There’s nowhere in the bible that it states God’s purpose is to ensure no children ever die, bad things never happen, and no calamity ever befalls us. I’m atheistic myself but I just think people have this weird idea that “god” is supposed to be this overarching protector who ensures nothing bad can happen. Where does that idea come from? The God of the old testament is a viscious homocidal maniac and kills people all the time, and creates havoc for them also. Why do bad things happen to good people? Because nowhere does it state that God’s job is making sure they don’t.
While you absolutely have a point you have to consider how people — specifically theists — portray God.
God is supposed to be this warm, loving father of everything that will send you to Paradise if you’re nice for a couple of years and worship him (probably a kink of his, idk). If you don’t, yeah, you go to hell or something else happens to you depending on the specific type of Christian that you’re talking to but overall, churches, flyers, songs, people that ring your doorbell at 8am on a Saturday… they all make God look like a good thing.
Trust me I’ve pulled the “but doesn’t the Bible say…”-card many times. They always have some dumb excuse to make God look like a good guy. I think it’s fine to talk about God not only in the way he’s described but also in the way he’s perceived (not actual perception of course) and advertised, which is usually way more positive.
Well that’s true and I’m aware that god is portrayed as a loving kind father of everything (so long as you do as he expects, that is). And it kind of makes sense, if you’re going to worship something, you’d want it be something benevolent with good protector vibes.
But, it’s quite obvious from the war and misery we experience that if god’s job is to keep us happy, he ain’t very good at it. I think, if there is any force out there that can (in the broadest sense) be called a “god,” it is probably far from benevolent and very far removed from what we do on earth day to day. So instead of “in god we trust,” I prefer to think “I trust in other people and myself.” I mean, ultimately it’s on us to create the kind of world we live in no matter what.
There’s nowhere in the bible that it states God’s purpose is to ensure no children ever die, bad things never happen, and no calamity ever befalls us. I’m atheistic myself but I just think people have this weird idea that “god” is supposed to be this overarching protector who ensures nothing bad can happen. Where does that idea come from? The God of the old testament is a viscious homocidal maniac and kills people all the time, and creates havoc for them also. Why do bad things happen to good people? Because nowhere does it state that God’s job is making sure they don’t.
While you absolutely have a point you have to consider how people — specifically theists — portray God.
God is supposed to be this warm, loving father of everything that will send you to Paradise if you’re nice for a couple of years and worship him (probably a kink of his, idk). If you don’t, yeah, you go to hell or something else happens to you depending on the specific type of Christian that you’re talking to but overall, churches, flyers, songs, people that ring your doorbell at 8am on a Saturday… they all make God look like a good thing.
Trust me I’ve pulled the “but doesn’t the Bible say…”-card many times. They always have some dumb excuse to make God look like a good guy. I think it’s fine to talk about God not only in the way he’s described but also in the way he’s perceived (not actual perception of course) and advertised, which is usually way more positive.
Well that’s true and I’m aware that god is portrayed as a loving kind father of everything (so long as you do as he expects, that is). And it kind of makes sense, if you’re going to worship something, you’d want it be something benevolent with good protector vibes.
But, it’s quite obvious from the war and misery we experience that if god’s job is to keep us happy, he ain’t very good at it. I think, if there is any force out there that can (in the broadest sense) be called a “god,” it is probably far from benevolent and very far removed from what we do on earth day to day. So instead of “in god we trust,” I prefer to think “I trust in other people and myself.” I mean, ultimately it’s on us to create the kind of world we live in no matter what.