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Is he just inherently benevolent? By God, I mean the Judeo-Christian/Abrahamic God.
scacchic
Why is God good? Why does he have my best interest at heart? Is he just inherently benevolent? By God, I mean the Judeo-Christian/Abrahamic God.


I don't recall the Judeo-Christian God being defined as benevolent in the Old nor New Testament; rather, He is the ultimate moral standard according to which goodness may be judged, and the creator such that your interests cannot be met without Him.

Lonely Gaian

I read somewhere that he is a God of War, so that may explain his hot-headed-ness.
He certainly doesn't seem an affable fellow.
Lucky~9~Lives
scacchic
Why is God good? Why does he have my best interest at heart? Is he just inherently benevolent? By God, I mean the Judeo-Christian/Abrahamic God.


I don't recall the Judeo-Christian God being defined as benevolent in the Old nor New Testament; rather, He is the ultimate moral standard according to which goodness may be judged, and the creator such that your interests cannot be met without Him.


The New Testament does depict God as loving.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,[a] that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8 )
scacchic
Is he just inherently benevolent? By God, I mean the Judeo-Christian/Abrahamic God.


Let's not focus on one particular deity, but instead let's talk about a deity which is omnipotent, just for the sake of argument.

People say, absolute power corrupts absolutely, but I think we need to look beyond this silliness.

Let's say you had unlimited power, and were also immortal. What do you do?

Perhaps you do things to have fun at first. Perhaps you start to take out aggression on people. Perhaps you build yourself up and force people to serve you. You have absolute power, after all.

But eventually it all becomes boring. Making other people suffer, at least for me, even for people I really really hate, would become silly.

So I'd want to create things to make me happy. And then I'd think, it's kind of lonely, isn't it? Being the only happy one. So I'd start to give things to people I liked, and then, eventually, everyone. After all, there's no longer a zero sum game. I can be perfectly content as well as everyone else.

To be really silly, that's to say, if I want a pony, I can have one. And so can everyone else. Anyone who wants a pony, *pop* new pony for them.

So, in my mind, after millennia and millennia, anyone who has absolute power would eventually get bored with making everyone suffer, and would end up being absolutely benevolent.

Of course, maybe I'm just batshit insane.

Hallowed Hunter

Exumer lives again
I read somewhere that he is a God of War, so that may explain his hot-headed-ness.


I heard that too. He was part of some pantheon or other I think, and then got popular and people forgot about the other gods.

Lonely Gaian

Admiral Dardanos
Exumer lives again
I read somewhere that he is a God of War, so that may explain his hot-headed-ness.


I heard that too. He was part of some pantheon or other I think, and then got popular and people forgot about the other gods.
Somewhere in Exodus rolleyes c'mon now

Hallowed Hunter

Exumer lives again
Admiral Dardanos
Exumer lives again
I read somewhere that he is a God of War, so that may explain his hot-headed-ness.


I heard that too. He was part of some pantheon or other I think, and then got popular and people forgot about the other gods.
Somewhere in Exodus rolleyes c'mon now


Huh?

I've never read the bible. I imagine it would bore me to tears.

Lonely Gaian

Admiral Dardanos
Exumer lives again
Admiral Dardanos
Exumer lives again
I read somewhere that he is a God of War, so that may explain his hot-headed-ness.


I heard that too. He was part of some pantheon or other I think, and then got popular and people forgot about the other gods.
Somewhere in Exodus rolleyes c'mon now


Huh?

I've never read the bible. I imagine it would bore me to tears.
Oh okay. Quite literally judging a book by it's cover.

AcidStrips's Husband

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Exumer lives again
Admiral Dardanos
Exumer lives again
Admiral Dardanos
Exumer lives again
I read somewhere that he is a God of War, so that may explain his hot-headed-ness.


I heard that too. He was part of some pantheon or other I think, and then got popular and people forgot about the other gods.
Somewhere in Exodus rolleyes c'mon now


Huh?

I've never read the bible. I imagine it would bore me to tears.
Oh okay. Quite literally judging a book by it's cover.


The bible is a hodge podge of polytheistic beliefs. Even your average Christian is judging a book by it's cover.

Lonely Gaian

stealthmongoose
Exumer lives again
Admiral Dardanos
Exumer lives again
Admiral Dardanos
Exumer lives again
I read somewhere that he is a God of War, so that may explain his hot-headed-ness.


I heard that too. He was part of some pantheon or other I think, and then got popular and people forgot about the other gods.
Somewhere in Exodus rolleyes c'mon now


Huh?

I've never read the bible. I imagine it would bore me to tears.
Oh okay. Quite literally judging a book by it's cover.


The bible is a hodge podge of polytheistic beliefs. Even your average Christian is judging a book by it's cover.
and what does that have to do with what I said? nothing.

Hallowed Hunter

Exumer lives again
Admiral Dardanos
Exumer lives again
Admiral Dardanos
Exumer lives again
I read somewhere that he is a God of War, so that may explain his hot-headed-ness.


I heard that too. He was part of some pantheon or other I think, and then got popular and people forgot about the other gods.
Somewhere in Exodus rolleyes c'mon now


Huh?

I've never read the bible. I imagine it would bore me to tears.
Oh okay. Quite literally judging a book by it's cover.


Not really. It's isn't like I'm not familiar with much of its contents. That's unfortunately unavoidable in this world. I was really just saying, as religions go, Christianity isn't exactly the most creative.

Lonely Gaian

Admiral Dardanos
Exumer lives again
Admiral Dardanos
Exumer lives again
Admiral Dardanos
Exumer lives again
I read somewhere that he is a God of War, so that may explain his hot-headed-ness.


I heard that too. He was part of some pantheon or other I think, and then got popular and people forgot about the other gods.
Somewhere in Exodus rolleyes c'mon now


Huh?

I've never read the bible. I imagine it would bore me to tears.
Oh okay. Quite literally judging a book by it's cover.


Not really. It's isn't like I'm not familiar with much of its contents. That's unfortunately unavoidable in this world. I was really just saying, as religions go, Christianity isn't exactly the most creative.
Christians didn't create the bible

AcidStrips's Husband

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Exumer lives again
stealthmongoose
Exumer lives again
Admiral Dardanos
Exumer lives again
Somewhere in Exodus rolleyes c'mon now


Huh?

I've never read the bible. I imagine it would bore me to tears.
Oh okay. Quite literally judging a book by it's cover.


The bible is a hodge podge of polytheistic beliefs. Even your average Christian is judging a book by it's cover.
and what does that have to do with what I said? nothing.



Le sigh, if only your words were as powerful as your own illusion of grandeur, i would have listened to that pathetic attempt to speak for me. But alas, you can't even go to war on my behalf, so why would i let you speak for me?

Here, let me point out to you in pretty pictures and colors just how on-topic I am by correcting your assertion that the first mention of Yahweh as a God of war was in Exodus, because as we see from the evidence below...



Not only was Yahweh a God of war before the bible was even written, but the Bible isn't even a first-hand source for the nature of the God it purports to represent.

Ergo, my assertion that Christians don't even judge their book by anything other than it's cover is quite relevant to the history of Yahweh as a God of war and his myths in relevance to both what you said and the subject.

What does what i said have to do with what you said? Pretty much everything, unless you can point out where it is not relevant.

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