Black Leaf

Hello all,

As it says in my profile, I am unsure of what I personally believe at this point. Perhaps some of you who are more sure of your positions can help me out.

Assuming that the Christian bible is basically accurate and Satan exists:

What can we say about the Character of God? Can we say anything? Does the fact that he is God negate our ability to question his morals or actions? After all, if he is God, then we cannot put our own morality or judgment above him in order to use it as a tool to judge, because then our morality would itself be a God of sorts.

What if we do judge God? Even if we can show that his actions or behavior is immoral by some rational and objective standard, what can we do with that knowledge? If God is all powerful, or at least in the end will win, what do we do? If we stick to our morals and refuse to worship God, we get sent to hell, which will suck so much that it seems no rational person would choose to be that much of a martyr (or at least I wouldn't be able to go that far), especially because in the end the martyrdom would accomplish nothing.

On the other hand, we can be disingenuous and worship God out of fear so that we won't have to be tortured forever. The analogy seems to be of an unjust king. What do we do when a rebellion of any size really has absolutely no chance of success and the king will capture and torture us? Do we therefore submit to his rule no matter how unjust it seems to save our own eternal ass?

Where does this equation leave Satan? Is Satan now only a traitor because he lost, and if he won he would be a patriot? Does the fact that it is impossible for Satan to win because of God's power affect things? Is Satan is the "good" guy because he truly saw God's character and rejected it as evil? What does that mean? Does the fact that Satan will lose change anything?

Then again, perhaps my essential starting premise was wrong and the bible is wrong and the fact that God's actions seem to be evil in parts is reason enough for rejecting the bible as accurate. But, I have to admit that if hell is a tool merely invented to ensure compliance, it is working, because torture for eternity is not my idea of a good time.

Alright, discuss

mike_decock

This is just a slightly modified Opening Post for a thread I've already moved to GRD (Concept of Hell and the Character of God) so I'm locking this one. If you want to continue discussing the topic, please do it there.

-Mike...