Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 10:29 pm
iambiguous wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 9:52 pm
Let's start at the top. The first Commandment:
Exodus 20:1-3 “And God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.'”
Okay, you tell me [and henry]: does the Deist God count?
You have the commandment. How do you read it?
Doesn't seem all that ambiguous at all to me. It's telling henry that his own Deist God does not come before Him. Then, of course, the only question is this: come Judgment Day, what if henry persists in "having" the Deist God instead?
Does the Christian God grant dispensations to those who do not worship and adore Him but who share His own political prejudices?
How about quoting the Scripture in regard to that. Because, if it's not in the Bible, doesn't it then just become what you think is true here "in your head"?
Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 10:29 pmIsn't it very obvious that the commandment allows that there is but one God? So it rules out making up alternate gods, or adding gods, to the God of Israel.
Yeah, that's my point to henry. His "one God" is not your "one God". And there are either actual consequences for that on Judgment Day or there are not. Bazookas notwithstanding.
Then the part where, on Judgment Day, the God of Abraham must give a thumbs up or a thumbs down to those who worship and adore Him as either Christians, Muslims or Jews.
Then, in my view, how you "wiggle, wiggle, wiggle" around all that because henry and you are buddies here...on the same page politically.
Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 10:29 pmNow, somebody who takes that commandment can discuss the nature and character of that God, or His expectations, and even His identity. What's clear, if we take that commandment seriously, is that no one is permitted to be either an Atheist or a Polytheist. Nor is such a one going to believe in a God that is not the God of that particular commandment...assuming he takes it as a "commandment."
In other words, henry might get a pass from the Christian God but no fucking way will an atheist!!
And, again, the irony here that the omniscient Christian God "somehow" gives us free will. But then when some of us use it honestly, sincerely and introspectively to think through the existence of God with genuine intentions, we still get tossed in Hell if we are unable to believe in Him. Your "loving, just and merciful" God.
Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Sun Oct 16, 2022 10:29 pmAs to whether or not the God of the Bible, and hence of that commandment, is Henry's God, you'll have to ask Henry. It's not my job to declare that for him; he is of age and capability to speak to that.
I have asked him. At least before he put me in the "penalty box". And his answers were basically just the philosophical equivalent of flippant shrugs.
And, sure, who knows, if he arrives at the Pearly Gates and tries that approach with the Christian God...it might work there too.
Right?