4 Weird Questions That Might Make You an Atheist

[@GeneticallyModifiedSkeptic]

Remember to give me your unusual questions about god! If I get some interesting ones, I might have to make another video like this!

[@midnightscreamer2481]

@Genetically Modified Skeptic If there is a God why is Earth the only inhabitable planet in our solar system? Why create multiple planets that seem to have no purpose for life? What is the point of anything if we're going to die and eventually be forgotten about? Why punish people for using their free will? If God loves everyone and Jesus saves, what's the point of having sins?

[@041744]

For the christian god specifically: Why does god require a blood sacrifice to forgive people? Why did he need to kill himself, to appease himself, rather than just forgiving us if he's all powerful? And why wait till just 2000 years ago to extend unlimited forgiveness instead of immediately after adam and eve fell?

[@simeonsmith785]

So these questions seem to come from the "Tri-omni paradox" (no idea what it's actually called) but when I've discussed this paradox with both christians and muslims they don't accept it. The evangelical christians seem to go along the line of that the suffering in the world is the least-bad option for the best possible outcome, ie. god knows best. Whereas the the muslims I've spoken to have gone along the "suffering is to teach us something." The latter is easier to counter, as if the afterlife is so perfect, why do we need to learn through suffering? But the other one I find hard to counter, because of the made-up supposition that there's a higher plan that humans could never understand. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this.

[@SecondVelcory]

Mine is: "why do teratomas exist?"

[@idkanymoreman8186]

Genetically Modified Skeptic if God is all loving and all powerful, why does he let Satan harm his people? And if Satan has free will, wouldn’t it be easier to just do anything? How does he have enough time to constantly taunt everyone with sin?

[@starsalazar1693]

I remember when one of the people preaching at my church said, “don’t question it too much or the devil might confuse you”

[@TheSausXL]

Bad preacher

[@Peyton1218]

Those darn atheists and their.... thinking

[@Grana_geo]

Why does God let him confuse us?huh?

[@flightlesslord2688]

@silver3981 well the original purpose of the devil was put there by God, just to test humans, not to try and corrupt them.

[@dracoargentum9783]

@@flightlesslord2688 and this constant testing is benevolence to you? Looks like pure and simple mistrust to me. Besides, last I knew, the devil wasn't "put there" as a function to test you, the devil was thrown out of heaven for thinking that the devil knew more than god.

[@tytesz2371]

For me the whole idea of "God loves you unconditionally but if you don't bealive in him he will send you for ethernal suffering" and "It's all God's plan he's too perfect for us to understand it" is extremely gaslighting.

[@jimmccarthy80]

...There is no "eternal" burning hell, this is a catholic church teaching that made its way into the world because of folks who are too indolent to search the Scriptures for themselves. God's love for us is unconditional, this He proved as He died so all could have a chance to live forever. God's love for us is not in question, our love for Him is, and all we have to do is choose to love Jesus Christ over sin. Most will choose this hair's breadth existence over an eternity of unimaginable bliss because they don't care enough to study to show themselves approved unto God. Their choice; God's will is that none should perish but that all should come to repentance. Most would rather bite than switch...

[@jimmccarthy80]

@Commodore X ...God loves us unconditionally, in other words He is not the one who chooses our destiny, we do. The reason satan was cast out of heaven is not because God hates him, but because he hates God and nothing that hates God could ever stand in His presence and live. Our God is a consuming fire; He cannot change or lower the standard, especially to allow sin to enter the kingdom, which would only cause a second rebellion and we'd be right back where we started. This life is a test, that's why it's so short; but it determines where all will spend eternity based on our choices, not His. The Bible says God's will is that none should perish but that all would come to repentance and live; as He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked...

[@rafael9886]

@@jimmccarthy80 no

[@bcalvert321]

Why is it so hard for atheists to know God loves them. He create3d you, the universe, and everything in it. So why is it so unreasonable for God to ask that you follow Him. We have the Bible to understand God. We have Jesus that died on the cross for our sin. He rose from the dead proving we can have a life after death. The real problem you have is that you like to sin and you don't want to stop.

[@bcalvert321]

@Commodore X You love to sin. You don't want to quit sinning. That is your attitude toward God. God created not only us but the whole universe and everything in it. He spoke it into existence. People are amazed by a great play in sports but they think God never did anything for us. He just spoke into existence billions of stars and planets. He created man from the dust of the earth and woman from his rib. Yet you shudder at the thought you may have to clean up your life. You are the one being selfish.

[@dani.phantm]

my question was: Why would a so-described fair and loving God first create me when I didn’t ask to be created, and then condemn me to eternal suffering and damnation for losing a game I didn’t ask to play? late edit: my statement was not “I wish I wasn’t created”, it was “I didn’t ask to be created”. There’s a stark difference.

[@edwindarius7232]

Good question. I agree with you. However, the belief that the wicked will burn in Hell for eternity crept into Christianity from Egyptian, Pagan, Roman, Celtic and Greek mythologies. In other words, this idea is not in the Bible. Now, of course, people can pull things out of context to prove anything, but the biblical authors had no idea of this eternal suffering and damnation nonsense.

[@LateNightKaiju]

I'm having a discussion with a Muslim about this at the moment. Supposedly in that faith, Allah asked all spirits before they were born if they want to be human (the only being that has free will and can choose Allah or not and therefore the only ones that can be rewarded with Heaven or punished with Hell) or an animal, plant, mountain etc (Which are without free will and are always Muslims!) But when those who go on to be humans made that choice Allah made them forget in order to make the test 'fair'. So effectively you did make the choice, but you forgot. Clever dodge!

[@edwindarius7232]

@@LateNightKaiju oh wow, I never heard that one before! 😁

[@setiawanraestloz3504]

@@LateNightKaiju wait, how would that make the test "fair" in any way whatsoever?

[@RealAntek]

Setiawan Raestloz don’t ask him, ask the Muslim

[@alanhowell9145]

My favorite to toss around at church as a kid was that if god has a predetermined plan for everything youve spent most of your life actively fighting gods plan with prayers

[@dazedelectro]

God doesn't have a plan??? The closest thing he has to a "plan" is the book of life

[@Izelor]

A point I always raise when it comes to free will is that, if God is omniscient, then there can be no free will because you can't know everything, unless everything is predetermined. People don't seem to always understand this however, and they try to make up silly excuses to prove that God both knows everything and free will truly exists.

[@sidecarmisanthrope5927]

@@Izelor : Oh. They understand it, only it conflicts with their beliefs and they cannot reconcile their cognitive dissonance. So they go through the mental gymnastics of trying to disprove what they know is true.

[@imCyanne]

⁠​⁠@@Izelor This is exactly my thought as well! Nobody mentions that at all. I would be told that God was omnipotent and then I later on heard that God created evil and imperfection to create free will. This raised so many questions for me. If God is omnipotent, then that means by default, there is no free will because a certain path is destined to happen. So for example, someone is fated to fall into sin, they are fated to burn and suffer in hell for all eternity and that felt extremely wrong to me. Imagine being born to be bad and not having a choice in the matter

[@maxwellferdianto3150]

@@Izelor from what i understand, the relation between God's all-knowing nature and our free will works like a Choose Your Own Adventure games or those Telltale interactive story games. God has determined several choices for us to choose, with each of these choices having their own consequences, but it is still upto us to take which one of those available paths. But our choices cannot go outside of what God has prepared. Just like we can never choose a dialog outside of what choices have been scripted on those CYOA games. Thus, we always have free will, and God always know what we will do. This is just my own understanding tho, im not an expert or anything so I could be wrong.

[@ryanhessler8966]

The concept of prayer started my questioning. I was always told to pray about it. You see people with cancer pray to be cured and they beat it and proclaim it was their faith and the power of prayer, while 10 more do the same, with the same devotion, and still die.

[@mickmccrory8534]

Prayer works aprox. 50% of the time..... just like random chance.

[@TBPetitP]

As an atheist who very very recently came out of a cancer while being very young (I just turned 26), I was told to pray by many people who cared about me, mostly old people like my grandmother and my neighbours. While my closest family isn't christian and doesn't pray, they do belive in god (in the classic way of "not practicing nor believing enough to be worth the time so decide if god really exists or not"), so my mom used to tell me we could only hope everything will be alright and for anything that "lives up there" to have mercy on me. I apreccieated all these gestures for what they really where: an honest preocupation for my wellbeing. I still told my mom what I thought because we are very close and honest. I told her that if I was to live and be alright it'd be thanks to the efforts of the many many proffesionals (surgeons, doctors, nurses, and other proffesions I don't know how to spell in english lol) who worked tirelessly for my recovery. She knows me and expected that so she laugh and recognized their efforts too (she's more like an "intuitive beliver" I'd say). Well in the end everything went on as best as it could, Im now much better, cancer free with no need for prayers. Deam, Im so skeptical I even did the things the nurses had superstitions about. They said that people who cut their nails while intern at the hospital died, I have to admit I did it mostly for the sake of making the point (to my mom too, who went visit me everyday and didn't want to take any chances, including cutting nails) that cutting your nails had nothing to do with the recovery of a patient.

[@AsleepInTheAirportFrontman]

Nobody said that praying works every time. For some, it is their time, and for some it is not. This one hits close to home for me, because I have two friends who are very devout Catholic Christians, and both got cancer within a few years of each other. One of them passed away, while the other did not, but the family of the one who passed away became much stronger in their faith because of their mom's firm belief in Christ and where she was going when she died.

[@TBPetitP]

@@AsleepInTheAirportFrontman At the end is always the necessity of certainty and control, she's more calm thinking he's in heaven instead of not knowing, and people are happier thinking they got some kind of agency in a situation by praying, but at the end of the day is just deception and is more helthier to deal with the troubles at hand than to externalize the issue to any "superior being", so you can work on what you can actually do and be thankful to the people actually doing the job (as it is in medical cases, for example, they work and god gets all the credit...)

[@DarkAdonisVyers]

@@AsleepInTheAirportFrontman If God has a plan for everyone, you honestly think that he's gonna change it one way or another, regardless of prayer?

[@photophone5574]

If god wants a relationship then why doesn’t he talk with us clearly.

[@joyjones8231]

Oh...you know how men can be, jk😄

[@jommeissner]

Maybe he's very shy 🤔

[@jetli740]

maybe he a stalker.

[@BenK12345]

like my ex said, "I shouldn't have to ASK, you're just supposed to KNOW what I want!!!" lol

[@steveswangler6373]

@Lebeman so if your god revealed itself to everyone, who would be called a "schizo"? also, if your god doesn't reveal itself to me, why is it my responsibility to "ask for a relationship". why should i love your god when it doesn't even make an effort to let me know it exists? your entire point does not make sense. imagine a man fathering a child, then taking off. no discernible contact at all with the child. maybe an anonymous birthday or Christmas card that may or may not have come from the father. no help with bullies, no help with homework, no help at all that can undeniably be from the father. why is it the child's responsibility to seek out a relationship with this father?

[@fhmconsulting4982]

The question that broke it for me was the whole "if you repent and accept god into your heart all sins are forgiven". I then asked the priest would Adolf Hitler or Pol Pot be forgiven if they repented. Of course, he said God forgives all who accept him in their heart. So god forgives the very worst human being if they worship him? But if you are good, but you don't worship him you are punished with eternal pain? It seemed like un-controlled psychopathic narcissism to me.

[@manofgod7622]

Also theres another problem: If god forgives me, but then I decide not to believe in him, do I go to heaven?

[@stoner_vinny]

But do you believe that Hitler would repent of his sins? Do you really believe that? I don’t think a man such as hitler would repent of his sins and turn to God.

[@manofgod7622]

Marvin Hernandez hitler wasnt like that because he wanted to, but his power made him monster.

[@QueenBoadicea]

Marvin Hernandez These statements are false premises. Hitler wouldn't have repented of his sins because he didn't believe he was committing any. He genuinely thought he was doing god's work. The belt buckles worn by his Nazi troopers read "Gott mit uns", translated as "God with us". Why would he repent of performing acts which he believed was god's will?

[@manofgod7622]

Marvin Hernandez I know this question isnt meant for me butt -how was he supposed to know hes not doing good thing and hes doing evil?

[@mrtoestie2707]

I was raised christian. Somewhere in my pre-teens I began to question all the other religions. Why were there so many different religions and gods? Then I begun to ask what separates christianity from other religions............ that answer lead me to atheism. I think I understand why religion is important, but I also understand that a lot of it is purely a cultural hand-me-down.

[@McJusti]

@christianity_reborn and that's the answer that every religion could make. Doesn't prove anything

[@kirtil5177]

@christianity_reborn "What separates Islam from other religions is the fact that Islam is the Truth and other religions are not" ok, now what?

[@Fade_NB]

@christianity_rebornevery religion uses that excuse lol

[@melissacooper8724]

From what I saw in the Christian faith is that they like to put down the other religions. The Protestants even believe that Catholics and Jehovah's Witnesses are destined to Hell!

[@resourcedragon]

"No Gods were harmed in the making of this video."

[@paradoxward2533]

@resourcedragon......., are you sure??

[@thedevilofmetal5335]

Skeptic is the only god I see here

[@karcharias811]

As if you could.

[@rickydarcilover5581]

Only two types of people in this world, Atheists and the insane.

[@karcharias811]

@@rickydarcilover5581 Ad Hominem fallacies like that don't fill me with confidence in your ability to reason.

[@phil23_8]

For me, the question that really shook my faith was "how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"

[@vershima69]

That is strong ✊

[@rapidashrorschachtest430]

"A wood chuck would chuck as much wood as a wood chuck could chuck" -The answer that turned me atheist.

[@jorbore1413]

OMG I'm literally shaking and crying right now!!!!

[@tyrantsonthefield]

That one makes you think

[@papadelta316]

But would the wood chuck chuck the wood if the chucked wood would be chucked at the wood chuck??

[@dillonkeller4477]

"Satan knew who God was, and he still went against him." For Christians, this is supposed to illustrate Satan's foolishness, but my takeaway was always that Satan has the biggest balls in the universe

[@JohnBrown-of4pw]

Dillon Keller That makes sense if one is a rebel as I once was.

[@xbox360hulk]

@@JohnBrown-of4pw according to those who wanted to stay in power, Jesus too was also a rebel, disturbing the natural order of control the rabbi elders and the romans had

[@JohnBrown-of4pw]

ELEAZAR No sir, that is a revolutionary lie Jesus did not come to destroy the law but to fufill It. The Pharisees tried to make the OT a crooked man made religion of stipulations (Talmud), and Jesus Christ let everyone know that the law cannot be kept. The purpose of the law was to show a need for a savior.

[@xbox360hulk]

@@JohnBrown-of4pw I'm not undermining Jesus, if something or someone that is seen as a miracle, special, or good, is under the same wavelength of meaning that compared to everyone else is less meaningful, special or good, so that special event or person can stand out as their savior, which if you live a life of responsibility, you are your own savior, no one else. Jesus may have been extraordinary as a person, but as Society how we use the word "good", is someone who doesn't disturb the natural order around "normal" people. Whether it's a lie or not, he got everyone's attention, and still is the most popular person in "recorded history"

[@JohnBrown-of4pw]

ELEAZAR Jesus claimed divinity,

[@katielgk]

I used to ask a lot as a kid, "what happens to people who never get a chance to learn about God?" The answer usually was, "They go to heaven anyway." Took me a while to come up with a follow up question: "Then shouldn't we keep it a secret?" That's what finally changed my mindset.

[@Reader-y7k]

Oh I love this

[@NitrogenVM]

That kind of feels like a dystopian novel for some reason

[@orbinstarsxx]

That is genius. I'm telling that to my christian friends to see what they come up with

[@galaxiadoce2554]

PLEASE tell me what they replied with.

[@katielgk]

@@galaxiadoce2554 the more hardcore evangelists aren't gunna care much. "God commands us to spread the word" is a response I've gotten a couple times, but they usually at least leave me alone about it. Some people I've talked to insist they have to tell everyone or else Jesus won't return for them. So, y'know, the idea that they themselves are condemning people to hell by telling telling them about Jesus isn't going to stop a lot of them from doing it, they see it as a holy duty. But it might make some stop and think.

[@naturesounds5376]

"The Lord works in mysterious ways... " if i had a nickel for every time i've heard that as a response...

[@harper6032]

If the church had a nickle for every time they gave that response, they wouldn't need to ask for money

[@Willow4526]

If that Nickel was then divided amongst the would every time that was said we'd all be rich beyond belief.

[@hippiehippo9030]

@@harper6032 Wouldn't need to, but would likely do it anyway.

[@d0ntbescurred244]

Willow4526 we wouldn't be rich due to inflation

[@thehistoryman9332]

IKR

[@knvids2812]

I was a Hindu, I live in India, and all my family proclaim that our gods actually listen to their devotees and help them. India has over 270 million poor and homeless people Something didn't add up...

