How do you know God is good?

jayem

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God created life.
I'm alive and loving it.
Therefore God is good. :)

God may be good to you. But that doesn't mean God is good to everyone. As I said in the OP, an evil and deceptive God would allow goodness here and there to maintain his deceit. There are many millions of people in the world who live in misery not of their own making. Other than your faith, how can you know that God is exclusively good?
 
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jayem

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karma is of our making


beliefs matter as much as behavior

So do you think the killing of 19 babies and toddlers in the Oklahoma City bombing was karma from their previous lives? How about the deaths of 14 teenagers in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting? And the almost 3000 people who were just doing their jobs when they were killed on 9/11. Were these all reckonings for sinful past lives? Or, if God allowed these tragedies to occur, maybe they served some other divine purpose. Like satiating God's vengeful side.
 
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Moral Orel

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Please consider:
A good GOD who wanted to have a real marriage with us based upon love had to create us with a free will, that is, the ability to choose good OR reject it for evil was an absolute necessity.

Think of forcing someone to love you. Any force at all: a direct threat like a gun, a psychological manipulation, hypnosis, drugs... I shouldn't have to tell you that none of these things can produce love. If GOD created us without the ability to choose to reject love, we also would have no ability to choose true love, ie our so called love would be by HIS will, not our own, not our choice, not true to us. This could make us a Stepford wife, obviously not the spiritual joining of two people by their free will HE envisioned.

Now about marriage: are we really thinking that a forced marriage with an inability to choose anyone but he who we were forced to marry is a real mariage? That is fits the highest definition of marriage of the joining of two souls into one? Why would GOD go for the most worldly definition of marriage that may be legal in some nations as the best definition of HIS heavenly marriage when it could be a choice by our free will to accept HIS proposal of a full communion of telepathic love and communication among all the heavenly residents including GOD at all times forever?

Therefore a real marriage based upon a true love MUST be by a free will decision to accept the husband's proposal and for a will to be truly free, it must be able to choose any of the pertinent options, uncoerced to choose only one option and not constricted from choosing any option.

Therefore I can't consider that you are describing a good god at all but a narrow minded god happy with a Stepford wife who can only do exactly what he wants by his will.
If I choose to love God, will He love me right back, guaranteed 100%?
 
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Neogaia777

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God makes all good, especially in the end, etc...

And, in the end, everyone only each gets only their own true hearts desire, in the end, etc...

And besides those two, I know God is good because He says so, or says He is, etc...

And the true reason for evil, is only to bring to the fore all that is truly and ultimately only good, etc...

Then, at that time, evil will be done away with and have it's end, etc...

God Bless!
 
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OldWiseGuy

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(me) "If we are not completely logical, how would we know WHICH Commandments would be helpful? If we are not logical, how are we to know which of the 613 Commandments are still relevant, and which ones are not?"

Just go through them and see which are relevant today. Many aren't.
 
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TedT

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And my point is that your determination is ultimately based on faith. God’s claimed goodness can’t be determined by observation.
Amen, and faith, an unproven HOPE, is the basis of all understanding of spiritual truth and salvation from sins which are also denied without faith:
1 Corinthians 2:14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
and
1 Corinthians 1:21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
 
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TedT

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If I choose to love God, will He love me right back, guaranteed 100%?

Can you choose to love someone you do not believe exists, ie, choose to love Queequeg or the hunchback's Esmeralda? Because this is impossible it is written:
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must have faith (an unproven hope, Heb 11:1) that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

But no easy believing here:
Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

and yet
Luke 11:9-13I tell you: ask, and you shall receive; seek, and you shall find; knock, and the door shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and everyone who seeks, finds; and to everyone who knocks the door will be opened.

 
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Moral Orel

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Can you choose to love someone you do not believe exists, ie, choose to love Queequeg or the hunchback's Esmeralda? Because this is impossible it is written:
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must have faith (an unproven hope, Heb 11:1) that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

But no easy believing here:
Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

and yet
Luke 11:9-13I tell you: ask, and you shall receive; seek, and you shall find; knock, and the door shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and everyone who seeks, finds; and to everyone who knocks the door will be opened.
Not seeing an answer to my question. If I choose to love God, will He love me right back, guaranteed 100%?
 
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cvanwey

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Just go through them and see which are relevant today. Many aren't.

Um, it was you whom stated "(post 73) You make a huge assumption that we think logically. If we thought logically we would obey the commandments."

If we do not think logically, then HOW are we to know which Commandments are relevant? Or even at a more fundamental level, if we do not think logically, how would we logically know to obey any Commandments in the first place?
 
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TedT

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I'm sorry if my answer to your thinly veiled Socratic question to open my eyes but not your own failed to speak to you:

IF, after you are cured of your addiction to evil and
IF you meet HIM and talk with HIM over dinner and
THEN when you know HIM you decide that you love HIM, be assured this love will be 100% reciprocated because HE loved you first.

All failures to love HIM are ours, not HIS. Our decision to be sinful in HIS eyes destroyed our ability to truly love anyone except in lesser worldly fashion.
 
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OldWiseGuy

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Um, it was you whom stated "(post 73) You make a huge assumption that we think logically. If we thought logically we would obey the commandments."

If we do not think logically, then HOW are we to know which Commandments are relevant? Or even at a more fundamental level, if we do not think logically, how would we logically know to obey any Commandments in the first place?

Without much critical thinking (logic) just go through the list for yourself. Toss out those that are irrelevant such as, plowing with an ox and an ass yoked together, muzzling the ox that treads out the grain, etc. Many are archaic and were meant only for Israel. Many were intended to remind Israel that she was called to be separate from the nations around her. The ones that would benefit mankind as a whole require a little more thought.

Most civilizations have rules that closely resemble the last five commandments, and don't require much logic to understand their value.
 
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cvanwey

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Without much critical thinking (logic) just go through the list for yourself. Toss out those that are irrelevant such as, plowing with an ox and an ass yoked together, muzzling the ox that treads out the grain, etc. Many are archaic and were meant only for Israel. Many were intended to remind Israel that she was called to be separate from the nations around her. The ones that would benefit mankind as a whole require a little more thought.

Most civilizations have rules that closely resemble the last five commandments, and don't require much logic to understand their value.

"(post 73) You make a huge assumption that we think logically. If we thought logically we would obey the commandments."

If we, as humans, do not think logically, then how are we to know to obey what the Commandments say?

Furthermore, if we, as humans, do not think logically, then how do you know your given answer above is using correct logic?
 
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Eloy Craft

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How many times have I read posts from Christians saying God didn’t create robots? Assuming a creator God exists, he gave us free will. And a brain that observes, processes information, thinks, and seeks answers and explanations using reason and logic. As I see it, God should expect us to ask questions, even about God himself. If there is a God.
So, the pot has free will. Does that mean it can determine a better purpose for itself than what the potter made it for?
 
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jayem

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So, the pot has free will. Does that mean it can determine a better purpose for itself than what the potter made it for?

But maybe the potter is us. We dreamed up the pot and decided to worship it. And I’m wondering if our pot is sound and holds water.
 
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Eloy Craft

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But maybe the potter is us. We dreamed up the pot and decided to worship it. And I’m wondering if our pot is sound and holds water.
The pot without a potter.The pot could not imagine a potter if one never existed. It would be outside the pots mental scope. Supernatural so to speak.
 
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