hey guys, I'm new to the forum but I've had this thought for a while, and I feel like there must be a fallacy in it that I have yet to see, because I think there would be less christians if this was accurate. asking for input and of course, much critique with which to refine my ideas. This is referring to mainstream christianity today, because i know there are too many deferent beliefs to group them all. god created us, is all knowing, exists before and outside time, is everywhere, and judges us after death. I think those are the basic ideas. he also gave us free will. he has always existed, and he created time and space. this, I would assume, allows him to see future past and present. so he created us knowing every thought belief or action we would ever take, as he is all knowing. this is a common arguement of the non-believer who starts his arguement from the believers position that god is real. even if you have free will, it would know what you would do at any time in your life, and thus has no reason to create something only to have it predetermined for hell or heaven. it makes no sense to me that it would design us for either final destiny. it's illogical to believe that one is rewarded or punished for something god already knew you would do, and less so that the actions of 70 or so years results in an eternity of anything.
i hope you like being called ignorant. the argument almost always boils down to: 1. the bible is the literal word of god. 2. god exists because the bible says so. (ie. god exists because god exists because god exists...) 3. literal interpretations inconvenient to my belief indicate that someone doesn't know how to literally interpret the bible. 4. my personal interpretation of the meant-to-be-literal bible is better than yours, even if yours is literal. (ie you dont know how to see the hidden meanings in the to-be-literally-taken book) you have to read the whole book to understand it, you have to read the whole book every line at the same time to understand it, or some other hoops meant to keep you distracted.
of course! how could I forget how literal and perfect every contradictory verse is? I mean obviously both creation stories are true at the same time, and Jesus was born in both a barn and in his home and was also from nazareth and Bethlehem, and shepherds and magi came, and Herod both did and did not kill kids. these are all true. on a serious note, I hope that it doesn't wind up like that this time
you're absolutely right, and that's why i've given up on arguing with christians. there are endless fail-safes and safety nets in the bible (you can't prove god exists..."well thats why i have faith" /slash wrists) i think what bugs me the most is that i can completely stump someone in a religion debate and i know they still walk away thinking they won.
i try to just drop mind boggling questions and observations and then escape before they begin trying to draw me into an argument. doesn't always work tho, so it's better to avoid them usually.