[@jacksonrelaxin3425]

Hindu is false. This video creator was taught incorrectly and fallen in love with himself and his stupid questions. Eternal conscious torment is a lie and not biblical, yet it continues to remain the primary talking point for atheists who claim to know the scriptures front and back. Here’s the truth: Read-- John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Do you believe it? If yes, then now you have everlasting life. It’s that simple. If you do not believe the most basic verse in the Bible, none of the rest will make any sense. This is where the term “lost” comes from. People like this guy study and read the Bible for years, decades even and remain lost because they never believed, and now he’s idolizing Carl Sagan. Lol

[@6pac.]

Lmao your parents doesn't know anything and neither did mine kyunki kisi ne kuch padha hi nahi aur na hi jaane ki koshish kari. Geeta padhi hai ya sirf yuhi uthke ajate ho? It is written to not ask anything from god and when you dwell into logic and sense it is absolutely correct. Your devotion is corrupted because you worshipped god for your selfish material motives when it was never about it. These are injected impurities in our culture during the course of time. Geeta also says that this Earth is our Karm Bhumi. Agar esa hai, them why ask God about something when this life is your responsibility? The whole point of god is polluted in modern society. It was always polluted in Abrahamic religions though.

[@knvids2812]

@@6pac. bro I am atheist I don’t believe this either

[@knvids2812]

@@6pac. Also please don’t insult my parents

[@6pac.]

@@knvids2812 Bro I'm not insulting your parents. I said the same thing about mine in the same line. I'm just saying the truth. Our parents knowledge ia limited to TV serials about God. TV serials are wrong. Also, our parents generation thinks that devotion towards God is lighting up diya everyday infront of them during Pooja and at the end ask them for this and that everytime a Pooja is done. Our parents lack real knowledge. Our generation might have lower count of devotee but many of us knows more about our gods and it's concept because as a generation we do try to know about Geeta and Vedas and others things. That's all I'm saying. Also, internet itself tells a lot of things from our granths even though 90% of them are wrong but 10% are doing really great.

[@zau64]

After a lot of mental gymnastics and trying to rationalize God's behavior, I asked myself the question that made me an atheist: Why am I having to explain God's actions? Or in other words: "Why is it our job to make excuses for his behavior?"

[@savagecabbage6119]

@@og4372 Being dumb or intelligemt has nothing to do with what you believe. Everyone believes something, otherwise we wouldn't be human

[@GarnetHeartIllustrations]

That reminds me of a moment I had where this connection dawned on me that there were unsettling similarities between the effects of a relationship with god, and an abusive relationship. When you start out, its wonderful and you feel like you're on top of the world, then you'll have questions and find yourself stretching to explain his behavior. When you ask questions, you may find alot of confusing answers that twist the issue into something good, or something that is your(or humanity's) fault. Then if you spend time away from them, you find yourself asking more questions, and kinda feeling that brain fog of desperately devoted trust start to lift, and you dont see them the same way anymore. You might waver and come back to them periodically, but it's the same cycle.

[@jcf072899]

i think you guys Have God and Mans behavior mixed up 😂🤷🏾‍♂️

[@jcf072899]

O G so your basically saying just because YOU don’t understand the bible and we do and we know its true so we choose to believe it that makes us dumb thats one of the dumbest things ive read today and you say we dont look for evidence or facts of the bible and just sit there and believe and have faith while some of us do do you know theres alot who dont idk man you atheists are just lost and need help understanding

[@jcf072899]

theres alot who dont just have faith and believe they go out and look for evidence find it and have even more faith and belief*

[@lenbotomy]

Teenager here, was debating with my highly religious dad the other day about my personal beliefs and how he tries to convert me to christianity and i told him how i listened to him and never ever took anything as it is and always highly researched every aspect of everything i choose to believe. What he said after that was along the lines of “i wish you weren’t so smart for your age. Sometimes being dumb and not questioning and going with the crowd is better”.

[@hulguntristan6268]

Bruh

[@RedditClock]

my parents rn^'

[@Aleks_Ovski416]

Yeah, my own father once said "its better to be small" - you realize at some point, they are just doing two things. A - projecting onto you B - truly parenting the best they know how. Which is sad, but as you get older, you learn forgiveness and learn not to hold it against them and realize they themselves are lost kids.

[@joshualavender]

Ugh. This reminds me of my father’s words to me: “You’re so smart, you’re stupid.” What this logic ultimately led him to tell me was that because I was smarter or more educated than someone else - he specifically had in mind family members, like himself, without college educations - the onus was entirely on me to justify my positions with logic and evidence, and no such onus was on the other person. I had to prove things; no one else did. This was so wildly unfair that I saw no point in arguing anything with him anymore, which was likely his goal.

[@aleksinenadic4166]

Seems like he cares about you and wants what’s best for you. He prolly just thinks the only thing that’s best for you is belief.

[@natsune09]

I remember when I first started questioning the Bible, and it was in church about God testing Job. Short version, Satan states Job only loves God because his life is good. If his life was tough, he wouldn't love God. God allows Satan to test Job with bad things. Now, the question that came to mind when hearing this as a child, "Why?" Why does God allow this? If God was all knowing, he knows what will happen. Satan knows God knows everything. What is the point of this experiment? If God loves us, why torture someone to prove something that is already known? Let's change characters. My friend Bob from accounting says my dog only loves me because I treat it well. If I were to be cruel to the dog, it would stop loving me. So I then go and kick the dog to prove it loves me. That isn't love, that is abuse. If I loved the dog, I would have told Bob from accounting to go to hell, I'm not going to hurt something I love just to show off it loves me. If I did, I didn't really love the dog. When I was married, I didn't hit or cheat on my wife to show the world she loves me. Who in the world would say a man who abuses his wife and dog loves them? So why is God bowing to Satan's demands? What does God have to prove to Satan? What audience is God proving this to?

[@lellow7087]

this is so true, you worded this very well

[@pfcspencer11b]

For the sake of this thought experiment I know something you will do tommorow what would be your response if you were arrested for it today?

[@natsune09]

@@pfcspencer11b Going to college for Criminal Justice and getting a Bachelor's Degree, my response would be, that isn't how the US Constitution works and it goes against how the US Criminal Justice system was designed. Our Criminal Justice system was designed around the concept of 'We would rather let 100 guilty men walk free than imprison 1 innocent person.' The Constitution and the Criminal Justice system is built around probably cause and reasonable suspicion. You can't just search, arrest, detain, incarcerate, seize, and so forth and so on with out just cause, probable cause, and/or reasonable suspicion.

[@pfcspencer11b]

@@natsune09 so then why do you believe God to be any different?

[@_tim4e]

@@pfcspencer11b because God supposedly know everything about every person’s future, but people certainly don’t

[@paulpiasta9532]

In first communion I asked, "Why is there a devil?" The answer was always, "Well, if there's a god there has to be a devil." Makes no sense. Then I asked, "Who made god?" I was slapped by a nun.

[@xxxod]

They should have responded with man. Therefore we are god's god and he should be worshiping us.

[@chrisb.7787]

God is that small incredibly dense thing that exploded in the big bang to create everything. The thing that everything came from and the thing that will eventually reform and explode once again. God is everything and everything is God. Seams simple to me.

[@xxxod]

@@chrisb.7787 thats non-Abrahamic pseudoscience. why should we agree ?

[@nocontext9635]

If god exist and most power why would he dont delete lucifer and all of us?

[@JamesRichardWiley]

Correct Answer: The devil exists to serve God and keep him entertained. Man made God in his own image. No slapping required.

[@tehCostHD]

Imagine in thousands of years and humans will be learning about Christian mythology in the way we now learn about Greek/norse/etc mythology

[@muchotexto4248]

Sorry man, but that goes beyond our species. We are an unstable being that needs to pretend to be fixed, and being know-it-all and excempt from the consequences of our true actions forms part of that spray paint. Think of it. nothing matters. You'll be fine in the end. All you have to do is live knowing that... It's an easier way to live... Noone can harm you... You're safe, because you're just special and that's it, don't ask anymore. Dare ask and you're in trouble, exposed to the fact we aren't as sure as we say. Think of a father to it all. He knows his own creation, so he knows a shady book triggering a cult and opposing all we see in our daily lifes would be hard to believe. If he is rabid at us for not taking it and using the power he's given us instead then apart from abandoning, he's abusive.

[@CalebChildofHumanityCalder]

Sadly, Christians were around then so it’s not looking likely

[@richiejohnson]

BRAV0!

[@tehCostHD]

@@CalebChildofHumanityCalder what do you mean?

[@richiejohnson]

@@CalebChildofHumanityCalder Christians were not around when Greece ruled the world. Think more carefully

[@Tenebrous76]

The problem with pascal's wager is that there is no limit to the number of potential gods. Thus, the odds of choosing the rignt one approaches zero as the number of gods increases.

[@topologyrob]

They are all just various human conceptions of ultimate reality

[@mushu_beardie2556]

Imagine it's just some backwater church in Kentucky with like 50 members 😂

[@Rainfire-forgets-to-animate]

So mathematically, the best bet is to just believe in *all* of them

[@personofthepeople561]

@@Rainfire-forgets-to-animateunfortunately most of them(the major world religions at least) are monotheistic, so believing in them wouldn't do you any good cause you believe in all those others lol. alternatively you could believe in all the polytheistic religions.

[@unholy_sina]

ok we doing calculus now😂

[@Ven0m.snak3]

I remember when one of my classmates asked our religion teacher "what if Jesus was just really smart took advantage of how dumb people were?" They got suspended for two weeks and wasn't allowed on the computers for 3 months

[@Thepre-fixfordeath]

They realized they were realizing. And silenced them.

[@sayejutsu-6009]

That just goes to show that the teacher was a bad teacher

[@pablogodoy8888]

That sound like it has sense.

[@evilfridolin]

Are u living in Iran?

[@Ven0m.snak3]

@@evilfridolin no. It’s a very Christian school

[@arden563]

a question my sister came up with is “if god gives us free will, why does he punish us for having it?” edit: to clear up what i meant when i asked this question: If god knew what was going to go down, ie adam and eve sinning and then condemning us all to hell, why would he make us? why would this "all knowing, all powerful" god MAKE it so we would sin against him and then SEND us to hell for something he KNEW was going to happen? Im not saying we should be perfect, but if it is in our human nature to fail and mess up, like we CANT help not making mistakes, then why would he send us to hell since we can not help but fail? why would he design a world where the only way to be saved is through this one book that can be misinterpreted so easily, and not accessible throughout all the world. is everyone not able to be saved? why would an all loving god design a world like that? why make us at all if he knew some would rebel we'd get sent to hell, if this god didnt want us to go to hell in the first place?

[@lovisabengtsson9200]

he doesn't

[@arden563]

@@lovisabengtsson9200 exactly, i’ve had christianity shoved down my throat all my life and for a long time i didn’t question it but i’ve been out of church (my parents used to force me to go to church) since march cause of covid and a lot of questions have popped up, more questions than can be answered by the “good book” and so many things that just don’t make sense. i’m glad i found channels like these to help me explore

[@kajenbop]

sarah garner why did you say “exactly”? Lovisa disagreed with you! You have confused making the wrong choices in life, with the ability to make those choices in the first place. You read what you wanted, not what was written.

[@arden563]

@@kajenbop i read it as “he doesn’t give us free will” but i guess you’re right lol, my bad, but there’s something that doesn’t make sense about god giving us free will if he punishes for having it, i don’t know tho lol

[@kajenbop]

sarah garner he doesn’t

[@MegaBlueboi]

The realization that "broke" me was when I came to realize that I was really only Catholic because my parents happen to be Catholic. Likewise, they happened to be Catholic because their parents were. And they in turn were Catholic because theirs was too, etc. I am from an Asian country where around 80% of the population are Catholic, where the top schools and universities are Catholic, and its government leaders mostly Catholic. So of course, with little to no surprise to statistical probability, I too was raised Catholic. If I happened to be born a little more down south my country where a good number of the people are of Islamic faith, then I'd most probably be a Muslim. If happened to be born across the sea to the east, I'd probably be into Hinduism. If I were a born much further east, then maybe I'd be Jewish, and so on and so forth. The point is, I really only was born into my religion.It just so happened that I was born in my circumstances and therefore raised Catholic. But how on earth does that mere chance mean that my religion was the right one? Does that mean I got lucky and every person born into other religions just unfortunately so happened to be raised into a false one? I asked myself that if I was indeed born into a different religion, would I still end up finding God and worship him in the Catholic tradition that I was raised in? Of course the answer was nope lmaooo

[@walterkrueger5947]

as someone who was adopted the same thing happened, I could have been adopted by someone of any faith.

[@sammykent5752]

This plus an existential crisis is basically what I went through.

[@user-ft3jq5vi2l]

The reason why I don't believe in your (as in the person I'm talking to's) religion is the same as why you don't believe in Huitzilopochtli or Odin.

[@axthla]

take a shot every time he says ''catholic''

[@arjunpadiyar956]

As a former Hindu, I found myself wondering the same thing. Although my parents told me that all religions essentially worshipped the same "god", or universal spirit, I didn't really buy into it. It wouldn't make sense that the one "god" would allow so many wars and atrocities in his name to take place. My parents are good people, but they were born Hindu, and their parents were, and so on, as you said before. I can't blame them for that.

[@buddy94445]

One of my favorite questions is "If Jesus could walk on water, could he also swim on the ground?"

[@Floxxoror]

I can walk on water and it's not a question of faith. It's a question of temperature.

[@def_needed_tips]

bro you did not just say that.

[@eastpontiff]

Yeah cos Jesus is God and God is God so yeah.

[@weirdnessincarnate]

If it's mud technically yes

[@bradenmichaud394]

@@Floxxororunderrated comment 😂

[@felixalonzo2847]

If he's so forgiving, why didnt he forgive Adam and Eve over that simple little apple and cursed us all over it.

[@Llortnerof]

An apple he himself put there and didn't even bother to fence in. If he hadn't wanted them to eat it, he could easily have just kept it outside their reach. Or just not made it to begin with. It seems to not have had any other purpose than setting those two up.

[@gwendolynsnyder463]

He literally put poison in a garden, and told two literal children: "Don't eat it!" , and expected two children to obey that.

[@politicsaside9171]

Because it's a story. A story without conflicts is uninteresting.

[@dawidek4267]

It was a test to see if they will obey him, and they could but satan brainwashed them

[@dawidek4267]

And he is not always forgiving, he judges you very fair, my religion teacher said "he's the fairest of all judges"

[@jeansoh18]

1:28 Why did God communicate through literature? 3:50 Shouldn't you worship the cruelest God imaginable? 6:48 Why did God create animals with the ability to feel pain? 8:34 Why doesn't God just create people in heaven and skip the trial period of earth Was looking for timestamps and didn't see any hope this helps someone :)

[@flashbodie1]

Did

[@RealAntek]

Ur a good man

[@JuanEttermontaut]

You questions is answered brother Watch this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/bH-9ZmxnmdlrmaM

[@JamesRichardWiley]

Yahweh can communicate through telepathy which is why he uses papyrus. A cruel and sadistic god for a cruel and sadistic human primate. Imagine an animal laughing while being eaten alive. No fun in that. The trial on earth provides a little extra thrill.

[@tell-me-a-story-]

You all do see that you’re basically saying no one should ever suffer, or HOD is horrible, right?

[@p11_studios]

The one that really got me was Mr Atheist’s “what’s the difference between a god that works in mysterious ways and a universe that functions without one?” And really, just the entire concept of prayer being bullshit

[@domhuckle]

There are a lot of messages in this feed that got replies from believers. Kudos for chucking out the one that really sticks

[@giardaphslaw5572]

Nice one, I like to think that the universe was eternal. Instead of an eternal deity making the universe with magic, the energy and mass of the universe just always existed anyways... No need for the middleman. If there was ever 'nothing' then there would always be nothing, so really there must have always been something...

[@p11_studios]

Giardap Hslaw I think that’s an interesting perspective. I’m not an expert, but from what I’ve read, they say the Big Bang was an anomaly, and that black holes are very similar, but on a smaller scale. And they believe that if the universe ever ends, it will end in that same anomaly. So the way I figure, if we started one way, and will go out the same way, maybe it’s just a loop. The birth and death and rebirth of universes.

[@p11_studios]

fighting fire Alright sir. Though I typically don’t engage in this kind of evangelism, I watched your video. And I’m unconvinced.

[@p11_studios]

fighting fire For the millennia that human kind has existed on this earth, we have studied the world around us. We have evidence of the universe’s continued expansion over time. Over decades, millions have studied our universe with a skeptical eye. Scientists are constantly searching for evidence that could possibly disprove the Big Bang theory, yet as of now, none has arisen. Science is willing to change its mind, because the people behind it want only to know the truth. Nothing is too sacred, too traditional to be overridden. As a scientist, I put my trust in my peers and our efforts to understand our origins. And for as much as the current state of the Bible might have vaguely correct, there are a host of factors that could uproot this. Firstly, the video failed to state which version it was working from, but I would presume both you and the people behind Living Water are referring to the King James Version. This has been translated through multiple languages and back again, and adapted over time. Christianity has struggled to keep up with the advancements in the scientific community in the past, and I wouldn’t be surprised if those very minute references to things we have proven were added after our discoveries. On that, they are also extremely vague, and the entirety of the Bible has been interpreted in literally millions of different ways. Each Christian works from the same text, yet almost each individual has a personalized concept of the same God. Discuss with people of your congregation. Who thinks the Old Testament is meant to be historical facts, and who thinks it’s a collection of stories to learn lessons from? In short, I place my trust in the work of my fellow man in today’s world. The Bible is a book originating two thousand years ago, written by men, which has been translated between tens of languages and likely suffered from some alterations and additions along the way.

