Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm sorry, but that still doesn't make any sense. Why? Why, because something could be smarter than we are and be creative, would that mean it must be perfect? It simply means it's creative.
It means that as the one that made everything, he sets the rules. If you want to create a universe, go ahead and do it -- and you will be the standard of perfection in that universe.
No, not even better. About the same, really. Because okay, you're calling out Islam here, I guess? Yeah, the virgins are the "reward." In Christianity, however, you have an equally forceful prod, from the opposite angle (avoid pain v. seek pleasure): DON'T do what you're supposed to (accept Christ as your savior, accept that you're a sinner and beg God into your heart, etc.) and you will burn in shrieking flesh-curling burning agony literally forever without cessation. Forever. That's pretty darned powerful; powerful enough for people to have believed it so far for a long time, though not as long as some other religions.
It is all designed to get people to act a certain way. Not always for control (though historically that's often been the case, in a whole variety of religions), but because these stories feed on themselves and grow in the telling (then ultimately, become books, as the Bible, for example) and people really do believe you have to follow certain rules in a certain fashion in order to derive reward and avoid pain.
That's what a HUGE part of the major world's religions are about. Receive some sort of reward or rewards for doing things the right way - if not in this life, then in "the next" one; do things the wrong way, and guarantee yourself pain.
It is the most basic possible emotionally button-pushing system in order to get anything conscious, not just humans, to do things in a specific way. It's at the very root of how every single mammal operates. Avoid pain, seek pleasure. It works with animals, too. A dog sits like you want him to, and you give him a treat or a big hug/lots of love. He pees on the carpet, you speak sternly and disapprovingly, shake your finger in his face and make him go to his "little house" for the evening. After a while, for the most part, what is the average at least semi-intelligent non emotionally damaged dog going to do? Sit when you tell him to, and not pee on the carpet. With humans, just because we use words and certain concepts, that doesn't mean we aren't operating EXACTLY like the dogs in this example. It's that basic, and it's a common thread among conscious creatures.
The virgins aren't any sillier than the Christian view of heaven. (I don't know what the Jewish view is, so I'll specifically say Christian here.) And neither of those is any sillier than a god with blue arms that can float, or a conscious volcano that will cause hurricanes and death if it doesn't receive a young girl into its throat.
They are all equally unrealistic and they all depend upon the same basic "encouragers." Pleasure v. pain. Period.
No, wait! With modern technology...we can make the "sinners" watch videos of the "obedient" guys boinkin the vigins, while they are burning...to add extra "zing" to the punishment!
Just an "extra twist" to assure "compliance".
It means that as the one that made everything, he sets the rules. If you want to create a universe, go ahead and do it -- and you will be the standard of perfection in that universe.
Nope, indeed.
1. Being the one who made something does not mean one is "perfect." It means it made something.
2. Setting the rules means you can force people to say you're perfect (through promises, like heaven, and threats, like hell), but it still doesn't mean you're perfect, sorry. It just means your pets are sitting when you say "sit" in order to receive that Milkbone. So, nope. Still not perfect.
3. The intimation that I, personally, couldn't do better, STILL doesn't mean the person you see as having done "better" is perfect. Still a no.
Zero for three, I'm afraid.
By the way, if I DID make a universe as you suggest I do, and I were imperfect, I'd be imperfect whether I was "setting a standard" or not. I might say my standard was "perfect" but all the beings experiencing the brunt of my efforts would KNOW differently...they'd just be afraid to say so. It's that simple.
Discuss. Unless I'm the only heathen who ever thought of such a blasphemy.
Your inquiry reminded me of the old Epicurus passage:
Quote:
"God," he [Epicurus] says, "either wants to eliminate bad things and cannot,
or can but does not want to,
or neither wishes to nor can,
or both wants to and can.
If he wants to and cannot, then he is weak and this does not apply to god.
If he can but does not want to, then he is spiteful which is equally foreign to god’'s nature.
If he neither wants to nor can, he is both weak and spiteful, and so not a god.
If he wants to and can, which is the only thing fitting for a god, where then do bad things come from? Or why does he not eliminate them?"
Lactantius, On the Anger of God, 13.19
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
