If you had God's powers, how would you communicate with people?

MrsFoundit said:

Perhaps you cannot see most of the actual posts, since you also say you cannot see any replies to the OP from Christians either.

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I can see plenty of Christians speaking on here, but only three people have made any kind of actual reply to the OP, and two of them weren't Christians.
If I missed any, please, tell me their post numbers.

And, by the way:
If you had God's power, how would you communicate with people?

InterestedAtheist said:

Please don't worry about it. That person you see is not Mr. Bean, by the way. It's Edmund Blackadder, a character played by Rowan Atkinson who is famed for his role as being treacherous, witty and sarcastic. Rowan Atkinson is a very versatile actor, and his Blackadder series are hilarious. Think of him as House in a comedy (by the way, Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry also starred in Blackadder).

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Yes, now that you mention it, I remember seeing Blackadder a time or two. As I remember, and seeing Laurie and Fry, there isn't much RA has done that isn't hilarious.

InterestedAtheist said:

If you had God's power, how would you communicate with people?

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In every way God does, including all ways posted by Christians in this thread.

MrsFoundit said:

Invalid reasoning based on a false comparison.

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It’s an analogy. It is by definition not exactly the same.

MrsFoundit said:

In every way God does, including all ways posted by Christians in this thread.

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Through centuries-old books riddled with flaws, and through warm feelings in people's hearts? Not through direct speech or other forms of clear message?
With the result that the majority of the world are not Christian, and those who are are all arguing with each other about what they say God wants and means.
Because they are sure that God does communicate with all of them. Obviously He wants to, quite naturally if He loves us. But He is obviously not very good at it.

BigV said:

Would you
(a) rely on ancient texts, written by unknown/anonymous sources, or
(b) find other ways to reach out to people?

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The world would be made of mirrors
and on everyone's forehead there would be a
large tattoo that says -- REPENT
MB

Mountainmanbob said:

The world would be made of mirrors
and on everyone's forehead there would be a
large tattoo that says -- REPENT
MB

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Thank you. Catchy!T

I wonder why it isn't like that?

I have to go to bed now, but I'd like to leave you with one thing. From an essay I like:
One More Burning Bush - Daylight Atheism

If there is a god such as many religions believe in, then he clearly has the ability to reveal his existence to us – not through some unreliable, subjective inner sense, but through the far more reliable outer ones. Why does God, if he exists, not reveal himself in some unambiguous way? Why does he not manifest himself in the world as something that we can see with our eyes, that we can hear with our ears, that we can touch with our hands? This would obviously be well within the power of an omnipotent being, so if there is such a being, why doesn’t it happen?

I am not suggesting that God, if he were to manifest in the world, could only appear in some dramatic, cosmic form, such as a huge Michelangelo-like figure tearing open the sky. A far more down-to-earth manifestation would be more than sufficient for most purposes, just as long as it was detectable by the ordinary senses and as long as we could communicate with it in a meaningful fashion. In other words, all I am asking is that God, if such a being exists and desires that we know him, interact with us in the same way we would expect any human being with the same desire to interact with us.

But this simple and reasonable strategy has not been carried out. Instead, the theists say, God has adopted a strategy for getting human beings’ attention that can only reasonably be described as bizarre – always remaining hidden, never clearly showing himself despite it being well within his power, but dropping coy hints from time to time. Imagine if you loved a person with all your heart, and wanted them to love you in return; but instead of approaching them, introducing yourself and explaining your feelings, you chose to remain hidden, never letting them see or hear you, but occasionally trying to get their attention through indirect means: leaving money where they might find it, or creeping into their bedroom while they were asleep and tucking the blankets around them, or sending a steady stream of representatives to knock on the person’s door and tell them that you loved them and wanted to spend your life with them – but ordering those representatives to turn down any of the person’s requests to actually see you as indicative of a hurtful lack of faith on their part. Is this how a rational person behaves? In such a situation, in fact, would you blame the other person for beginning to doubt whether you really existed at all? And yet, if we accept the claims of many theists, this method is how God chooses to relate to humanity. What could possibly be the point of this behavior?

InterestedAtheist said:

It can be the best stuff in the world, but if it's not conveyed correctly, the person trying to convey it has failed.
It's really simple, thomas. God tried to get people to listen to Him, and failed.

