Johnny Skeptic

I look forward to reading comments from readers.

WVIncagold

Good question!

Malachi151

JS, why do you keep asking these stupid questions? You seem to always ask meaningless questions, as though there is some meaningful answer.

You ask questions about mythology as if it is fact.

You may as well ask why Zeus chose Helen as his wife?

Yahweh "chose the Jews" because the Jews invented Yahweh. Its the same reason that Ra chose the Egyptians and Zeus chose the Greeks and the Flying Spaghetti Monster chose the atheists.

Johnny Skeptic

I will ask whatever questions I wish to ask.

On the contrary, anyone who has just a modest amount of common sense knows that I was not implying that God chose the Jews to be his chosen people.

Obviously, but I am interested in Christians' perspectives, not in skeptics' perspectives.

paarsurrey

Hi

GodAllahYHWH is no body's relative; He is a being of good attributes and loves only those who have good qualities. Jews were no different. The Jews were chosen people as long as they obeyed His commandments, when Jews became bereft of such physical,moral and spiritual qualities they became under wrath of GodAllahYHWH.

Quran mentions it very clearly, I give hereunder five preceding and five following verses from Quran, to clear the context:

The Holy Quran : Chapter 5: Al-Ma'ida

[5:8] And remember Allah's favour upon you and the covenant which He made with you, when you said, 'We hear and we obey.' And fear Allah. Surely Allah knows well what is in your minds.
[5:9] O ye who believe! be steadfast in the cause of Allah, bearing witness in equity; and let not a people's enmity incite you to act otherwise than with justice. Be always just. That is nearer to righteousness. And fear Allah. Surely, Allah is Aware of what you do.
[5:10] Allah has promised those who believe and do good deeds that they shall have forgiveness and a great reward.
[5:11] And as for those who disbelieve and reject Our Signs, they are the people of Hell.
[5:12] O ye who believe! remember Allah's favour upon you when a people intended to stretch out their hands against you, but He with-held their hands from you; and fear Allah. And in Allah should the believers put their trust.
[5:13] And indeed Allah did take a covenant from the Children of Israel; and We raised among them twelve leaders. And Allah said, 'Surely, I am with you, if you observe Prayer and pay the Zakaat, and believe in My Messengers and support them, and lend to Allah a goodly loan, I will remove your evils from you and admit you into Gardens beneath which streams flow. But whoso from among you disbelieves thereafter does indeed stray away from the right path.'
[5:14] So, because of their breaking of the covenant, We have cursed them and have hardened their hearts. They pervert the words from their proper places and have forgotten a good part of that with which they were exhorted. And thou wilt not cease to discover treachery on their part, except a few of them. So pardon them and show forbearance. Surely Allah loves those who do good to others.
[5:15] And from those also who say, 'We are Christians,' We took a covenant, but they too have forgotten a good part of that with which they were exhorted. So We have caused enmity and hatred among them till the Day of Resurrection. And Allah will soon let them know what they have been doing.
[5:16] O People of the Book! there has come to you Our Messenger who makes clear to you much of what you have kept hidden of the Book and forgives many of your faults. There has come to you indeed from Allah a Light and a clear Book.
[5:17] Thereby does Allah guide those who seek His pleasure on the paths of peace, and leads them out of every kind of darkness into light by His Will and guides them to the right path.
[5:18] They indeed have disbelieved who say, 'Surely Allah - He is the Messiah, son of Mary.' Say, 'Who then has any power against Allah, if He desired to destroy the Messiah, son of Mary, and his mother and all those that are in the earth?' And to Allah belongs the Kingdom of the heavens and the earth and what is between them. He creates what He pleases and Allah has power over all things.
[5:19] The Jews and the Christians say, 'We are the sons of Allah and His beloved ones.' Say, 'Why then does He punish you for your sins? Nay, you are mortals from among those He has created.' He forgives whom He pleases and punishes whom He pleases. And to Allah belongs the Kingdom of the heavens and the earth and what is between them, and to Him shall be the final return.
http://www3.alislam.org/showChapter.jsp?ch=5&verse=10

Thanks

I am an Ahmadi peaceful Muslim

Johnny Skeptic

I agree. When God injures and kills people with hurricanes, he does not care what kind of people they are. God has killed more people with parasites alone than all of the wars in history. He did so without any regard for people's character.

Roger Pearse

Um, why not?

Johnny Skeptic

If you wish to get an answer to that question, I suggest that you start a new thread and title it 'Why shouldn't God have chosen the Jews to be his chosen people?' While you are at it, you could start another new thread and title it 'Why shouldn't God have created the heavens and the earth?'

Surely some Deists would like to ask you "Why shouldn't you become a Deist?" If it is reasonable for you to answer a question with a question, it is also reasonable for Deists to reply to "Um, why not?" by asking you "Why shouldn't you become a Deist?"

If you are not confident enough to answer the question, I understand since there are not any easy to defend answers to the question. That is why I asked it. Your refusal to directly reply to the question confirms my assumption that the question would be difficult for conservative Christians tio answer.

Your reply was an attempt to get me to become the claimant. Conservative Christians are notorious for trying to get skeptics to become the claimants when in fact the Bible is full of original assertions from cover to cover.

In spite of your intelligence and scholarship, you are quite naive. A God who wanted to communicate with humans would have no need of using copies of copies of ancient texts as a primary source of communicating with them when he could easily telepathically or verbally communicate the same messages to everyone in the world, thereby discouraging dissent instead of needlessly inviting dissent. Did God use written records to communicate with Adam, Noah, and Abraham? What good are written records to people who do not have access to them?

You propose that a loving God exists who wants people to hear the Gospel message, but only if another person tells them about it, and who in the first century had a preference for revealing the Gospel message to people who lived closer to Palestine. Reasonable people will not accept such a God.

False religions must by necessity start in only one place, and they must be spread exclusively by word of mouth. Regarding that issue, Christianity is in the same boat as all other religions that have books.

Roger, what is God trying to accomplish? Regarding assessing the character of any being, his motives are everything. Unless people know what God's motives are, they cannot reliably evaluate his character.

Roger Pearse

The Somalis believe that God chose them; because he was worked and needed a laugh. After he created the Somalis, he never stopped laughing.

(This from that important ethnological reference, P.J.O'Rourke)

Johnny Skeptic

Please answer the topic question. In my opinion, anyone who does not care about the motives of a God is not a reasonable person.