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Why is God mysterious?

ThinkForYourself

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Seems like He isn't very straightforward in His existence, from my perspective.

You always hear talk about "God works in mysterious ways" and all that jazz.

Why is that? Why all the mystery?

Believers: Would you agree that God is mysterious?

Because there is huge disconnect between religion and reality.

If God wasn't "mysterious", we would have to conclude he was a psychopathic monster.

For instance, if someone saw their baby being raped, they would be expected to try and stop it. If they instead said "carry on, I'll punish you later", closed the door, and let the rapist finish, they would be considered a monster. But this is exactly what God does. And the justification is "God works in mysterious ways".
 
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variant

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Familiarity breeds contempt. If God were any closer, we would have no excuse for our sins. Is it not true that no man can see God and live?

Why do we need an excuse for our sins?

God only seems to be mysterious when religious people wish to act like they don't have all the answers. In most cases I get told exactly what God thinks on things in detail and religious people some detailed metaphysics on the subject as-well.

It's only when the idea of God runs into problems and contradictions do we see religious people say God is a mystery.
 
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ananda

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When faced with issues such as that, I can see why many people are drawn to religions such as Buddhism and how it explains such things.
 
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True Scotsman

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Seems like He isn't very straightforward in His existence, from my perspective.

You always hear talk about "God works in mysterious ways" and all that jazz.

Why is that? Why all the mystery?

Believers: Would you agree that God is mysterious?


Because an objective, knowable, explainable god would not be much use to a theist. It would just be another part of existence subject to the laws of existence and not all powerful or a miracle worker.
 
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variant

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Because an objective, knowable, explainable god would not be much use to a theist. It would just be another part of existence subject to the laws of existence and not all powerful or a miracle worker.

We would all just be theists then, except people who like to deny obvious realities like holocaust denial, flat earthers and such.
 
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bhsmte

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Seems like He isn't very straightforward in His existence, from my perspective.

You always hear talk about "God works in mysterious ways" and all that jazz.

Why is that? Why all the mystery?

Believers: Would you agree that God is mysterious?

I always find it interesting, that some believers will claim to know good actions can clearly be identified with God, but then they claim the "mysterious" label in regards to other things, they don't want to identify with God.

It is always nice to have the "mysterious" card available, when needed.
 
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ananda

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That would depend on how you choose to utilize that belief.

Do you believe you will fall off the end of the earth if you travel too far in one direction?

Nope, I believe that the "Antarctic" ice wall surrounding the earth prevents mankind from treading any further.
 
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bhsmte

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Nope, I believe that the "Antarctic" ice wall surrounding the earth prevents mankind from treading any further.

Really?

Please explain how this would prevent people from falling off the end of the flat earth from everywhere.
 
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ananda

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Really? Please explain how this would prevent people from falling off the end of the flat earth from everywhere.
The ice wall encircles the earth, and the weather is too severe to go past for any significant distance. But, anyways, flat-earth is simply my belief ... it doesn't affect me in any practical way
 
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bhsmte

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The ice wall encircles the earth, and is too cold to go past for any significant distance. But, anyways, flat-earth is simply my belief ... it doesn't affect me in any practical way

How did you verify that an ice wall encircles the earth?
 
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ananda

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How did you verify that an ice wall encircles the earth?
I didn't myself. What most people believe to be "Antarctica" is, in my interpretation, the ice wall.

No matter which way you go in your spherical earth towards the south pole, you'll reach Antarctica.

Take your spherical earth, flatten it out, "Antarctica" would be the ice wall:

 
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bhsmte

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Interesting interpretation.
 
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