Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Indifference · 04-25-2002, 04:55 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by CX:
<strong>T'ain't a matter of them knowing right from wrong. It's a matter of them not doing what god done tol' 'em. He said don't eat. They ate. He got pissed off. We all pay for it. My kid is only now learning to distinguish right from wrong, but even before that he knew to do what dad and mom say.

I'm not saying it makes sense for an omnipotent, omnibenevolent, omnipresent god to behave this way. I'm just saying it's not a paradox.</strong>

you're giving your child a little too much credit. Did he/she know to do what mom and dad said when he was an infant?

So, when we look at the relationship between God and Adam'n'Eve, we're giving then too much credit. Relative to the alleged God, they weren't even infants. And regardless, at least now infants, thanks to the big guy, have an inherent knowledge of good and evil, where as A'n'E didn't even have that as a basis for behavior.

[ April 25, 2002: Message edited by: Indifference ]</p>

FredJ_UK · 04-25-2002, 11:02 PM

Quote:

. . .halfway through exodus. Rather humorous story so far, although I'm wondering why the Lord kept "hardening" the pharoahe's heart...keeping him from letting the slaves go, even though that's what the lord wanted in the first place.

Yeah that struck me too. Perhaps it's just a wind-up by God, who's having fun with his new toys.
On the other hand, it could have resulted from the authors' concerns that the tactics suggested by God (the various plagues etc.) weren't working with Pharaoh; an omniscient God might have been expected to know that in the first place. So, introduce the "heart hardening", then it becomes instead some deliberate tactic, but maybe just too mysterious for us mortals to understand.

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