[@apateon18]

The first one I had when I started questioning about God and religion was: If God really wants everyone to worship him and will deem anyone else to hell, why don't we just have a single universal religion? If he is omnipotent, it shouldn't be that hard to just spread the exact same religion to everyone in the whole world.

[@esimpson2751]

Allegedly there was once only one religion than mankind began worshipping false idols and creating new religions in his ignorance.

[@TWildyM]

​@@esimpson2751 What was the original religion?

[@a.c.slater7989]

@@TWildyM Paganism most likely unless they mean worshipping the elements or like the sun.

[@babysenpai3883]

it says in my religion islam that god only sent one religion but somehow chose to divide it to three sections

[@maxwellferdianto3150]

well He does can do that. But he won't. Atleast not now. One of the most logical explanation ive ever heard is that if God forced the entire earth to worship Him by showing himself as a God to all people, not many of them will truly worship Him out of faith. Most people will worship Him because they HAVE to, not because they WANT to. And that kind of forced worship is not something that God wants from us. He wants people to worship him out of faith and love. That's why he created us with free will, so we can worship Him by choice. Every person on earth is free to make their own choice on this. That's why it's called faith, he wants us to choose to believe in him without seeing his presence directly when others won't. Feel free to debate me on this, it is an interesting topic to discuss

[@aspiring.creative.person6092]

My first question was “If God’s existence is so obvious, why do we have to tell people about him?” The preacher of that sermon literally had two points of “God is evident in nature” and “People aren’t gonna believe if no one tells them about God”

[@truthserum3050]

The more I read these comments, the more I feel like theists are mentally ill.. or retarded or something. Just not okay in the head.

[@Tripskull]

Don't forget, if those heathens dont hear about the Abraham God or decide what they learned as a child wad the actual truth. That person gets to be tortured for infinity years. Apparently heaven will exist beyond the heat death of thr universe. Personally I think we should model ourselves after our creator. It's only right for yiur children to worship you. You created them, so it's your right as creator to be worshipped!!

[@3rdeye671]

In other words people who are telling you about God are deceiving you and creating a false narrative to further their own agendas. God is Everything, Everything is God. No need to pray or worship as You are already of God. Look within not without. "Ye are Gods" - Jesus of Nazareth. Internally we find the source, externally is subservience to another.

[@gungungun9yago]

@@Tripskull God doesn’t punish for lack of knowledge, we tell people about him so that they make the right choice when they die

[@Tripskull]

@@gungungun9yago lolololololol hahahahahahaha two trillion galaxies in the observable universe and still you have the audacity to believe the universe revolves around you, us whatever. The sheer arrogance of such ideas. And to be so incredulous about the big bang. I hear so much: the universe cant appear out of nothing!!...yet you can believe thst an omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient entity coalesced out of nothingness and created everything so that you can worship it for all eternity. Shove your sky wizard down other people's throats. The sky mage that, by definition, it's existence cannot be proven....convenient... 2000 years ago such ignorance was understandable. Why did god create 2 trillion galaxies when no matter how advanced the human race becomes, we will only ever contact the Andromeda (5 billion years until collision) and the 30-40 dwarf galaxies in our local group? Why are they (2 trillion galaxies) the only thing in the universe traveling faster than the speed of light? Why make all that shit when the universe revolves around you?! Is only here to be a proving ground to find those able to worship God for all eternity...

[@PythonPlusPlus]

One question I’ve always had in my head: How do we know that God is really the good guy and Satan is evil? God could just be tricking us into thinking that Satan is evil to have everyone worship him. God doesn’t want you to express your free will, and threatens you to do what he says. Meanwhile Satan is known to encourage expression of your free will for your own benefit, and never forces you to do anything.

[@v-tiful]

same thats what i thought as well

[@itsyoboiivan3255]

Yeah whats up with this satan guy. If he is evil how come he punishes bad people?

[@phoenixstormjr.1018]

What threat? Do what he says? Doing what he says is an option. You'll still get heaven if you don't do it. you just have to choose to follow him.

[@PythonPlusPlus]

@@phoenixstormjr.1018 So you don’t see eternal suffering as a threat? Of course, now you mention it, that seems like a just punishment for not being his obedient pet.

[@superrooster18]

@@PythonPlusPlus yea it’s basically, sup kid. You are in a game where you will waste years of your life praying to me or you will suffer in hell. What you didn’t ask to play this game? Too bad.

[@onyeka7121]

It's crazy that when I asked questions as a Christian a pastor told me that the ways of god are foolish and if you think too much you won't make heaven. That was a sign.

[@edwindarius7232]

There are a lot of stupid pastors out there. But the good ones will always welcome questions and doubts

[@KY.M19]

Nooo, maybe that one pastor you spoke to was a false teacher simple. You gonna let one person determine your eternal life🤔 what a special pastor seek God yourself

[@idrawfurries6136]

That was a sign your pastor is a really bad pastor

[@kevinquiroz5384]

@@idrawfurries6136 He wasn't a bad pastor for being a bad person; he was bad at his one job.

[@angelkinq6727]

@@KY.M19 or maybe they decided that that is not for them. If they dont believe in heaven or hell they are allowed to do so and since they said "that was a sign" i assume that there were many more tuibgs which have led them to their current stand :)

[@pigcatapult]

I was raised Mormon. I was also born with a chronic pain condition. I hurt everywhere all the time, because my immune system thinks my own nerves are a low-level threat and creates constant inflammation around them. Naturally, no matter how many times a group of men huddled around me and put oil and their hands on my head to ask God to reduce my then-undiagnosed suffering, He never did. Can you imagine telling a child who is always in pain and doesn’t know why that someone did this to them on purpose, who wants them to go through this every day for their entire life, and that person is a being of perfect love? If anyone else did that to their child, they’d be arrested, and no-one would be arguing for their tautological goodness. Or, maybe, this happened to me out of simple chance, because we’re all glitchy meat machines and this is my glitch. That’s certainly a thought better for my mental health than constantly being told that God will cure me eventually, but I need to die first.

[@robinharwood5044]

That’s a great final sentence!

[@Senselessdogruffruff]

Thats on the people whos following god lying to you rather than hod

[@pigcatapult]

@@Senselessdogruffruff You mean the lie that there’s an all-powerful, all-knowing god who loves me in any way that matters? Because that claim is fundamentally incompatible with my medical reality.

[@darkknight4615]

Cause no one deserves to suffer like that

[@LudvigSegerfalk]

Why does a god with infinite time and infinite voices need men to speak for hím

[@tell-me-a-story-]

He also speaks to you when you pray. Somtimes I ask GOD questions via prayor, and the next day, I flip through the Bible at random and I just "Happen" to find a passage that answers my exact question.

[@SpicyCurrey]

@@tell-me-a-story- I'm glad God provided you the benevolence of having your own anecdotal clarity for his existence. However, you need to recognize that this doesn't happen for essentially anyone else. The odds are against you, and your claim is nonsensical to anyone that doesn't get the privilege of having god 'prove' his nature in this miracle method.

[@MrHerky61]

He doesn’t.

[@MrHerky61]

Where and when was it ever said that God needs men to speak for him? He doesn’t. He doesn’t need us. We need him.

[@antoninliska9134]

@@MrHerky61 :D For what exactly we need God?

[@jazzphilips3167]

"If Hell is real then every person there is a shining example of how God failed." This single quote started my path down to atheism.

[@phoenixstormjr.1018]

How so? If God wanted to be in control, he would decide everything for you. No one likes a dictator.

[@Biolo-G_KJ]

@@phoenixstormjr.1018 tell that to the baby who was rped to death for no reason other then people thought it would cure their HIV. Or the billions of animals who go through excrutiating pain for literally no reason other then them being able to.

[@uselesshero.official]

Then that means because prisons and legal system exists, the society is a failure.

[@Biolo-G_KJ]

@@uselesshero.official pretty sure you can't compare an obviously flawed judge system of an alreasy flawed society to an allknowing all powerfull god.....

[@uselesshero.official]

@@Biolo-G_KJ but the atheists are doing it, right? In fact most of them have a lot of faith in judicial system and God or the concept of God is nothing for them.

[@dot9670]

i was raised as christian and i never understood why god couldn’t deal with satan? when lucifer was an angel, wouldn’t god have known he would betray him? couldn’t he have killed him/ not make him in the first place? there might be an obvious reason for this but i always just tried to not think about it when i was christian

[@daniele7989]

Yes God knew that even when He made Satan good that Satan was going to have none of that and cause crap, Didn't make the act of creating him any less good. and I guess for that reason the cosmos would have actually been worse off for God not having done something good (create). Theres tonnes of people that did awful things ore people who wouldn't like God but apparently even for all of that evil the world is still better for them having existed at all simply because God making stuff is just really really good.

[@nateriver4951]

@@daniele7989 There is no good in creating Satan. If you invent the standard, invent the possibility of your creations failing that standard, then create the punishment for those who fail that standard, then you're just an asshole. If god does good things, and god created evil, then evil is good.

[@bloodsweatandsteel.2749]

When I was a Christian I interpreted this to mean that God and Satan were actually one in the same. Ofcourse voicing this got me kicked out of Sunday school lol.

[@JohnBrown-of4pw]

dottie dot Yes sir God could have kept Satan from deceiving his creation, but God permits evil to bring about his ultimate good.

[@JohnBrown-of4pw]

anti-anti-intellectual x I’m familiar with logic, I just thank the one who gave us logic

[@Fwufikins]

"You should worship the cruelest god possible" is actually a great argument for the Chaos Gods from Warhammer 40k lol

[@act6463]

Blood for the blood god!

[@kevincrady2831]

"What was Lucifer's recruitment speech?" Imagine you're an angel, before Lucifer rebelled and became Satan. The Kingdom of Heaven is at its absolute best and most perfect; there is no "sin" to contaminate existence, no pit of Hell echoing with the tormented screams of the damned. You're walking down a golden street one perfect day. You see the leader of Heaven's choir, the great archangel Lucifer, and he seems to have something on his mind. You give him the proper gesture of respect and say hello. His eyes focus on you; he calls you over, then nudges you to duck into a side street. Then, he tries to talk you into the unimaginable: rebellion against Almighty Yahweh! What does he say? There is a passage in the Book of Revelation which describes the Dragon (Satan) drawing a third of the angels down from Heaven with his tail. As I understand it, this is usually interpreted as meaning that he persuaded a third of the angels to join him in his rebellion. A *third!* How many times in history has a third of a country's population chosen to emigrate from that country, or accepted being driven out instead of submitting to the authorities? Things have to be REALLY BAD for something like that to happen, right? Keep in mind that Lucifer would not have given his recruitment speech to hideous bat-winged demons, but to holy angels who knew nothing other than pure service to the Lord. These angels were willing to face two-to-one odds against the angels that remained loyal--not even counting Yahweh himself!--to take Lucifer's side, and face the prospect of everlasting torture in Hell. What could Lucifer possibly *say* to make them want to do this? Follow-up question: "Revelation 20:7-10 tells us that, after a thousand years of Jesus' perfect rule over the world, Satan is released. Immediately, the nations of the world rise up to join him in revolution, and they besiege Jerusalem before being destroyed by Yahweh. Why would the world rebel against Jesus like this? Again, Satan has a recruitment speech to give. He's already been beaten by Jesus at Armageddon, so anyone considering taking his side has to know the odds are heavily against them. They've lived under the direct rule of King Jesus for a thousand years, so they know exactly who he is and what he's like. If copies of the Book of Revelation still exist (and why wouldn't they?), they can literally read the ending in advance! Spoiler alert: Jesus wins! So why do people, apparently the vast majority of people (the ones remaining loyal to Jesus can all fit in Jerusalem), join this second rebellion? What kind of recruitment speech could Satan possibly give to make this happen?" Second follow-up question: "If Heaven--and the direct rule of King Jesus on Earth during the Millennium--is as perfect and omni-wonderful as you've been led to believe, how would rebellions like this even be possible? Lucifer and the angels that joined him LIVED there, in the direct presence of Yahweh; you've just got some vague symbolic descriptions of the place in a book. How do you know you'll be happy there? For ETERNITY?" Addendum: In the sixth chapter of Genesis, we're told that a group of angels found human women attractive, so they defected from Heaven to Earth, married, and raised children. Think about THAT for a moment. Again, pure and holy angels, with the chance to compare life in Heaven with human family life on Earth, chose the latter. Supposedly, the society they were joining was exceptionally violent. Not so violent that Noah and his family couldn't go to the hardware store for all their Ark-building supplies instead of having to mine the iron for nails etc. themselves because division of labor had broken down, and Jesus uses "the days of Noah" as a metaphor for *normalcy* prior to sudden divine judgment. So, probably not as violent as Aleppo during the Syrian Civil War, but still not an ideal society to compare favorably with Heaven itself...right? In the New Testament, Paul tells women to wear veils in church "because of the angels"--apparently the sight of a woman's lovely face and hair is STILL enough to make an angel want to bail from Yahweh's kingdom the first chance he gets. Maybe these angels know something about Heaven and the character of Yahweh's rule that you don't?

[@cephalonblue5991]

Kevin Crady very interesting ideas there.

[@lucas5885]

@@cephalonblue5991 It can be possible. Oooor, we're just overestimating their intellectual capacity. In the book of isaiah for example, its told that there are angels phisically stronger than others. What if their intellectual ability can differ as well? It could be quite easy for a stronger guy like lucifer to convince others not so capable or, just like us, without all the informations about god. If a made any grammar mistake, forgive me, i'm brazilian.

[@goodluckgorsky3413]

Kevin Crady My personal explanation is that this was supposed to happen and was inevitable. For Good to exist Evil must as well

[@liamalloh4215]

well i think that their are no demons and hell is reserved for only satan as we know that angels have no free will as their purpose is to serve god ad that is it so like a bacteria the just do it with no second thought so the idea of them betraying god doesn't make sense so i think that lucifer must have tried but failed to convince any angels in heaven and so what he said is not important, but that is just me.

[@matthewswart1845]

well it does say that he was the smartest angel and he is also known for tempting people so i would say he would have an easy time doing so

[@the_great_thinker6430]

1: create world 2: make people 3: give them free will 4: some turn out gay 5: let them be tortured in hell, despite the fact its litarally your own fault 6: profit

[@adhesivemailbox1993]

How the hell would that make profit?

[@cf3744]

I read this in the Gru's evil plan format

[@mugwump7049]

@@cf3744 Legit.

[@cuac5869]

@Fighter For Christ for a moment there I thought you were atheist with those rethorical questions. You do realize that your argument could go both ways right?

[@espurrseyes42]

@Fighter For Christ Quoting a bunch of people that believe in the same fictional character as you isn't proof of your fictional character's existence.

[@Paulogia]

Thank you for the kind shout-out, my friend... you definitely did the question justice. Well done.

[@s.f.morris7331]

damn as he mentioned your name i was reading your comment. weird

[@angelreads5300]

Following are some of the questions regarding Christianity that lead me to become a non believer. 1. Why do some people get the privilege of living for 70-80 years even after commiting all kinds of sins, but a new born dies a few days or even hours before they're born? We are told that suffering is a way for God to test our faith in him, but those new born babies die even before they could understand what suffering is. My own elder sister died when she was 3 years old and i get really frustrated when people say God called her to be with himself in heaven; a place none of us have seen. 2. What is the purpose of praying, exactly? There is a 50-50 chance we'll get what we prayed for. When our prayers do not get answered, we just say that God did what was best for us. Then why would you even bother praying in the first place, when he is going to do what he wants at the end? 3. My dad taught me that everything I am, everything I do, think or say is advocated by God. They are God's words not mine. So this whole thing about me questioning my faith in God, must also be something that he wants me to do. No? Of course when i do things that are considered good by the church or the society, it would be considered God's Will or God's Plan. But if i do the opposite, it is my own doing, something I am fully responsible for, that God does not want me to do. 4. We all know about Jesus' painful journey up the Calvary mountain during his last days. Every Friday, during the lent season, we remember this journey that lead to his crucifixion and eventual death. During Good Friday, there is a dramatic representation of the same shown to the people. Every torturous detail of the soldier's cruelty is narrated throughout the enactment. I remember seeing this for the time when i was 4 years old and being absolutely horrified by it. I had continuous nightmares about nails going through Jesus' hands and legs as he was being nailed on the cross. Do people really think it's ethical to show kids that young something like that?

[@purplelibraryguy8729]

I get particularly weirded out by prayers about competitive events . . . particularly ones between co-religionists. Like, you're praying you'll win, and they're praying they'll win, and why should God favour you over the other side? Why would it even be OK to pray for your fellow religious persons to lose?

