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To: DannyTN
I agree with Thomas Paine that duties include doing justice and loving mercy. But why?

Even if God tells us to follow these duties, why should we listen to him? Where does the universal principle, "We should always do what God tells us to do" come from? It can't come from God, for we can always ask why we should listen to him on the issue.

Are you making it up? Is it just a preference of yours? Are you jsut going with the crowd or what your parents taught you? Does something make us believe it? If so, is it not freely chosen?

Believing in God does absolutely nothing about relieving us of the responsibility of choosing for ourselves what is right and wrong. Both theists and atheists create our own morality
342 posted on 01/26/2005 1:01:52 PM PST by BikerNYC
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To: BikerNYC; MineralMan
Even if God tells us to follow these duties, why should we listen to him?

Good question. Possible arguments include:

It can't come from God, for we can always ask why we should listen to him on the issue.

Sure it can come from God. I don't see why not. But you are right, we can always ask.

"Are you making it up? Is it just a preference of yours? Are you jsut going with the crowd or what your parents taught you? "

I don't believe it's made up or simply a preference. Certainly my parents influenced me and guided me. But in the end it was the preponderance of evidence, which included answered prayers.

"Does something make us believe it? If so, is it not freely chosen?"

Good Point. I think that is why God doesn't manifest Himself in all of His glory. That and the fact that we would die. You know He started to do that with Israel, and as His glory shown over the mountains, Israel told Him to go away, they couldn't stand it.

But I don't think if confronted by certain knowledge of the Almighty, that we would have much choice left. We would worship Him because we had to, and not because we wanted to.

Believing in God does absolutely nothing about relieving us of the responsibility of choosing for ourselves what is right and wrong. Both theists and atheists create our own morality.

I agree with the first part, but not the second. We all have that responsibility of determining right from wrong and doing right. But in the Atheists case, it's meaningless. But then why do they feel that is a responsibility? But we've seen that man can believe that he is doing right and do great wrong. Man, himself, cannot be the determiner of what is right and wrong. The human heart is too deceptive.

What the God of the Bible does is offer us a pure standard. And it's more than just don't do wrong to others, it includes loving others.

382 posted on 01/26/2005 1:54:58 PM PST by DannyTN
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