Wow…(in the worst meaning of that word)…quite speechless. Comparing people to bacteria and using the word ‘cleansing’ as a metaphor of killing. Rings a bell, have to say. Or am I missing something here?
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Biblically, God told the Israelites to cleanse the camp. Many of the laws of Moses deal with keeping the community clean from those who would corrupt them. We are to keep ourselves clean.
Biblically, God made man from dust. Bacteria are lifeforms thus superior to dust. We may be superior to bacteria in many ways but we are still just dust and they can still kill us. Thinking we are superior to bacteria (or monkeys) is arrogance.We are all just dust. Only God is superior. We need to recognize our insignificance and our significance to be able to rule this planet with the wisdom God gives.
So, you are playing devils advocate wishing to shock people into thinking. Interesting. You ask me, “why you did not question his claims?” What? I did question them and found all of his claims foolishness and lacking logic. Why did you ask me this?
I find your thinking no different to that of ISIS. So correct me if I’m wrong but basically you are saying it’s OK to kill the ‘disobedient’ to keep others ‘clean’…and what would this disobedience look like exactly if it’s to warrant death penalty? But then it’s OK to kill people if they’re on the same level as bacteria… That’s exactly how ISIS and other tyrannical systems work.
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While we are giving answers to those 10 questions, here are mine.
- God does not break the laws of nature He Himself created.
- The laws of nature are the very structure and substance of life itself. Naturally, that is also where we are going to find an explanation for why people are starving.
- God wants people to change. And it is apparent that this often takes the most drastic measures.
- This is a lie. You speak to people in their language whether it is scientific or not.
- This is a lie. The changes God demands are incremental, because we have a long long way to go.
- Because of the laws of nature. And because free will is the essence of life.
- Most things don’t leave any evidence. Lack of evidence proves nothing unless you have good reason to expect there to be some evidence.
- LOL Maybe it is because I asked Him not to. I told Him would not be able to take such a thing seriously. I would never make such at thing the basis of my beliefs and worldview.
- It was to make us accept the spiritual aspect of reality as the people in John chapter 6 could not.
- Belief in God is no panacea for human problems. This explains why making people believe in God is obviously not God’s highest priority.
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As they’re not intelligent questions there is no need to answer, so here goes:
Question #1: Why Won’t God Heal Amputees?
Who does He heal?
Question #2: Why are there so many starving children in our world?
Because even though the proportion of children starving has never been lower, neither has the population been higher?
Question #3: Why does God demand the death of so many innocent people in the Bible?
It’s an old story book?
Question #4: Why does the Bible contain so much anti-scientific nonsense?
As science did not exist until 1600, the Bible and all other ancient literature cannot be anti-scientific?
Question #5: Why is God such a huge proponent of slavery in the Bible?
It’s an old story book?
Question #6: Why do bad things happen to good people?
Time and chance happen to all men?
Question #7: Why didn’t any of Jesus’ miracles leave behind any evidence?
How could they?
Question #8: How do we explain the fact that Jesus has never appeared to you?
I wasn’t in Judea at the time?
Question #9: We would Jesus want you to eat his body and drink his blood?
We? Personally I like to participate in the only universal, inclusive, egalitarian, symbolic Christian ritual for the only warrant for God.
Question #10: Why do Christians get divorced at the same rate as non-Christians?
People change?
The old story book said it well.
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But we also know who is sovereign over chance and sovereign over to whom each improbability occurs [and in what sequence].
The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.
Proverbs 16:33
Your point is taken, but it is an extreme case. Humans want the status quo yet love things that are different, until that difference becomes uncomfortable. Then we fight back. God placed limits on all those situations. If the status quo had become too harsh or too secular, then he insisted on change. If things did not change, then he commanded fighting back.
God wants to teach us a better way, which oddly enough was never a status quo. Love each other’s quirks instead of forcing rules and regulations. Use the rules and regulations to learn to love each other. If the ancient Jews had made that the #2 rule, then the world would be a much different place. Ditto about Christianity.
Are churches sanctioned to kill the disobedient? Absolutely not. However, society requires rules that are built upon a culture. Sadly, the church has taken on that role too often. The beliefs of those in power dictate how far one can go before punishment starts. God will send messengers when that culture’s standards become extreme. Both radically conservative and radically liberal are bad for the community. If the people do not listen, then war will come.
because of your answer to question 10
see New Marriage and Divorce Statistics Released - Barna Group The divorce rate even between different denominations is variable and if you look at the numbers from the percentage of successful marriages without divorce in the populations the statistic changes profoundly. The clue is that if you cohabit and do not commit to marriage you can not get divorced either :-).