[@dustinfisher6508]

I usually don't like doing this, associating a living religion with a work of fiction, cause it can be pretty offensive but there is a moment in the dune books that deal with prayer. The "antagonist" basicly says that prayer is a weapon used against God, its a threat saying do what I want or I won't believe in you. Prayers hold no meaning to the theoretical divine, it's used to make the person praying feel better and no one else

[@P1ggl3z]

For the 2nd one, although I agree with the premise, Im being nitpicky and pointing out that possibility does not equal probability. You said that there’s a 50/50 chance of a prayer being answered, which isn’t true : those are two possible options, but they aren’t equally likely. If I prayed for a billion dollars to spawn in my bank account, it’s definetly not a 50/50 chance it would happen. So this actually supports your claim more I believe

[@dakotasmith1344]

1. Dude Ecclesiastes is basically all about stuff like this. If it is indeed Solomon, Solomon remarked about how this kind of idea is vapor, futile, etc. Wisdom literature like Job and Ecclesiastes tells us that people don’t always get what they deserve, one way or the other. 2. The point of praying is a relationship with God, not to get stuff. That’s a transactional relationship. God already knows what we want. It’s more a matter of open communication between two people versus getting what we want. 3. This sounds like Calvinism, which most Christians don’t believe. Does God want to save everyone? Will some people still go to torment? If the answer to both is yes, then that means Calvinism can’t be true, and we actually have some measure of free will. That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t already know what we will do, although some try to promote open theism. Knowledge of what will happen does not cause an event to happen. 4. I don’t know about what church you went to, but I’ve never seen this done exactly like that. Most people I know avoid showing their kids something like the Passion of the Christ until they’re older because of how brutal it is in general.

[@qwertydog9795]

a weird, but maybe not necessarily unique question I have is this: Why does God seem so human? Why does he want to be worshipped? why does he get angry? why does he destroy things and people (his creations) because they turned out a way he disapproved of? does it appear this way because the concept of God was created by humans (so then it logically follows that such a concept would reflect human personality traits), and the idea that we were made in the image of God is just an excuse?

[@idalia.1152]

oh my god i have been trying to put that into words for so long. also, many things in abrahamic religions like racism and sexism are parallel to what human men at the time thought so surely those creating it would write scriptures that adhered to their own beliefs and what would make life better for THEM. they wrote that men are superior to women and other stuff like that so they could control people the way they liked, then used the fact that it was god to excuse it and make people believe. and theres (of course) the punishment of eternal damnation that would scare anyone into following these rules

[@shadymann9468]

I mean the ten commandments are just things people don't like you wouldn't like to be murdered, you wouldn't like to be cheated on, you wouldn't like it if someone stole from you list goes on... the same pretty much applies to heaven I don't know what happens after Death kinda wish I could just live and be happy forever boom God too I don't know how I came to be or the world around me for that matter we can make things maybe a being more powerful than us made us and our world religion 101.

[@deebz2626]

I like the idea of simulation theory, and God as the admin. It makes things funnier to me.

[@winstongrettum3412]

Why does he not want other things to be worshipped? Look at the history of those who worship things as war, national emblems, sex, political figures and ideologies, idols and the like. This is one reason why people are so severely divided and at each other's throats. When the nation of Israel were about to enter Canaan they were warned to not do according to the practices of those nations. Eg. They burned new born babies in the belly of their gods and played music and sang so that the screams could not be heard just so they could have rain for their crops. In Deuteronomy 18 you had a list of the disgusting things practiced by their religion.it says that because of these practices He was driving them out from the land. Because they failed to drive them out the Israelites eventually came to serve the Baals. King Manassah had the nation forcibly burn their first born children and he went out of his way to offend God. Under queen Jezabel, who had 400 Baal priests, she murdered so many children because of a 3 year drout. For the people, they might have an out if sight, out if mind policy, but Yahweh could see every detail. How can you fault him for being angry. It is notable that God allowed the king of Babylon to capture Manassah for maybe killing many tens of thousands of children. While in prison he pleaded for forgiveness. God then forgave him and restored him to his throne. Still the damage he had done to the nation was irreversible and even when Josiah tried to repair it he was only partly successful. After his death, the conditions deteriorated so badly that the nation was taken into captivity leaving it empty for 70 years. If you knew the facts Yahweh showed great compassion for his people and showed much mercy for them even when they became so debased

[@thewizardofodd6880]

Very simple to answer 1. God made us in his image…so….lol 2. God specifically made Jesus so he could see what we went through. Jesus pretty much went through every emotion a human could go through. Through him, god learned what it was like to be…human!

[@jackgrove4621]

when I finally left mormonism and became athiests, there was a whole lot of things I was more open and accepting towards. One of my realizations was that hell was actually a fail safe for religious minds having doubts. Someone having doubts about their religion, the fear of going to hell would keep them in their religious mind set.

[@TripleCOddyssey]

Interestingly enough, this video and the 4 questions posed has actually strengthened my faith in God, his son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost through the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Just goes to show that everyone is on their own path in life.

[@jonahfirth258]

@@TripleCOddyssey how so? could you rationally explain all the questions asked? if so i would like to hear your explanations and if not, well it need't me said

[@animezia]

@@jonahfirth258 don't expect any answers form religious people. They don't know how to ask questions and just acknowledge "i don't know" instead of filling the gaps in science with god

[@TripleCOddyssey]

@@animezia Interesting display of bigoted arrogance. My question in response would be what entitles you both to an answer? Especially since you both made it clear that a good faith discussion is far beneath you? Perhaps you should look inwards and work on yourself and your own flaws before trying to combat people online. Cheers.

[@noicegallagher4315]

@@TripleCOddyssey ay ay ay I want your answer. What were your answers to the questions I’m genuinely curious

[@lizraspberry]

Mine was: “if god created all of us in his image, and made me gay, then how come he banishes me to hell for a sexual orientation I can’t control? And if my choice is obey or be thrown in hell, isn’t that textbook manipulation?” Doesn’t sound like free will to me.

[@bibbs4150]

Elizabeth R the soul isn’t given more than that which it can handle. If y have free will u can control it

[@raindrop3366]

@@bibbs4150 Yeah... no. Thats not how that works.

[@bibbs4150]

Elizabeth R why not sometimes I want to punch people i could but I don’t. I just want to know ur perspective. Is is like something that u have to do and can’t control?

[@raindrop3366]

@@bibbs4150 violence and sexual orientation dont coorelate.

[@bibbs4150]

Elizabeth R ok so how does it work

[@whosheather]

i remember in 9th grade we were learning about the big bang theory and everyone was asking how and why questions to the teacher and she just goes "don't question it too much because it leads to atheism"

[@filmeseverin]

The superficial ones do not think enough to understand *the simple fact that from no intelligence involved, no intelligence comes,* the entire process until nowadays proving the existence of God because *the results of a process prove the intelligence involved into that process.* They ignore the intelligence put from the beginning. For example, the intelligence mentioned includes the exact value of the speed of light matching the manifestation of what we call "gravity", working together since the primordial conditions to form in the end this reality, which hosts intelligent life that is able to feel / understand / admire / enjoy / respect / love the Creator, especially through His human form, Jesus Christ. In spite of the fact that this reality has been created intentionally so that freedom to be 100% offered (the fallen angels ruled by Satan corrupting lots of things in this world to sustain the useless suffering, stupidity=evilness in general), God still has left the beauty of a pigeon (all beauties, goodness/wisdom in general), versus the ugliness of a crow (all ugliness, evilness/stupidity in general) for humans to choose. Sometimes, not only when I look into math and every field of the true/proven science, but also when I admire the immense beauty of this planet, the sky, the sea, the forest on the green hills with so many flowers and butterflies... in spite of the evil things done by the fallen angels (carnivores, parasites, bad insects, bad bacteria, viruses...), I can feel the perfect Intelligence called God/Divinity, our Heavenly Father with His human form Jesus Christ, Divinity who will give us what we deserve, after leaving this "school" and "exam" for our immortal soul, for us.

[@Xyl1tl]

I think u just had bad teachers. I went to a Christian school and they encouraged questions and the bible itself doesn’t ask for blind faith. Just because there are some bad apples on an apple tree doesn’t make the apple tree bad.

[@EclipsedYamiOld]

Did the teacher skip the part where the Big Bang Theory was proposed by a Catholic Priest?

[@filmeseverin]

Actually, only superficiality "leads to atheism". Most unbelievers of the truth do not know enough science to realize its permanent limitations. For example, science will never be able to really know, at least, what a photon is (the magnification process being infinite). Regarding the Creator of this reality (the nature of God etc.), our power of comprehension will always be like how much the cups can think to understand the man who made them (comparison mentioned in the Bible), but *we have Jesus Christ, the human form of Divinity, to be able to see God and what He expects from us.*

[@filmeseverin]

A single photon is like a miniature Universe because the magnification process is infinite (it cannot be stopped). For example: 1/2 > 1/3 > 1/4 > ... 1/n > ... 1/infinite proves that we can go infinitely to smaller numbers greater than zero, which in physics means that we can go infinitely to smaller things, in other words *science will never be able to really know from what this reality is made.* No matter how small a particle is, the system of reference can be decreased to its level of size and see that it is made from smaller things, and so on (this is the infinite involved). In other words, *anything is made from something smaller and also it is included in something bigger.* In addition, all the unbelievers of the proven truths, should not ignore the facts presented in (close to) the end of the video titled: *"Quantum Fields: The Real Building Blocks of the Universe - with David Tong",* which is available on KZbin, to realize that I am right in all my affirmations.

[@jademoon7938]

My favourite Christian anecdote is from Annie Dillard, An Inuit man was speaking with the Jesuit priest sent to convert his community. They talked about good and evil, heaven and hell, repentance and sin. The Inuit man listened to all the priest had to say, and paused for a moment in silence, before asking the priest a question. "If you had never come here to tell me of this God, and I didn't know about sin, would I have gone to hell?" The priest thought for a moment, "Well, I suppose not. If you'd never heard of God, you couldn't be blamed for sin, so no. You wouldn't." The Inuit man nodded, and then asked earnestly, "Then why did you tell me?"

[@buffaloefilms3079]

Well, in this case it's because he doesn't know what for sure will happen to him if he dies without knowing God. He only k ows for sure that with knowing God he can be saved, so he's just making sure.

[@johncargille7722]

I guess one theory is that a life with God on Earth is superior to one without, but said theory does assume that fact to be true.

[@jademoon7938]

@@johncargille7722 That's based upon the assumption that other cultures don't have their own deities and creation myths. I don't know why you started from the concept that nonchristians are godless. But it's not true.

[@johncargille7722]

@@jademoon7938 I would disagree. It's based on the assumption that some standard of desirability can better be obtained by knowing about and believing in the Christian God. And I think godless is the wrong descriptor, because even if I also believed in the god the Jesuit priest does, I wouldn't be claiming that they are godless, simply that they are not as connected to the god I believe in and thus do not experience as high a quality of life as I do. You're right that I used god to indicate the Christian god, which I could've been more specific about and thus I apologize, but in retrospect I unconsciously felt as though it could be implied by the context of the argument. I also tried to leave room for nuance, because that argument does assume in the desirable quality that comes with a life spent believing in the god of the Jesuit order.

[@jademoon7938]

@Justin Gary I was raised Christian and have no interest in the religion in any way shape or form, nor any other organized religion. Spirituality is an intensely personal subject and I have to laugh at anyone who thinks they can state anything about any religion factually. You are sharing religious opinions that were handed to you, ready made, they are not your opinions nor are they factual. The very concept that an institution can be the bridge between you and your creator is absurd, particularly when those institutions have caused more suffering and death and committed more sin than can be justified by any means. When someone tells you what to believe and pretends - key word, PRETENDS - to have answers about the creator or afterlife, they exercise control over your mind and life, and unscrupulous and terrible people use that to exploit. That's been proven so many times it's preposterous anyone could disagree. You are not sharing truth about the creator of the universe. You're disseminating propaganda on behalf of a financial institution that has done such horrific and depraved things that they, by any measure, are the definition of evil. Jesus Christ had some great messages, messages that have also been shared, essentially verbatim, by wise and spiritually enlightened people from all over the world, in all generations. He said the creator was in everything and that churches are not the houses of the creator, because the house of the creator is the universe, and anyone who says they need to do anything for you to have a relationship with the creator is a liar. And it's extremely unforgivable to lie to people and make them believe you know who the creator is or what the creator wants, you're PRETENDING to know, and it's egregious to tell them they have to obey some financial institution like a church in order to not be sentenced to eternal damnation and torture when they die. You don't know that. You don't know anything. How dare you try to indoctrinate people with propaganda and lies? If you have an opinion then share it, but be clear it's just belief and opinion, and do not threaten them with punishment for not obeying the rules YOU chose to take on and obey. So, you're free to believe what you like, don't you dare tell people your opinion is fact, that's a lie, you have no right to spread propaganda and pretend you know anything, when you are merely regurgitating what you were told, by people who don't know a damn thing either. What Christianity prescribes is not what Christ said, it's dogmatic bullshit, it's caused immeasurable pain and destruction, you're lying and threatening people and making them believe you speak from a place of knowledge, when it's not even speculation, it's just a story you were told. It's wrong. You might want to believe it's right. It's wrong. It has destroyed and annihilated entire tribes of people, robbed millions upon millions of their cultures, their languages, their spiritual beliefs, their land, their lives, their possessions. You have no right. No right.

[@paytonogallagher3284]

"If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed." -Albert Einstein I think of this quote whenever I hear about Pascal's wager.

[@thewizardofodd6880]

Um…that’s kinda dumb but- okay lol. Like…you realize if god didn’t exist all Christians wouldn’t automatically be murderers or anything…they’d just be humans. Getting blessings and stuff is just a bonus. (E.G. often when kids do chores they get allowance, when kids sneak out or sumn they get punished. With god it’s no different lol!)

[@paytonogallagher3284]

@@thewizardofodd6880 Neat strawman.

[@thewizardofodd6880]

@@paytonogallagher3284 ._.

[@adacathy3018]

i like that idea, it begs the question of whether we are good only because of the fear of punishment, or if because we are genuinely moral being that desire to be good. Also of what is better: being good because we know that is the moral thing to do even when we don't want to do it or should we do good because it a genuine desire?

[@thewizardofodd6880]

@@adacathy3018 i mean that’s the point lmao

[@someonecalleddarthjack]

As an atheist , watching this video made me become an atheist

[@justusP9101]

Same as me

[@delta8989]

A yes, the floor is made out of floor

[@buycraft911miner2]

​@@loganrogers4560 only kind of true, since an atheist who would do inmoral stuff would have the same temptations if he were a believer, but maybe he wouldnt do them because of fear. That only makes you a very slightly better person in my opinion. I think striving to be a better person from your own accord is better as a goal

[@ltrpwd]

@@buycraft911miner2 Alt account because of shadow ban. But it’s not about me being a good person and trying to be the best I can. It’s about others who are incapable of such self reflection and critical thinking. All you atheist fools need to join the Free Masons. We need young critical thinkers like you to guide the world. Find your local mason club and apply. Through religion we high functioning humans can point the lower functioning towards what is morally sound and beneficial for society.

[@losuthusxd886]

@@loganrogers4560 I'll talk about your two points: 1- If the human mind is misguided, that's probably because they think obeying rules from a book will make them better people, while they haven't learned that you can be good just by living and not following rules from a book thousands of years old. 2- If you are a good person because you fear you'll be punished after you die, you are not a good person. If any of the types of heavens was real, then the only people that would go there are atheists, since they didn't need the fear of eternal punishment to be good people. They just were good people. And, by the way, you're just insulting your own religion when you treat it as a tool rather than "The Lifestyle That Will Save Your Life". If religion is as good as you say it is, then it will spread by itself naturally, and not by invading other faiths just to make your own "stronger".

[@perrytheplate]

I remember in Church once the priest said, “Do not believe other gods before me, for I am a jealous God.” And all I could think was, Ayo that’s envy my dude and why “a jealous God” does that imply there are other gods???

[@filmeseverin]

Many people seem to not know that the fallen angels ruled by Satan have corrupted lots of things in this world to sustain the useless suffering, stupidity=evilness in general. That is why, if there are parts from the Bible, which contradict God's perfection, they are Satan's alterations/lies. *_"Satan, the one who deceives the whole world"_* Rev. 12, 9 (should be seen, also, the "Parable of the weeds" and 2 Corinthians 4, 4).

[@doomclasher9287]

@@filmeseverin But the words came from the bible, so would that make the bible corrupted? Also, I don't think I've ever seen anyone refer to Satan/Lucifer as a "god," only their names/title

[@SmokeFactory]

@@filmeseverinand god let satan have this power why? he can simply erase satan 😑

[@filmeseverin]

God has allowed the fallen angels and their works for those who cannot (or do not want to) understand the value of "light" / goodness..., without experiencing the "darkness" / evilness = stupidity. Therefore, we live into an altered and ruled world by the fallen angels, *allowed as an exam for our immortal soul (for us) to prove to the Creator how good we really are, how much we love perfection and how much we detest evilness=stupidity,* to prove that we are not following the demons anymore, through our deeds in this short earthly life, which will be judged 100% correctly for each of us. *_"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive his due for the things done in the body, whether good or bad."_* 2 Corinthians 5, 10

[@BudgetStudios]

I am a Buddhist, Buddha didn't claim to be God Budhha didn't claim to be the son of God Buddha didn't claim to be the messenger of God He claimed to be a teacher who wishes to teach good moral values and to treat all life as equal to our own, he didn't ask for worship. We worship him as a way to thank him for his teachings, Buddha said that as long as you're a good person, you do not need to fear the afterlife. May all of you have a good week ahead!

