Why do Christians worship their God?

Actually, the Bible teaches Christians never to employ violence against other people, even in self-defense: "I [Jesus] say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also" (Matthew 5:39). "Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword" (Matthew 26:52).

Right there you’ve relinquished the right to be taken seriously.

Please prove beyond reasonable doubt that these bare assertions are the truth.

Atheism is a lack of belief in any gods; that’s all it is, plain and simple. I really have to marvel at the arrogance of a theist telling an atheist how atheists think. Perhaps you think that without your God, human lives have no value, but, as an atheist, I can tell you that I don’t think that and I’m guessing there are very few, if any, atheists who would think that.

A religion is the service and worship of God or the supernatural. By any reasonable interpretation of the word, Christianity is a religion. And besides, what sort of relationship can you have with something you can’t even show to be real?

So the crusades, the inquisitions, the witch hunts and the blasphemy laws had nothing whatsoever to do with Christians or Christian doctrine? Do you really expect people to believe that? If so then you truly live in a fantasy world.

Empathy for other human beings is what gives human lives value. As an atheist, I value human life even though I don’t think people were created in the image of what I consider to be an imaginary God.

I’m not here to champion a belief system or a lack of belief. You appear to be championing a religion in which one of the beliefs is that your God killed every single baby, toddler and child in the world and I’m simply asking why you or anyone else would worship a God like that? From the responses I’ve received, it seems that Christians are willing to excuse anything their God does in return for the promise of eternal life.

If you really think that then perhaps you could explain all of these examples of cruelty and violence in the Bible.

Originally Posted by 3sigma

According to the Bible, your God indiscriminately kills children and babies. One aspect of Christianity that I find hard to understand or accept is why anyone would worship something that they know does such things. Why do Christians worship, revere, admire, respect or have any kind of “personal relationship” (whatever that means) with something that they know indiscriminately kills children and babies?

Subscribing.

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Originally Posted by 3sigma

Atheism is a lack of belief in any gods; that’s all it is, plain and simple. I really have to marvel at the arrogance of a theist telling an atheist how atheists think. Perhaps you think that without your God, human lives have no value, but, as an atheist, I can tell you that I don’t think that and I’m guessing there are very few, if any, atheists who would think that.

MY BROTHER,

You misunderstand me. i would be the last person to ever accuse an atheist of thinking anything. i do, however, hold that by denying the existence of our Creator human lives have been markedly devalued, as is readily apparent in the way human beings have historically, and continue to be treated by atheistic regimes, summed up in Joseph Stalin’s famous observation that “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is merely a statistic.”

By taking the crowning achievement of God’s creative Love and Power—mankind, created in His Image and Likeness—and attempting to turn human beings into nothing more than evolved animals is, to my mind, certainly devaluing human lives and helping atheistic regimes treat them as cattle to be utilized or expended as they see fit. History, unfortunately, provides ample evidence of this truth—whether or not you are honest enough to admit it.

Originally Posted by 3sigma

A religion is the service and worship of God or the supernatural.

i think most Buddhists would take exception to your rather sophomoric definition of “religion.”

Originally Posted by 3sigma

By any reasonable interpretation of the word, Christianity is a religion. And besides, what sort of relationship can you have with something you can’t even show to be real?

NOT SO! Those who attempt to “serve and worship God” without a relationship with Him end up committing the unchristian acts you have enumerated above—straw men which atheists love to trot out and display with glee but which have nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus Christ or His brothers and sisters or, seen another way, with Abba and His adopted children.

Both Abba and my Brother Jesus have shown Themselves to be the only reality existent, and they continue to do so day-by-day up to and including as we speak.

It is indeed sad when the blind deny Sunsets!


QUOTE=3sigma;53438283]So the . . . . had nothing whatsoever to do with Christians or Christian doctrine? Do you really expect people to believe that? If so then you truly live in a fantasy world.[/quote]
That is correct. All the evil you so carefully reference has nothing whatsoever to do with Christians or Christian doctrine. Our Lord spelled our Christian doctrine and what being a Christian entails in two short/simple/understandable/applicable/ and absolutely totally binding commandments:

“One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked Him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’
“ ‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH. The second is this: LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. There is no commandment greater than these.’ ” (Mark 12:28-31)

Anything or anyone which violates these two Commandments—such as the Crusades, the Inquisition, witch burning, etc.—violates both Christian doctrine and also precludes the perpetrator from claiming a Christian—“CHRIST-LIKE”—identity. May God have mercy on these fools when they stand before Him!

Originally Posted by 3sigma

Empathy for other human beings is what gives human lives value. As an atheist, I value human life even though I don’t think people were created in the image of what I consider to be an imaginary God.

History has shown—in atheist regimes in China, Russia, Cambodia, etc.—that “empathy for human beings” is not, to say the least, an atheist strongpoint, no matter how many meaningless plaitudes you spout by rote to the contrary. (Another wonderful atheist quote being, of course, “A lie repeated often enough becomes the truth.”)

Originally Posted by 3sigma

I’m not here to champion a belief system or a lack of belief. You appear to be championing a religion in which one of the beliefs is that your God killed every single baby, toddler and child in the world and I’m simply asking why you or anyone else would worship a God like that?

