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This is a question directed towards monotheistic religions. More Christianity and Islam than anything else.
If we agree to attribute all creation to God; then I must accept that God either created me directly or indirectly.
I know myself pretty well. I've gone to church for a large part of my life and honestly tried to believe there was a God for quite some time.
I am incapable of believing in something that I can't observe or make logical sense out of. I simply can not do it.
If God created me incapable of believing in him and plans to punish me with an eternity of pain and suffering for it; why would I want to believe in this God if I could?
This is a question directed towards monotheistic religions. More Christianity and Islam than anything else.
If we agree to attribute all creation to God; then I must accept that God either created me directly or indirectly.
I know myself pretty well. I've gone to church for a large part of my life and honestly tried to believe there was a God for quite some time.
I am incapable of believing in something that I can't observe or make logical sense out of. I simply can not do it.
If God created me incapable of believing in him and plans to punish me with an eternity of pain and suffering for it; why would I want to believe in this God if I could?
I would have to ask.....Does your desire to believe change whether or not it's true?
I would have to ask.....Does your desire to believe change whether or not it's true?
If it were true, my desire would not affect it. But my desire certainly would affect whether or not I would worship such a God.
If we step back and imagine me from an observer's perspective. We suppose that observer knows for certain there's a God. What that observer will witness is God create a man who is incapable of saving himself and watch that man suffer eternal torture and misery. "Me" in this example would simply be a victim of the "spirit" God gave me and I would be incapable of saving myself from what God knows is coming.
If God created me incapable of believing in him and plans to punish me with an eternity of pain and suffering for it; why would I want to believe in this God if I could?
You shouldn't.
If I believed God were like that I would inquire the way to Hell.
If it were true, my desire would not affect it. But my desire certainly would affect whether or not I would worship such a God.
That's why faith is a gift from God. The unbeliever is dead in his sins and cannot believe.
Quote:
If we step back and imagine me from an observer's perspective. We suppose that observer knows for certain there's a God. What that observer will witness is God create a man who is incapable of saving himself and watch that man suffer eternal torture and misery. "Me" in this example would simply be a victim of the "spirit" God gave me and I would be incapable of saving myself from what God knows is coming.
Isn't this malicious? If not, why not?
God doesn't ordain you as a sinner incapable of belief. That's what happens as a result of sin. So, no--it's not malicious.
It's the result of being born a descendant of Adam--a human being. In Adam we all sin, and in Christ we are made new.
I must admit that I am more confused than I was previously now. How does this escape the problem I proposed?
If I am born in sin and born unable to believe in a God in order to save me from the sin and on top of that I will be punished for it; that's where the problem arises.
It's the result of being born a descendant of Adam--a human being. In Adam we all sin, and in Christ we are made new.
You'll have to think that one through again.
It's the result of being born a descendant of Adam--a human being. In Adam we all sin,
a sinner (is) incapable of belief.
If being a descendant of Adam and , therefore,all sinners, and sin is the reason by which people are incapable of believing, how can any humans come to believe?
I know you said:
"and in Christ we are made new." so there has to be some mechanism for the sinner incapable of believing to somehow become a sinner that IS capable of believing. What is it?
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