird, if you ask me.

 

Must atheists continuously base their cases not just on bashing Christianity, but doing so from an obviously ignorant position?

Is any atheist on this forum going to tell me that they are unaware of the Christian concept of free will? Are you unaware that God is not controlling you right now?

So, how about we amend the saying a little bit, "When opening your mouth to spew nonsense, comes great responsibility."

Not even sure what the debate is here, looks like little more than another ignorant smear fest.

 

Is anyone so aware of God as to enable that person to say that God is or that God is not controlling them when in fact we cannot even clearly, irrefutably and with 100% accuracy define God?

 

Not sure what all these insults are about. I asked a question and your refusal to answer is quite revealing.

Christian free will: You can do what you want but if it's not what I say, you will get tortured for all eternity.

Did I get it right? Please correct it if that is wrong.

That's what I'm posting about. I'm not complaining that God is using mind control techniques to literally control my movements and actions. You misunderstood.

I am complaining that God uses His super powers to torture us for all eternity if we don't do what He says. This doesn't deny the Christian concept of free will.

God also has free will and He can choose to stop using His super powers to torture physically weaker beings such as humans for not doing what He says. I pray that He chooses that, which I believe is the morally superior position for Him to take. I was just raised that way: not to torture weaker creatures for all eternity for disobedience.

That's what happens when You've existed for all eternity and You never had a momma. God had no raising so it's easy to see why He behaves the way He does.

My question is to those like you, Neutral, who apparently did have parents to teach you right from wrong. You should have learned that Might does not make Right. And that it's wrong to torture those weaker than you because they won't do what you tell them. Assuming you have learned these lessons, how can you justify God's behavior?

 

Reasonable people can disagree on many topics and still realize that their own personal position is not THE ONLY positition.

And then you have God, Who believes that everything He says and does is the right way to say and do because He has impressive super powers and is physically stronger than everyone else and can simply torture anyone who produces a contradictory argument.

How can a decent person who understands naturally the difference between right and wrong justify His behavior? I tried to be a Christian, but it really seems to be a religion made only for those who have no internal sense of morality.

If you can say "God has super powers and will torture me if I don't comply with His wishes, so that makes Him good and right, and I should do what He says because that is the morally right thing to do..." then guess what! You have no internal sense of morality! I tried to be a Christian, just for the perks. I can put up with TONS of immoral behavior. I think killing people even is just fine under certain circumstances. But I just have to draw the line at torturing trillions of people for all eternity because they won't do what you tell them to. I'm no goody two shoe, believe that. But I'm not that bad off, to worship someThing like that.

 

I am glad you pray. Perhaps you should humbly request his wisdom.

He created you man! And He is Good. Evil is Godless and bad. Stick to the good.

 

God knows what's best for us. God knows us better then we know ourselves. Our ultimate destiny is to reside with him in heaven for all eternity. These rules are meant to protect us from the evil one. They are for our own good. Now, God doesn't have ultimate control of us, since we can choose either to follow him or not follow him.

 

I believe what you are attempting to say here is, "I am obtuse and am offering nothing reasonable, and you all have a faith I have not really attempted and clearly do not understand .... but that makes everyone but me a bad person."

Your opinion of someone else's faith is simple ignorance. I guess the old saying is true, ignorance is bliss.

 

No, I don't think you guys are bad people. I just think you haven't thought this through all the way.

Feel free to respond to the substance of my posts whenever you are finished insulting me. I am DESPERATE to get an answer. I need God in my life BADLY and if you could justify His behavior, that would take a load off of me. Thanks.

 

Then why don't you volunteer to be that great and noble person who is going to sit down and educate God on what you think is the right path for God to travel and what you think makes you more responsible and more moral than God.

 

I am irresponsible and immoral. It takes one to know One.

