Why should we follow god?

[Deadly Virus]

I honestly don't get it. When I read about the abrahamic concept of God, I see only a destructive and viciously authoritarian tyrant who wishes only to keep humanity enslaved under his rule. Why would any human being want to worship such a disgusting and evil god? If he exists, he will send every last person who chose not to worship him to hell to burn for all eternity. It would be a much better idea to rebel against God, to exile him from our world so that we can live as truly free human beings.

What do you theists think about this? Why should we worship God when, from what I can see, he is the most evil and violent thing to have ever existed.

[Thanatos]

A question: If God is omnipotent/omniscient/omnipresent, how do you exile Him?

[Deadly Virus]

A question: If God is omnipotent/omniscient/omnipresent, how do you exile Him?

Perhaps God is not as powerful as he would have us believe. And if God can exist, who says that a human couldn't find a way to gain similar powers to those he has and use them to defeat God?

[Irishpsycho]

If he created us, he can do what he wants with us. He doesn't send us to hell, he gives us free will and we choose by our actions. It's not hard. If you don't want to go to hell, you don't do the things that he tells you will bring you there. He also offers us the chance of eternal happiness, something that we are completely incapable of creating for ourselves, so what would be the point in trying to live an unhappy life forever. Even atheists don't usually want to live forever, since life is full of suffering. Killing us is something of a mercy, we are all terminally ill anyway.

And no, if something is omnipotent, then nothing you do can hurt it, because it already knows what you will do next.

[Thanatos]

If he created us, he can do what he wants with us. He doesn't send us to hell, he gives us free will and we choose by our actions. It's not hard. If you don't want to go to hell, you don't do the things that he tells you will bring you there. He also offers us the chance of eternal happiness, something that we are completely incapable of creating for ourselves, so what would be the point in trying to live an unhappy life forever.

So in other words, all we get is a Hobson's Choice.

Great god.

[Adrian]

A question: If God is omnipotent/omniscient/omnipresent, how do you exile Him?

With tactical nuclear weapons and your f-22...




But now for real the OP has a good point why the would we follow a "god"?
when we are perfectly capable to stand on our own


ANd the answer is simple power for some and weakness for others, religion does wonder for the polls.

[Gromovnik]

I honestly don't get it. When I read about the abrahamic concept of God, I see only a destructive and viciously authoritarian tyrant who wishes only to keep humanity enslaved under his rule. Why would any human being want to worship such a disgusting and evil god? If he exists, he will send every last person who chose not to worship him to hell to burn for all eternity. It would be a much better idea to rebel against God, to exile him from our world so that we can live as truly free human beings.

What do you theists think about this? Why should we worship God when, from what I can see, he is the most evil and violent thing to have ever existed.

Here's a fun idea: you could talk with Saudis about that. I'm sure they will be very interested...

[Col. Tartleton]

I honestly don't get it. When I read about the abrahamic concept of God, I see only a destructive and viciously authoritarian tyrant who wishes only to keep humanity enslaved under his rule. Why would any human being want to worship such a disgusting and evil god? If he exists, he will send every last person who chose not to worship him to hell to burn for all eternity. It would be a much better idea to rebel against God, to exile him from our world so that we can live as truly free human beings.

What do you theists think about this? Why should we worship God when, from what I can see, he is the most evil and violent thing to have ever existed.

Sounds like that malignant terror they call "Stalin".

I have heard, albeit from admittedly disreputable sources that your people once worshiped him in the ancient days when eldritch horrors plied the dark depths of space where the light of stars fades into the utter nothingness of the void.

[Irishpsycho]

Thanatos,
no, we can choose to be away from God, and those who are in hell choose to be there. If someone prefers to live without God they are free to do so, but as the Abrahamic God is supposed to be the eptome of love and happiness, it begs the question why would one want to. The choice is essentially to make ourselves happy here by keeping ourselves entertained so as to avoid the reality of our situation (the situation being that we are going to die no matter what), or to ask ourselves those questions and realize that the most meaningful thing we can do here is help others. By choosing to live at the expence of others and our own spiritual wellbeing we destroy our souls just as an emo destroying their own body, and these self inflicted wounds create the spiritual pain associated with hell. The reason hell is eternal is because those wounds are inflicted upon our eternal soul, which cannot die.

So not one but two choices, one of which looks nice up close but upon stepping back and examining the big picture becomes monstrous, and the other the opposite.

[Jingles]

Stalin was around for that long? Dayum.

[Col. Tartleton]

Stalin was around for that long? Dayum.

In sooth I too once believed him human, but such callous indifference to mankind is something far fouler. No, it was in the serbonian bogs of K'l'iath beneath the verdant moonshine of T'aru'tksy'lae that abomination reared its bristling philtrum which radiated the most rancorous ectoplasm. The beast was awash in groping feelers and tentacles in a grim mockery of those silky locks of our insignificant species.

[Pious Agnost]

That's the main reason I gave up on Christianity.

Not only did I no longer believe in it, I couldn't be a Christian even if I did.

[Manco]

If he created us, he can do what he wants with us

No, he can't. The entity that creates sentient life with free will has the moral obligation to let it go and treat it as an equal.
It applies to humans if we ever create True AI and applies equally to a god.

Otherwise it's just a slave master.

[ivan_the_terrible]

It applies to humans if we ever create True AI and applies equally to a god.

Hmm interesting point. I would argue that having AI slaves isn't morally wrong, since, no matter how 'alive' it is, it would have been created by us to serve purposes of our choice.

[Biggreenfellow]

Hmm interesting point. I would argue that having AI slaves isn't morally wrong, since, no matter how 'alive' it is, it would have been created by us to serve purposes of our choice.

By that logic, if a man and a woman would make a baby for the sole purpose of selling it off as a slave, it wouldn't be morally wrong either. After all, the two made the kid themselves.

[ivan_the_terrible]

By that logic, if a man and a woman would make a baby for the sole purpose of selling it off as a slave, it wouldn't be morally wrong either. After all, the two made the kid themselves.

Not really, since none of the parts were actually invented by humans. They are just vehicles for the child's creation, more like the hard drive on which the AI is written, rather than the AI's programmer.

[Himster]

Not really, since none of the parts were actually invented by humans. They are just vehicles for the child's creation, more like the hard drive on which the AI is written, rather than the AI's programmer.

What if you cloned a dead child and somehow managed to transfer all of your child's personality traits and memories. How is that person anything but your dead child?

[Biggreenfellow]

Not really, since none of the parts were actually invented by humans. They are just vehicles for the child's creation, more like the hard drive on which the AI is written, rather than the AI's programmer.

Depends on how you view invention. One might argue that, through the process of evolution, we 'invented' ourselves.

[Manco]

Hmm interesting point. I would argue that having AI slaves isn't morally wrong, since, no matter how 'alive' it is, it would have been created by us to serve purposes of our choice.

I did add the free will part. An AI that's completely restricted and only wants to serve as it is designed to do, does not fall under this. But it's also not what I call a true AI.

[Gromovnik]

No, he can't. The entity that creates sentient life with free will has the moral obligation to let it go and treat it as an equal.
It applies to humans if we ever create True AI and applies equally to a god.

Otherwise it's just a slave master.

why should an omnipotent being share your sense of morality?