We are in God's "image" but God's morality is repugnant

by yadda yadda 2 13 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  yadda yadda 2

  The Bible says in Genesis that God made human beings in his "image".

  This means that Christians believe human beings were made with certain attributes that they share with God. Attributes such as intelligence, creativity, an appreciation of beauty, and sharing a similar set of cardinal moral and spiritual values around love, justice, mercy, etc.

  This linked article explains it from a Christian perspective more fully.http://www.relevantmagazine.com/god/deeper-walk/features/23549-qmade-in-the-image-of-godq

  AND YET....we find in the Old Testament that God performs or endorses the most morally repugnant acts, such as ethnic cleansing, killing infants and children, causing famines and plagues, drowning the entire human population except eight persons, etc, etc - all actions that any reasonable and objectively sane person naturally finds morally incomprehensible, disgusting, evil.

  This article here outlines some of the actions described in the OT that any normal, sane person would naturally find morally abhorrent:http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/raymond_bradley/moral.html

  This is really an insurmountable argument against belief in a God as described in the OT, and that the Bible is most definitely not inerrant. There is no surer way of being certain that the descriptions of a God called YHWH and his actions as narrated in the Old Testament are nothing but fiction.

  Such ancient written accounts are nothing but the self-serving inventions of Israelites priests to frighten the populace into subservience and submission, in the same way that churches and evangelists today preach scare-mongering nonsense that you will be tormented forever in a hot fiery hell if you don't repent. They should all one and the same be rejected for what they are: morally disgusting lies.
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  yadda yadda 2

  I'm not sure why there is a huge gap in my writing above, it's not there when I try to edit it out.
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  LucidChimp

  If you listen from about 44.00 to 48.00 you will hear that some christians find this problem far from insurmountable

  2:02:40
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  sir82

  Hmmm...many humans are morally repugnant as well.

  You might be on to something there.....
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  glenster

  Liberal Abrahamic belief without an inerrant old text can be held by moral be- lievers. OT objections aren't all equal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics_in_the_Bible#Ethics_in_the_Hebrew_Bible http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_morality

  Certain aspects, like famines, would be matters of God's prerogative, not human morality, of a God presiding over all the cosmos just as life isn't held to human morality. Yet someone can believe in life for the good of life and add afterlife as a sweetener. Interpersonal ethics are a different concern and followers would have more prerogative if obeying a God proven to them. I know no proof of God but an ancient intervention could be a modern faith choice.

  If it's assumed the flood didn't happen the question of God's morality is like questioning the morality of someone playing GTA: I have the prerogative to run over old ladies to beat the timer in a race yet nobody is actually harmed. You just enjoy or find meaning in the story.

  The best stance for criticizing the God of the OT would be in regard to something like killing gay people as abnormal which seems wrong even if followers had proof of God or herem if they didn't. Then again modern believers typically don't consider themselves as under Mosaic law, consider those who claimed to be as only brought along so far by God, may consider herem as an exaggeration of actual old tribal disputes, criticize conservative stances, etc.

  http://glenster1.webs.com/basics.htm
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  eyeuse2badub

  Absolutely impossible to reconcile the JHWH God of the OT with "God is Love" in 1 John 4:8 even in JWdom.

  eyeuse2badub
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  processor

  We (including the Greeks) were made in God's image, and the Greek Gods were made in the Greeks' image, accordingly the Greek Gods are made in God's image.

  http://www.svhelden.info/witchtower/2013/11/the-greek-gods-and-jehovah/
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  confusedandalone

  The YHWH god was qithout a dopubt the most awful GOD ever. THink about the mass genocides / abortions / wars / famines/ diseases / rapes / incest / floods /etc... that he caused or endorsed for no other reason except that he made a pronmise to a guy in the desert. Zeus has nothing on this guy
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  Rattigan350

  Do you actually know what moral means?

  "of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior"

  It comes from the word "morae' " which means a custom.

  If killing things and sacrificing them is the custom, then it is moral. If having many wives or husbands is the custom, it is more.

  That is why I hate how they use the phrase "Bible morality". That simply means what is customary for those in the Bible, which covers 4000 years.

  There have been many customs over that time.
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  yadda yadda 2

  That's a really idiotic statement Rattigen. Morality is not the same as customs, and philosophers of morals and ethics agree. Did you bother to read the second linked article? If you think child sacrifice is moral just because it happens to be the custom of the time then I really pity you.