Is God Good guy or Bad guy???

[Guernsey]

Is killing ever justified?

I watched too many action shows when I ask this and they are probably threads like this already but killing is justified? I know if there were some "bad" guys who probably infiltrated my home or I need to survive in some hostile, my own survival mode kicks in and I may have to do some things that I am not proud of but at least I am alive. I really don't like that part of our human nature but what can I do, I am human myself and as long as I have a fight-or-flight response in my system, it is going to me or that guy. I know that soldiers aren't murderers or killers as they do not kill for the fun of it yet the stress of that killing may still linger in soldier's mind and may scar for them life despite their training. Why do we kill each other? Why do we fight? Because it only way the other guy will not listen or for some other reason but are those reasons justifiable? Can we really say that it was necessary for someone to do "kill" someone for some reason even for survival? Is killing ever justified?

 

[Vladislak]

Well, I really hate getting into religious debates, but what the heck.

Have you ever built something? Like maybe a tower out of blocks? Is it mean to the blocks to knock the tower over?

Now I know it may sound mean to compare humans to blocks, but essentially if we consider god as a higher being than we are, that's pretty much how significant we are comparatively. God would be justified in doing as he pleases with his creation.

Perhaps this seems cruel, so I'll give another example, one that fits a little better. Say you're a game designer and a computer programmer, and you build a simulated model of a space colony. You create some simple AI for the inhabitants and programing that adds realism.

Now clearly, as you created it, you can go back and edit the coding any way you please, causing a variety of effects to this space colony simulation. Some could prove useful to the inhabitants, others could prove disastrous.

Now that you've created this simulated game with your computer and your hardware and stuff, you see that there are some rather obvious bugs in the system. The AI is no where near perfect, that's for sure. You decide you don't like it. So you go to the files, select them all and hit delete.

If you did this in real life, nobody, absolutely nobody would be all that angry at you. After all, you just created a simulation by yourself, gave it some AI, and then scrapped the project after seeing some big flaws. Nothing wrong with that.


Well that's not unlike God's position. As a higher being and creator, it would be his right to blow the whole universe to kingdom come if he wanted to. Especially since we certainly have flawed "AI".


However...
That's not what he does, he doesn't blow us up or hit us with a meteor or tear through the fabric of space and time with the intent to destroy everything. Instead he provides an answer, a way to transcend our flawed "AI". To explain using my example, it would be as if the inhabitants of your space colony were given a chance to convince you to spare them; to copy their coding into a separate and safe environment.

Now obviously you're gonna see some setbacks, people are gonna die anyway, and there are gonna be natural disasters. And there are times when god seems overly cruel, however it's when you look at things in the long run that you see that, overall, it's not all that terrible.


It seems that most people here are trying to compare god with human moral standards, when the very concept of god is that of a being that transcends the minds of humans. If god is the ultimate, the one who created all and knows all, do you really think that we could even begin to comprehend his thinking?

It's like a single bacteria cell trying figure out why humans build houses. It can't even fully comprehend humans or houses, much less make relevant comparisons or judgments.

Just as a man would be a fool to judge something he knows nothing about, it's ridiculous to even try and judge god. In my opinion, it just can't be done.

And so I suppose my argument has disarmed itself, for if we can't comprehend this stuff, then nothing I said is relevant to the topic either.

Still, I stand on my answer just the same.

 

[Guernsey]

There is a post from a user in Amazon (I wish I knew what forum) concerning that they were various Bible verses that seem to contradict themselves. Some Bible verse says that God is a Good Guy yet a the same time some Bible verses say God is a Bad Guy. I will find the post and quote it here so that give a more accurate post.

 

[Dirges for Damcyan]

There is a post from a user in Amazon (I wish I knew what forum) concerning that they were various Bible verses that seem to contradict themselves. Some Bible verse says that God is a Good Guy yet a the same time some Bible verses say God is a Bad Guy. I will find the post and quote it here so that give a more accurate post.

I am sure that some bible verses are contradictory, and on that two points: (1) they are very old, translated numerous times, and thus some of their original meanings have doubtless been eroded; (2) I do not believe that the bible can be accurately read in isolation. A verse that contradicts itself might make sense in the larger context of the book, or the entire document. A classic example is when Mary Magdalene is about to be stoned, and Christ says: "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Now, read in just that context, Christ might seem a vengeful soul who is eager to be the first to spill blood. However, given the subsequent history, and surrounding context, we know that not to be the case.

This entire good guy, bad guy argument about God is interesting, but largely it is simply the argument of whether or not you believe in Him.