Why God of the Bible Cannot Exist
If you were told this story, what would you say: In a land faraway there once lived a man. He was very rich and had no need of anything. This man loved all kinds of living things and valued life above all. This man’s favorite hobby was hunting. And each morning he would go out and hunt for birds. Hunting brought him lots of enjoyment.
Do you think that that man exists? What’s wrong with the story? Well, it said in one place that the man loved and valued life forms of any kind. And then in the next place it said that he enjoyed senselessly killing the birds. Such a man cannot exist. He cannot value and love life forms and at the same time enjoy killing it. A description of God of the Bible is similar to this. And that is why I do not believe that such a God exists. He cannot be what people say that he is.
Imagine that you are trying to describe an image of the person so that other people could recognize him. Well, that image would change depending on the information. So the image of God first existed as described in Jewish writings. Then the image changed when Christian writings were added to the description of that image. When Jewish and Christian writings were put together into one, the Bible was born and the God of the Bible was born. But some ideas and descriptions of God in the Bible are contradictory to each other. And contradictory descriptions would make a strange image.
A God of the Bible is both good and bad at the same time. And since the brain cannot really focus on both sides of God at one time, Christians choose one side to focus on. Why do you think that some Christians are very loving and others are violent, judgmental and mean? Because some of them focus on a loving side of God while others focus on a cruel side of God.
Ps 11:5 says that God hates sinners. Rom 5:8-18 & John 3:16 say that God loves sinners. And some people embrace the hating of sinners and others embrace the loving of sinners. Catholic Church crusades are an example when some embraced the bad side of God. One Christian said: I would love to gather up all these gays and put them in a barn and burn them.
Martin Luther wrote: “If I find a Jew to baptize, I shall lead him to the Elbe bridge, hang a stone around his neck, and push him into the water, baptizing him with the name of Abraham!.. I cannot convert the Jews. Our lord Christ did not succeed in doing so; but I can close their mouths so that there will be nothing for them to do but to lie upon the ground.”
Adolf Hitler stated: Christ was the greatest early fighter in the battle against the world enemy, the Jews . . . The work that Christ started but could not finish, I--Adolf Hitler--will conclude. Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord. Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Ralph Mannheim, ed., p. 65, New York: Mariner Books, 1999
Paul Althaus, a Lutheran theologian of renown in Germany, warmly greeted the rise of Hitler. He wrote that, “The Protestant churches have greeted the political turning point as a gift and miracle of God”.. (“Die deutsche Stunde der Kirche,” p.5)
I was one of the Christians who focused on a loving side of God, while knowing that there was a bad side also. But I was afraid to think bad of God because then I would have lost my faith in a loving God. So I was suppressing the bad side, I was denying it. But then there are others who don’t think there is anything wrong with God being bad, and so they end up embracing the bad side. And the majority of people in churches ended up being judgmental and critical instead of loving. Some people think that the church should be a place of comfort, healing and forgiveness. But some of them end up receiving criticism and abuse instead. It’s like certain parts of the Bible give people license to be bad.
Why did Christianity produce both violence and kindness? Because the Bible has contradictory messages. Some verses describe God as vengeful, losing temper, doing what pleases him without concern for others and showing only crumbs of kindness to others. Also, according to some verses, he is responsible for good and evil existing on this earth, for blessings and curses, for sending both good and bad to this earth.
The God according to some other verses is loving, forgiving, is not responsible for bad stuff and sends only good from above on both good and bad people.
Some verses say that God dwells in darkness. Others that he dwells in the light. So which is it?
2CH 6:1, PS 18:11 vs. 1Ti 6:16
Some verses say that God is jealous. Others say that he is love and that love is not jealous. So which is it?
EX 20:5 vs. 2CO 13:11, 14, 1JN 4:8, 16 1Co 13:4
Jesus (in the Sermon on the Mount) teaches that we should be perfect like God, and describes how that perfection should be manifested: love your enemies, forgive, turn the other cheek. Jesus teaches to ALWAYS forgive no matter how much somebody has sinned against you. And the New Testament implies that God does the same. Jesus on the cross prayed for forgiveness for those who crucified him and they didn’t even ask for forgiveness.
