In the last two verses of Jonah, God explaining to the prophet he sent that sometimes mercy wins the day and fire prophecies being fulfilled aren’t as important as people AND their animals.
And the LORD said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night.
And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
Still the plot requires that God isn't making an empty threat given his track record. The guy has a reputation at this point. He's an ancient world nuclear bomb. Thanos is explaining how lucky some people are to be spared. The mafia don is explaining how generous he is for those who fall in line.
I find it hard to see mercy if we're having a negotiation and you have a grenade your hand.
Good point. All I have to reply I guess is the old “I brought you into this world, I can take you out”. Belief in God assumes a life beyond this one - an eternity and who knows if dogs might actually prefer it when they get there. We don’t know.
The "I brought you in..." line reads a little different if it turns out to be an actual threat to kill your children. At least in the west, we still put people in prison for that kind of thing, even if they claim it was the result of religious belief. We still end up at some kind of independent but collective moral compass, and if God was your neighbor or coworker, most people would be calling the authorities.
Oddly enough (see Mary Ellen Wilson), it was animal cruelty activists who helped establish the rights of abused children. So in a very literal historical sense, we put the welfare of pets before that of kids. Yet there's been plenty of theological debate about the mortal souls of children and none about pets. Shouldn't be super surprising, given that the Bible generally treats dogs as vermin and pests.
Again, anyone is free to worship a god who is a jerk, but you have to own it a little. Nobody who worshiped Dionysus got to pretend he wasn't a lush.
[18] I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. [19] For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.”
It’s always interesting to me how anti-theists assume a moral high ground they obtained from Western Judeo-Christianity culture to criticize Western Judeo-Christian Culture’s source of morality. If molecules are just molecules then who gives a crap how a certain set of evolved molecules treats another set of evolved molecules? Everything is determined by cause and effect laws from the Big Bang and the meaning we obtain from life is all illusion, right ? Everyone dies, iron turns to rust, nothing matters.
I'm not an anti-theist at all, and I think you're giving molecules short shrift. Cheesecake is made of molecules and I care very much about cheesecake. It's very much possible to find meaning in a world that, at least for me and you, has an end.
Jonah 4:10-11
In the last two verses of Jonah, God explaining to the prophet he sent that sometimes mercy wins the day and fire prophecies being fulfilled aren’t as important as people AND their animals.
And the LORD said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night.
And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
Still the plot requires that God isn't making an empty threat given his track record. The guy has a reputation at this point. He's an ancient world nuclear bomb. Thanos is explaining how lucky some people are to be spared. The mafia don is explaining how generous he is for those who fall in line.
I find it hard to see mercy if we're having a negotiation and you have a grenade your hand.
Good point. All I have to reply I guess is the old “I brought you into this world, I can take you out”. Belief in God assumes a life beyond this one - an eternity and who knows if dogs might actually prefer it when they get there. We don’t know.
The "I brought you in..." line reads a little different if it turns out to be an actual threat to kill your children. At least in the west, we still put people in prison for that kind of thing, even if they claim it was the result of religious belief. We still end up at some kind of independent but collective moral compass, and if God was your neighbor or coworker, most people would be calling the authorities.
Oddly enough (see Mary Ellen Wilson), it was animal cruelty activists who helped establish the rights of abused children. So in a very literal historical sense, we put the welfare of pets before that of kids. Yet there's been plenty of theological debate about the mortal souls of children and none about pets. Shouldn't be super surprising, given that the Bible generally treats dogs as vermin and pests.
Again, anyone is free to worship a god who is a jerk, but you have to own it a little. Nobody who worshiped Dionysus got to pretend he wasn't a lush.
Ecclesiastes 3:18-19
[18] I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. [19] For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.”
It’s always interesting to me how anti-theists assume a moral high ground they obtained from Western Judeo-Christianity culture to criticize Western Judeo-Christian Culture’s source of morality. If molecules are just molecules then who gives a crap how a certain set of evolved molecules treats another set of evolved molecules? Everything is determined by cause and effect laws from the Big Bang and the meaning we obtain from life is all illusion, right ? Everyone dies, iron turns to rust, nothing matters.
I'm not an anti-theist at all, and I think you're giving molecules short shrift. Cheesecake is made of molecules and I care very much about cheesecake. It's very much possible to find meaning in a world that, at least for me and you, has an end.