OK. God's constitution is everlasting, sovereign and benevolent. His traits could be paraphrased as patient, kind, honest, protective, and just. I am no theologian, so this definition is limited to my meager literary ability.
It is the way he associates us (mankind) to himself. He has many 'masculine' characteristics for sure, and I think that reflects an additional sense of duty and responsibility for men more than anything else. Indeed, I feel like you that he probably has no gender as we would consider it, but it's a metaphysical consideration only.
The Bible says that all good things are predicated on love. Nothing else can have value without it, so it is a requisite if anything else is to be assigned meaning. Love is not a strict synonym for god, but it's a convenient summarization for sure.
The claims are accurate, god is all that. You don't state your objections though, so I do not know the contradictions you imply. I have found no contradiction upon my analysis.
No, your logic is flawed. The Bible may be tainted by human hand (or may not), but that doesn't mean you can't derive a substantial amount of nutritional value nevertheless. If you think it contains contradictions, that may be the case, or it may only be an erroneous conclusion based on your limited Biblical familiarity. If it lacks moral integrity, I would have to ask by who's standard? Besides, if you already question the authorship, why then would you assign those moral errors to god? You can't have it both ways. I'm challenging you to really look at EVERYTHING this time before you reach an updated conclusion, and consider that you may have been mislead the first time.
Let me look at your last paragraph first. By objective morality (vague wording...feel free to form an argument about the basis of morality besides "do this or fry in hell"), it is impermissable to slaughter thousands of babies - yet this is what god did either directly, or ordered be done in his name. Conclusion - the god described in that book is immoral.
And you conveniently ignored my question about Slavery. Are you then going to argue that Slavery AT ANY TIME IN HISTORY, OR FUTURE is anything BUT immoral?
Omnipotence vs. omniscience vs. omnibenevolence (yes, this milennia old argument is pretty simple to find with the googles)...
If god is Omniscient, then he knows what everything will do - including him. Knowing this, he is powerless to do something different (knocking out the descriptor - omnipotent). If he CAN change his mind, then his omniscience is flawed and is also knocked out.
Regarding evil - omipotent, nothing that exists can exist contrary to his will. Therefore it must be his will that babies are raped and murdered. If he has the power to stop it, and does nothing, then he is not benevolent. If he lacks the power, then he is not omnipotent. If he is ignorant of it, then he is not omniscient.
To be judged on your actions, then punished accordingly - one must have free will (see example about about god removing pharoah's free will...IMMORAL). Free will to commit a sin does not take into account free will to be an VICTIM? What kind of psychological damage is done to cripple these people...and how many children are killed before hearing about "magic jesus" and are therefore sent to hell?
Example - in words better than I can type right now:
Here, rape my daughters: Quaint scenes of family values from the Judeo-Christian tradition
By Dr. Shoeshine | August 9, 2008
Sometimes we’re reminded that Christianity had issues long before medieval adventure-hungry young men were offered a trip to the Near East to get off on killing heretics or anyone else who looked rather swarthy; before various Inquisition purges and the campaign against, well, women, basically; before proto-capitalists used Jesus to beat as much labor out of serfs as possible; before actual capitalists did the same; and before the first nutjobs known as Puritans landed on American shores.
In other words, there were problems before culture and institutions made it all worse. Not too far after the nice, if somewhat divergent, creation stories of Genesis (that’s right, stories plural; if that’s surprising, time to go do your homework), is buried that famous little diatribe against homosexuality featuring that early fearer of butt sex: Lot. You may recall that Lot’s wife was the one turned to a pillar of salt when she looked back on the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Okay, well see, that happened after Lot welcomed two angels (who looked, it can be inferred, pretty much human) into his house. Somebody saw this and the sex-crazed men of Sodom came and started beating down the door because they wanted to do it with the angels (it can also be inferred that they did not intend to ask permission). Now I can understand, if one is a God-fearing type, not wanting to have two incidents of angel-rape on one’s hands. What might you have done? I might have asked the angels, being, you know, divine & supernatural, to smite the psycho rapists attempting to beat down the door. Not Lot:
6But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him,
7and said, “Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly.
8“Now behold, I have two daughters who have not had relations with man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like; only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the shelter of my roof.”
(from Bible Gateway.)
The angels then proceed to make all the psycho rapists blind, so you know, their capacity to do such things really isn’t in question here. Which makes me wonder: Why the **** did Lot offer his daughters as rape-depository alternatives?
I’m starting to think that Lot may have been the earliest dues-paying member of Focus on the Family. Would it be excessively unscholarly to interpret Lot as so magnanimous as to offer his daughters’ “virtue” (eew) as a last-ditch effort to “turn” these psycho rapists’ ravenous appetites back in to a correct and harmonious direction? Perhaps. We’re trying to see if we can find any sermons or other evidence of someone making that argument. At any rate, the legacy of God-fearing men storming into villages and raping the women has lasted a very long time.
taken from:
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Regarding perfect being...didn't god "repent" for flooding the world killing everyone? Hmm...repentence impies imperfection.