Mat 5:38-48 1Jn1:9 Heb 8:12 Col 3:13 Lk 17:4 Lk 23:34
But some other verses say that God is a vengeful and reserves wrath for his enemies.
DT 32:19-27, IS 34:8 EZ 6:12, NA 1:2, 6
Here are some of the descriptions of God:
God is love. Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail.
The fruit of the Spirit of God is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the God/Father runs out to meet the son who sinned against him and gives him everything. He does not hold against the son the grievances committed against him. He ran out to meet the son before the son asked for forgiveness.
In the parable of the lost sheep, the God/Shepherd is concerned about 1 little sheep and goes looking for her.
In the story of Jesus’ death on the cross, it shows how God loved the world so much that allowed his only son to die in order to redeem the world or in another perspective since God and Son are one, God himself died for the world.
It says that because of Adam, ALL died, but because of Jesus, ALL will live.
2CO 13:11, 14, 1JN 4:8, 16. 1Co 13:4-7 GA 5:22-23 Lk 15:11-30 Lk 15:4-7 Jn 3:16 Rom 5
And here are the contrasting ones:
Deut 32:18 You neglected the Rock who had fathered you; you forgot the God who had given you birth. 19 “The Lord saw this and drew back, provoked to anger by his own sons and daughters. 20 He said, ‘I will abandon them; then see what becomes of them. 21 They have roused my jealousy by worshiping things that are not God; 22 For my anger blazes forth like fire and burns to the depths of the grave.[e] 23 I will heap disasters upon them and shoot them down with my arrows. 24 I will weaken them with famine, burning fever, and deadly disease. 25 Outside, the sword will bring death, and inside, terror will strike both young men and young women, both infants and the aged. 26 I would have annihilated them, wiping out even the memory of them. 27 But I feared the taunt of Israel’s enemy, who might misunderstand and say, “Our own power has triumphed! The Lord had nothing to do with this!”’
It seems that God did not take his own advice about loving and forgiving the enemy. It seems that God while prohibiting Christians the satisfaction of revenge enjoys it himself. Notice that he had no qualms about destroying those who went against him, but the only reason he didn’t do it is because he was afraid that he won’t seem as strong to somebody! Here God commanded Jews to destroy other people for vengeance sake. Num 31:1-18
The Spirit of the Lord enters the person and the person kills. If that happened in our days, Christians would be convinced that it was the evil spirit who entered the person. And yet, they believe that in this verse it was the spirit of God:
Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon him in power. He went down to Ashkelon, struck down thirty of their men, stripped them of their belongings and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. Burning with anger, he went up to his father's house. Jdg 14:19
There were many places in the OT where God commanded Jews to kill other people. Or where he commanded some Jews to kill other Jews. (Like Levites killed their brothers at God’s command and by this action stopped God’s plague upon Israel, and/or in Ezekiel 9, Exo 32:27) It was considered normal to kill. Christians of our days believe that killing of any kind is wrong. So did God change? Does God approve of killing or not approve? God never changes. So either he never approved of killings or he thinks that some killings are ok at appropriate times.
Does this sound familiar to some of the violent religions?
(Exo 32:29 NLT) Then Moses told the Levites, "Today you have ordained yourselves for the service of the LORD, for you obeyed Him even though it meant killing your own sons and brothers. Today you have earned a blessing."
Evil killings in the name of God were definitely ok in the old testament. So no wonder Catholic Church and Hitler found nothing wrong with doing that. They simply embraced the bad side of the Bible. Saul is using people’s fear of God for his government purposes in this place (1Sa11:6-7). Just like Catholic Crusaders used God. OT teaches that all those who don’t follow their God can be destroyed. The idea of Nationalism is very strong in the OT. The Jews got God’s favor and the rest were disposable. That is similar to teachings of Hitler and to Muslim religion right now.
Exo 15:7 In the greatness of your majesty you threw down those who opposed you. You unleashed your burning anger; it consumed them like stubble.
Hooray, Let’s do the same! Let’s throw down all those who oppose us! Following an example of God!
Exo 23:22 If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you.
Oh yeah, God is with us. Let’s do battle! Oh yes, our God will fight them for us. We are the only ones God chose. The rest are nothing. Be afraid! Be very afraid!