 

Then you are admitting that you are irresponsible and immoral. Don't you think that the message you have just put forward is one that will not gain you a lot of respect among the people? If you are admitting that you have such a defect, then don't you think that the defect that you suffer might be having a negative effect upon your ability to think in terms of 'responsibility', when in fact you are irresponsible. If you are irresponsible, then there is another message implied.... the message that says you do not know what responsibility means... Likewise with the defect of 'immorality'. A great teacher you will make.

 

MAYTAG, God gave Man free will. He doesn't control us.

 

yes you are. As we all are. Did you write that last sentence like that intentionally? It takes one to know One? That is awesome.

 

God of the Christian does not demand absolute obedience He request, educate us about obedience that is why He gave us free will, he wants us to love and worship Him from our own free will that is why He bacame man to experience human weaknesses, to demonstrate to us that He understand, cares and that He is and can be one of us, God is a good leader who will spend the time out come down from His heavenly throne to be with His people, God leads by example.

That is is why God gave us this heavy responsibility with free will it is up to each and every individual to choose whether to be good or evil.

 

I am irresponsible and immoral, but as I said, I draw the line at torturing trillions of people for all eternity.

While I am no prize, I am a far better man than this God of yours, and there is much He can learn from me.

 

It is not free if the price for disobediance is eternal torture.

That is the PRICE.

It is not free. There is no way you can justify the word "free" when we pay for it by being tortured for all eternity.

I've got a free house you can live in. It's a nice 3 bedroom, 2 bath with a den. TOTALLY FREE! But you have to pay 10,000 dollars a day every day for the rest of your life.

It's free, like you say our will is free from God.

Basically, you are simply lying because YOU KNOW there is punishment for disobediance. Yet, you say it is FREE. You're just a liar.

 

Stop the lies so we can have a reasonable discussion.

 

That's part of the problem.....Christians only beleive in free will when it suits them......If they don't get something they prayed for they call it "god's will" and claim that they must not be meant to get it. It does not matter that there are more effective ways of getting it than prayer, they are blinded by faith.

 

Apophasis - God is beyond all categories of thought. As such God can not rightly be called a thing. God is not a thing. God does not even know what he is because if he knew it would make him a thing.

Noncognitivism - "God" is an incoherent term. As such, God can not properly be called an idea (or concept, or notion) as an idea is supposed to delineate, to specify. Given what God is supposed to be, he can not be specified and thus can not be defined. Hence to even use the word "God" is to belittle him. It's a form of idolatry.

 

How can he educate those of us who don't even think he exists? Maybe he should take up the hobby of educating us about his existence first.

 

Some have tried to come up with a non-intercessory version of prayer that doesn't clash with the idea of Lord God's Will. Such prayers are usually in the form of "Oh God, I pray that Your Will be done."

But this still has obvious problems. Given what God is supposed to be, there is no way to avoid his will being done regardless of whether anyone prays for it or not. This begs the question of the use or the value of such a prayer. What good can come of such a prayer?

The only explanation I have been able to come up with is that the Bible orders believers to pray...regardless of whether it does any good or not. Such prayers then, as far as I can tell, are merely following orders. But then there are lots of bad things about merely following orders too. People farther down in a military chain of command are supposed to follow orders without question. Part of the rationale for this is that those above know more than those below and they give orders based on what they know, not on what those below them know. So if a soldier is ordered to engage in an attack that is immoral in one way or another from his perspective, he is still supposed to carry it out because it could be a crucial piece of a bigger puzzle. However, one of the outcomes of the Nuremberg trials was that following orders does not absolve one from moral culpability. If you are ordered to do something that is immoral, you must disobey orders. This only makes moral sense.

Now relate this to the story of God ordering Abraham to kill his son. It's all too easy to ABROGATE YOUR RESPONSIBILITY AS A MORAL BEING and follow orders. But IF YOU CONSIDER YOURSELF A MORAL BEING, you MUST decline God's order to kill your son. Trust and following orders are not enough. To be this way is worse than immoral. It is AMORAL.

And this is why we as moral beings are not required to follow orders even if they come from God.