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HOW DO CHRISTIANS EXPLAIN THEIR SUPREME GOD HAVING FLAWED CHARACTER TRAITS LIKE ANGER AND VIOLENCE?
Looking for help understanding! I was raised a Christian (Roman Catholic). We were taught many things about the Bible both old and new testaments. One thing that was obvious was that the Christian God had a bad temper and would become angry at man’s indiscretions. We also found out that God could become extremely violent when angry. Now I’m no expert on supreme beings but what kind of supreme being that supposedly created the universe and everything in it and who is all knowing has one of the worst character traits imaginable? Secondly, could the Christian God’s use of violence be one of the causes of the use of violence by Christian Governments during the Crusades and other times?

Dreamrider 6 July 29
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5

It's the same as when tRump supporters excuse their leaders lies, ignorance, greed, narcissism and racism. Sometimes I wish I were so ignorant to real facts. Imagine how simple life would be, being so simple. Comfortably dumb.

Please refrain from injecting partisan politics into an otherwise rational discussion. Thank you.

@dumasarok When has religion ever been rational?

5

Given that the whole thing is nothing but an elaborate myth, it would seem no explanation is needed.

5

The lowest morality level on Kohlberg's scale is obedience and punishment. This usually applies to 9 year olds and under, but some people don't seem to ever grow out of it.

If all you ever do in a moral sense is avoid punishment from authorities (or curry rewards or approval from authorities), and an angry, violent, supernatural parent is apparently what you desire as an adult to force you to do moral acts, then your growth as a moral being is basically stunted.

And to my mind, that kind of moral stunting likely goes hand in hand with an intellectual stunting, a social-emotional intelligence stunting, and often an educational stunting. Such people want the comfort of an absolute authority telling them what is right and wrong so they don't have the anxiety of uncertainty.

4

Growing up Pentecostal or Methodist with old time religion, they would explain it as righteous anger. God is the only one who has a right to be angry and violent since he brought us into the world he can take us out, another favorite saying of violent parents when hitting their kids. For a lot of Christians violence is ok as long as it’s against someone who is subjugated to you, like your wife or child or Christians over Muslims or whoever else they see it as their duty to rule with “tough love.” Jealousy I think is an even worse character trait than anger for a supposed god to harbor. But what do you expect from people abused into thinking fear and love are compatible emotions.

4

Human kind creates/invents Supreme Deities/Gods, etc, by some rules in my opinion, not the opposite.
Some of these 'rules' are as follows;

  1. Create your Deity, allot it with ALL the traits of mankind, both good and bad but in EXTREMIS, then absolve it of ANY and ALL responsibility/responsibilities for its actions,
  2. Create said Deity/Deities as being Intangible, Invisible and Unreachable as possible BUT also have some selected few who can CLAIM to be capable of contacting/receiving 'messages' from that Deity/Deities, i.e. Prophets, Priests and the like,
  3. When things go wrong then it IS simply the Will of the Deity/Deities, i.e. its/their Great and Unrevealed 'Plan,'
  4. When questioned about the 'actions' of your Deity/Deities simply resort to being apologetic, in ALL meanings and sense of the term, and last but by no means least of all,
  5. have very creative authors create a book/s contain as many varied and contradictory tales/stories as humanly possible cataloging the entire history/story of your Deity/Deities and ensure that it LOUDLY proclaims, falsely, that it IS the written word/words of your Deity/Deities.
    And VOILA, given enough effort and persuasive energy, you WILL have created the ultimate weapon for controlling the targeted populace.

Did you consider authoring a book, “Creating Deities for Dummies”? A certain best seller. Lol

@Dreamrider Nope, but you just may sown the seed of a book into my somewhat creative mind though.

4

Christians do not explain, they are blinded by faith and say 'god works in misterious ways". The fable of god paints him angry, jealous, violent, and also narcissistic and conceited, remember he told Abraham to kill his son just to show how much he loved him? ... But in the end, it's just shepherds tales ...

4

My simple explanation is... Lies and Savvy Marketing.

4

He's a reflection of the Iron Age goat herders who created him. They were just 4 chromosomes removed from being orangutans and so was their god. It's who they were and what they knew.

4

Add in that jealousy is a sin according to the bible but yet in the commandments god says "I am a jealous god and you will have no other gods before me". Go figure. I just don't even think about it anymore or even ask questions because the answers from christians are usually filled with pretzel logic.

4

It is about power and control. The use of fear is very effective to support both. Also, what kind of so-called supreme being is so vain as to demand worship? The fairy tales exist and unfortunately for reason and a better world, so many people continue to follow.

3

First off, who says anger is a flaw of character? Anger is a valid emotion appropriate in certain circumstances.

I find your argument, however, in the existence of evil. Christians typically blame the existence of evil on other such as Satan or man and refute the idea that God is responsible fof it. If God is the creator of this world and evil exist in it, then God must have either created it or allowed another he created to do so. Ultimately, the existence of evil in this world rests with God.

Quote from Epicurus:
"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. 
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. 
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? 
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"

3

easy and rational explanation is....they created him.