Exo 15:15 The chiefs of Edom will be terrified, the leaders of Moab will be seized with trembling, the people of Canaan will melt away; Exo 15:16 terror and dread will fall upon them. By the power of your arm they will be as still as a stone— until your people pass by, O LORD, until the people you bought pass by
Exo 17:16 He said, "For hands were lifted up to the throne of the LORD. The LORD will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation."
Oh, yes, let’s be at war with each other forever more. It’s a supreme example set by God himself!
IS God forgiving or somebody with a hot temper who can’t stand when somebody else is opposing him? It’s easy for him to tell us to love our enemies, while he can’t do it himself.
2Ki 21:12 Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. ….2Ki 21:15 because they have done evil in my eyes and have provoked me to anger from the day their forefathers came out of Egypt until this day."
Here is what God really does with those who go against him. He only forgives those who do just like he says. What is so good about that? Even people do that. But Jesus stated that people were evil and God was good. But do you see God being any better? I don’t think so. Some say that his goodness is seen in Jesus dying on the cross. But other people have died for others too. People have mercy on those who offended them. Some people also forgive each other over and over and love no matter what. There is nothing that God supposedly has done that was better than what people do. And in the same way, just like some people do bad things, God also does them. Did you notice how God or his actions are so similar to people’s actions of the time period in which the actions of God are written down? What do you think that means? It means that the people have been creating God according to their own image. Notice how God of New Age belief is so Americanized and modern, while the God of the Jews is so outdated.
So God didn’t do anything better than people have done. But God did do something that was much worse than people have done. When God created hell, that’s when he topped the cruelest people of our world. At least they only temporarily torture a person here, but God intends to do it forever….
In fact the Bible does not hide the fact that it’s dangerous to tangle with God. He sure is not your regular loving daddy. It says: “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Heb 10:31
Take a mafia boss who wants to take a woman for himself. What would he tell her? “If you agree, I will treat you well. If you disagree, I will kill you.” Does this sound familiar to these verses?
Amo 4:10-12 "I sent plagues among you as I did to Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword, along with your captured horses. I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD. Amo 4:11 "I overthrew some of you as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick snatched from the fire, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD. Amo 4:12 "Therefore this is what I will do to you, Israel, and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel."
Or take a mafia boss who loves his wife and his children, but is very cruel to others. Does that sound familiar to the promises of God for those who “don’t obey him” or “don’t choose him” or “don’t love him”?
What kind of people or gods would smash the babies against the rocks?
(Psa 137:8 NLT) O Babylon, you will be destroyed. Happy is the one who pays you back for what you have done to us.(Psa 137:9 NLT) Happy is the one who takes your babies and smashes them against the rocks!
What about the incident when Israelites asked God for meat instead of manna? He gave them meat, but also punished them for asking for it. Why is that? What did he not want to do something nice for his own people? I mean anybody would get tired of eating the same food everyday for years, wouldn’t they? But God had to punish them for asking for something different. That shows somebody losing his temper: “Ok, I’ll give you what you want, but you will pay for it!”
But then Jews don’t hide the fact that God is hot tempered. God himself said (according to Jews): if I keep going with you, I am afraid I am going to lose my temper and destroy you. Interesting. A perfect God cannot control his temper?
Exo 33:3 Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way."
(Psa 136:10 NLT) Give thanks to Him who killed the firstborn of Egypt. His faithful love endures forever.
What exactly is this verse saying? That Jews are praising God for killing the firstborn in Egypt?
What about the first days of creation? God spend so much energy and effort on creating the perfect world and then lost his temper for just one little disobedience and cursed everything? Wasn’t it enough of a punishment that people had to die spiritually after this disobedience? Did he also have to curse everything and make it very hard for people for the rest of humanity’s life on this planet? That really wasn’t very nice. And for some reason people overlook that and still call God Perfect, Merciful, Gracious and Loving. What could be the reason for God to curse the earth, except that he just lost his temper? It was the first offense for goodness sake. Even people don’t punish their children for the first offense. But God is supposedly better than people.
