Im a christian, but not fully, i dont go to church and im not baptised. Im also a free thinker though. I ll go to chinese temple and Indian temple, and Im a devotee of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. And I beleive in all God.

Enough about that, this went in to my mind. In the old testiment, God asked Moses to free the people from slavery, after they made a mistake bty worshiping "The Bull God", God punished them to death. Isnt it better then to leave thm at Egypt where they still can keep their life.

Whats the point of freeing them then?

In Buddism, there is a God even loves to eat dog meat.

Hindusm, there Ganesha, also kown as the elephant head, his father cut off his head and replace it with an elephant head.

Aint it cruel?

Not only that, God treat those who are kind hearted unfair, we always see in movies that the good guys always win, but not in reality, mostly bad guys win. for example, people who do coruption, conmen, theifs, robbers, that the authority were unable to arrest them. Those with good intention and kind hearted will always be bullied.

So Im asking now, Is God realy cruel?

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In Buddhism, there is a God even loves to eat dog meat

I'm doubtful if that can be considered cruel by the standards of the time. In India at the time, dog was considered a good meal, mostly because the dog didn't develop as the so-called 'friend of mankind'. By our standards, it is, because at the time we needed dogs to help us hunt and defend our homes from wolves and such.

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read an excerpt from a sermon given and counted that words like hell and wrath were used many times

Let me guess. It was "Sinners in the Eyes of an Angry God" by Johnathan Edwards.

I think people's interpretation of God can be cruel, but I don't think God is cruel.

In Puritan society all those many years ago, God was undoubtedly considered cruel. I read an excerpt from a sermon given and counted that words like hell and wrath were used many times more than the kind words that are associated with the deity in modern society such as love and forgiveness.
The Puritans believed that God would drop you into hell on a whim, and so they lived in fear. I think the current view of God as a loving, forgiving thing allows a much better life than the old views. Christianity, which seems to be the focus here, had changed since the beginnings of the Common Era, as have all religions. So of course our perceptions have changed.
I see that I've gotten off topic now, so I think I'll just stop here.

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Originally posted by Lunarious:

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Originally posted by LoveTheRainbow:

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Even if we as humans can't figure it, out.

I just LOVE when people use this excuse to explain something ridiculous

I meant it as in You can't figure it out.
As in from a human standpoint we might not be able to truely understand, unless you can read god's mind, but using his word, and understanding of his personality and ideas, you can rough yorself out a reason easily. Even if it might not be absolute.
Your quick to critisize; however you gave nothing that shows How I can't show you my claim.
It takes a whole two seconds to type
'I just LOVE when people use this excuse to explain something ridiculous'

But it takes effort to show me how my claims are 'ridiculous'.
so show me. How are they ridiculous?

The problem with this arguement, is that it is completely impervious to interrogation. It is simply the statement, "You can not figure it out, and therefore, you are not able to argue the position". This arbitrarily silences all debate, and then is impervious to empirical observation and interrogation. While one can argue that it has logic behind it, simply arguing that humans can not figure out it, has no proof behind it. It is then based on speculation, not fact.

It can also be used, just as easily against you.

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Originally posted by Lunarious:
God is love, it's impossible for him to do evil things without proper reasoning.

You see, you can just as easily argue that you can not figure out, that God is not actually love, and it is quite possible to do evil things without reasoning. So, you can either argue that your arguement of "Humans can figure it out", is invalid, or I can just as quite validly, argue that you are wrong, and God is the universal metaphor for Stalin and Hitler, and using your summation, you could not pose any threat to my arguement.

First off, I don't believe in a god so I don't need to read his mind.
If I were to believe/worship someone/thing I would need to know EXACTLY what their motives are and how they reason.
Its like voting for a president and not knowing what he plans to do in office. It is ridiculous.

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Originally posted by LoveTheRainbow:

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Even if we as humans can't figure it, out.

I just LOVE when people use this excuse to explain something ridiculous

I meant it as in You can't figure it out.
As in from a human standpoint we might not be able to truely understand, unless you can read god's mind, but using his word, and understanding of his personality and ideas, you can rough yorself out a reason easily. Even if it might not be absolute.
Your quick to critisize; however you gave nothing that shows How I can't show you my claim.
It takes a whole two seconds to type
'I just LOVE when people use this excuse to explain something ridiculous'

But it takes effort to show me how my claims are 'ridiculous'.
so show me. How are they ridiculous?

