It is believed in the Holy Books that God uses violence to enforce his will and his plans. In the Torah and the Christian Bible (the book of Exodus, among others) God is portrayed as using violence. The same can be proven in the Quran (Sura 8. Al-Anfal, among others) that God uses violence for his purpose. In the Bhagavad Gita the dialogue takes place on a battlefield. Some have used the Gita to support war for "the righteous," but in the case of the Gita the battlefield and battle to take place is between the desire nature and the passions vs the spiritual nature and the light.
In all of existence God has never killed or supported killing one single living thing of any dimension, aspect, or kind. It is a misconception people have of God. If a person worships a God that is willing to kill, it simply means that that person is willing to kill. People make God who they want him to be, but it does not mean that God himself has changed, only the picture one has ofmeans that person is looking at God through a bent lens. him. If a person pictures God in a different way than he is in reality, it
You cannot change God to suit you. You can however choose not to see the reality of God, and create for yourself a false impression of him. A person can easily live in this false perception their whole life, without ever detecting the reality. This is virtually what always happens to people. Then your ego tells you, "It is impossible that I am wrong since I have been worshiping my God way to long and have seen too many signs". The ego goes on, "there is no truth about God beyond what I have perceived in my life". The ego will also tell you, "I cannot be wrong because if I am, then it means I do not Know, and that cannot be the case with me, I have performed too many good works for myself and others to be wrong". A person can have this very limiting and stubborn attitude.
However it might be said, "that is not ego that is faith". But did you know that faith is not stubborn at all? Faith is a very deep Knowing, but never does it manifest through stubbornness or the ego, this is a confusion many have.
The inspired writers who support war were unfair in their assessment of God's will. If the inspired writers did not want to condemn the actions of their culture during times of war they would have adopted the, "God condones war attitude" because it seemed to be true for them and they were convinced they knew the truth. Otherwise, how would they explain those terrible actions of violence? Would they confess and say, "By condoning violent actions we admit we do not Know God's true will on all things, and therefore we can not offer you the truth in all things?" Rather they claim to have truth in it's fullness.
If God is like a Father who punishes in order to express his love then he has broken with peace. Peace would have to be broken in order to punish, be sure that God does not break peace with anything or anyone. If someone tells you this they do not know who God is or what peace is. If you really love someone you would not harm them, even for their own good. Rather you encourage them to do good, otherwise you are merely oppressing them into doing good, and that makes two wrongs instead of one. Did you know it is possible to raise a child in perfect guidance without punishment? If a human can do it do you think God can?
It is also said that when a bad man dies from the hand of one who some might consider righteous, the righteous man does not the killing but God. But did you know that the man had a choice and therefore a part in killing? If God sanctioned the action why even make a distinction. Is it said to help that man's conscience?Is that passing the blame? If God can do anything, would not he kill the violators without an intercessor? Is it possible that the men who say this are only claiming the action to be God's?
Have you ever heard the question, "If everyone jumps into a fire does that mean you should?" This question is very relevant to the belief that God uses killing to enforce his will. Rather it is people who are willing to kill to enforce their own will, God has nothing to do with it. If God is Love he cannot be hate. If God is Peace, he cannot be anger. If God is faithful, he cannot break faith.
Do not transpose your beliefs on God for it will not change him it will only change you. Be sure that God is one, God is divine, and God is holy. If he is not, then he is not God, but something else. If you want to have faith in something else, it is possible, but it does not mean it's God. God respects you on all levels. God does not want to see you murdered and killed, or for that matter any other living thing whatsoever. Just as well, God respects all life on all levels. The question then becomes, will you?
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If the Bible is to be believed, God is a brutal, intentional mass-murderer and there are many people out there who take the Bible at face value rather than understand that it is a collection of moral stories and an often outdated guidebook to living. I just wish there were more people out there who didn't read the stories as immutable fact. The world would be a much better place if we were able to separate what was written by man from that given to us by God.