And according to beliefs, it’s God who keeps sending disasters all the time, keeps punishing the people. And according to the Book of Revelation and even the Old Testament, the punishment is not turning people back to him, nor is making them repent. Well, then why does he keep punishing the people? What good does it do? Does he do it in order to satisfy his sense of vengeance?
And then all these rules supposedly given by God:
Mistreating of innocent kids:
(Deu 23:2 NLT) "If a person is illegitimate by birth, neither he nor his descendants for ten generations may be admitted to the assembly of the LORD.
Harmful nationalism, exclusions:
(Deu 23:3 NLT) "No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants for ten generations may be admitted to the assembly of the LORD.
How would the good Christians react at such behavior? Sounds barbaric and cruel to me.
(Neh 13:24 NLT) Furthermore, half their children spoke the language of Ashdod or of some other people and could not speak the language of Judah at all.(Neh 13:25 NLT) So I confronted them and called down curses on them. I beat some of them and pulled out their hair. I made them swear in the name of God that they would not let their children intermarry with the pagan people of the land.
What about a prophet killing 42 children just for name calling?
(2Ki 2:23 NLT) Elisha left Jericho and went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, a group of boys from the town began mocking and making fun of him. "Go away, baldy!" they chanted. "Go away, baldy!"
(2Ki 2:24 NLT) Elisha turned around and looked at them, and he cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of them.
Parents killing their children?
(Deu 21:18 NLT) "Suppose a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or mother, even though they discipline him. (Deu 21:19 NLT) In such a case, the father and mother must take the son to the elders as they hold court at the town gate. (Deu 21:21 NLT) Then all the men of his town must stone him to death.
Mistreating women?
(Deu 25:11 NLT) "If two Israelite men get into a fight and the wife of one tries to rescue her husband by grabbing the testicles of the other man, (Deu 25:12 NLT) you must cut off her hand. Show her no pity.
Here husband is allowed to basically poison his wife if he suspects her of adultery. - Numbers 5:11-31
Exo 21:20 "If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished,
Exo 21:21 but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property.
Why do you think Catholic Church burned witches (or supposed witches)? Because they acted out this verse:
Exo 22:18 Do not allow a sorceress to live.
Why do you think religious violence happens? Because of this verse:
Exo 22:20 "Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the LORD must be destroyed.
What barbaric people they were! And yet God approved of all that. Christians have no problem with that even though it’s so opposite of what good people are supposed to be like.
Look at what David did (in the verse below). And David is supposedly “ a man after God’s own heart”. What does that make you think of “God’s heart”?
(1Ch 20:3 KJV) And he brought out the people that were in it, and cut them with saws, and with harrows of iron, and with axes. Even so dealt David with all the cities of the children of Ammon. And David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.
So this is the bad side of God. Here is the biggest bad side of God: If God foreknew everything, then he foreknew that only a few people will be saved from hell. Then God foreknew that when he was creating hell and creating the people, most of them were being created so that they would be tortured eternally in hell. If God was really merciful as some say, he either would not have created hell or he would not have created the people to spend eternity in hell. But he did. So he cannot be loving or merciful if hell exists.
In some places it shows that God is angry with sinners and sends his wrath on them. In others it shows that God loves sinners and supposedly his love is eternal. So which is it? Does he love them or hate them? Does he love them as long as they do what he wants? And is he mad as hell at those who disobey? What kind of love is that? Talk about double standards.
We can take a look at the good side of God, which is not doing many people much good. The good side of God says that Jesus died for the sins of the world and that all those who believe in Jesus can be saved from hell. The problem is: many do not hear of Jesus, nor is God making sure that all do hear. God seems to be sitting back, twiddling his fingers while most of humanity is going to hell and quite a few never got a chance to hear the message of salvation. This is certainly not very merciful, nor very helpful to most. First, this shows that God is not merciful. Second it shows a contradiction because the Bible says that God wants ALL to be saved and that God does what he wants and everything is done according to his will. And yet, only a few are getting saved. If God wants all to be saved, and he can do it, why only a few are getting saved? It’s a contradiction in a belief.
So the good side of God is not doing people much good. But the bad side, the one that keeps punishing people and keeps sending disasters is sure quite active.
