How to know the true God

And why don't you tell me about this . . . other god, and how it pertains to our discussion?

I said that wars are the consequences of man's will, and that the flood was the consequence of the god's will. You then asked which god I was referring to, when it was obvious that I was talking about the god who regretted creating humans and so decided to drown 'em all. So, who is missing the point here?

Actually you answering your self . you can believe there are only god . he had the three attributes you mentioned and wait for him, he will find you . by simple by something but he will

It really has been a very long time since I sat down and read any book. I do still enjoy reading. I just have always had a difficult time finding things I am interested in. Getting my attention is one thing... Keeping it is an entirely different scenario.

That would be the god who offered the entire world to Jesus at Matthew 4:9. Since he has controlled the affairs of mankind since Eden, he would be the one responsible for the conditions leading to the flood.

The question is not who was responsible for the conditions leading up to the flood. The question is who was responsible for the flood. The god was responsible for the flood. So, your theory that the assurance that God will not interfere in our choices is essential to our quality of free will is proven invalid by virtue of the god's deadly response to the free will actions of the humans.

I wonder why Christians fail to see these contradictions?

To categorize this as a 'christian' phenomenon is stereotyping.

Contradictions are usually a byproduct of reason colliding with a denominational dogma.

What in hell are you talking about? Denominational dogma? LOL

Wow. Never mind.

God's flood and free will are contradictory. Where does dogma come into this?

Dogma enters into it when you are artificially attached to your particular church's (denomination) beliefs on a certain topic.

I find no contradiction in this matter as I explained earlier but a lot depends on what you think free will means.

I assume you see contradiction because those who died in the flood were not free to carry on with their lives.

Free will to me only extends to the moral and philosophical decisions you make about your world view and how you approach life for however long it lasts. It is not an absolute guarantee of survival. If we interpreted free will as a God given guarantee of physical survival, it would require God to prevent all deaths due to anything other than old age. That is obviously not the scenario we live under.

The cornerstone of free will is what you and I have discussed in many other threads - The lack of any 'hard' evidence that God even exists. If that evidence existed, you would not have had the free will to choose to believe or not. That free will was not interfered with in the people who died in the flood.

If you knew how christianity came about, you would have doubts about the religion. Also, there are too many omissions, errors, and contradictions in the bible.

Well don't just change the subject, stick to the contradiction at hand.

What does free will mean to you and how is it made a contradiction because of the flood?

Are they really? How was their free will taken from them? Because their "wicked ways" brought a seemingly untimely death, which was their eventual end anyway? If it is not the right of the Creator to put an end to some thing He created, how then is it our right to put an end to something we had no part in creating? I mean, there is still a death penalty, correct?

If the whole of humanity is penalized for the "wicked ways" of humans, why even bother giving humans life? The majority of humans will never live with faith of this goddam god. That's a fact. You can bet your life on it. Do you know how many Hindus, Buddhists, and other non-christian religions there are in this world?

I guess you tire of defending your position on free will and the flood contradiction. So be it.
You will be happy to know that God is in full agreement with you. The bible makes the same prediction.

Yea, so be it, because christianity is a farce and bull shyt. Created but 2000 years ago, this religion is based on fear. Believe in me or go to hell.
Humans have roamed this planet much longer than 2000 years.

The laws of life and death run straight across the board for all that has the opportunity to live. However, all that lives eventually must die. Man has yet to find a way to conquer death. Being that it is, by all rights, unstoppable I would deem death as being pretty powerful as well. So yeah, why create something just to destroy it, or watch it destroy itself?

Love actually. We weren't created with the master plan being eventual destruction. However, it is a route that can be chosen. For the last week or so I have been pondering Song of Solomon 8:6. It popped in my head one day, and since I have been rolling it around in my brain, trying to understand what it means. As I was thinking about responding to you it popped in my head again.

It says: Set me as a seal upon your heart, a seal upon your arm; For love is as strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave; It's flames are flames of fire, a most vehement flame.

Love is as strong as death. Well... Death is unstoppable. Jealousy as cruel as the grave... Man, this one took me a minute... But, what is jealousy really? In its rawest form... What is it?

Self love.

There is a difference between loving yourself and self love. Self love esteems itself higher than everyone around it. Deems itself more worthy or deserving than others. It is also known as pride. Jealousy is as cruel as the grave. Think about it...The grave takes and doesn't give back. Self loves does the same. It kills a person on the inside.

It is not God who punishes us. It is us who punish ourselves.

Yes, the free will of the people who died in the flood was interfered with. They were going about their free will way when the god, overcome by regret due to the free will choices of the humans, decided to cancel their ticket to the rest of their free will lives. This is not at all difficult to understand. I think Neologist said it best when he said that the assurance that God will not interfere in our choices is essential to our quality of free will.

You said that if evidence of the god existed, we would not have had the free will to choose to believe or not. Do you actually think that parting the Red Sea was not seen as hard evidence by those who witnessed it?

That's a good point. I said earlier that it appears that there may be a distinct difference in overt actions by God before and after Christ. I'm not entirely sure that is true.

But even given events like the parting of the Red Sea, only a tiny percentage of people ever saw an event like that. The vast majority of people lived out their lives never seeing a 'miracle', even back then. The same could be true even today.

I've never experienced anything that did not have some plausible explanation but there are thousands of people alive today who are honestly convinced they have witnessed or experienced miracles. Maybe they did.

Why are there exceptions to the 'no proof' rule? I don't know but if you are God I guess you have that prerogative. Like I said before, free will is not the prime directive or object of this exercise.