Convictions, interpretations, perspectives and beliefs of any holy book is not reality. Conviction is a blindness to reality; to what actually is. To die is not to be killed. I will now say to you that death really is not (does not exist). You will say, "What on earth are you talking about?" Learn with me for awhile and I will attempt to open your observation of this, since no words can "show" you the deathless reality of life however precise or eloquently presented. You will say, "No way would I take my valuable time to give you the chance to show this." You will say this because to you, it is a done deal; death exists. Your observations of death until now have locked you out of the possibility however unbelievable, that death is not. Experiential observation is crucial to understanding the deathless. Through experiential observation, come and see! If death is not, is God killing? Nature simply builds up, sustains, then breaks down. Life Eternal. No killing, no death. A most beautiful creation process if ever there was one. Natural. Man kills however, the very psychological weight carried because of his lack of observation creates his suffering and "killing" behavior. If he were deeply aware of his true nature or self (through natural, experiencial observation) he would find not the slightest proclivity toward "killing," or causing pain and suffering to others.
In all of existence God has never killed or supported killing one single living thing of any dimension, aspect, or kind. It is a misconception people have of God. If a person worships a God that is willing to kill, it simply means that that person is willing to kill. People make God who they want him to be, but it does not mean that God himself has changed, only the picture one has of him. If a person pictures God in a different way than he is in reality, it means that person is looking at God through a bent lens.
Oh, and fish. Since it is rather hard to kill fish with a flood. I really think you should read the stories attributed to your 'god'. You seem blissfully unaware of what they actually contain.
You seem to be very confused and angry about me. Whoever said that I said the "God" that you indicated, is the "God" I speak of. You must be limited in your exposure to what "God" may be. How is it that you assume the biblical "All Father" figure of God is the actuality of God, or the "God" actuality I speak of? If you stop being angry from "God" subjects long enough to relax, you may be suprised at the easy flow life begins to be. It is a kind of bliss you may well be missing in a reactionary anger state. If one lets go of anger, one can give birth to something much more genuine and natural. I hope this helps clarify for you. May Peace be the fruit that you bear.
"You cannot change God to suit you." Which is exactly what you are doing. You are picking and choosing what you want 'god' to be so that it lines up with your own personal view of the world. Not coincidentally, this is exactly what people have created god to be throughout history. You can call it anger, or confusion, or whatever other terminology you want to use to talk down to people because you think that you have the only answer. That's fine. However, it makes it no more valid than the people who think god commands them to harass military funerals, and hold up signs that 'god hates fags'. I love the world I live in too, I just do not need to create a figment of my imagination in order to explain it, or to fill in the gaps for things I do not understand.. And I know that whatever views of the world I have are mine and mine alone. There is no reason for me to try to explain my view of the world to anyone else, for they will have their own view of the world that they operate in. It doesn't mean that I will talk down to them and say that 'one day they will understand, if only they did xyz'. They understand their world in the same way that both you and I understand our world... on an intimate personal level. The only difference between us, is that I do not feel the need to fill the gaps in my knowledge with imagination passing as reality.
"God" is the unimportant word that I use to indicate all of reality, in its fullness. All of existence is so beautiful and man does not even see his own blessing and inheritance, or else he would not be needlessly killing, competing, destroying and poisoning nature and engaging in ultra-consumerism, threatening his very life on this planet. Only ignorant people (many of whom mean well but still contribute to that life) stuck in their stubborn ego and private mental-based views, defend that life-threatening way of life. I am saying that no abstract thoughts, personal views, convictions or egoic life-style can replace the natural state, that reality and mans deepest consciousness (free of private views/convictions) offers when one leaves that egoic, mental-based lifestyle. That egoic life produces destruction, hatred, killing, jealousy, pedophilia, neurosis, self righteousness, mortgages, wall streets, ownerships, etc. That self-justified life-style produces so much needless pain and suffering in man. Is that my conviction or my observation on man's history? I advocate no abstract, thought-based point of view whatsoever; because I accept life for what it is in- reality. I do advocate the egoless existence of man's deepest consciousness because consciousness itself, not the ego, is in existence. Not only am I saying I do not have the only answers, I AM saying, no answer will ever replace reality and man's egoless consciousness. Become egoless consciousness.