CONTRADICTIONS AND MISCONCEPTIONS
One of the contradictions is that people believe that God loves them very deeply very much, and at the same time they see themselves as dirty worthless sinners who can never be good enough in God’s eyes. And so they constantly blame themselves for doing what comes natural to them and for not being perfect. While at the same time they know that the Bible said that God forgave them all their sins and doesn’t count them against them. And yet people cannot reconcile both ideas and focus on either one or the other, but not both. Because they are contradictory. People are either precious in God’s sight or worthless and not good enough. Which is it?
The other contradiction is that it says that God is the Savior of ALL men, especially of unbelievers. (This implies that God is the savior of believers and unbelievers). And the other says: only a few are chosen, only a few will find the narrow road. Christians assume that this means that only a few will be saved from hell. And that creates a contradiction. All or a few will be saved?
Christians have been arguing for a long time now whether only the chosen of God get saved or whether people have a choice in the matter. That means that they have not yet agreed on a “truth”. That implies that nobody can really figure out what the truth really is.
There are also some misconceptions about some things. For example, Christians teach that God is not in cohorts with evil spirits, but that they are his enemies. And yet, here are the verses which show that they work for God.
1Sa 18:10 The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully upon Saul. 1Sa 16:14 Now the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him.
Jdg 9:23 God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the citizens of Shechem, who acted treacherously against Abimelech.
1Ki 22:19 Micaiah continued, "Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. 1Ki 22:20 And the LORD said, 'Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?' "One suggested this, and another that.
1Ki 22:21 Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, 'I will entice him.' 1Ki 22:22 "'By what means?' the LORD asked. "'I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,' he said. "'You will succeed in enticing him,' said the LORD. 'Go and do it.' 1Ki 22:23 "So now the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you."
According to Jews, there is no difference between God and Satan in this incident. It seems that God and Satan can be used interchangeably. It’s all a part of the same. It’s either that or the people who wrote down the stories didn’t get their story facts straight.
1Ch 21:1 Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.
2Sa 24:1 Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, "Go and take a census of Israel and Judah."
Christians believe that you can’t talk to the dead, and that you’ll end up talking to demons when someone answers you because the dead don’t talk back. And yet Samuel did talk back to Saul. So Saul did talk to the dead. 1Sam 28:8
Consider this. If such a spirit appeared before Christians, they would assume it was an evil spirit because of their current teaching. And yet, according to Job, this spirit spoke the words of God.
Job 4:15 A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end…and I heard a hushed voice: Job 4:17 "Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his Maker?
If God is responsible for creating all the people individually, why did he create mentally disabled and with birth defects? And will mentally disabled people go to hell? They don’t have enough brain to make a decision for Jesus (some of them.)
Where will infants and children who die go? To be tortured forever? Or will the people graciously add an amendment to their own Bible (which they are not supposed to do) and say: all those who believe in Jesus will go to haven, except children. If you are under the age of so and so, then you don’t have to believe in Jesus, you will still be saved.
Some keep saying that it was Eve that was deceived. 1Ti 2:14 But what about Adam? He acted even worse than Eve. He wasn’t only deceived, he knew better, and yet disobeyed anyways. And yet the woman is blamed. Why? Because the woman was considered a second rate citizen in those days. And these beliefs came to us through religions. People make something up and then proclaim: Thus saith the Lord. And the rest are too scared to ignore them.
Christians believe that the Bible is error free. But it’s far from the truth. There are plenty of mistakes in the Bible (scientific, factual and in ideas). I’ve already listed a few contradictions in ideas. Now I will list only a few of factual errors and contradictions, just as an example. (The actual list is much longer.)
1SA 16:19-23/1SA 17:55-58 knew a person/ didn’t know him at that time
1SA 21:1-6/MK 2:26 Ahimalech/ Abiathar
1SA 31:4-6/2SA 21:12 killed himself / killed by the Philistines
2SA 6:23/2SA 21:8 (KJV) Michal was childless/ had five sons
1KI 16:6-8 Baasha died in the 26th year of King Asa's reign. 2CH 16:1 Baasha built a city in the 36th year of Asa's reign.