3

I watched one of those "evil lives here" episodes the other day which focused on one of several children of an extremely abusive mother who ultimately murdered two of her children. He made the point that he and his siblings didn't know anything but their mother's behavior, and so assumed it was normal.

I think it's like that with the typical monotheist god concept. He's the stereotypical dysfunctional authoritarian parent, and the rules apply to others, not to the parent, who demands unquestioning obedience in all things. Except THIS parent has absolute power, the ability to smite those who incur his displeasure. And this is presented as his right. If you're taught this from the cradle, it becomes assumed and accepted.

Sometimes I think whoever cooked this dude up, was modeling him after their own asshat father, as a way of inflicting everyone else with what he went through. "Bwah-ha-ha, you'll all suffer as I did!"

3

The way you keep people in line is fear! So you make your loving God fearsome, so that your followers (there is no god, only con artist preachers) fear leaving more than they fear you. Fairly simple strategy.

3

I think Voltaire said those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. The notion of a vengeful yet all-knowing invisible being is ridiculous, but if you believe it, you'll do anything to avoid punishment and gain paradise no matter how despicable it is objectively. Religion has always been about control, not really about a serious explanation of why things are how they are. IMO, of course.

zeuser Level 9 July 29, 2019
3

The church has to make god angry in order to put fear into people. Once you scare people then they detach from their rational mind and start believing fairy tales.

2

Gods are created in mans image. Xenophanes said "If horses had gods, they would look like horses."

Chrstians usually go with "That was before the new covenant," which is not outlined in any way in any early Christian writings or the Bible.

As I often say, there is more religious dogma attributed to the bible than is in the Bible.

To be more blunt, they simply make shit up, as it is taught over generations, it becomes "Real."

2

God is nothing but a excuse people use to justify whatever BS they are attempting to promulgate/sell. So, god is an expression of the mouthpiece using god. I regularly tell Christians (the most judgemental, opinionated assholes I have ever met) that maybe they should get on the same page before espousing their BS. Best thing about my recent trip to Istanbul was the paucity of loud mouth Christians.

ha, floss den

2

The OT god is a tribal god plain and simple. He starts off saying you should have no other gods before him. Modern apologists claim your wife, money, or car could be your god in ways around this. They are confusing. This is the OT god admitting that there are other gods. It has nothing to do with a just being who created the universe, etc. Who or what created the universe? We don't know. It may have always existed just like the imaginary god that so many believe in.

2

I think that asking for logic or critical thinking on any subject of religion like the one posted on your question is a battle already lost.
Religious people do not question their beliefs, when the questioning starts, they start loosing their religion

"Creator God/Goddess", whatever designation you choose, is a perfect expression of the essence of love. The bible is a collection teachings in the form of storytelling that is a very ancient practice of imparting mystical teachings re the "mysteries of life", far beyond the issues of "fear & frustration." The "anger" of the bible's God is about explaining the impact of "Divine Law" upon those who violate its tenets, like gravity, but more like the concept of the Law of Attraction. The descriptors of "heaven & hell" are more reflective of states of being, and the afterlife is just a continuance of our journey...

2

If you note the gods rarely (never) do anything on their own . . . its always their fan club

Except in scripture with lots of foot notes.

@WonderWartHog99 even then most of the times its either one of the chosen humans or some sort of avenging angel/spirit that does the dirty work - Seems the big guy just directs I guess lol

@bookofmoron If one believes the scriptures, except for an inbreeding family God killed all the humans on earth with one flood as well as most of the animals. I'm still wondering why He had to nuke Sodom's sister city.

2

Just fergedabowdit, be happy in the knowledge that you are now Free from all that silly crap!

2

Mysterious ways.

2

Obviously church dogmas are off base and make no sense. I understand the anger but It’s a waste of time to dwell on those silly dogmas.

Forge ahead with new ideas, new possibilities.

2

I appreciate all of the inciteful and sometimes brutally frank comments. Seeing these comments, I realize it was a foolish question. Christians will always explain the many quirks of their faith anyway they choose to whether it makes any kind of sense or not. The real question I was pondering before I added my post went to the very nature of a supreme being who was around since before the beginning of time and who knows everything that is to be. How or why would such a perfect being become angry at something it created? Maybe next time....

I like to imagine that he and other gods are rivals and there is an intergalactic creation competition. He is pissed his experiment (us) didn't come as good as the others and blames the experiment.

Jokes aside, when I was young and attended bible classes (imposed by my christian family) and had a real hard time trying to understand why god raged and why we should fear his wrath. Started asking questions (wrong move haha) and never got them. After years watching what linxminx described happening over and over again (people getting away with a lot of bad behavior, etc) and the idea that a supreme being is just "watching" us, I stopped believing at all. Now anytime I question something to my family they just pull their ace and say "it's god's will" and etc so I don't talk about religion with them anymore. I respect their beliefs, but avoid arguing about it (even with some of them not respecting my choice either).

It's not a foolish question. You are trying to understand something that didn't' make sense to you. Keep asking questions about everything in life.

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