[@setiawanraestloz3504]

Plenty of Buddhism sects fall to the problem Abrahamics face as well. One particular vihara I went to proclaimed that Guan Yin chanted *her own name* for help, so that she too can get a seat before the next Buddha teaches again. That's just nuts

[@BudgetStudios]

@@setiawanraestloz3504 the Buddhism I follow is the simple one, cause Buddhism can integrate with different cultures, the one you're talking about is probably the Taoist/Buddhist version. For me, I just follow the simple morals...no gods, no demons, or anything. Cause over time or in different places all religion tends to change, look at Christianity having so many branches. But yea I agree with your point, religion is pretty complicated and even nuts

[@m.saberhagen502]

Does Buddha thinks eating people is okay? Or where does he gets the morals from? Because the morals for a good man from the lost tribes are still eating humans is fine... Let me tell u something...chinese believed in a single God way before Buddha or other Gods... Search for God in ancient china...

[@BudgetStudios]

@Norbert Kas you mean Buddhism?

[@BudgetStudios]

@@m.saberhagen502 Chinese gods and Buddhism are different

[@last2nkow]

"why dont all rapists have heart attacks when they decide to act on the idea, but before they touch their victims?" Or any other version of "why is a violent persons free will more important than their victims?"

[@GarnetHeartIllustrations]

Or also about people willfully skewing his message. If he wants a relationship, he should preserve the original words he said, and not let corruption and hate lead generations of his children astray

[@jeffreywendel7076]

It’s bc god wants us to learn, and you don’t learn from comfort or never making mistakes

[@last2nkow]

@@jeffreywendel7076 so thats why its okay for god to watch child rape but if you or i had the chance to stop them we would be fucking monsters. okay, i see. so... what is the lesson god is trying to teach a child rape victim?

[@jeffreywendel7076]

Stephen Baldwin, can you explain the first part of your reply, and as for the lesson he could be trying to teach, honestly I don’t know, it depends on the person it could be the way they learn to forgive or the way they learn that life isn’t as serious as everyone makes it seem, but more realistically it could be just to teach them pain. Most people can get to heaven without going through hell

[@anrose8335]

@@jeffreywendel7076 Let me help: Your god is cruel watching a child being raped. Got that?

[@FordGTLibra]

I remember my mom telling me her questioning of the traditional Christian god started in Catholic school when someone asked “if god is forgiving, why does he sentence people to eternal torture?”

[@adjustedbrass7551]

Because they would rather be there than with God.

[@ethan80grams69]

You summed it up perfectly tbf. They reject his forgiveness.

[@thisbarbieisbored]

he doesn't send people to eternal torture, you send yourself.

[@figgusriggs6462]

Yeah, I've never got that. The "you send yourself" argument doesn't make sense. If God created everything, why create hell? If the devil created hell and not God, why doesn't God just get rid of it? Is God not powerful enough to destroy a realm that Satan created? If that's the case, he's not all powerful. If he's all powerful, it sounds like he's a sinfully prideful sore loser who wants people punished for not worshipping him. It's sick 🤷 If he exists, he sounds childish and sadistic and I have no interest in worshipping something like that.

[@thisbarbieisbored]

@@figgusriggs6462 because there has to be consequences for your actions. satan still serves a purpose.

[@UwU-ok2jr]

As a former Christian I can absolutely relate to you about pushing doubts and questions out of my mind out of fear that it'd disprove my faith but eventually in 2022 I began questioning with an open mind and became an atheist.

[@macewindu1532]

I’m not atheist but I don’t follow any faith. I acknowledge the existence but I don’t worship or pray.

[@UwU-ok2jr]

@@macewindu1532 That's EXACTLY what I did during my last few years of being a Christian theist.

[@Kmf_Jahh]

What questions do you have? Maybe I can answer them. I’ll try at least But always remember. The sun and moon were created just as me and you were. So off rip there’s a creator NO DOUBT. We live on a floating Ball With gravity somehow existing (crazy) These things DONT happen by accident. I’d advise you to look a little deeper and seek God on a few more things before completely giving up. There’s plenty of evidence for a creator and when you read the Bible you see that this creator greatly matches Jesus and the father God. God loves you and is waiting for you to come back to him ❤

[@esimpson2751]

I’ve been questioning with an open mind my entire life and only found more evidence for God as I’ve searched more deeply. What exactly disapproved your faith I guarantee you I can find a counter to every argument you pose

[@waffleswaffles6083]

@@esimpson2751 answer the videos in the question please for me

[@orionhammerfall1874]

The question that was always the most blatant and damning to me was: “If god demands our worship, why do we have no instruction on which god to worship” We’re born with no knowledge of any god or faith. Shouldn’t we know what rules we need to follow so we don’t spend an eternity in hell? Shouldn’t we know better than just a random guess?

[@spacecoastdogtrainer3778]

What evidence would convince you??

[@orionhammerfall1874]

@@spacecoastdogtrainer3778 sufficient evidence. Any actual evidence that can’t be misread. Are you implying there is objective evidence out there?

[@tylerkropf9522]

God gave us the Bible, that gives us instruction on which God to worship.

[@robertt9342]

@@tylerkropf9522 . No our ancestors gave us a book of fables that turned into a religion.

[@robertt9342]

A better question is why does god need worship, and why would it affect your ability to gain their love or get into heaven? A person doing good acts without believing in god should be more “worthy” than one who does believe but does no good acts. And if that is the case then belief and god or worshiping them would be wholly unnecessary.

[@SB-bc1nw]

"jesus died for our sins". Except he didn't actually stay dead. So what did he sacrifice? His weekend? jesus gave up his weekend for your sins.

[@hieunguyenba7224]

And didn’t do a very god job since sins are still pretty much present

[@iakonasisler4808]

Being born is a sin so I'd say it's more than pretty much still a thing

[@jenyea9411]

This is disgusting what did he sacrifice everything none of us could or would you realize JESUS CHRIST lived a completely sinless life for 33 years no sex no cussing no wishing bad on anyone no having a bad thought completely SINLESS and when you read the new testament you quickly realize 80% + of little things we do on a daily basis is a sin and then there was the miracles and the feeding the teaching all while being mistreated and persecuted and then there is the torture and it was awful if you've never read or watched it you can't imagine all so we could live sinful lives and still have an opportunity to be the deciding factor in where we spend our eternity and all you have to do is believe and obey Jesus commandments what does it cost you to believe if I'm wrong then you win if I'm right then you still win if you make the right choices

[@iakonasisler4808]

@@jenyea9411 If sex is a sin and we're all not supposed to sin then our entire species would go extinct

[@jenyea9411]

@@iakonasisler4808 we are human every since man fell we have had a sinful nature and I sin all the time regularly actually but I repent and I try to be better and I believe in JESUS CHRIST with every fiber of my being god knew we where going to sin after the fall that is the very reason JESUS CHRIST was sent and crucified and rose to pay for what we could not I'm not going to sit here and act like I understand GODS THOUGHTS IF GOD COULD BE PROVEN WOULD YOU BELIEVE AND FOLLOW HIS LAWS

[@garyflynn3722]

Question "If i use Pascall's wager and choose to believe in God because it's a safe bet to do so, wouldn't an all knowing God know you are only doing it and paying lip service as opposed to actually believing in Him/Her?"

[@mildwild9114]

As dumb as Pascal's wager is, it works flawlessly for what it was designed to do. It's a defeater to pragmatic atheism, making atheism and pragmatism mutually exclusive.

[@SenhorAlien]

That is a false wager if you consider that Christianity is not the only religion. By believing their god exists you're putting yourself at odds with hundreds of other religions. It would only be valid if Christianity were the only religion in the world.

[@connorgrynol9021]

@@mildwild9114 as a pragmatist and an atheist I disagree. A pragmatist can still have values and it’s those values that a pragmatists decisions are based around. I value honesty, very often when lying would be the most beneficial to me I will be honest. Pascal’s wager, in my opinion, makes no sense. I cannot change my beliefs because it’s more convenient to believe something else. If I did that would be self-deception, which to me, is even worse than lying to someone else. My dad used Pascal’s wager before I even knew there was a name for it. When he first said it to me I tried to make sense of it but I can’t. I simply cannot wrap my head around the logic of it.

[@elimontoya8626]

Precisely!

[@SenhorAlien]

@@connorgrynol9021 you can change your beliefs with some good ol' brainwashing! Also called being influenced. Also called changing as a person. I mean, it happens all the time already, so adding religion into the mix isn't too bad?

[@swaathivenkatesan191]

Seeing people struggle with questions about God's existence boggled my mind as I was growing up. I was always a skeptic. I always had questions. And when none of my questions were ever answered I naturally just became an atheist. My skepticism still continued and i became more of an agnostic as an adult but it really boggled me as to how these very basic questions that led me to reject religion are not being generally asked by people. How are we so lacking in critical thinking?

[@jinn4955]

It's just childhood indoctrination. You can't blame them.

[@somethinginthepines]

Because a lot of Christians (i only know christianity, I'm not gonna bring other religions into this) actively punish or otherwise try to dissuade children from asking questions. Curiosity is something you need to have in order to be a critical thinker, but if you don't have that why would you care to learn more about things or fact check or check differing views?

[@esimpson2751]

They are being asked my millions of people, however most people don’t ponder the particular qualms you have with Christianity because their not struggling on that point of contention. CS Lewis, GK Chesterton, Jordan Peterson all argue critically for the sake of Christianity.

[@ambrosesky]

@@somethinginthepines protestants!!!!!!!! christians are catholics only any other "christian" denomination is lying to you theyre just called protestants. catholics literally have libraries filled with questions and answers we arent a cult. (cult meaning "i say this you follow no questions asked and if i change you dont get to doubt it or youre kicked out")

[@maxscofield1351]

I had the same experience as a kid, I was never shown any real evidence, and just kind of fell into atheism

[@juniormynos9457]

My path to atheism began at age 11 when my father read the story of Job. I was mortified to learn of the suffering and loss of family all happened to prove a point to satan which did nothing to change neither satan nor improve the lives of men. It was my first view of a cruel God

[@intricatelast-name5291]

True that it's cruel; but to me it was the uncaring world It was that statement made-believe to a God. Because remember long time ago was very bad time, mortality rates were higher than today standards. Losing a family member was one that is universally sorrowful -even it happened all over the world-. "You care more about you family than practical sciences and wisdom itself." is what pushed our ancestors to create an idol to make something to understand us when the other person would just shrug off. I want to explain more but I'm busy reading a manga, Have a good day stranger!

[@raeechllee]

@@intricatelast-name5291 is it a gay manga? 😌

[@Cedalion]

KILL YOUR KIDS!!! LOSE EVERYTHING!!!! oh and maybe I’ll reward you but probably not 😊🙃

[@youtube-user25]

Junior Mynos yes that was God’s plan but he gave back Job all double triple times.

[@juniormynos9457]

@@youtube-user25 Job didn't get back the children he lost

[@gabrielobiadi4736]

the Abrahamic god literally created an arch-nemesis for himself

[@SenhorAlien]

Since no one did, he had to go and make one himself. Imagine what a bore it would be to never be challenged, do everything easily and whenever you want it.

[@richardvilla2303]

And then punishing people for eternity for working with his self-made opponent??

[@tytesz2371]

I guess you can't be a hero without a villan. Maybe he created him to be seen as "the good guy" idk.

[@SenhorAlien]

@@richardvilla2303 it's a good way to weed out the REAL enemies: just send your ally over to fake opposition against you, when he unites your enemies you strike all at once Though he couldn't be omnipotent or omniscient or even omnibenevolent to plan this. Would be a rather sneaky, tricky, not so powerful fella

[@SenhorAlien]

@@tytesz2371 probably, 'cause people don't appreciate how "good" you are if they don't suffer without you

[@neonz2712]

Why would a benevolent god send non-believers to hell when there are thousands of religions with very different moral ideals and interpretations? How would we know if the religion we practice is the "correct one?"

[@GarnetHeartIllustrations]

Pretty much exactly what broke my trust and belief in christianity

[@miguelinfante7238]

Yes Neonz27, this is in my opinion the greatest problem of religious fundamentalism. The problem of other religions. Religious fundamentalists , Christians and Muslims in particular, believe their religion is the only "true" religion and that everybody else is wrong and going to hell regardless of their good or bad actions or altruism or lack thereof. If god were all benevolent I don't think he , she , or it would care what religion you practiced. God would only care about how much of your life you dedicated to helping and caring about others.

[@firejoe283]

@@miguelinfante7238 hey, I'd like to hear more. Maybe discuss some things. I'm not an atheist. I'm...idk? I believe there is a god of some sort but we're all just here for viewing pleasure. I dont think there's a right religion. I just think if there's a god, he'd be ok with letting us be as long as we do good and cause no harm. I cant stand the thought of someone being an outstanding person all their life and go to hell because it was the wrong religion, or because they were atheist. And that shitty people can f***** up lives and ask for forgiveness on their deathbed and go to heaven. I'm an adult, and a Firefighter, going to get married soon to a non-catholic girl. No biggie for me. But I'm just mentally preparing myself for the headache of texts and phone calls from my parents. I may end up having to block them or something til it cools down. Dont want to but they're older and old school type of folks. They're not open minded and not gonna budge.

[@nosmirc7222]

1 cause Jesus rouse from the dead and I'd choose the guy who actually beats death 2 The abrahamic religious group has better evidence for existence 3 Most religions promise a better after-life after you've worked for it and Jesus (as I believe) allows you to be saved even in your last few breaths

[@hgbitner8486]

Neonz27 a benevolent god would send humans to hell because they deserved it. Humans are messed up. That make bad choices, and every single human, myself included, have fallen short and done something wrong. In a court of law, the good doesn’t outweigh the bad. So if you do anything bad, you have to answer for it.

[@ZepG]

I was sent to Sunday school as a child in the 70's and I was constantly questioning my teachers. Why, how, where is the proof lol. They just kicked me out instead of answering the important questions. I realized religion was a scam on my own by the time I was 10!

[@Clownk1ller]

Yeah pretty much. The Bible is preety much a fictional story full of symbolism and metaphors that was used to control the not bright and uneducated population of the middle ages

[@theflitcher3763]

10!? Wow, you were a woke child

[@Whiskey.T.Foxtrot]

I've heard this approach to faith before. I went to Sunday school as a young boy but never thought that the stories were anything more than fables. I wonder if some humans are just wired for skepticism naturally?

[@ZepG]

@@Whiskey.T.Foxtrot It has to be, I probably started questioning it when I was 8 and had nobody trying to sway me.

[@banjohardhit3991]

@@theflitcher3763 woke? Seriously get a grip. Questioning the existence of something that there is no evidence for does not make you woke

[@ASAP_Kenny]

“I love you but if you don’t do what I say I’m going to make you suffer for all eternity”

[@jimmccarthy80]

...there is no "eternal" burning hell, this is a worldly belief that made its way into the catholic church when she divorced the Holy Spirit and married paganism. The Bible says that once sin and sinners are annihilated in the Lake of Fire, they are turned to ashes, blotted out of the 'Book of Life', and it shall be as though they were never created. Final retribution is an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. The thought that after 30 trillion eons and then for eternity a soul continues to scream and writhe in agony for sins they committed in the span of 80+/- years is ridiculous and misrepresents God's perfect character that is equal justice and mercy. God is the only source of life in the universe and it's Christ's breath or spirit (same word "pneuma" in the Greek) that gave us life and sustains us. When we choose to disobey God we are choosing to die the second death from which there is no resurrection. God is love and only those who choose to love Jesus Christ over sin will be given eternal life; anyone else would cause a second rebellion and we'd be right back where we started...

[@vinson6337]

You sound like a parent who loves her children

[@amiaeams7522]

@@jimmccarthy80 this is weirdly comforting lol. Lile even if god is real and I go to hell that sounds better than what I thought it would be. Thanks for the insite

[@jimmccarthy80]

@@amiaeams7522 ...You're welcome Amia; glad I could help. Something just didn't sound right to me about that "eternal burning hell" theory taught by the catholic church, yet has no Biblical substantiation. So I decided to pray about it and the deeper I studied I discovered God is not the enemy I was raised to believe He is. Praise God for truth!!

[@vinson6337]

@Dylan Wall: I don’t understand your question. To what are you referring to?

[@danielstearns426]

The nail in the coffin for me was, “Would a just god send someone to Hell for making the wrong decision when it’s impossible to have a correct answer? Is an unjust god worth worshipping?”

