Just a question that has been going through my mind lately.
Why -in order to be forgiven and saved- must we believe in the human sacrifice of Jesus? Why couldn't God just say to the people "Just believe in me, and you are forgiven. If you want proof, I've planted a tree that will grow infinite amounts of bubblegum and will never die. You will invent [science] but it will never be able to figure out why the tree doesn't die. It will be in a glass dome in the desert and nobody will be able to get inside. Write all of this down and pass on the word, with the tree as proof."
I guess that's a really shorthand version, but that model offers both proof of the religion and communication directly from God...and nobody has to die. We don't have to have movies like the Passion, where it's almost all blood and gore to the extreme. We would have movies about a magical bubblegum tree and how amazing the gum is.
I'm obviously being a little silly with the example, but it stays within the constraints of the Bible. God COULD make a bubblegum tree that we could never figure out.
My main argument is that the self-sacrifice thing conflicts with the "all-loving" characteristic of God, especially when there are millions of alternatives that don't need pain, suffering, torture, and murder.
Why -in order to be forgiven and saved- must we believe in the human sacrifice of Jesus? Why couldn't God just say to the people "Just believe in me, and you are forgiven. If you want proof, I've planted a tree that will grow infinite amounts of bubblegum and will never die. You will invent [science] but it will never be able to figure out why the tree doesn't die. It will be in a glass dome in the desert and nobody will be able to get inside. Write all of this down and pass on the word, with the tree as proof."
I guess that's a really shorthand version, but that model offers both proof of the religion and communication directly from God...and nobody has to die. We don't have to have movies like the Passion, where it's almost all blood and gore to the extreme. We would have movies about a magical bubblegum tree and how amazing the gum is.
I'm obviously being a little silly with the example, but it stays within the constraints of the Bible. God COULD make a bubblegum tree that we could never figure out.
My main argument is that the self-sacrifice thing conflicts with the "all-loving" characteristic of God, especially when there are millions of alternatives that don't need pain, suffering, torture, and murder.