Was God (in the Bible) a man ?

Discussion in 'Religion' started by Ted Grant II, Dec 22, 2016.

  1. Ted Grant II Registered Senior Member

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    188
    Everyone knows that God lives outside space and time, but that's a very modern idea.
    The Bible writers, who, of course, were mostly, if not all, ancestors of the Jews, had a different idea.
    There is a great deal of evidence in the Bible that God was a man with supernatural powers.
    I will only give a few clues here, but it's very easy to mine the ancient scribbles for many more.

    In the Garden, east of Eden, God walks around chatting to people, not always knowing what they are up to.
    When Moses goes up the famous mountain, God is hiding in a bush, then writes with his finger.
    After the flood, God regrets killing most of the creatures on earth and decides he won't do it again.
    He created the rainbow to remind himself of his new resolution, a sort of celestial post-it note.
    God had sense organs, viz: sight, hearing, smell and one assumes taste.
    I need to justify the last two...
    In Leviticus, we learn that God enjoys the sweet savor of beef cooking, and consumes it !
    God had plans, which didn't always work out the way he intended.
    It follows that his supernatural powers are limited, but this is always the case with Superheros.
    Superheros always have an assistant or mate and a near equal opponent.
    Batman has Robin and the Joker.
    God has Jesus and the Devil.
    (I'm sure you can think of more)
    Ultimately, to bring about the End Times, God is born, grows up and dies, just like a human !
    Of course God is a HE and a FATHER and had Sons (first Adam, then later Jesus).
    In Revelation, we learn that God sits on a throne, just above the clouds.
    In Numbers we learn that God sits on a Mercy Seat on the famous Ark and is carried around.
    God complains to the Israelites that He has been living in a tent and asks them to build a wooden house .
    Moses regularly went into the tent to chat to God.
    Catholics even believe that God had a mother !
    Etc.
     
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  3. Seattle Valued Senior Member

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    "God" is just a middle name. The first original dude's full name was Homer "God" Simpson. He wasn't the brightest guy, a little clumsy, a little impulsive but generally a good dude. He was just in a little over his head.

    Then the worshipers came and he couldn't handle the pressure and that's largely when he disappeared only to be kept alive in Jan Ardena's head.
     
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  5. Xelasnave.1947 Valued Senior Member

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    • I often wonder how useful this approach would be to remind him not to rain, after all if he decided to put on another forty days and nights of rain he would not see his reminder until the rain had stopped.

    • He really needed to have the rainbow appear before the rain if he wished to be reminded.
    • Alex
     
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  7. wellwisher Banned Banned

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    When a child is taught intro chemistry, in the first grade, an atom may be presented to them as being analogous to the planets moving around the sun. This is not correct, however this is a good starting point. You don't explain the atoms to six year olds by using wave functions, quantum mechanics and Heisenberg Uncertainty, since this, although more accurate, is to advance for their little minds. The same is true of God, in that the ancient human perceived God in baby steps, which were not exactly accurate, but which nevertheless gave them a starting point for future understanding.

    If a visitor from another galaxy came to earth, with technology millions of year ahead of us, he/she would be confronted with semi- intelligent human life forms with only a rudimentary knowledge of the advanced sciences of the future. He/she would need to dumb down their explanation for their rocket propulsion, so the humans can relate, based on what their backwoods grasp of million year ahead science. If you go to fast or to far, the human will burn you as a witch or run away; fear of novelty. God in the form of a humanoid who is approachable but sometimes cranky, allowed the frightened human animal to linger for a look see.
     
  8. sideshowbob Sorry, wrong number. Valued Senior Member

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    Gods are limited by the imaginations of the people who make them up.
     
  9. kx000 Valued Senior Member

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    In revelation God comes to Earth where there will be splendor. It doesn't say if he's a man, but Jesus were amongst the fallen race.
     
  10. Newbiephilosopher Registered Member

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    Just getting use to how this quote thingy works but I believe the Gods also had to be controlled in the minds of the population so the idea of humans being formed in the image of God allowed the governments to control its people and also give the people something they could understand. God may be superior but he is reachable. Humans being of equal value.

    Unfortunately humans have a bad habit of making themselves gods and I think Jesus is the final example of expressing the same. Jesus is a man, not a god and I'll probably be burnt for stating this.
     
  11. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Why should I believe anything in the Bible?
     
  12. timojin Valued Senior Member

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    Do you believe king David existed ?
     
