What's so unappealing about the concept of a vengeful God?

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The world is full of evil people and let's face it; when you get down to it most are more inclined to do evil. If you've had many enemies throughout your life, why would it bother you that these same people would face judgment come the time of their death? Why would such people deserve to die in bliss?

them dying in bliss doesnt bother me. once theyre dead, theyre dead.

Then where is the justice?

I am not sure it is so unappealing. I am not even religious, but have to say there is just something about a spirtied sermon full of hellfire and damnation spouted from the pulpit by a red faced pastor...can almost feel the splash of spittle.

Last edited by claire-333 on 12 May 2009, 7:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm sure a vengeful god was great to tribal people whose lives were filled with groups of people killing them for whatever reason, but in reference today it just seems petty and childish. If God exists, I doubt he'd act like a spiteful two year old.

This is why I like the portrayal of God in Islam more than Christianity's portrayal. The primary idea is that God is merciful. People screw up, and that's not cool, but God is merciful. I like it.

if god wants to show up and do something miraculous establishing his lordship over us then i will be all down with anything the bible says
until then its man made laws wich are flawed

justice?

since when... was justice an issue, in life and death? :S

People are killed, raped, molested, and tortured everyday around the world. Many children are driven to suicide due to bullying and it's either ignored or encouraged by those who have the ability to stop it. Many children are born to abusive parents that aren't ready to take responsibility. There are many who are doomed to suffer a life of ridicule and rejection because they don't meet society's shallow standards. There are many homeless Vietnam veterans who are treated like they're worthless because their psychological traumas and perhaps even amputations have left them unable to work, never mind that these veterans were forced into war by a draft that was unconstitutional.

Those who are responsible for this don't deserve to die in peace.

you are saying all of this as if:
something needs to be done about it

sure, something needs to be done about it.

what does that have to do with god's punishment?
if he punishes them, then you have nothing to worry about. if he doesnt, then there's nothing you or anyone else can do, other than to create a god, to punish them?

Well, the Islamic answer to that is hell. Hell is a place of consequences, but not permanent like in the Christian view. God punishes you for hurting others, but God is merciful, so once you've been adequately punished you to get to go to heaven. When I was talking about it with a Muslim she said that only a few select terrible people stayed in hell forever, people like Hitler and others that caused mass suffering.

Personally I'm an atheist so I think there's no explanation or reason for why terrible s**t happens. It just happens. Sometimes people that do horrific things have no consequences. Fact of life. If something can be done about it, great, but there are times when nothing can be done and stewing in it is just bad for you.

The Islamic view of hell does make more sense to me come to think of it. Don't be so sure that nothing can be done, for revenge can be taken by one's own hands.

The problem with the Christard view is that a guy can be a total jerk, steal, rape and whatever but if he truly repents on his deathbed he goes to heaven, while another one can dedicate his life to helping others, never hurt anyone and be a great husband and father, yet go to hell because he honsetly doubts an absolutely ridiculous concept.

Why punish them? How else would we deter the amoral from committing evil acts? Some are simply impossible to reason with.

That is truly absurd but I don't believe such a person would go to heaven. In order to repent, one has to truly mean it in my opinion. Repenting at one's death bed is usually done out of fear and not out of genuine regret. I don't believe that a lack of religion would necessarily bar you from heaven. I have a few religious beliefs of my own that differ from many of the major faiths.

For my bar mitzvah, I had to talk about a portion from Samuel II. In it, the ark is falling and a man rescues it, only to be immediately killed by God for touching it. I still don't understand why this would happen. (However, there was an alternate translation where the man actually peed on the ark. ) I just don't believe God would be vengeful or merciless, and I especially don't understand why Christians consider the Jewish or "old" God to be that way.

The concept that there is a god to take up the problems of misbehaving people lets the living off the hook of doing something in this life where it matters to eliminate vicious behavior. It's up to us the living to clean up these matters and make a proper functioning society, not hand it off to childish imaginary fairytales.