There were Nephilim (giants) before the flood and after the flood (even though they shouldn’t have survived). Gen 6:4, Gen 7:21, Num 13:33
Gen 32:30, Exo 24:9-11, 33:11 Men see God and live. EX 33:20, JN 1:18 No one can see God and live.
2KI 2:11 Elijah went up to heaven. JN 3:13 Only the Son of Man (Jesus) has ever ascended to heaven.
2KI 4:32-37 A dead child is raised (before Jesus). AC 26:23 Jesus was the first to rise from the dead.
PS 78:69, The earth was established forever. HE 1:10-11, 2PE 3:10 The earth will someday perish.
EX 34:6, DT 7:9-10, TS 1:2 God is faithful and truthful. He does not lie. 2TH 2:11-12 God deludes people, making them believe what is false, so as to be able to condemn them. EZ 14:9 A prophet who is deceived, is deceived by God himself.
1CH 29:11-12, LK 1:37 God is all powerful. JG 1:19 Although God was with Judah, together they could not defeat the plainsmen because the latter had iron chariots. (What? God could not help them defeat because of some chariots?)
WRONG SCIENTIFIC FACTS
Scientific facts are also wrong.
Isa 40:22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
In Isaiah 40:22 it says that the earth is flat (like a circle, not a sphere) with a dome like sky (which would make the earth look like a tent) and it says so. That was the belief circulating among the ancient people of that time. Sumerians believed it. And it’s no wonder that these “facts” made their way into Jewish writings. People generally write books about the current beliefs circulating around them. So flat earth, no sphere. Therefore a mistake.
Jos 10:13 So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped.
People of those days thought it was the sun that was moving. So when somebody made up this story, it only made sense to say that the sun stopped moving. But we know that it’s actually the earth that is moving, not the sun.
About the moon being darkened: people actually believed that it was covered up with clouds (they didn’t know that the earth was responsible for it, not clouds). So therefore, it’s an ancient incorrect belief rather than a true scientific fact:
Job 26:9 He covers the face of the full moon, spreading his clouds over it.
The flood did not happen world wide. There is evidence for a huge local flood, but no evidence for a world wide flood. Also, the story doesn’t mention plant life. I wonder if Noah was traveling and picking it up or whether it magically appeared in the ark?
There is evidence for the fact that evolution is responsible for every aspect of our lives: bodily changes, changed in food, styles, thinking, technology. The earth is evolution driven. But the Bible states that the man was created perfect and then was cursed. Why did the people have the need to invent a curse in the story? Well, because if they believed that God created perfect things, but then looked around and saw a mess, they had to wonder how it became a mess from being created perfect. I suppose it’s a decent guess of a primitive person that God “cursed” everything and that’s how it became primitive.
The story of creation tells us that plants were created before the sun was. And now we know that plants cannot live without the sun. So that couldn’t be true. And also creation story tells us that it took about 4 days to create one little planet earth, but it took only 1 day to create millions of other galaxies. (For when it says that God has hanged the stars on our sky, we know that those were not hanged on our sky. We know that the stars we see are millions of other galaxies and suns). So in one day, He created all those. While in 3 other days, He has been working on the details of 1 little tiny planet earth? On the other hand, if you are a primitive person and gazing at the sky, what else would you think but that “the stars are hanging on the sky”? It makes sense to come up with such a story. But it certainly is not a scientific fact.
Tower of Babel – I could never understand how people thought they could reach God by building a tower. I mean they couldn’t even reach to the moon, how did they plan to reach God? Then I read the verse that showed that people think that God resides right above the earth (Isa 40:22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth) Well, from this perspective, and because they did not know that the sky was way too high (after all it doesn’t SEEM too high), I can see how such thinking could have crossed their minds. Also, when a Russian astronaut who went to the moon came back and said: I was to the moon, and I have not seen God, I couldn’t understand why he would except to see God anywhere near the earth in a physical plane. But I guess the verse in Isa 40:22 explains it. I guess he must have heard others express such belief.
You might be interested to note that other pagan religions also held a belief that god/gods reside above the circle of the earth, in particular Sumerian religion. So it makes sense that a simple belief of those people of those days has made its way into different religious books.