  13. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    I believe New York exists, but not Spiderman.
     
  14. Newbiephilosopher Registered Member

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    People believe in the bible because they want to be saved, they want an experience with God. That is the main reason.I believe people equate the bible with finding enlightenment or spirituality which will lead them to God but I don't believe any of that is guaranteed. Like anything you get out of life what you put into it. The lesson Jesus teaches "you sow what you reap" is very insightful when applied to people and if you practice that in a kind, compassionate manner, then I believe you will find what you seek. An encounter with God though I guess depends as much on what he believes of you.
     
  15. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    So, no rational reason, just wishful thinking? I'm quite sure if you focus your mind on any hairbrained thing for long enough, you can hypnotize yourself into some weird experience. Finding what we seek when our motives are irrational isn't justification for the truth of what we find.
     
  16. Newbiephilosopher Registered Member

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    Spirituality, wisdom are rational reasons. If there is no facts, no observable truth to which we adhere, then there is nothing.
     
  17. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    So, it's rational to seek truth, therefore I should believe the Bible, since it claims to offer it? Is it rational to believe every truth claim?
     
  18. Newbiephilosopher Registered Member

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    Well my understanding is that without truth there would only be anarchy and that was considered undesirable so now we have religion to set moral limits on society. What made man believe truth comes as a gift from the Gods? Again, I think in the past the ancients couldn't understand where spirituality or wisdom in some humans came from so after serious reflection decided spirituality and wisdom were placed in humans of the noblest characters. Many years into the future humans still don't understand awareness in consciousness well enough to answer where spirituality and wisdom come from so many still attribute it to the gods.

    Spirituality, the feeling you're connected to everyone and everything; Wisdom, the ability to understand it all are either the universe becoming aware of itself or its a gift from the gods. So, yes it's rational to seek truth.
     
  19. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    I didn't ask if it's rational to seek truth. I was wondering why anyone should believe the Bible is true.
     
  20. Newbiephilosopher Registered Member

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    Personally I believe the bible is a Jewish, Christian fictional history book. It was formed to convince people of a Jewish Messiah who is the accumulated ideals of the whole world. It was created to put a choke hold on the people of the time (couldn't have too many people running around doing as they please). I don't believe you'll experience much spirituality (aside from Jesus) within its pages and its ideas of wisdom are ancient. But it has come down through the ages as the word of God so the bible will probably always be. I get what I can from it but mostly I prefer non-fiction.
     
  21. Ted Grant II Registered Senior Member

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    188
     
  22. Ted Grant II Registered Senior Member

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    188
    And to top it all,
    I Exodus chapter 33, Moses asks God if he can see his face.
    God, wishing to remain anonymous, says that no man can see his face and live! (verse 20).
    But then God decides to compromise and says...

    "Behold, there is a place by me
    and you shall shall stand on a rock
    and when I pass by,
    I will put you in a gap in the rock
    and I will cover your eyes with my hand,
    then I will take away my hand
    and you will see my back parts (!),
    but my face will not be seen".

    Shortly after this fascinating and revealing scene, God hews two new tablets of stone to replace the ones Moses broke earlier.
    God writes his famous words on the famous tablets to give to Moses the next morning (as it takes some time to do it).
    God makes it very clear that only Moses can come up the mountain to get the new tablets.
    Not even the flocks or herds are allowed up the mountain!

    God descends in a cloud (to avoid being recognized?) and stood with Moses.
    Then, oddly, God says the following...

    "The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, long suffering and abundant in goodness and truth,
    keeping mercy for thousands (!), forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and that will by no means
    clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children,
    unto the third and to the fourth generation."

    We'd all like to write our own reviews.

    So from this drama we can determine that..

    God has a face and it cannot be seen when his back is turned.
    God has at least one hand that is big enough to cover eyes.
    God can pass by.
    God can write.
    God can stand.
    God can speak English.
    God thinks well of himself, likes to be in control and can lose his rag.
    He also, most significantly, cannot be trusted with children.

    If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.
     
  23. Ted Grant II Registered Senior Member

    Messages:
    188
    When I was a small child, my paternal grandmother, who was a devout Baptist, told me that I would burn in Hell for ever, when she caught me playing cards on Sunday with my sisters.
    I assume, given your comments, that this was just a starting point and that actually, God had a worse punishment lined up for me.
    By the way, the card game was "Happy Families".
     

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