Sapient

A close friend of mine formulated this question and seeing as how the "simple question to atheists" thread was so succesfull.....


Why would an omnipotent god need to become flesh in order to sacrifice himself to himself, so that his creations may escape the wrath of himself?


<img src="confused.gif" border="0">

Hubble head

I'm not a theist but...

I would guess that they will say he did it to show himself to man, and then let man see him suffer so they would feel more obligated to follow and acknowledge him? <img src="confused.gif" border="0">

penumbra

Not a theist, so I can't answer that one. I do however have another question to theists that perhaps should precede yours:

Why would an omnipotent entity, perfect and complete onto itself, create mankind, with all it's imperfections, in the first place?

My guess as to the typical theist answer to both: "We cannot know what is in the mind of God". <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" />

tronvillain

I have asked that question myself, and as far as I can tell, the only plausible answer would be taht it wasn't necessary and was just a means to create the Christian religion.

Bible Humper

To show himself to some men, not Man! And he does it by sending a single avatar, who is rather indistinguishable from a pretty standard cult guru with wild claims of godhood.

Then he hopes that revealing himself to such a small amount of men will work out anyway because word of mouth will eventually spread the tales around. I'd love to know why the deity didn't just send avatars to everyone, but preferred a method that is so inefficient and looks like his avatar was just yet another cult guru.

Oh, and if you don't believe, you're gonna pay dearly, so you need to "have faith". The fact that it is as easy to believe something false without any evidence as it is to believe something true without any evidence should be ignored, just believe us and ignore all the other religions.

faustuz

Hmmm, come to think of it that sound like the kind of thing I would do if I was omnipotent and really really bored. Watching all those pathetic little munchkins scramble about trying to please me and figure it all out. Honestly, it sounds like a hoot!

Hubble head

There really is no rhyme or reason to it when you try to analyze what any "all powerful" entity would do to make a point. Absolutely zero.

A reasonable god, if there was one, would have thousands of other ways to get a point across better.

Amos

To show us how to do the same.

Bible Humper

Hehe, I wouldn't be able to resist making them express their devotion in especially embarrassing rituals. I'd start by telling them that the only prayers I listen to are the ones where they hold their arms straight out, stick out their tongue, and hop on one foot.

Flesh and blood? Nope, you have to eat the shit and drink the piss of my avatar!

And after you've digested that, and visit the can, you are allowed one last prayer while I'm still in your presence, floating around in your toilet, before you flush me down.

But you have to lean real close and whisper!

Sapient

Forgive me for not being aware of the possible sarcasm...
(board newbie)....

But how can we sacrifice ourselves to escape the wrath of ourselves?