[@JohnBrown-of4pw]

Daniel Stearns God wouldn’t do that

[@danielstearns426]

John Brown Sure. So as long as I’m being intellectually honest and really can’t determine if there is a god, a just god would not punish that unbelief.

[@JohnBrown-of4pw]

Daniel Stearns God says that everyone has enough information of his existence, but suppresses that truth in unrighteousness, which is no excuse for their sin against him. People are not punished for disbelief, but for their sin against a God that they do know that exists. Which is why Christians send missionaries, if they didn’t know that God exists, they would have an excuse.

[@JohnBrown-of4pw]

Daniel Stearns Romans 1:18-23 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

[@johnkim5718]

John Brown Your God supposedly created the world, all life on the world, and even has the power to orchestrate fate, because he's omnipotent in all sense of the word. Yet, he creates a world where millions of children under the age of 5 suffer and die in incredible pain, in famine, in sickness, without even the opportunity to think deeply about the existence of God; many of these children would have also been raised with a different faith, such as Islam. These children, by your definition, would have sinned had a missionary told them about Christianity, and would have gone to Hell. Christians rave about miracles, fate, and God's "plan". If God had the power to orchestrate fate, by definition you do not have free will. Because God determines your fate, and the fate of everyone on this planet. Everything you do is meaningless because God planned it for you. At the same time, God likes to play extremely cruel games with humanity where he orchestrates extremely cruel fates, where people live and die knowing nothing but suffering. Apparently, God's "plan" for some people are to make their lives a living hell. You theists are so self-centered and so detached from the rest of the world it's laughable. Statistically speaking, before I even finish writing this comment, 156 children under the age of 5 would have died. What is God's plan for them? Why does God perform miracles for people in the West, supposedly curing people of cancer, while literally millions of die from famine and easily treatable diseases such as Malaria elsewhere in the world? Am I the only one who sees the absolute silliness in people praising God because something good happened in their lives, while in that same moment a child is probably dying in agony?

[@Multiversity_Inc_Studios]

My first doubtful question as a child was "Why would an omnipotent god need my praise?" it sounded like Pride, which was always spoken of as one of the worse sins. Nowadays I would consider it narcissism, which would probably explain why those sorts seem to get away with so much...

[@mistylover7398]

IKR

[@ethan80grams69]

Because he loves us ig. U like it when ur parents praise you for smth bc u love them so its nice to hear it from them

[@mistylover7398]

@@ethan80grams69 🤨 can't tell if you're a believer or sarcasm

[@thisbarbieisbored]

"Why do parents want their child to love them?"

[@mistylover7398]

@@thisbarbieisbored ??

[@K1ra_245]

You know.....that "why doesn't god create people in heaven" thing was actually an idea I came up with when I was about 7 or 8,if an 8 year old child can come up with a question that can destroy the foundation of a religion/belief maybeeee that religion/belief isn't true

[@RexVenge95]

"Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time! ... But he loves you!" - George Carlin

[@newsystembad]

"He loves you, and HE NEEDS *MONEY* ."

[@raeechllee]

Actual he regret creating us .....so he doesn't love us Lol

[@Juan-wh1vu]

Don't worry he is "Omnibenevolent" he loves us so no matter why, but he seems to also be a sadist who knowing we will burn in a place he made, still made us that way so we will burn and he will say that we don't choose to love him instead, so if god is "Omnibenevolent" and make us suffer then that's not very nice of him, I will prefer chilling with Satan rather than spending my life worshipping something that made me the way I am and doesn't care if I will suffer knowing that I will

[@thomasmaughan4798]

"Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky" I hope someday to encounter this mythical religion that believes in an invisible man living in the sky. But, carry on attacking your own "straw man".

[@raeechllee]

@@thomasmaughan4798 ah SUREEEE

[@chrisflynn3315]

The logic question that put the nail in the coffin was learning of other religions when i was young and then realizing the sheer number and scope of religious difference out there. Left asking myself "how can so many people think so differently about what God is".. which is when it hit me ... nobody was right.

[@fressno1807]

You can skip the "really" at the end.

[@ShrtCrct]

How can so many think differently about what aliens are? It's really simple because you see, everyone has different motives. Some people say god is this uber peaceful creator who loves everyone, even hitler, and others say that he's some kind of monster. I'll leave you with a little question unrelated. If a man goes and buys a dead chicken, has intercourse with it, then cooks it and eats it, what is wrong with that? Because in the atheist mind, there's nothing wrong. No one gets hurt, it's the mans idea to do that, and the chicken is dead. Yeah it's a bit gross, but could this man be considered a monster for this?

[@legolord5114]

Maybe but how do you know that nobody is right some people spend their lives studying all the different types of religion and yet still believe in one. How do you know the answer is none of them?

[@queenbean7071]

@@legolord5114 because none have been able to prove their God(s) any better then the others.

[@Kmf_Jahh]

@@queenbean7071yes they have. The Christian God has proved to be the TRUTH but most people are lost in their sin and evil they love it and the hate God. So they go into prejudice and lazy brain. Never wanting to know the Truth nor every really seeking it out. Jesus is REAL and historical just study it and study 1st century rome. He claimed to be God in human form revealing Gods character in a way us weak finite humans could begin to understand. Most religions acknowledge Jesus But Jesus NEVER ACKNOWLEDGED THEM Jesus claimed to be THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE and All other religions just say “Work work do good etc” but Jesus says We’re all sinners and we’ve done evil and need a savior to be forgiven. God loves you and wants a relationship with you❤ turn to him and seek evidence and ask him to reveal himself. Do it humbly and genuine and he will reveal himself to you

[@ylv4192]

“Demanding humans to slaughter and sacrifice animals because he enjoyed the act of devotion” - A selfish, heartless, narcissistic behavior...

[@phoenixstormjr.1018]

Human blood was tainted at the beginning. If he enjoyed watching others suffer, why did he send Jesus who cried when others suffered?

[@luismangiaterra1031]

@420 Cloud you have heard of God and you have rejected God.

[@luismangiaterra1031]

@420 Cloud God is who your rejecting, God must first take a liking to you before Jesus will redeem you. If you reject one, you reject the other. You also reject the Holy Spirit of God, because God is trinity. This shows that you know of God and you rejected him which automatically means you also reject Jesus.

[@luismangiaterra1031]

@420 Cloud you sayed in your first comment that you think God is prety damn dark. This would be blasphemy. At minimum. You did say that. Be more careful with what you say about somethings that you may not know about.

[@otakuman706]

@@luismangiaterra1031 Not saying I agree with either, but why exactly is your perspective/ideas/etc. right, but 420's is wrong?

[@germanwizbang6250]

Growing up, I only asked this question once to my parents, and got an answer that I don't remember exactly, but I do remember it was incredibly unsatisfying. If God is all knowing, then why do christians have to go to church to seemingly demonstrate their love for God, when they could just do it at home? Wouldn't God know they loved him even though they weren't in some other building 30 minutes away surrounded by people that made me uncomfortable? And after that, the whole illusion was busted for me. My parents kept making me go to church, but I was checked out mentally, and none of it made any sense. To this day I'm sure they still don't understand why I stopped going and politely recuse myself from any religious events

[@Lowerc09Se]

Haha! I used to ask my mom the same question when I was 5-6

[@esimpson2751]

The Bible never says you must go to church, it’s not required. The whole point of church is to dwell in the truth and strengthen your faith.

[@oliverhayden40]

we dont have to go to church. church is your relationship with others in the common interest of jesus the holy ghost and the father. whoever told you that you have to go to church is wrong. our relationship with jesus is all that matters as long as you cofess your sins and belive the word.

[@dakotasmith1344]

1. It isn’t all just about you. We Western Christians have become too individualistic. Church is the place where typically we interface with other believers as a corporate body. Jesus says that where two or three are gathered in His name, He is there, so there is something special about gathering in a large group. There’s also something special about going to a place set apart specifically for worship. 2. House churches exist and are valid things. 3. We should always be seeking to show our love for God, inside and outside of church. Inside church is one special way (because you have means of grace being the sermon and communion), but you can and should do so outside church. 4. The Bible commands us to gather with other believers. Church is definitely a way to do that, although it isn’t the only way.

[@neurofiedyamato8763]

I asked similar questions to my mom when she read the bible to me when I was young. "Why did he purposely place that apple there for Adam and Eve when he knew what would happen...?" And her response was, "ask god when you go to Heaven." I asked similar questions and every time it was a similar response or "God acts in mysterious ways." Like that isn't answering my question! Never satisfied me one bit.

[@sumejividi6663]

That's because there's no actual answer

[@thewizardofodd6880]

Ayo wassup! I noticed your question and was like “oi, I know that one!”. But anyway, he put the tree there to give free will. It was his own garden really, and he was allowed to put whatever he wanted in it. He put Adam and Eve there and gave them a simple rule, don’t eat from the tree. There were TONS of other trees, but Eve made her choice, Adam did too. All things considered they lowkey weren’t gonna eat from the tree (if you’re eating lunch, you aren’t even worried about anyone else’s unless presented that lunch right?), the devil just tempted them and…we’ll the Bible starts lol. Anyway I hope that kinda helps, I’m still learning myself, but I know how hard it is to accept “god works in mysterious ways” lol.

[@hannibalbarca1147]

@@thewizardofodd6880 How can god test free will if....Adam and Eve knew no evil? The modern concept of sin is "disobeying or disrespecting god", but Adam and Eve literally knew no better. They didn't care if they disobeyed god, because they didn't think it was bad. Seems like a trap god set up, and cursed humanity with death. For knowing they were naked, no less! It *should* be hard to accept "god works in mysterious ways" because it shouldn't be an automatic answer. "Hey why did my grandpa die of prostate cancer" God works in mysterious ways. "Why is death a thing" God works in mysterious ways. Also because some dudes long ago ate an apple. And you're being punished for it. Why? God works in mysterious ways. It's not an answer, it's a lie.

[@thewizardofodd6880]

@@hannibalbarca1147 No that’s not true because he told them not to eat from the tree. Which means they knew not to, regardless of whether they knew it was good or bad

[@hannibalbarca1147]

@@thewizardofodd6880 Again, why would they care? They didn't know it was bad, they were limited in their ability to understand. They quite literally did *not* know that what they did was considered evil, because they did *not* understand evil yet. God purposefully made them eat the apple, and punished them for exercising free will, for something they did not comprehend. That's not called a god, that's called an asshole XD

[@trevorwalden6097]

The question that drew me from religion: How is it possible that any one of the thousands of denominations can truly know who god is? They can't all be exclusively correct. If all of them are right about everyone else being wrong, then they're all wrong. At the end of the day, no matter what you believe, we're all going to hell in someone's perspective. Almost like it has nothing to do with a god and everything to do with people's opinions.

[@Olav_Hansen]

Within that view warshipping satan would be the logical conclusion, since if you're going to hell anyways you'd rather be his servant not his subject.

[@trevorwalden6097]

@@Olav_Hansen except I prefaced the statement with "the question that drew me from religion". Also, you just proved my point by exposing your particular form of hell in which it's a place of servitude to satan

[@Olav_Hansen]

@@trevorwalden6097 Don't get me wrong, I am agnostic/atheist (still a bit exploring which fits me most). That said I did assume hell would be a punishment place with a possibility of better treatment if you praised the one in charge. I think however that most religions sound really egocentric, which by themselves makes them unlikely to be true. A higher being would praise everything, not just the hairless apes that commit regular genocide and think themselves to be second to him only.

[@am_meep]

@Son 0f Jack I do happen to agree that all that matters is the truth, but there is literally no way to find out what that truth is. Using your ice cream example, the ice cream could either be in the fridge, freezer, or on the table. _But_ it's also possible that the ice cream just doesn't exist at all, or that you are misremembering or lying about where or what it is. It could be jello, or it could actually be sitting on the floor. There's no way to tell without verifiable evidence. (A good thing to check out would be Schrödinger's cat, it's pretty similar to this situation.) In short, there is no real reason to believe in any specific god(s), because there's an equal chance for all of them to be fake as much as real. It's really just up to the individual.

[@andygryc]

@Son 0f Jack If one religion can be true, why is it that the majority of people who believe their religion is the true one were taught that religion as children without any choice in the matter? My guess is that everyone answering that their religion is the true one is extremely biased towards an already existent belief system, rather than giving any other religion consideration whatsoever. Given the thousands of religions on the planet, it would make more sense for anyone claiming their religion is the true one to sample a few dozen of the more important ones before jumping to the conclusion that yes, the one that I was taught and raised as a child, and that my parents and friends and social circle believe is the true one without any other consideration. Because otherwise, it would just seem to the rest of us non-believers to be a convenient social construct that helps tie your tribe together.

[@skyjames2421]

With all the humans God supposedly created on planet earth why did he only interact with a very small group of Desert dwelling nomads?

[@garrettpheifer2750]

He didn’t, he preached to thousands

[@TheCyrix1]

@@garrettpheifer2750 "He didn’t, he preached to thousands" But he FAILS to convince them...far from the ALLPOWER god the bible sells us...

[@garrettpheifer2750]

@@TheCyrix1 how does he fail to convince them? He had crowds follow him wherever he went and several people that continued to tell others about him after he had risen

[@TheCyrix1]

@@garrettpheifer2750 He was UNABLE to convince everyone...then he is neigher INFAILLIBLE nor OMNIPOTENT !

[@Parrot5884]

@@TheCyrix1 The pharisees were literally one of the biggest points of conflict in the new testament, what are you on about that he managed to convince everyone? Heck, this video was made by someone unconvinced, and was watched by thousands of unconvinced people. An all knowing god is able to answer all questions anyone could possibly have about him. If that god chooses not to use that knowledge to save people from the place of eternal suffering that he himself created, he is malevolent. If he _can't_ convince us, he is not all powerful.

[@ctmarkus]

I was raised JW. At 13 my best friend died of sickle cell. The doctors tried so hard to save his life, they took his parents to court to compel the necessary transfusion. He had to testify why he would rather die doing what he believed was right in god's eyes. His conviction, bravery, and congeniality were a credit to humanity. The dangerously myopic dogma responsible for his early departure isn't. The woeful irony is even encapsulated in their own tome--"forgive them Lord, they know not what they do." Ignorance is only bliss to the ignorant.

[@mmoarchives2542]

that's why i stopped helping the ignorant, they can't be helped

[@ExhaustedScarf]

@@mmoarchives2542 That’s not true. We are all here because we used to believe horrible things, and now we no longer do. To say that the ignorant cannot be helped is to say that you could not be helped and that you did not deserve the chance you got. It is also to say that none of us deserved our chances, our escapes, either. We are all living proof that the ignorant can be helped. If your empathy has burnt out and you can no longer feel for the ignorant, or see them as people, then you need to step away from this topic until you regain that skill. I’ve been there, and had to step away myself to regain my own empathy. People like Ken Ham and Frank Turek frequently make me need to step away yrom this topic, and remind myself of the skills and tecniques of empathy and love, because they infuriate me so much. There’s no shame in becoming too emotionally exhausted to keep feeling love. We just need to step back and refill our depleted reserves in order to get that skill back.

[@justinjakeashton]

@@ExhaustedScarf I don't know about you but I helped myself. I reached the commonsense conclusion on my own as a literal child. They can do the same but actively choose not to.

[@ExhaustedScarf]

@@justinjakeashton If you were indeed a literal child when you “escaped” then you were simply never indoctrinated. You also didn’t actually do that exclusively by yourself. You were given access to that information somehow. You got lucky. Not everyone is so lucky, and everyone deserves grace, patience, and help to escape dogma. Defending the idea that they don’t is antithetical to not only Drew’s entire vie on his channel, but also to being a compassionate and empathetic person. Empathy cannot be selective. If you are capable of selective empathy, see your psychiatrist, because those portions of your brain aren’t functioning at capacity. I had to do that very thing, and have been much happier for it.

[@mollymauktealeaf]

"I've seen enough people be animals out there to know that if God made us in his own image, God is every bit as feral as the things he creates."

[@JohnBrown-of4pw]

Mollymauk Sin is the more animal side, logic and justice is the image of God side

[@mahanubhavs9980]

@@JohnBrown-of4pw do you have some actual life outside of spending all day in atheist comment section??

[@JohnBrown-of4pw]

Zeus TM I have a smart phone, so I can do these things in between life

[@margaretbarrett6087]

Please don’t insult the animal kingdom - “Mankind is indeed king of the beasts, for his brutality surpasses all of them” Da Vinci. If we are made in god’s image, this is not surprising, given the biblical atrocities committed or commanded by this despicable deity

[@JohnBrown-of4pw]

Margaret Barrett What makes them atrocious?

[@goskaparchatka]

I was raised Polish catholic. When I was 14, I had to prepare for exams before my confirmation. One of the questions in my book preparing for the exam was Why God created people? One of the points in the only correct answer was Because He wanted people to praise Him. And I was like fuck, this is the sin of Pride!

[@michaelmcdoesntexist1459]

God can't sin because only humans can sin. If God does something that, in human context, would be considered a sin, like revenge, wrath, pettiness, etc, is okay because he is god and he made the rules. Like how teenagers can't drink or smoke or fuck but their parents can.

