Was God immoral in the Bible?

Talk about your classic rhetorical question . . .

Do you know the way to San Jose?

Oh hell He was just trying to whip the folks of the day into shape...they were such a lazy bunch of whiners. Anyway, He was new on the job and was tweaking things, some people misunderstood it has His being harsh and mean. He got much better by the New Testament when He basically abandoned His son and let the non-Christians kill the lad off . This to a large degree is why I do not take the Bible verbatim, it is filled with too many contradictions, in part due to sloppy translations made over the years.







And He's God...how could he be immoral?

Re: Was God immoral in the Bible?
Good question, perhaps, but awkwardly stated.

Who sets the standards for morality?

If God has been immoral in the past, he would still be immoral, since he doesn't change.

So, although I believe I understand and can answer your question, I am not sure that what you asked is what you intended to ask.

God is not immoral. God decides what is and what is not immoral. Unfortunately, I think man wants to be the one to decide what they should be able to do and what they shouldn't be able to do.

Since morality, by the christian paradigm, is dictated purely by the will and action of god, nothing god does can be considered immoral.
It is only when you lose that paradigm and decide for yourself what is 'right' and 'wrong' can you immoralize god, and at that point the process is completely extraneous because the role of god has been marginalized to the realm of fiction.

In my view, Man decides what is immoral and what is not. He invents gods in order to give his choices greater authority.

"Because God says so" has a better ring, especially when dealing with a flock.

So then an unspeakable act like genocide would only be immoral if God said it was? I thought theists viewed morality as objective. Wouldn't murder or rape be wrong regardless of any outside dictation or commandment? Wasn't murder wrong before the ten commandments were posted?

God might be considered immoral if he contradicted his own statements on what is right and wrong. In essence he would define himself as immoral.

But i will note that his actions might not have been contradictions. Maybe he had some logical moral reasons for doing apparently immoral actions. Can anybody argue for this?

Adeist,

Hmmm. God sets the standards for what is immoral and what is not. I think man over the years has tried to change things God says is immoral. For those that don't believe in God, I imagine this would seem perfectly logical. I have been told that things change over time because man has progressed, etc. I say God is the same as He always was and hasn't changed His mind about what is immoral.

As for your last statement, who is man to judge God on anything? Are there places in the Bible that God is doing some things man doesn't consider moral or right? Obviously. But, I think that is because man is leaning to their own understanding and not to God's.

Im sure He could get off by claiming He was insane. Who else would pull some of the **** He did and get clean off, then turn around and , with a strait face , hand out these mimeo rocks with a code of morality chiseled on them and then have a bunch of people actually worship Him like nothing ever happened.

". OK, so you tell me about Job again and why that makes perfect sense"

Well, I suppose He could have created us all the same. He could have made us all like wind up dolls or puppets. He very well could have not given us a free will. Do you suppose if He had done that, you would have been satisfied with that either?

A person's conscience works perfectly well with or without any knowledge of any particular concept of "God".

It does? Then where do the concepts of right and wrong come from within one's conscience?

Momma Angel-

I don't know.

echi,

Wow. That's probably one of the most honest answers I've ever gotten to that question.

no MA, its a product of our species as we matured. We found we needed meaning to our existence , so we created myths , legends, gods and demons. Many buy it without any question. Many dont.
I hope that there are extraterrestrials so that we can meet and share foundation myths from across the galaxy.

Probably start and integalactic war based upon some disagreement on the interpretation of some fine point of dogma. Just like the Amish and the Mennonite Anabaptists

MA--

I like to think that my conscience is informed by God. However, "God" probably means something different to me than it does to you. That aside, my point was only that I do not believe it necessary to have any knowledge of or belief in "God" in order for one's conscience to do its job.

Farmerman,

Wouldn't it be better to say that is what you believe and not what has been actually done by all our species, as your post implies?

I have no problem with you believing what you believe. I just don't like being lumped into a group of which I do not belong.

echi,

Again, where does the conscience come from then? You say you don't know. I believe it's from God. If not from God, then where? Any thoughts?

I equate "conscience" with "Holy Spirit" (loosely and according to my understanding). I believe everyone has a conscience, in the same sense that a priest might believe that the Holy Spirit is in everyone.
If asked by a scientist, I would say that the conscience is not unlike anything else in nature; it is there for a reason. It aids our survival and, more to the point, our reason for being. What that reason is, is a little mysterious IMO, at least. That's why I attribute it to God.