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Even if we as humans can't figure it, out.

I just LOVE when people use this excuse to explain something ridiculous

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Originally posted by clpo13:
But if God is all about forgiveness, he should have forgiven them even if they disobey him. God, especially the Christian version, is a mess of contradictions. The New Testament is all about Jesus (the alleged son of God) telling people to turn the other cheek and deal with their enemies through compassion. One would initially assume that Jesus was just telling everyone what God wanted them to know. But the God portrayed in the Old Testament was incredibly vengeful, striking down people for things as little as touching the ark of the covenant. It does seem a bit...cruel.

.

Why would you think god would do that? Of course he is about forgiveness, however, When someone out rightly disobeys a direct law, they must be punished for it. You don't see people with the death penalty getting away because they were 'sorry' do you?
And with that, if you properly read the account, God did give them a chance to turn around and obey him. Moses told those who were with him and god to come over to him, and it was those that didn't want to, those that wanted to sin and were unrepentant, that died.

God is love, it's impossible for him to do evil things without proper reasoning. Even if we as humans can't figure it, out.

"With evil things God cannot be tried nor does he try anyone"- James 1:13

I tried Jesus. And I still don't understand. The world is a lot nicer when you don't even think there's someone up there ignoring it all.

God is not cruel rather He is so loving that He does not force us to serve Him, He gave u free will to anything u want thats why sometimes bad guys win and the world seems unfair. Try Jesus and u will understand

If sacraficing your own son isn't creul then i clearly don't know what is.

i am a Christian and we beleive that God sent His only son to be sacrificed for our sins to be forgiven...cruel?? no way.. He does too much for us to even put the word cruel near Him..in the old testiment it aslo write that God is a very jealous God..He created us and also has the right to take us whenever he wants to.

God may be almighty, but he should practice what he preaches, i.e. forgiveness. Anything else is a contradiction of everything God is.

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So if vengence is a sin.. is God a sinner?

haha, thats a good one. however, God is still the whole mighty one, He s in control, He can do whatever he wants. But cant he show a bit less cruelty? He did warn the people, but thats only a one time mistake, did He give another chance?

If you have read 'The Scarlet Letter', Hawthorne points out (in the extreme Puritan, Godd-obssessed society) that avenging yourself from sin committed on you is the worst sin of all. So if vengence is a sin.. is God a sinner?

But if God is all about forgiveness, he should have forgiven them even if they disobey him. God, especially the Christian version, is a mess of contradictions. The New Testament is all about Jesus (the alleged son of God) telling people to turn the other cheek and deal with their enemies through compassion. One would initially assume that Jesus was just telling everyone what God wanted them to know. But the God portrayed in the Old Testament was incredibly vengeful, striking down people for things as little as touching the ark of the covenant. It does seem a bit...cruel.

As for the bit about the bad guys ending up on top, it is painfully true. Cheaters always seem to win. And most times, they do. But there aren't just two options. I don't believe in sin, so I find nothing wrong with being a bit selfish when it benefits you. Don't get me wrong, being kind and having good intentions are the best things to do, but doing stuff like that too much leaves you open to be taken advantage of.

This sort of thing is human nature. It really is a dog-eat-dog world. I don't think God has much, if anything, to do with it.

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The reason i said cruel, God, they say God is loving, forgive, care, merciful. and for the example in the old testiment, Moses freed them with all the trouble He got through, sacrifice, and because of a mistake, God punished them to death.

Eh. Did God warn them not to do it?
If he did, they made the choice to do it anyway.

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Haha, this i agree with you.Is true, but how about the love ones of the good guys, they wont want them to see themselve suffer. Is a real pain.

I know it's a real pain.
But it's our struggles that define us, and the hardships we endure.

Haha, thanks for the reply again Chaos.

The reason i said cruel, God, they say God is loving, forgive, care, merciful. and for the example in the old testiment, Moses freed them with all the trouble He got through, sacrifice, and because of a mistake, God punished them to death.

[QUOTE] But as plato said, "It is better to fail with honor, then succeed by fraud."

The good guys don't lose, they just go to the good place.

Haha, this i agree with you.Is true, but how about the love ones of the good guys, they wont want them to see themselve suffer. Is a real pain.
Thanks for the reply and others do please reply. Thanks