For critical thinking we have to question the question and its premises. Question 10 is a good opportunity to show the class how we are manipulated by inadequate data presentation and how inept even a company like Barna is when it comes to statistics - and apparently that is their business. It is a bit like jumping to the conclusion that atheists have better morals because they only make up 0.1% of the US prison population whilst making up 3.1% of the population in the US in2013 according to the not unfriendly atheist. He actually warns against drawing that conclusion, but most people will stop reading way before that. Considering to Barna’s own statistics showing that wealth status - and being Asian- gives you the lowest divorce risk one would have thought they would stratify their numbers accordingly, but I guess it is too much to ask. That wealth correlates negative with religiosity is a commonly known fact already addressed in the bible, and the US and Kuwait are obvious outliers. Negative correlation to income is perhaps more understandable. The question 10 is good material to stop us from swallowing statistics without questioning them. Along the lines of what a famous politician is claimed to have said, statistics can be used like a bikini, to reveal something promising but covering up what’s essential.
Jesus healed many people, except the people from where? His own home town. Why? Because they lacked Faith, and because of that, He healed very few there.
Today is no different. The Lack of Faith that miracles (supernatural) happen, they do not happen.
Some believe they ceased to exist after the apostles.
And they are wrong.
It is because people lack Faith, is the reason miracles are hampered. i can, most likely, prove that readers of this post lack Faith as well, when i plainly and clearly say. “i have had many audible conversations with God, and He with me”
Statistics… I have hated statistics since high school, oh so long ago. Any line of logic can be corrupted by statistics. Distorted statistics are misused in propaganda to produce emotional responses. The lack of interest in finding out the accuracy is a problem, which I am guilty.
All that to say, I rarely believe statistics when they are presented.
My answers never assumed them correct. I was answering the underlying Why of the questions that insulted my Creator. Your soapbox focuses on the inaccuracy and misuse of numbers. Mine does not.
I just think the flaws in the video are a great way to teach our kids about the type of arguments they encounter and give them the tools to approach them with critical thinking. To explain the flaws in this famous video is quite easy and it helps them to put their thinking hats on and become more confident in their own faith armed with logic and healthy skepticism about the bold statements they encounter.
Statistics is a great tool tohat can help us to understnd trends and correlations and then explore if they are causally linked, or better what the causal link is. The decline in the stork population and the birth-rate in lower Saxony is a classic.
The point is that all the why’s in those 10 questions are wrong as the facts are wrong. Marschall Brain suffers from serious Santa Syndrome as that is what a lot of our kids and fellow Christians do as well.
If we look for the supernatural in the unnatural we obviously fail to recognise the miraculous of the natural. Let us be thankfull for the miracle that we are.
Hallelujah
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Excuse me, how does that prove anything? I have no problem with your audible conversations with God. But what will happen if you use a tape recorder during one of these conversations. Do you expect the voice of God to be on the tape? I do not, because I do not think there were any sound waves involved in your hearing the voice of God. God can make you hear His voice without making sound waves appear in the air and without breaking any of the laws of nature in any way. God created those laws of nature for him to use not to break – and certainly not just to give religionists a source of supernatural power like a demon in black magic.
O ye of little faith! What’re ya gonna say if he posts a link to a voice recording of him and God speaking. 
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Then I would suggest that He search for devices by which someone is manipulating him with a voice that isn’t coming from God at all. I am certainly not going believe something just because a voice speaks to me out of nowhere claiming to be God. The voice not showing up on a tape-recorder would be a big plus on the possibility that it really did come from God. Though I can think of other tests to make sure of that.
Personally, I would recommend he visit an Otolaryngologist and get an MRI referral.
Why? What would that prove? Do you think God cannot use disorders like that in order to speak to people? There is no need to go to a doctor unless they are causing him problems living his life.
Prove? Wouldn’t “prove” anything. But is there some law that I don’t know about against ruling out a tumor in the head? And assuming that there isn’t one, a trip to a Certified Interactive Guided Imagery Therapist might rule out some more stuff.
Yes, I have a rule against hypochondria, medical paranoia, unnecessary medical tests and procedures, as well as against making such a rational leap from a religious experience to a medical problem.
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