[@jatnarivas8741]

The correct answer is "Because He loved us, and it was good to create us"

[@michaelmcdoesntexist1459]

@@jatnarivas8741 the correct answer is: "he can't create shit cause he doesn't exist."

[@Debbie338]

@@michaelmcdoesntexist1459 Best answer ever.

[@kasiamakaruk3531]

When I was still Christian I figured only logical explanation was, bc if I were god I would create paradise for me with idk my servants ( angels) but it's very hollow and lonely life without real purpose so u can create someone who has choice to follow u, so u can feel like someone truly loves u. But after u follow a bit this theory at the end u figure out how selfish is god for doing something like this.

[@interdimensional4288]

I was raised atheist, or perhaps definitionally agnostic, in a very science-orientated household, but my parents were very open with religion and would take the time to explain different views to me. They also told me that if I ever wanted to join a certain religion that would support me. Thus, growing up, I observed my religious peers and came to a conclusion: They didn't make any sense. Basically, my view on religion is this: I don't understand to any extent at all how people can wholly and truly believe things that, to me, are entirely fictional. I can stretch my mind around the idea of finding comfort in a great plan or heavenly being guiding you, but the flashy bits completely escape me. Angels and demons and stories that in modern times it's very difficult to believe are true. Life after death in some otherworldly realm, eternal damnation, and especially the idea of preset rules and moralities and honestly believing in it. It's confusing how the human mind can believe things that from personal observation have no basis in reality. I mean none of those things in an offensive way, I'm just stating the extent of my confusion. Because, for me, I wake up in the morning, get dressed, go to school, and just live my life. I don't feel a presence or influence, I'm just me and I don't look for proof of anything different. I'll admit, though, I look for magic. I hate to believe that what's been observed is all there is to the would but I don't think religion is my personal solution. Any arguments against or for religion seem foolish. It's so strange to me that the lack of ultra-specific entities in everyday life has to be painstakingly explained to others. But I also have to understand that religious people feel the exact same way about atheists. It's a lot of mind fuckery. Please note that I am neurodivergant and have a very literal thinking mind and that probably influences my views. But I would love to hear an argument from the other side. What's it like to be as sure of the existence of a god as I am of the opposite?

[@srayce1_]

It sounds like we have a very similar upbringing and views on the world. Like, yeah I don't think there's a god or creator but I have a feeling that something more is going on here. Maybe magic, maybe a different natural force that is beyond our perception and comprehension. I also think it is incredibly human to think we have it all figured out. I can't understand religious people believing that they have all the mysteries of this world solved. It's Dunning-Kruger esque. Interesting to read your post and see myself in it

[@tupoiu]

@@srayce1_ so... why would there be magic?

[@tupoiu]

The thing is that there are plenty of ultra specific things in the fabric of logic (maths). The numbers e and pi seem completely arbitrary, yet they turn out to be important. Moreover, the space we live in is 3 dimensional (ignoring time)... why would that be the case? Or that when we extend the function e^x to the complex numbers, using its Taylor series, it does rotations? Why would that happen? It's completely non obvious to anyone who hasn't proven it themselves (or seen the proof). I think my point is that whether something seems obvious or not, it can be true and have far reaching consequences. Of course, it can also be false. Morality is exceedingly tough in this aspect because it's very hard to create an objective basis for it. In my opinion that's one of the main roles of religion - given we have this basis of God's existence, now we can function in the world and we don't have to get stuck on these questions like why do I exist or why should I care about other people. This enables lots of people to live fruitful lives, and they feel like they have a good reason to be fruitful - because God says it's right. The alternative can easily be justified in an atheist worldview (although most atheists don't tend to, because society and humans in general value things already, independent of morality).

[@srayce1_]

@@tupoiu My position isn't that magic exists. Just that we don't have existence solved. In my opinion it would be very naive to think that.

[@tmy3411]

@@tupoiu I have pondered quite a lot about it. I don't think maths is something that is created or can be created. For example, most religions say God is infinite so if God made the concept of 'infinity', was God not infinite before that? or if God is 'not infinite', I can still make the same argument. You see the paradox? There are infinite numbers of mathematical combinations and objects which have nothing to do with anything in our world like higher-dimensional topology or that seem just absurd or meaningless to us. It is just that a tiny fraction of it that makes sense to us and intersects with our world or our interpretations of it. This reminds me of the monkey with the typewriter argument. Most physicists don't agree with 4-dimensional space-time now, is that these are dimensions where our universe has expanded enough to be observable. You might want to read about string theory for more about that. I am still trying to think why would you say "Moreover, the space we live in is 3 dimensional (ignoring time)... why would that be the case?", it's not like we have experienced any other world than this, to know this is 'superior' than other universes or special. I might have misunderstood you somewhere, you might want to explain it further or disprove me. 👍

[@matthewdonaldson2662]

My father and I went to the grocery store a few days ago, we saw a homeless man searching for food in literal trash bins, he then says to me, "thank god that we are so blessed." as if the life of the person we just saw didn't matter because he was somehow 'unworthy'

[@kingfreak8548]

It’s kind of like Christians claiming miracles they’ve experienced, or praise God or Jesus for helping them in their time of need. All while atrocities all across the globe happen to people every second of every day. Did God just turn a blind eye to these people, like you said are they unworthy somehow? Are blessing esoteric? Well, what about when believers faced those same atrocities? Sounds like god is rolling the dice on who gets blessed, that either strips his morality and supposed love or he’s just not all powerful.

[@diegoa3817]

​@@kingfreak8548we commit atrocities, we deserve atrocities

[@matthewdonaldson2662]

@Lord of the Sabbath Appreciator A convenient excuse, what does god know of suffering, all he does is sit atop his ivory tower while the world he made goes to hell.

[@shormere1612]

@Lord of the Sabbath Appreciator By that logic, everyone goes to heaven since everyone suffers. If not, then where do those people that don't "suffer" go? Also why do people need to suffer here so they can go to heaven?

[@Vaultyboi22]

Huh? So if a doctor saves your life but fails to save someone elses, and you say "thank you doctor for saving my life" does that somehow imply the other person's life was without value? No, it justs means you're happy about your current situation

[@kombolewis3319]

Whenever these arguments come up in church we are told that God is beyond our understanding

[@willowfaye670]

Or God works in mysterious ways.

[@lonewolf1492]

Ikr

[@penguinista]

Always 'mysterious ways' when you are pointing out they make no sense, but somehow they are sure they know exactly what god means by leaving us a muddle of contradictory texts. Evidently it is easy to understand the mind of god when cherrypicking through the bible and ignoring the documents that were excluded from it.

[@mr16325]

If he is so beyond our understanding, how can we know we have the correct interpretation of his word, and we know what he thinks and wants

[@jimmccarthy80]

...yes, but He still wants you to ask Him your questions. How else can He answer you?

[@genjibenkei]

Famous Dutch soccer player, Johan Cruyff, once said: "I’m not religious. In Spain, all 22 players make the sign of the cross before they enter the pitch. If it works, all matches must therefore end in a draw"

[@lovisabengtsson9200]

or maybe it doesn't mean "we're gonna win this", maybe it means "no matter if I win or not, I know what's the most important thing in my life". I think they all know that making a cross sign doesn't make them win the game...

[@Maartimer]

If prayer worked, it'd mean that God's plan isn't perfect, as imperfect sinners could make him change it to benefit them

[@boo9781]

Martin Kortner remember that assassins should not go to hell, they are just following god's plan, and if his plan for them was to burn in hell it just says how cruel he is and definitely not Omni benevolent

[@youssubernfissi5559]

So if two teams are from the same country are playing against each other they shouldn't play the national anthem or raise their flag because that means that the match has to be a draw Ooooor maaaybeee they are doing it for their love and appreciation of the country not because they think the government should help them more than the other team

[@youssubernfissi5559]

@@boo9781 they are not "just following" his plan What do you mean with plan??? You say it as if god is planning something and we are the plan God knows what will happen that is waaaay different than saying he made in a way that makes them kill people

[@seiros575]

For once we need a Karen. We need her to go to the manager upstairs; God. She would complain to his boss.

[@dominikweber4305]

When i die imma do it for you

[@brilliance381]

Karengers assemble!

[@nerinablais6623]

If I end up having a near death experience, I'm going to talk to God and demand that he answers my questions without trying to weasel his way out of them. If I end up seeing Lucifer on the other side, I'm going to say, "Lucifer, I want to know your side of the story on why you were banished from Heaven. I want to help you ease your mental suffering and learn more about the real you, the you who isn't described in the Bible. Tell me about yourself. I won't ask for help with pushing you away this time. The reason I did that in the first place is that you scared me and I wasn't ready to face you at the time."

[@SeaSerpentLevi]

Hahahahahu damn Karen that was your purpose all along Call the ultimate manager 😂💆‍♂️

[@ron88303]

Or his wife.

[@TomRauhe]

It's even simpler for me. I cannot love AND fear someone.

[@kirtil5177]

technically, you can, but that is indeed a clear sign of an abusive relationship, and nobody needs that in their life, period

[@annapatterson549]

@@kirtil5177I don’t think abuse and actual love can coexist in a relationship. Abuse and attachment, however, can. Either way, you’re right, it’s an abusive relationship and nobody wants that.

[@obikanbenobi6273]

I think there is a misunderstanding of what it means to fear God here

[@TomRauhe]

@@obikanbenobi6273 there is absolutely not.

[@StarShapedPie]

​@@obikanbenobi6273you have a big chungus profile picture and are preaching the word of god 😭

[@VendettaSoundtracks]

Imagine punishing your creations for eternity because a man and a woman decided they wanted to eat a specific apple, lmao. The absolute pettiness.

[@horsepowerenthusiast6933]

Talk about first world problems.....from a fictional character.

[@TheBradleyd1146]

We don't know if it was an apple. Just a fruit. And its the act itself of disobedience not the pleasure of eating.

[@muchalive6265]

@@TheBradleyd1146 but it's pretty dumb. God knows everything, even the fact that Eve would be tempted by the serpent (as god is all-knowing) God had made hell and souls. God decided these souls were damned for their sin. God decided those who now defy his will are going to be punished infinitely for finite amount of sins. What sane God would make souls in the first place if he knew all the people are damned and most people would go to hell anyway? (And don't say God didn't know because he knew there would be a flood that killed everyone besides Noah's family and the rest of the sinners drowned and went to hell)

[@TheBradleyd1146]

@@muchalive6265 God did not create Hell for humans. There was perfect paradise and fellowship with God in the beginning. God gave man Free Will. Man disobeyed God but God was even merciful to them after disobedience. You have to study the character of God. He is Loving and merciful. Intelligent design among countless other things outside the Bible proves his Existence as well.

[@DraconicDuelist]

"It's a Palestinian Quince you bloody pissant" -Crowley

[@nefarious8987]

I love your content and how respectful you are when talking about these controversial topics. Respect

[@advaygiradkar9708]

Yeah so true.

[@steverodak2230]

To Zenkuzin: To real believers of God, these topics are not at all controversial.

[@marvelsomething1952]

@@steverodak2230 obviously things aren't controversial to one side of a controversy. That statement literally means nothing. To people who don't believe in God it also isn't controversial.

[@louisthemediocre7348]

I once asked my religion teacher if lying by omission is a sin. He replied with a confident "of course." I then asked him that if God is omniscient, why he doesn't just tell us anything we want to know, because obviously God can't sin, right? He mumbled something about free will and swiftly moved on.

[@Ocean_Man_]

Think about this one: If someone who isn't aware of sin is innocent, then why are we teaching kids what sin is?

[@rubikvoncube3583]

@@Ocean_Man_ Christian here - not going to claim that this is the best answer, or that I fully stand behind this one (I'm in college right now so I'm constantly coming up with more questions than I can find time to answer) - but, for the sake of discussion, this is the best response I know: The reasoning behind teaching people what sin is is rooted in the fact that sin is inevitable. What I mean by this is that you don't have to teach someone how to sin. If you were to "redo" humanity (with a concept similar to The Maze Runner, but way more thorough for the sake or argument), someone would eventually do something sinful, without having any example of it. The reality is that when you combine the fact that 1) we are humans, living in our human form, and 2) we live on this large, albeit finite planet that is earth - given those two facts, it is essentially impossible for human life to develop without practicing sin. Something about the need to survive, and the desire to feel good promotes sin. As humans living on earth, it is essentially in our nature to sin. Yes, this brings about other questions, such as "How can God be omnibenevolent if He created us knowing that we were prone to sin?" To tell you point blank: I don't know. By that I mean, I haven't yet dived in to look for a good answer to that question, so I can't say anything on the matter. I'm in the process of searching for answers, so I have to be honest and tell you where my knowledge ends. However, with regards to your original question as to why people teach what sin is, that is my best answer, and I think (unless you spot any flaws) it's actually kind of conclusive in its own right (although it raises another, different, question). Sorry about the long response, I find it difficult to be clear about my meaning without using a lot of words, so thanks for reading if you made it to the end lol

[@iwasneverreal4314]

This is an amazing question!

[@spicyclips552]

@@rubikvoncube3583 rare respectful Christian

[@rubikvoncube3583]

@@spicyclips552 on the one hand, im flattered to know that my comment gives you that impression - whenever i talk about Christianity with those who don't believe/have different beliefs, i occasionally hear people tell me things like this and it is encouraging. And i have a history of being bad at taking compliments because i hate to inflate my own ego, but positive feedback is still positive even if im kinda awkward about it lol. on the other hand, im disappointed to hear that its such a rare thing, although not surprised. the sheer amount of people who use Christianity as a tool to obtain wealth and/or authority for personal gain is sickening, and it always brings about terrible situations. i often feel like apologizing on behalf of these pretenders, because they are responsible for so, so many negative experiences with the church. i respect when someone disagrees with Christianity itself, but when someone rejects it because some self-righteous false teacher abused/misinformed/ignored them, im conflicted; i know that it might just be that one (or many) experience(s) that was negative, and maybe the person is actually open to the ideals of Christianity. But, i also understand that no one would want to walk back into a place/community that has scarred them. it just frustrates me because even though some people work through it, they shouldn't be put in that kind of position. Not much i can do about other than what i do: try to be the best example i can to offset the bad.

[@ReissTube]

I appreciate atheistic inquiries into theology and doctrine specifically because it challenges the faithful to deepen their theological understanding. It’s incredibly refreshing to encounter good questions like these and the reasoning here

[@SpookyOCam]

I was in a history class talking about Greek mythology and I asked the teacher if those gods weren't real (because at that time I was a christian) then why do the people there believe in them. The best answer the teacher could give me is that they must've done in fear of death. And so just that question and answer got me thinking and soon I decided that Christianity is just kinda the fear in death and that I wasn't of it scared of it... So, I just stopped believing.

[@thisbarbieisbored]

that's a stupid fucking reason to stop believing, because Christianity isn't the fear of death.

[@SpookyOCam]

​@@thisbarbieisbored I mean, it kinda is. If you believe in god and do things the way he says then you go to heaven, and if you don't, you go to hell. Am I misunderstanding? I don't really fear what comes after death so it doesn't really affect me weather I go to heaven or not, or if neither exist in the first place.

[@thisbarbieisbored]

@@SpookyOCam you go to hell if you're a piece of shit.

[@SpookyOCam]

@@thisbarbieisbored Lmao, I guess you don't have an argument to be made. Have a nice day. Oh and also i'm pretty sure cursing is a sin, gotta go get god to forgive those real quick.

[@thisbarbieisbored]

@@SpookyOCam i'm making an argument, you're just rejecting it.

[@buckeyeman7631]

God has a dismissive avoidant attachment style...similarly so does my ex, that's why I don't want either of them in my life.

[@tidepod13]

Nice one

[@akielsteewart8577]

LMAO

[@MrHerky61]

That’s a strange thing to say about someone who is literally always with you, always enduring with you and for you.

[@buckeyeman7631]

@@MrHerky61 kinda like herpes or bad luggage huh?

[@MrHerky61]

@@buckeyeman7631 lol, so what herpes has a “dismissive avoidant attachment style”? You can’t take offense at both sides of an issue and then act like you don’t have some deeper bias.

[@janecarreon0473]

"I'd rather go to Hell than to the heaven of a god who would create such a thing" ~ Estevan Carreon

[@KY.M19]

Gehenna ain’t no place to play around

[@idrawfurries6136]

If you want to go to hell, wouldn't it be correct to put you there?

[@martylawrence5532]

The sad irony is that if you are burning alive it would be next to impossible to sin. God provided a way to make your sin a non-issue in relation to your free gift of eternal life offered thru Jesus. Just take the free gift right now. All of your sins in the past present, and future become paid for. 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

[@hirukunnn]

Have u ever tried dripping your fingers for 5 seconds on a heated frying pan with oil in it? If you cannot do it for just 2 seconds, then I bet you also cannot endure what Hell look like. Remember, Repent and Believe in the Gospel, you will be saved🤗

[@someoneyoudontknowtrades]

@@hirukunnn bro your comment just shows how terrible the ibrahimic god is.

