I noticed you dodged the question asked here again Bowser: I got my answer thanks Bowser...So I now take it you do see pain and suffering as a test from your god.
But what is he testing for? Endurance? Non-suicide, like Job? Cause if that's so, how come nobody else who endures gets all new children servants and cattle?
So the Devil offers Jesus all the kingdoms of Earth. Jesus KNOWS he's going to be God when he dies. Devil was chumping him. Luckily He didn't fall for it.
Bigger chump, him! Between them, they could have done very nicely with the kingdoms of the earth. Instead, he goes up to sit at God's right hand, "Jesus, fetch my naughty-and-nice ledger. Jesus, my halo could use a polish. Jesus, go check the pope's Christmas mass for mistakes..."
Then what's the point of the temptations? It doesn't take divine willpower to resist what you don't want.
Okay, starter for ten points. Can anyone tell me the name of that donkey Jesus rode? I think it's the story where peoeple laid palm leaves on the road for the donkey to walk on. ( Is that right?).
That's easy to say. But how is this test supposed to work? What's the mechanism? How is faith quantified? How does a specific amount of physical pain + mental anguish correlate to a specific amount of "faith". In what, exactly, is the requisite quantity of faith placed? If there is no tangible reward - as I pointed out above - how does the subject know whether he's passed the test?
Is the person suppose to know? It's their god who testing them for his own records, so to speak. You watch a loved one weaken and suffer with cancer, do you throw in the towel on the god idea or do you stick with the belief in a god, accepting it as your god's will?
I asked you how it works. If you can't answer that - or the priest/rabbi/minister/imam can't answer it, or refuses to answer it, or chooses to respond only to the corollary as you just did, one might have reason to question whether they know what they're talking about - any of what they talk about . For example, how would the god's earthly representative know that ?? Nobody gets to know how well they did. Job had to suffer because of a friendly wager with Satan, but at least he had a chance to ask why - even if the answer was "Because I can." Most of the people thus afflicted, don't get to ask "why me?". So why not all of the self-professed believers? That's not very good record-keeping.
That's beside the point. If I'm offered caviar, it takes no big effort to say no, because I don't like caviar. There is no temptation in something you don't want.
If that is the most realistic example you can think of, fair enough. I agree, I went off on one at the time.
