How would you respond to a person killing someone else because God told him to?

[Zen Badger]

Interesting that when George Dubbayah said god told him to invade Iraq(leading to the deaths of many innocents)

everyone seemed to think that was ok.

[Godhead]

Zen Badger -

Let's take a step back and not let our biases cloud our judgment. You're mostly atheists here, I get that. However, we must realise that there are people who would use anything to justify doing something stupid. I don't think GWBush really believes that god told him to do anything, and just because he said it doesn't make it so. If I wanted to manipulate a population I might very well say the same thing even though I don't believe that god even works in such a way. Sometimes people just lie, they don't really believe what they claim to believe.

[Paul the Human]

Interesting that when George Dubbayah said god told him to invade Iraq(leading to the deaths of many innocents)

everyone seemed to think that was ok.

Not everyone. In fact... not anyone that I personally know.

[Zen Badger]

Zen Badger -

Let's take a step back and not let our biases cloud our judgment. You're mostly atheists here, I get that. However, we must realise that there are people who would use anything to justify doing something stupid. I don't think GWBush really believes that god told him to do anything, and just because he said it doesn't make it so. If I wanted to manipulate a population I might very well say the same thing even though I don't believe that god even works in such a way. Sometimes people just lie, they don't really believe what they claim to believe.

Remembering that this is the man who said that most of the U.S's exports come from overseas.

But, more to the point, even if he was lying the fact remains that a lot of american xtian fuckwits

would've applauded him for that statement.

[Godhead]

Zen Badger -

I don't think that in their heart of hearts they actually believed that GWB was told by god to do it. It's a case of GBW telling the right lie to try and look good, and a population willing to buy it (except not really), but only because they already support what he did, and not because of the lie. At the end of the day I don't think anybody but a tiny minority actually believe the lie. I've noticed that very often one person will say they agree with another person's explanation or justification for something, when in actual fact they don't, they just agree with the person's primary point (in this case, that the war is justified).

[Zen Badger]

And thereby perpetuating the lie that is religion.

[Godhead]

Zen Badger -

I think the lie that is being perpetrated is the lie about why they went to war. Anybody who seriously wishes to pursue a religion wouldn't do so on the basis of what GBW says. To believe the lie that god told him to do it would require one to already believe in god (thus GWB's lie isn't perpetrating anything), but it would also require one to have a warped idea of god, which most religious people don't have. An exchange between a liar and a few gullible people who already agree with the war doesn't perpetrate the religion being used as a tool of the lie.

[Eilonnwy]

I agree with Godhead the God of the Bible would not do that. I know that He asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac and that Abraham was willing however God stopped Abraham and supplied a ram for the sacrifice.

So it's all okay as long as God goes, "Lol, J/k!" before Abraham kills his kid. Seriously? You conveniently ignore the fact that in the story Abraham believed his God and was ready to do it. It's a rather cruel form of testing loyalty, and if I God existed telling me to kill a loved one, I'd say "Go fuck yourself." It's not honorable or holy to obey the words of a malicious dictator.

God has also asked the Israel armies in ancient times to destroy entire cities and all that inhabit them but all this was of a different time and for specific reasons. Times and circumstances have changed God has moved the world into the christian age.

Oh so, the god you know wouldn't order death, but wait, he did do it, but it was for special reasons. Your special reasons do not negate the fact of what the Bible says happens, which you believe in. Cognitive dissonance much?

Besides, maybe you can rationalize to yourself that it's war, it's totes cool. God knows what he's doing. But what do you think about God ordering his armies to keep the virgin women to rape?

All these people for thousands of years were not worthy of the "Christian age"? God's supposedly the supreme authority on morality, but only the people living after Jesus get to know that killing and raping and slavery is wrong? Really? Pull the other one. If you believe in objective morality from God and believe the stories of the Bible are true representations of God, you should be horrified, not making weak and absurdly stupid justifications that are inheritantly contradictory.

If someone were to do that then they should be tried for murder because that is not what God would ask of a christian, and they should not be allowed to use God as an insanity plea, blaming such a thing as that on God is the same as putting God on trial. Those type of people are what cause others to not trust christains and that is sad because the greater majority of christians are descent people.

Surprise, I actually sort of agree. Despite my problem with certain aspects of Christianity, what's in the Bible, and the terrible justifications to story Christians believe are true, Christians are generally good people. Religious fervor that causes terrible acts exist in all religions, not just Christianity which leads me to believe psychological factors can be at play. Insanity may be a factor, but it may be that insanity manifests itself as religious fervor, not the other way around. More research is needed.

[Minimalist]

It's a rather cruel form of testing loyalty,

Not to mention the inconvenient fact that religious nutters claim their god "knows-all" and "sees-all" so why give a test? Why didn't he know that ole Abe would pass? For that matter, why fuck with Job? Why was he so surprised when Saul, David, and Solomon turned out to be losers? God always seems to pick the wrong guy. Why is that?

Must suck to be constantly slipping on your own bullshit, huh?

[Scented Nectar]

Not to mention the inconvenient fact that religious nutters claim their god "knows-all" and "sees-all" so why give a test? Why didn't he know that ole Abe would pass? For that matter, why fuck with Job? Why was he so surprised when Saul, David, and Solomon turned out to be losers? God always seems to pick the wrong guy. Why is that?

Because their god is a total loser who can't get anything right. Here's a very funny video by Auntie Diluvian about god, showing how much of a repeat loser he is.

[youtube]BjUIndYuFnk[/youtube]