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as you said in #45, popularity is not a measure of quality.
So you can't rule out that God has good stuff conveyed greatly.

Even if I mix up popularity and effectivity, as you say... you don't.
And God isn't popular with the most.

InterestedAtheist said:

Hardly seems worth bothering trying to save lives at all, does it?

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I would try.

I would invite all people to the Gospel for showing love. Inviting is nice.

BigV said:

but if you want to properly punish the crime, by punishing rapist you are only addressing one link in the chain.

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still I suggest every rapist can convert and say "it was wrong for me to get raped!"... and condemn rape as such.

BigV said:

At any rate, you are not letting rapists in, but what about non-believers who never raped anyone?

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I wouldn't let in thieves, either. I would like to leave my purse on the table... and find it back soon.
I'm not insinuating that anyone posting here could be a thief, though. Just an example.

InterestedAtheist said:

Haven't I just had Christians on this thread assuring me that God can't necessarily persuade people, and indeed doesn't particularly care to do so?

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No, you have heard them saying God does not use force.

MrsFoundit said:

They do not know if I am going to decide to turn around at some point. If I do turn around, my preferred destination also changes.

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Oh, okay. Was I wrong to think God had perfect foreknowledge if my every action?

InterestedAtheist said:

See? You didn't answer the question at all.
Look, no thought experiment is perfect, but this one is worth trying. Just imagine God popped up next to you, said "Mark, you shall have all of my powers. Go and sort it out down there," and then tell us what you'd do. It may not be an exact analogy, but you seem much more interested in evading it than answering it.

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To me it is something like asking if Omnipotence can make something too big to pick up. It is logically a self-contradicting scenario. It took me a minute to figure out why your hypothetical rubbed me wrong after reading it as you put it here, and I had to "back away" to see it. This version --I don't remember the original-- seems to me to be implying there is "something down there" to be sorted out. (To me, again) you are inserting a non-existent fiction to describe current reality in your hypothetical. But I will try to answer the question with that caveat.

If I had God's powers, and [likewise the question seems to assume] God's purposes, but still be me, lacking his wisdom, purity and justice (also a logical non-starter, lol), I would be conflicted. So I don't know how to answer as if it was me --If "I" had God powers, purposes, wisdom etc, I would not be worried in the least that something needed sorted out, but would continue to do what I have been doing from the beginning. In fact I would be rather pleased with myself with what I had decided to do. So all I could do to answer your question is to try to describe what God does. Sorry if that feels like a cop-out to you.

(I think it is worth mentioning here, since I may forget to later, that "bad", and "sin"
in particular, are the only thing that have (has) hurt God. If he was to say that he feels our pain, it would not be just a figure of speech. I think sin and suffering here in this temporal existence hurt God infinitely more than they hurt us.)

(I also would like to mention before I forget, the almost hilarious way that God "allows" (in Christian jargon) for things to decline to near or even apparent disaster, as if he did not have control, just as he also accomplishes his ends in seemingly the weakest way possible (such as using us to spread the Gospel)).

The rest of your post to me I will have to answer later. Gotta get rolling today.

InterestedAtheist said:

The appalling casualness here is on the Christians' side: "Most humans going to hell? Well, they chose to, didn't they?"

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Not my words. Your own.

Larnievc said:

Oh, okay. Was I wrong to think God had perfect foreknowledge if my every action?

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Yes (imho).

InterestedAtheist said:

No, I don't think this fits. People who don't believe in hell cannot choose it, since they do not consider it as one of the possibilities that exists.

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Did they choose not to know it was a possibility?

InterestedAtheist said:

Instead, the theists say, God has adopted a strategy for getting human beings’ attention that can only reasonably be described as bizarre – always remaining hidden, never clearly showing himself despite it being well within his power, but dropping coy hints from time to time.

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From CF Statement of Faith - not as you say:

"Who for us men and for our salvation
came down from Heaven,
and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,
and became man"
CF Statement of Faith | Christian Forums

InterestedAtheist said:

We're on the sixth page, and you have yet to demonstrate the invalidity of @Larnievc 's reasoning.

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An adult is not a child.

5 words, not 6 pages.

Larnievc said:

It’s an analogy. It is by definition not exactly the same.

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A human toddler and a burning building is not analogous to a human adult and Christian understanding of "to judge the living and the dead" CF Statement of Faith | Christian Forums.