The first five books of the Bible are believed to have been written by Moses. But the strange fact would be this: how could Moses who was supposedly one of the most humble man, write about HIMSELF that he was the most humble man? So either Moses did not write this or he was not really humble. Or if Moses wrote this, why did he keep saying: Moses did this and that instead of saying: I did this and that… Also, some events are mentioned which were AFTER Moses’ death. Those parts he couldn’t have written for sure. And yet the entire books are considered “BOOKS OF MOSES”.
People’s ability to believe just about anything is truly amazing. That’s why there are so many different religions and most ridiculous stories and yet people believe them. But everybody knows that believing something doesn’t make it true.
There are also unbelievers. And Christians tend to say that these have been deceived by Satan. But such unbelievers don’t believe ANY of the religions, not just Christianity. In other words, the world is broken down in three types of people: those who have the ability to believe things that seem magical, those that don’t have that ability, and those who are uncertain. These three types of people hear of religions (including Christianity) and either convert or not convert based on their natural inclination (of whether they can believe or not believe things that can’t be proven). Their belief or unbelief (into anything that seems unnatural) has nothing to do with God or the Devil or any other supernatural being. They just respond naturally to new information in accordance with their nature.
Some Christians think that they were able to believe because God enabled them to. But imagine that same Christian facing with this dilemma. Imagine that if three different people came up to them and preached three different religions? I bet they would have a very hard time trying to figure out which one might be true. There is no proof. You can take it or leave. So how would they choose? Something would probably sound more believable to them than the other thing. And they might choose that. OR they might decide that “who knows” since everybody is saying something different.
But the fact is: it’s always easier to believe in something when you are presented with only one something and a 50/50 chance whether to believe it or not. So those Christians that think that God had opened their eyes, should be thankful that somebody only preached to them 1 religion at a time, otherwise they would have been really confused.
Things happen naturally, in its normal way. When Christianity is preached, some believe and some don’t. When Muslim religion is preached, some believe it and some don’t. When Buddhism is preached, some believe it and some don’t. There is no difference. So in other words, people do not believe in Christianity “because God has opened their eyes to the truth”, but because they heard something that seemed believable to them. It makes sense since the same things happen to people who hear about other religions as well: some believe it and some don’t. You can’t say that God opened the hearts of those who believed and the Devil deceived those who didn’t believe. Because it was not even Christianity that was being believed or disbelieved.
There are many stories in the Bible that are magical. And there is absolutely no proof that these were factual events. What if they were fiction written as a piece of literature? How would later generations know whether something was fiction or fact? They wouldn’t know. How did later generations of Jews know which books were fiction and which were not? They didn’t. Nobody knows even to this day. Some people simply choose to believe some magical stories as though they are factual events. Also, if the stories were true, they were written after the person’s death since that person’s whole life is usually described. So that would make those “mouth to mouth” stories. And we know that those evolve over time. Either way, the stories cannot be trustworthy. They are like rumors, which are never trustworthy, even though they might have something truthful in them.
THE IMPOSSIBLE SIDE OF GOD
People believe that God already knows all future. If God knows all future, then he knows all his own thoughts that he will think in the future. That means he will never think again, he is like a computer.
If God doesn’t know his own thoughts of the future, but only knows humanity’s future then it’s still impossible. Because people believe that God interferes. And we know that each time one interferes, the future changes slightly. God cannot know his future thoughts and therefore he cannot know how he would interfere, and therefore he cannot know the future, since it would change each time he interferes.
And besides, the Bible itself in some places shows that God is not all knowing. If he was, why would he change his mind later about something?
NU 23:19-20, 1SA 15:29 God does not change his mind. GE 6:6. EX 32:14, 1SA 15:35, 2SA 24:16 He does.
1SA 9:15-17 The Lord tells Samuel that Saul has been chosen to lead the Israelites and will save them from the Philistines. 1SA 15:35 The Lord is sorry that he has chosen Saul.
God knows everything. And yet, he repented about making a man. (Gen 6:6-7) He wiped them out with flood. (Gen 7:4) But then decided not to punish men for their sins with such destruction again. (Gen 8:21) God doesn’t seem to know the future since he keeps being sorry about something or changing his mind about something.