again if god is the alpha and omega he created the devil, and knowing the future he knew the suffering he would bring. also, he coudl destroy the devil if he wanted since he is omnipotent. the devil doesnt exist. suffering exists in the animal kingdom too, is that the devil and the sins of tigers?
And when He does, will you then blubber and complain about why God destroyed him (which He will eventually, BTW)?
Your god Jehovah is just a local fertility deity, no more special than Queztalcoatal, Thor or Dagda (infact these deities were much more significant).
http://www.bandoli.no/archaeology.htm
Where do I begin with this stuff? Let's see:
The development of monotheism is also different than the version the Holy Book want us to believe. Even the almighty God was once a small insignificant deity. Originally Jehovah was a nature deity, a fertility deity responsible for rain and sun and good crops. All over the holy land idols made of metal or clay are found, both female and male idols. The Jews worshipped a polytheistic fertility religion. Their main male tribal god originally also had a female companion. As late as 100 BC the farmers around Jerusalem practiced polytheistic fertility rituals. And in Jerusalem the temple prostitution flourished. The Jewish prohibition on making depictions of God is also far younger than the Bible claims. In Ugarit, 400 km from Jerusalem, a small figurine of clay was excavated. The figurine shows a bearded man an depicts “El”, the wise one and heavenly father, - an early version of Jehovah. Excavations also show that the Jews had altars of limestone where they honoured their ancestors and made offerings to the natural deities. Rain deities are always popular in desert areas, and the rain god Baal was worshipped in several varieties, - one of which was Jehovah. Hmmmm.....The Israelites fell into apostasy on more than one occasion (several of them, in fact, as depicted in the Bible). The Israelites were iinstructed not to worship other gods. Also, they were told not to worship God, as the other nations around them worship their gods. As the Old Testament shows, the Israelites disobeyed that edict, multiple times (Shortly after leaving Egypt, they erected that golden calf). So, exactly why should we be surprised that idols were found in the Holy Land?
Temple prostitution flourished? DUH!!! That's how Samuel got his job. He replaced Eli and his sons, because Eli's boys were fornicating with women in the temple. Or, as the the text states,
"His (Eli's) sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not." As for the other claim about the Exodus not happening and there being no evidence of such, again you missed the National Geographic special, which discussed the plagues. Of course, there is indeed archaeological evidence supporting the Exodus, some of which can be found here:
http://www.bibleandscience.com/archaeology/exodus.htm
One of many and as the other poster said, you have no more evidence for your fertility god than we do for Zeus, Poseidon, Vishnu, Shiva, Baldr or any of the thousands of other gods that still live or more fortuitously have been relegated to the scrapheap of history we call mythology.
Yet, what continually burns your biscuits is that the so-called fertility god Jehovah is one Deity that none of the godless crew over the millenia (including yourself) can relegate to that scrapheap (and it ain't been for lack of trying). As for evidence, it's funny that the link you brought up mentioned Baal. Exactly how is Jehovah a variation of Baal, when we have, to the contrary, a confrontation between the prophets of Baal and one prophet of Jehovah?
And that's certainly not the first instance that the worshippers of Baal fell, as a prophecy against them, recorded in Scripture, came to pass in quite striking details. (Hint: it's found in the book of Ezekiel).
An entirely different question to our resident fundy: what is the molecular composition of heaven and hell? Are they even composed of matter and energy? Are they even part of the known universe or are they magically 'hidden' as are your forever unprovable wrath besotten, anxiety ridden desert deity of goat herders and his alleged 'son' in a loin cloth?
I don't know. There is a point to this question, I hope. Of course, believing in something you've never seen and nobody has ever observed shouldn't be a problem for you, either, given your holding to being the product of 5-billion-year-old goo.
P.S. you have been indoctrinated MCWAY, brutally. Do you really think you would be a biblical creationist if it weren't for having heard it all your childhood and continously as teenager? I think not.
The thing you forget, Trapezkerl, is that (contrary to Usmokepole's claim), I indeed have this thing called FREE WILL. That means that I have the choice of believing what I have learned or not. And, what you REPEATEDLY fail to forget is that people of faith come from all walks of life. There are people who did not grow up in Christian homes, did not go to Christian schools, YET they became Christians.
Conversely, a signficant numbers of atheists come from religious backgrounds (many of them, I've noticed, grew up in Catholic homes). In short, Christians have become atheists; atheists have become Christians; Christians have remained Christians; and non-believers have remained non-believers.
