Why does watching this NOT challenge my beliefs? Also, to read the comments that follow I'm a non-thinker. Of course I level the same charge at the video's makers as well as it's commenters.
One of the reasons it's easy to sluff this off is that it ignores the basis for evil. Suppose that the Video's maker is correct. Suppose that there really is no God. Does evil suddenly vanish? Does the corporate raider who steals the company's wealth then lays off the employees suddenly stop? Do murders, homelessness or child abuse suddenly just go away? The fact is, if there is no God, not only do these things continue, but any reason that they should end disappear also for if there is no God, there is no basis for morality. But the video not only ignores this but also then judges God as evil. This is odd when you think about it. It destroys any basis upon which to judge anything, then judges God. The video seeks to destroy one standard without providing another standard by which it can base its own conclusions?
How easy it is to reach out from nothingness and smack things that are. It's like the violent invisible man. Really, how difficult is it to pick a part one thing while at the same time presenting nothing worth defending to take its place? This video has the feel of a hand reaching out of the fog of nothingness to slap us in the face after which it disappears again into nothingness.
Though I think it is sad that such attacks are effective on those who don't think these things through, they don't bother me personally. Besides, we were warned in scripture that these sorts of things would happen. Therefore I would rightly have more reason for concern if the makers of this video had simply ignored my "silly" Christian beliefs altogether. By paying no attention to my "folly", they would have proven Jesus a liar. But instead they have showed him to be the light of the world, a light in fact that man hates because of His illumination of sin.
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9 comments:
Typical distortions of the Bible. Minimizing our sins and rebellion against God, as if they were akin to taking a little chocolate from the refrigerator and not what they really are: a deliberate, ongoing usurping of God's position.
They repeatedly claim torture, but the Bible says torment.
They live in a fantasy world where they won't be accountable for their sins.
Wow, I didn't even notice the trivial nature of the child's "sin". And yes they live in a fantasy world where they won't be accountable for their sins, but they will hold God accountable for his failure to live up to a standard that doesn't even exist.
I could not even sit and listen to all of this, once I realize where it was going and the point it was trying to make. All I can think of is:
If you believe, and God exists, you gain everything. If you disbelieve, and God exists, you lose everything." Blaise Pascal 1623-1662
I choose to believe.
Dan,
The cartoon-ish nature of the presentation is most appropriate. Also doesn't bother me. Why should a complete misunderstanding of God, man, heaven, hell, sin, love, justice, substitutionary atonement, grace, forgiveness, and gratitude get my feathers ruffled?
Great to see a post from you again. Keep it up. Blessings.
Susan, To be honest I didn't watch the whole thing either. I skipped ahead to get the conclusion, which was gladness, not in what does exist, but in what it presumes doesn't.
Dan: "Suppose that the maker of this video is correct and that there is no God. Does evil suddenly vanish?"
(Setting aside the fact that if there is no God there is nothing ...) you're absolutely right that evil wouldn't vanish. It would simply become irrelevant. The corporate raider's stealing is acceptable or not depending on how well it works. People would still be murdered, but whether or not it was good would be an individual conclusion. A parent who abuses a child would have to think it was "good" because they did it.
Interestingly, in this world where there is no Universal Lawgiver, taking chocolate would be the moral equivalent of beheading children for fun. In all cases the moral value would be determined by the doer and evaluated by the evaluator and no one could say, ultimately, that any of it was "right" or "wrong".
I watched the whole thing and was amazed at the total misrepresentation of what the Bible actually teaches. I mean, if you want to attack the Christian faith, at least treat it accurately. When I "attack" false religious systems such as the LDS, I am careful to accurately represent what they teach.
Just one example of how bad this was, the video says Jesus went to hell and was tortured. While this is a teaching of the Word of Faith, it certainly isn't orthodoxy.
I've been praying about showing this to my children; at least to my eleven year old. On the one hand, I think it has a lot of deceptive power to the wavering. But on the other, I think it could go a long way to inoculate her/them against this sort of nonsense in the future. I really would be interested in anyone's thoughts on this. One thing is for sure, they will see this sort of thing in the future.
Glad to see that you are still posting-
Carol-CS
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