Quote Originally Posted by ermitonto
And yet, if God knows all my actions before I ever do them, how is it that I'm not a drone or a robot? How can free will possibly exist? It's one of the endless contradictions in the Bible.

Perhaps? If God knew, then the answer is YES. Not perhaps. God MADE us sinners. He fucked up his model.

Then why doesn't he clearly outline what sin is and what sin isn't? Why only provide it in an old book with wacky stories of witches, demons, ghosts, talking animals, pregnant virgins, and a God who doesn't care about all the slavery going on but hates anybody who is gay (...something they don't even have any control over, anyways. What a caring God, punishing people for the way they're born ).

It's unfortunate you don't see the glaring errors in there, and that you must find a rationalization for each and every one because you believe so fervently that the book must be true, throwing logic out the window. The book was so haphazardly thrown together it's funny. Sorry, but the editors of the Bible weren't able to comb out all their fuck-ups. Please, do tell me how the following verses could possibly be reconciled into something that is logically consistent:

Acts 10:36: "The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ."
Matthew 10:34: "Think not that I [Jesus] am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword."

Joshua 7:1: "For Achan, the son of Carmi ... took of the accursed thing."
Just 23 verses later we find...Joshua 7:24: "And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah..."

Exodus 20:13: "Thou shalt not kill."
1 Samuel 15:2-3: "Thus saith the Lord of hosts ... go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare him not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass."
What a wonderful, caring God who ORDERS HIS CHOSEN PEOPLE TO COMMIT GENOCIDE! If this creature were real, he would be deserving of the worst kind of hatred.
1. Free will is how we sinned in the first place! I feel as if i'm explaining the SAME thing over, and over and over again! Does this make sense?

2. He didn't screw up anything, with our free will we choose to sin, we screwed up. He made us excellent in every way, and we were given a chance to open our eyes to sin, because if we had not the chance we would be robots. Does this not make sense?

3. He didn't clearly outline everything we should and should not do. Your sins are between you and God, no one else can decide what you did was wrong. The view that people are born homosexual, is only an excuse for people like you. It's simply not true and the bible explains that. It may say that God despises homosexuality, but not any more now then other sins aswell. They arn't born that way and even genetics tell us so. Identical twins are exactually the same, the same way a clone would be. But, one twin is normal and is hetrosexual, the other could be homosexual.... so hmm... its all sin. Its not the way we were born. Does this not make sense?

I almost can't believe you are willing to discredit the entire bible because you can't possibly imagin why death would be a good/reasonable thing. As far as Christianity being a bloody religion, it is. But it is uniquely a bloody religion. Contrary to bloodless religions, it takes sin seriously, indicating that God takes sin seriously, and gives a death penalty for it. Sin is not a small matter. It is the simple sin of pride that turned Lucifer into a demon. It was the simple sin of jealousy that caused Cain to slay Abel, etc. And in Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit, they believed the deceiver over a good and loving God, choosing to rebel against His love and denying the goodness of His character. Christianity is a bloody religion because it views sin as a holy God views it...seriously. Does this not make sense?

If none of these things make sense to you then we are going to continulessly try and prove one another wrong and most likely on the same topics, over and over. Its almost pointless, but understand. I will no longer try and convince anyone that God is real, but answer questions to thoes who want to know. Another thing is that read what I have to say in full. If you read what I had to say then there should be no need for the same questions being asked. Honestly, I don't know why this is so hard. Look at it in these terms, if i'm wrong, what happens? Nothing. If you're wrong, what happens? You missing the only opprotunity to live for eternity (which is a good thing) simply because you decided to deny God. Its an easy choice if you ask me...