Omni Benevolence

Umber said:

Ok...

Question2:

Should I respect God? He has never revealed himself to me, I only stopped believing he existed at the age of 13. The idea that suffering is "part of God's plan" makes me feel like humankind is just a big old ant farm for God to poke at for a few hundred years and then leave when he gets bored.
Doesn't respect, from an individual, have to be earned?

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Sort of. The default should be to respect someone unless you have good reason not to, and there is an onus on you to ensure that your "good reason" to not respect God or anyone else is genuine, not based on a prejudice or misuderstanding.

I have to say I find comparing God (who asks us to call him Abba) to an employer rather bizaar (even though I do respect my employer, who happens to be a Nun).

Umber said:

I was speaking in terms of analogy, rather than comparison. Being a direct subordinate of God would be extrememly snazzy though.

I general feel nothing towards people I know nothing of. However, I take umbrage at Deities that, at the very least, fail to act in order to promote happiness in deserving individuals, and to make the undeserving deserving. "God's Plan" sickens me. ¬_¬

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To begin with, nothing that is ever been made or created deserves to be made.

Second, God did not create us to just be subordinates though we will never be God, God created us to be equal providers within creation. God has wrote to us that He wants a bride. God wrote this bride will be unified with Him, and they will share existence. God wrote those who believe will sit on His throne. Not to force oppression on the rest of creation, but creatively and dynamically be a worker of order sustaining existence. We who are faithful are that bride. We develop into keepers of creation empowered by the power of His Spirit.

Umber said:

Surely you more fear your employer than respect him? Your employer has power over you that can disadvantage you, so in that sense you fear rather than respect. Your manager could be irksome as anything and you'd still fear getting fired.

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True, But at the same time, I would respect his position, his command, and I would respect the fact that he is my employer. I respect him becuase of his position, and the authority he weilds, whch would be a by product of work he has done before he has hired me. As such, his prior work (Which I may or may not have any knowledge of) has placed him in a position of respect, as such, he does not need to "Re-Earn" my personal respect as an individual, because I an now in a position where I would respect him for his previous accomplishments. (I am using "Him" as a generic, and applies to all genders)

I don't tend to respect anyone who has done nothing that impresses me.

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In the analogy of the Employer, the person themslves does not need to "Impress you" to have you respect their position and place of power, because they have either impressed those before you, those currently "above" you, or a greater ammount of people then you have impressed, (IE: They climed the ladder faster, they won the election, they started the company, etc).

To a Human person, if an underlig, or employee does not respect them, because of where they are, or what they have accomplished so far, there is only contempt for that underling, and by all means makes that underling less deserving of the respect of the employer (or manager, etc)

However if one were to compair now a "Human" to "God" how much greater then would the contempt be? Maybe deserving of Hell?

And even if your God did make this world, he's let it degrade to a fearful extent. He's let his religion (s) degrade to a fearful extent. Impaired as they may be, that isn't even slightly commendable in my eyes. ¬_¬

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God walked this Earth as Jesus Christ, and though flesh and blood showed us the way to Salvation and a better world.

I find that greatly commendable.

on an afterthought however, I can see little way that God would prevent our state,other then to remove our ability to make a Choice, but also, I believe many would view that as removing what makes us human in the first place.

Have I answred your questions?

God Bless

Key