What a strange, twisted, and perverse charge again our Loving God who begged, “He said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” (Mark 10:14) and “See that you do not look down on one of these little children. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. . . .You Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.” (Matthew 18:10, 11, 14)

i, for one, am most proud and gloriously happy to worship a God like that. May He deliver you from your darkness that you may do the same!

A BOND-SLAVE OR OUR LORD/GOD/SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST,
ephraim

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I haven't read the whole thread, but I did get to the part where you mentioned Genesis 7.

God knows hearts. This life is death. Some of us believe that it is quite likely those individuals who experienced physical death in the Genesis account were spared an even worse fate. We worship God because He is holy. All good things come from God.

Noah's ark is also seen to symbolically represent the Church. The Holy Fathers of our faith have long considered the Ark to be the Church, which is the ark of our Salvation. As St. John Chyrsostom said, "Under Noah's direction the animals were released in the same state they entered. With the 'ark' that is the Church, however, we come aboard as sinners and have the capacity to leave as saints."

The entire Old Testament prefigures Christ. Everything that occurred was in preparation for our salvation.

We believe that the Old Testament can only be understood in a New Testament way, in the light of the Church. The Old Testament contains the preparation for the coming of Christ, promises, prophecies, and types or antitypes of Christ. The events of the OT being the shadow and the events of the NT being the truth and fulfillment. A big example of this is Isaac being offered as a sacrifice (that was rejected) points directly to Christ's death on the Cross.

Here are just a few other examples:

Adam and Christ
Eve and the Mother of God
Earthly paradise and Heavenly paradise
Sin through Woman and Salvation through the Virgin
Eating the fruit bringing death and partaking of the Holy Gifts bringing life
The forbidden tree and the saving Cross
The gold serpent on the pole and the saving Cross
The serpent/deceiver and Gabriel preaching good tidings
Woman told she will bring forth children in sorrow and the women at the tomb are told to Rejoice
Salvation from the flood in the ark and salvation in the Church
The three strangers with Abraham and the Holy Trinity
Jacob's ladder and the Mother of God (the ladder of the Son of God's descent to earth)
The sale of Joseph and Christ's betrayal
Slavery in Egypt and the spiritual slavery of man
Crossing the Red Sea and Holy Baptism
The burning/unconsumed bush and the perpetual virginity of the Theotokos
The Sabbath and the day of Resurrection
Circumcision and Baptism
Manna and the Lord's Supper
The Law of Moses and the Law of the Gospel
Sinai and the Sermon on the Mount
The tabernacle and the NT Church
The Ark of the Covenant and the Theotokos
The serpent on the staff and Christ nailed to the Cross
Aaron's rod and our rebirth in Christ

When you look at Moses account of the fall into sin, it is an interesting parallel to the parable of the Prodigal Son. The son left and fell into grief and suffering. However, it also gives us hope that we can always return. The incarnation of Christ made this possible.

Christ’s suffering death on the cross and resurrection made it possible for us to now have a way through suffering and a way to reconcile ourselves to God (abolishing sin) through his human nature. Christ’s ultimate act of suffering love gives us His saving companionship and grace. Christ even descended into hades, which opens up quite a bit of speculation as to what sort of mercy the inhabitants there were granted. Only God knows. This very act means that the righteous dead (even those who weren’t Israelites) were given life. Death was defeated. From our point of view they were retroactively granted salvation, but as God is out of time and space, it is just that, our perception. (It is a pious opinion among Orthodox Christians that even had Adam and Eve not sinned and introduced death into the world, then Christ would still have come. The main reason being that without the physical incarnation, there is no way that we could know the unknowable God, commune with Him, or even attain theosis.)

God never changed from the OT to the NT, it is humanity that underwent the change. We are dying from the moment of birth, which is the consequence of sin that we all inherit. (This is no way means that we inherit Adam’s sin, just the consequence of it.) The choice is ours to accept the love of God. Being separated from God through sin, the love of God is like a burning fire. God’s very presence is the torturous fire of hell to the unbeliever as it also the light of heaven to the believer.

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Troparion - Tone 4
Commanders of the heavenly hosts, we who are unworthy beseech you, by your prayers encompass us beneath the wings of your immaterial glory, and faithfully preserve us who fall down and cry to you: “Deliver us from all harm, for you are the commanders of the powers on high!”

Holy Archangel Michael, pray to God for me.

"Why do you increase your bonds? Take hold of your life before your light grows dark and you seek help and do not find it. This life has been given to you for repentance; do not waste it in vain pursuits."~St. Isaac the Syrian


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In the New Testament, Jesus commands Christians never to commit violence against other people, even in self-defense: "I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also" (Matthew 5:39). "Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword" (Matthew 26:52).

Christians are under the "New Covenant" (Hebrews 12:24, Jeremiah 31:31), which is what "New Testament" means. Those who lived in the times of the "Old Testament" were under the "Old Covenant". But even under the Old Covenant, God never commanded indiscriminate violence; any violence he commanded was just and right (Deuteronomy 32:4), usually a punishment from him for unrepentant wickedness: "for the wickedness of these nations the LORD doth drive them out from before thee" (Deuteronomy 9:4).

So if it’s the same God now that killed every single baby, toddler and child on the face of the planet in Genesis 7 then why would you worship a God like that?

I’m talking about your God committing the violence. In Genesis 7, it kills everyone on the planet except for eight people. Why would you worship a God like that?