[@artimiss1238]

My ‘problematic’ questions as a kid were: “If the devil takes and punishes all the bad people, doesn’t that make him a good guy?” “If god doesnt sin, and hes constantly begging people to worship him, wouldnt he be too prideful?” “Why does the bible hate women? Its not like eve shoved the apple down adams throat. He could have said no and moved on?” There’s probably more but these are the ones i remember mainly because i got very unsatisfying answers 😂 “You don’t question god’s will/plan”, “the devil is whispering in ur ear”, “god and his reasons are beyond us” 🙄

[@friedrichbaeker]

1. The Devil doesn't "take and punish bad people", God sends them there. The Devil IS Evil, he isn't punishing it. 2. "Begging" is a charged term. The government doesn't "beg" you to follow the law, it just punishes you if you don't. 3. You're begging the question, it doesn't "hate women" it just acknowledges different roles.

[@stratonikisporcia8630]

"The Bible hates women" Ah yes, that moment when you blame a book released at a time women were considered inferior because "they have less teeth" in Greece for not being 101% feminist... I think that you forgot about the whole cult of Mary

[@patrickborunda4749]

@@friedrichbaeker Wow you are off on some things. 1) Neither Yawhee or Satan take/send people to Hell. People do it to themselves as well as determining their own punishment. The Devil isn't Evil he is egotistical and desires freedom for both Angles and Men. 3) It does hat women, they changed Jesus wife into a proustite and edited out the first human, Litlith, because she was female.

[@friedrichbaeker]

@@patrickborunda4749 all of that is just ramble. It's literally just a bunch of ramble.

[@Xyl1tl]

1) the devil doesn’t take and punish all bad people. First the devil is not a partner of god (for some reason people always think that even tho the bible says otherwise) he was an angel that wanted that was jealous of god and wanted his control and power. He was sent to hell along with his followers. Also you can be good and go to hell, you just have to believe, follow, trust, and do what Jesus told us to do to go to heaven. 2) he isn’t begging people to praise him. He wants us to believe and follow him, as long as worship him. But he also wants to have a relationship with him. And the sin of being too prideful is when you believe that you’re better than everyone else, which nowhere in the bible does it say or even imply that god or Jesus thinks he is better than anyone. This is proven when Jesus had dinner and went into a tax collectors house, which tax collectors where seen as bad and greedy people. It is also proven when Jesus cleans his disciples feet, if he truely believed he was better than other people he wouldn’t of cleaned they feet. 3) the bible doesn’t hate woman. It’s obvious if you read the bible. Both Adam and Eve were punished for eating the fruit. It says it is a fruit not an apple. Now how does the bible hate woman if both Adam and Eve ate the apple and they both were punished.

[@asherthedisaster4724]

my questions were: 1. why did god wait so long to send the prophets and jesus? 2. why not send them early or just incode all of us with a belief in him? 3. why is sin possible if god doesn't like it? 4. when send the flood instead of just sending one of the prophets sooner or teaching us how to be good in another way? 5. if the jews are his chosen people why let them suffer? 6. when i was diagnosed with dyslexia a christian family member told me that i had to be dyslexic to balance out my intelligence or something, a) what? b) why make someone so smart that you have to handicap them to be fair? 7. why do non believers exist? 8. why he let the bible be corrupted? 9. how are any holy wars under a tri-omni god justified?

[@muchotexto4248]

Because God is a KZbinr and we will all be given diamond armor and sword to fight to the death against whoever made it into Heaven while being obstaculized by the doomsday. Winner gets 100$

[@forickgrimaldus8301]

You can take what you will about this but, As for a general "answer" its because of Free Will, if God basically made all of us into automatons that just do the right thing no matter what existance would never really be existance, everything would be static and unchanging, so he challenges us to do it for ourselves and not based on command, hell is to punish bad people that strentch his lenance too much, those that threaten innocent and Vaulnerable people, the Bible can't be made by him because its up to us to better ourselves its just up to him to watch over us. As for the Prophets, Probably because they would be too early for their time, some times the correct view isn't the mainstream view for example Lincoln wasn't exactly seen as being a good guy for his contemporaries due to his views despite being seen universaly today as a hero. As for the Israelites, the Old Testament has basically this covered somewhat in a sense that they reason that God is either punishing them or testing them. I am sure you can see issues on this already but here are the reasonings at least to me. (Its even written that God works in mysterious ways so I don't have all the answers.)

[@asherthedisaster4724]

@@forickgrimaldus8301 i can't tell if ypu are a beliver or an atheist trying to explain their reasoning. However either way thank you for takibg the time to type that out even if I had heard it all before. My problem is less abour free will and more "how did god let a holy war over the ability to read scriptures exist, then make someone who desperately wanted to belive trun away from faith, because he made them un able to read those scriptures."

[@forickgrimaldus8301]

@@asherthedisaster4724 Roman Catholic, again it circles back to Free Will if God said "there is only one way to interpret the Bible and which Holy Books to follow" there wouldn't be groups of Abrahamic Religions only one, thats why IMO it doesn't matter how you praise God nor how devout you praise him so long as you are willing to live a good life and help others. (Also interpretations of the Bible and assertions on which is canon has been a thing even as the Bible is being created, there are many non canon Books in both the Old Testament and New Testament that are forgotten only to be rediscovered by more modern people, Protestants and Catholics for example still treat some books as Canon other as not.)

[@forickgrimaldus8301]

@@aidanarmaggeddon yeah but Interpreting the Bible and Religion has always been a thing Dante's Inferno, Paradise Lost are seen as Christian works of literature and are seen as part of the Religion even though they have little to no basis in the Bible. (Christian Practices like going to mass, celebrating Christmas ect, didn't form overnight and simply developed overtime, they sometimes even incorperate Pagan aspects.) Religion's stance on Slavery for example has changed significantly over its very long history. (from being accepted as normal, to being somewhat questionable when Christianity became popular, to justifying it again to now outright condeming the practice as barbaric) The Bible itself was written by Theologans with various different views and moral stances with tons of different books being set aside as Non Canon. (as in Believe in God or not the Books that comprise the Bible are written by Mortal men, they aren't even written most of the time by the Biblical Figures, and as even the Bible itself states all mortal men are sinners which can be interpreted as we all have the capacity to do Evil or unknowingly so through ignorance.)

[@CassieLino]

When I was around 8, I was getting into my parents van on our way to Kingdom Hall and I stopped and asked my mom "how do we know God is real?" Her answer was "the Bible says so" so I followed up with "but what if the Bible isn't real?" ....she told me to shut up and get in the car. My parents left JWs when I was 12 but my mom still believes in God and insists that I shouldn't say that I don't or, my favorite, "yes you do, stop saying that". 🙄

[@imstealthy4640]

CassieLino that is very sad but just think about it. If you believed 100 percent that their is a Hell you wouldnt want your kid to go their so i guess it could hurt her believe that is a possibility for her child. She is only scared for you dont forget that she loves you. And do you not believe in God because you question him? Or do you have another reason? Im down to talk and i dont get offended.

[@Airr-r]

@@imstealthy4640 But God created the very hell the mother is worried about her son being condemned to, as well as the son who was created to (with God's omniscient knowledge) eventually go to hell, I dont think the mother has a very good reason for her words and actions other than, yes, some concern but also a bit of blind ignorance. This is just what I think anyways.

[@imstealthy4640]

- ThE tAkEr - Yeah what the mother said is wrong, and i sometimes doubt the Bible myself. There is nothing wrong or “sinful” about asking questions, thats just human and its natural to wonder. The reason I believe in a “God” or higher being is because of my experiences that verify my faith. Trust what you believe and do you bro. I really dont like when christians are so closed minded like you cant learn anything from other religions.

[@yoma9021]

@@imstealthy4640 Which one? Jesus? Allah? Yahve? Jehovah?

[@imstealthy4640]

Yoma -Kun jesus and jehovah are the same thing, and idek anymore bro my perspective has changed alot

[@Somebody-pt3ku]

A lot of Christians that try to convert me often tell me, "I've seen God in my dreams!". Well, first of all, it's a dream. But, I have a question; I'm sure you saw God in your dreams, but I'm also pretty sure hundreds, if not thousands of people see their religion's figure in their dreams each day. So what makes God the only REAL one?

[@thomasmaughan4798]

"So what makes God the only REAL one?" Nothing. Christianity, depending on who you ask, acknowledges these other gods. Just that the Christian god is or ought to be foremost in your choice. If you choose one of the others, that's fine, let the other god reward you.

[@yeraldywilson6042]

I don't know if you truly want an answer to your questions but you check Mike Winger's response to this video. Jusy search him up here on KZbin

[@jimmccarthy80]

@@thomasmaughan4798 ...True Christianity follows the Decalogue which acknowledges no other god than the one true and living God: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Roman catholicism acknowledges a plethora of gods, but that's because catholic is not Christian, it's pagan...

[@thomasmaughan4798]

@@jimmccarthy80 "True Christianity follows the Decalogue" How did it come to you to define true Christians? I think only Christ can do that. An important hint however is found among those with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. "Roman catholicism acknowledges a plethora of gods" As does the New Testament. Christians are to worship only one; but the existence of many is not disputed.

[@jimmccarthy80]

@@thomasmaughan4798 ...you're right, only Christ can define true Christianity, and He did: "if ye love me, KEEP my commandments" (Jn 14:15). And the many gods named in the New Testament were not to be recognized as gods as they weren't gods, Paul was leading the pagans away from their traditions and to the "unknown God" that created all things (Acts 17:23)...

[@normandoty7106]

My well meaning mother tried to raise me southern baptist. My father, a recovered Catholic, was no help in this but didn't discourage her. (by recovered I mean he was a vauge deist who renounced the catholic faith). The wife of one of her favorite pastors tried passionately to bring me into the fold, but fell into many logical falacies where I couldn't or wouldn't follow. The strongest arguement she presented to me was alone the line of "Even if chrictians are wrong, aren't we making the world a better place and living a better life by trying to be this way?" This stumped me for quite some time until I realized that all the good religion generates can be had without it, while all the damage it generates is dependent upon it. P.S. Simply put - omnipotence alone is logically impossible, but even if imagined to exist it is incompatible with free will.

[@PatrickSmeaton]

What really started me on my path to atheism from christianity is the idea that those who don't accept Jesus as their savior are going to hell. Now specifically and especially considering all of those who've lived in times and/or places where it wasn't possible to hear the gospel. It just doesn't make sense to me that the supposed caring creator of the entire universe could knowingly give up most of his creation to hell.

[@davideasterling5262]

Socrates, Plutarch, and all the very great thinkers of Greece lived before the era of Christians. Any religion that would condemn innocent and just people who had never heard the "word" of god to everlasting damnation is a poor religion in my opinion. It sounds evil to me.

[@martawatermanfitnesscoach]

Exactly!!! This very question was one of the main reasons I began to see through years of indoctrination.

[@austinespi1793]

You’re thinking of Protestantism. Catholics believe God takes into consideration your circumstances and how responsible for your action you truly are.

[@PatrickSmeaton]

@@austinespi1793, don't even get me started on catholicism. My mom's entire side of the family is catholic.

[@TBPetitP]

What a good point, made me think of all the people who lived before the gospels where known and/or written. It just doesn't make any sense, they'd have all been doomed without any chance to know "god's word" on life.

[@scottfulton267]

Why would God make us play this 2,000+ year game of telephone to know what the hell he wants from us?

[@phoenixstormjr.1018]

He's already told you. You just aren't listening.

[@scottfulton267]

@@phoenixstormjr.1018 No, Junior, a bunch of anonymous, dead men told me that God told me, that's the way it has always been, and unfortunately, always will be.

[@phoenixstormjr.1018]

@@keithboynton because of the outcome you wanted. You don't want to hear from him.

[@phoenixstormjr.1018]

@@scottfulton267 that's the bible, not what he's telling you now. The bible is instructive, God is comforting.

[@scottfulton267]

@@phoenixstormjr.1018 so is the bible supposed to let me know what I should be l listening for, to know what god is telling me now? God sure does like to be cryptic, and he likes to depend on believers to interpret his messages for us non-believers.

[@MrGregor9124]

For me it was "Does praying really do anything? And if so, why than would god follow a divine plan if he is going to listen our pray? "

[@thesymphonyoflife3950]

The big events like 9/11, WWII, COVID, the Civil Rights Movement, etc are all planned out in advance. But you still get to decide what role you will play in relation to those big events

[@shailaish1216]

@@thesymphonyoflife3950 I didn't really understand your answer man. what does your choice has to do with praying?

[@rafael_carlo_]

@@thesymphonyoflife3950 Firstly, I agree with shai laish, I'm not sure what role choice plays in the question of the necessity of prayer. Second, many have told me at least once in their lifetime that "God has a bigger plan for us" or "God is timeless & omniscient, He already knew everything that's happened in the past, and those that will happen in the future before they even occurred". By that logic, then praying really had no effect past events and will have no effect on future events. They occur sans prayer. IF prayer was effective, then it's possible to speculate that one may have prayed for devastation to happen, like 9/11, WW2, COVID, etc. In that case, God answering that prayer shows that He's really not 'all loving' or 'all powerful' as many believers (even those who believe in the 'divine plan') praise Him to be.

[@uuddlrlrabsmhm8430]

You know, I read this manhua (Chinese comic) called apotheosis. Powerful individuals called "True Gods" can create universes within themselves (as seen in the manhua, they only reside within a True God, they are just the result of qi) Powerful individuals can also be created through the power of faith, they create creatures and entities with the power of faith which can turn into a powerful individual, but this takes thousands upon thousands of years - it can be said cultivating is 100% easier, but the results are worth it.

[@uuddlrlrabsmhm8430]

So God is basically the result of prayer, we're all cultivators who don't know the way.

[@glenjennett]

"Why does an all-powerful God need us to worship him?" "If God is everywhere, why does anyone need to be lead to him?" "If God is real, why do we have to be told of his existence?" "If God gives us free will, then why does he give us a set of rules to follow?" "If God is a loving deity, then why does he create and allow cruelty?" "If there is only one true god, then why does he allow us to create and worship other deities?" "If God is pure, how could he create impure children?" "Why are we important to God in a vast Universe?" "Is it possible for God to create an object too heavy for even him to lift?"

[@ferough]

God created Satan, so that he could blame him for his mistakes.

[@georgian0461]

Satan has free will, God did not force Him to do evil. Also, God does not kill, He took the blame as He took it from the sins of the world, Satan and humans Kill

[@got7forever645]

Ferough Ahmad satan had a choice and we all do. God never forced anyone!

[@torgeirmolaug196]

Also he created hell in order to save us from it.

[@justifano7046]

@@georgian0461 God just allows people to die*

[@Kualinar]

@@georgian0461 Sorry, but, as Satan was an angel, he had NO free will because, by definition, no angel can ever have any freewill. ALL angels are instruments of the will of god. All of their actions ARE by DEFINITION the will of god. So, Satan rebeling can only be the will of god.

[@Juamacao2503]

One of the cuestions I had is: if he already has a plan for each one of us, how do we even have free will?

[@Ryan-dp4rs]

Yeah I recently thought about that as well. Yet another plothole and contradiction in the Bible's lore.

[@BOFRDASLEEPER]

Once I thought:if god have a plan for us and people say it will be "better" then why do I see a lot of homeless people?

[@youssubernfissi5559]

This Idea of "plan" is really used very very loosely because everyone sees it how he likes it and I don't even know where it came from but if you mean destiny the that doesn't go against free will

[@marvelsomething1952]

@strangerhythm countless children die from birth defects. People claim that this was part of god's plan. If god's plan is so basic that free will doesn't affect it, then neither should the lives of those children.

[@FailedMystic]

See I thought about this recently as well because a theist tried to say free will exists even if God exists. If God knows the beginning and the end, then everything in between is a known fact for him. To God humans are characters in a book, he knows the actions each character will make even if the character thinks of other possible actions. Because God "knows" that means what ever he knows WILL happen regardless of whether the character(s) think they can do otherwise. Thiests interpret this as free will because nobody has or will ever kno the end of the book in the way God does. But from God's perspective whatever he knows, will happen because that's how it is dictated to happen.

[@kuleguy2010]

I'll never forget being 8 years old and starting an arguement on KZbin with the amazing atheist. My little christian (at the time) brain really thought it could compete with an adult who has any level of understanding of science

[@xxxod]

I did the same thing My 7-8 year old arguments were: "Science is a religion", "You were not there to see the big bang happening", "A microwave heats things up, it doesn't prove the big bang" (making fun of the cosmic wave background), "There had to be a creator for creation" i knew was the atheists were making more sense than i was so that made me have doubts

[@nerdyfalco408]

It's called brain washing, fortunately if you're mature enough you start looking at things with your own eyes when you grow up and make your own ideas and doubts about things. There's a reason is in the teen years that people start not being religious anymore

[@legionofgod6691]

Science Dosent rival religion fool Christian’s made modern science

[@bluehornet197]

@@keithboynton I've seen full grown adults wholeheartedly believe the world is only 6000yrs old

[@truthserum3050]

@@legionofgod6691 Ah, the old Skynet incident, then, eh?