Because to take from the poor, to not feed the hungry, to opress the weak, and so on are all bad. So, to DO those things must be good.
Can't have a top without a bottom, can't have a good without a bad. If there was no bad, we wouldn't know what good is. Or...somethin' like that.
How do you judge what is bad? What makes those things bad?
Just as a side note I don't think we can determine what is good by what is bad. We determine what is bad by what is good. You determine a board is crooked by comparing it with something straight, comparing something to the crooked board only tells you it is not the same degree of crookedness, but not whether it is straight or not.
__________________
"Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow." ~Aesop
Then I will still have the satisfaction of knowing that I lived my life in accordance with the teachings of Yeshua of Nazareth, the greatest rabbi to have ever lived.
Shalom y'all!
__________________
I’m not a scholar, just a crazy Jewish Believer who wants to see no one deceived and everyone saved.
Shalom uv’racha b’shem Yeshua Mishikheinu!
Peace and blessings unto you in the Name of Yeshua, Our Messiah!
Then I will still have the satisfaction of knowing that I lived my life in accordance with the teachings of Yeshua of Nazareth, the greatest rabbi to have ever lived.
Shalom y'all!
Except if there is no God then following the reasoning of C.S. Lewis (Liar, Lunatic or Lord) he could not have been the greatest rabbi.
__________________
"Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow." ~Aesop
How do you judge what is bad? What makes those things bad?
Just as a side note I don't think we can determine what is good by what is bad. We determine what is bad by what is good. You determine a board is crooked by comparing it with something straight, comparing something to the crooked board only tells you it is not the same degree of crookedness, but not whether it is straight or not.
Exactly! Without a standard everything is arbitrary! That's the problem with atheism.
__________________ "I have had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it."
Strange but the title of this thread made me think of a quote I recall from a movie waay back when I was not attending church...OK...I admit it..I'm old. Don’t watch the movie…I wouldn’t watch it now.
I remember Peter Fonda saying (and I think he was reading an inscription): "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him."...I thought of how blasphemous that sounded and that thought made me (among other reasons) want to seek God. I really do recall that quote from that movie back when I was a mere child.
Jean Paul Sartre was one of the heroes of the literature professors. His quote that goes along the same line of this thread's title was: "If there is no God, anything is permitted."....He came to that conclusion from reading Dostoyevsky's novels - including in particular his final novel - The BrothersKaramazov
Below is an excerpt from the wikipedia entry for the above novel...I read it long ago and it, too, did make me start thinking about God....I believe I KNEW He existed but I had to make the journey to prove it totally to myself. The journey to know Him has been well worth it. When we KNOW Him, we know His sufferings as much as a human can and we know His compassion, His love, His grace, His mercy. Also, we learn from knowing Him the things that really matter the most.
The novel explores the existence of God, the nature of truth, and the importance of forgiveness through the actions of its characters. The murder trial can be seen as a literal expression of whether or not any one man (Dmitri) can be held accountable for the death of another (Fyodor), a belief that directly contrasts with Zosima's maxim that everyone is guilty for every crime. Each of the brothers played a part in his father's murder: Dmitri had the motive, Ivan could justify the killing through rationalism, Smerdyakov finally carried it out, and Alyosha, an otherwise benign character, did not prevent the actions of his brothers although he clearly knew their true desires. Dmitri's sentence and the gleeful behavior of the trial's spectators mirrors Ivan's argument in The Grand Inquisitor, that man is fundamentally weak and wants to be told the true nature of right and wrong (here supplied by the jury).
However, the novel can also be viewed as a parody of the argument of the existence of a supreme being. If the trial is the deciding of whether God exists or not, then the childish debate of the prosecutor and the defense lawyer can be seen as the pointless nature of arguing a problem unanswerable by pure logic. Alyosha's final "Speech by the Stone," the last chapter in the book, implores the children to love each other and to never forget Ilyusha or each other, even while Ilyusha's death mirrors Ivan's argument that God cannot exist because of the death of children. Thus, the book's ultimate theological viewpoint may be seen as agnostic. However, this is only one interpretation. Another interpreter may point out that in his final speech, Alyosha does assure the boys of a future resurrection. Deciding what philosophy the book endorses is hard to separate from personal bias. This 'agnostic' evaluation is in keeping with Dostoyevsky's religiosity, deism, and existentialism, as the very question of faith depends on God's existence not being an apodictic truth, but rather a matter for the individual to grapple with (and, hopefully, develop while struggling with). Dostoyevsky was clearly aware of this, as the novel explores the concept of truth extensively, most prominently in the aforementioned example of who Fyodor Karamazov's true killer was.
Mrs. Pianoman and I were talking the other day about, “What if it turns out that there is no God?”.
We agreed that it wouldn’t really matter!
We have been blessed (or lucky!) in our lives. Our belief in God has given us a purpose for our life. A purpose that is bigger than just us. If nothing else, the Bible has given us great philosophical advice which we have patterned our life after. It’s been like an instruction manual for us.
Believing in God has given us a life-long hope. It gives us a way to cope with tragedy, suffering and death.
Believing in God has given us an unwavering opinion of right and wrong, good and evil. This has brought stability to our lives.
The bottom line is that at worse, our lives are better off and we are more balanced emotionally because of our faith in God.
But………because we believe in God, I believe we also have a great reward of forever being in God’s presence, and one day we will be walking on streets of gold. This is our great hope!
The posts on this thread (imho) sound like some are really grudgingly serving the Lord... Sounds like some are wishing that they could find out that there is no God so they could do what they want to... It almost sounds like God is just a "Get Out Of Hell Free Card" and nothing more. He's basically just being used as a fire escape. Anyway, I could be reading this wrong and if so, please forgive me. It just sort of bothered me and I'm voicing that.
Proverbs 3:5 & 6 "Trust in the LORD, with ALL of your Heart and LEAN NOT TO YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING, but in ALL your ways, acknowledge Him and He will Direct your paths." I don't think you can Trust in the Lord with ALL OF YOUR HEART and question whether He is real or not at the same time. Again, just my humble opinion.
As for me, I've seen God work in ways in my life that could not be happenstance... There are some things that come about that can ONLY be of God. As for me, there is absolutely no question... My God IS Real!
The posts on this thread (imho) sound like some are really grudgingly serving the Lord... Sounds like some are wishing that they could find out that there is no God so they could do what they want to... It almost sounds like God is just a "Get Out Of Hell Free Card" and nothing more. He's basically just being used as a fire escape. Anyway, I could be reading this wrong and if so, please forgive me. It just sort of bothered me and I'm voicing that.
Proverbs 3:5 & 6 "Trust in the LORD, with ALL of your Heart and LEAN NOT TO YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING, but in ALL your ways, acknowledge Him and He will Direct your paths." I don't think you can Trust in the Lord with ALL OF YOUR HEART and question whether He is real or not at the same time. Again, just my humble opinion.
As for me, I've seen God work in ways in my life that could not be happenstance... There are some things that come about that can ONLY be of God. As for me, there is absolutely no question... My God IS Real!
Again, sorry if I've read too much into this...
I think you might have read too much into this thread. It's really one of apologetics.....
__________________ "I have had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it."
Linear Mode
