So why would god expect us to understand a message that isn't literal (when it easily could be simplified and made literal by god)?
Huh?? Now you're saying it should be interpreted literally?
Discussion
An omniscient god who wrote out his own book for us to explain who he is and what he wants from us.
Clearly a monster in his own PR material. Or within a rounding error 0% of people understood the book.
There is no path through a basic observation of the world around us and the bible where omniscience and goodness both hold up.
Maybe god is a troll who finds it entertaining to watch humans suffer lol
nostr:nprofile1qqs9tatnkeg7lu63mdtmqcqayvpzmrzn97vztkcs54ena0eehe92yxcprfmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuum0wejhyetfvahzuctswqhsz9thwden5te0wfjkccte9ehhymre9ejx2a30fd30qs and I have talked about this before. If I came to believe in the supernatural tomorrow the christian god is a false god at best, more likely the devil. So I'm two miraculous changes of core beliefs away from Christianity at this point.
If satan does exist and had a religion, I don't think it would look like what people imagine a satanic religion looking like.
Agreed.
Or just see that the Christianity of Christ is nothing like what passes for Christianity now.
Christians may dislike you for being irreverent, but they **_hate_** me because I don't sell my soul, and they do. Crusades and inquisitions don't target atheists - they target Christians who don't conform.
But there is no evidence to believe what you are saying
Which part?
This version of christianity you believe in
There are several versions which I take seriously, without giving belief. My beliefs are simple. Jesus was/is the Christ, and the hope of salvation for individuals and the world, and the method of achieving salvation is humility and love, which are really the same thing anyways.
Every other detail that Christians have tacked onto it is suspect and speculative. That's why you can't just take the meaning at face value. Symbolic language is used - find the meaning of the symbols, or you can't understand it. That's just logical. Logic is logos.
I agree with that but in this case I was attacking the bible not the religion as it stands. I do make that distinction.
No I'm saying there's no interpretation if you speak the language, and that language is symbology - there'd still be the linguistic interpretation, but that's not what we're talking about.
God speaks through what is. The Bible is humans speaking, but with the intent of conveying what they learned from or about God. Its not literally God's word - God's word is reality itself.