Sounds more like an ultimatum given the dire consequences for non-compliance.
Depends on your perspective. If you believe God simply made a way to protect you from a bad end than it's a gift. If you believe God made a punishment for disobeying, then it's an ultimatum.
Well god made it all, including the bad, so it's a stacked game with an ultimatum.
Again, it depends on how you look at it. Maybe it was the only way to make the game if you want a game with free will and choices. Is it possible to love without the possibility to hate? Is it even possible to have good without the possibility of evil?
There would have to be free will to start with (of which there is not), and not everything is a choice. Why would a loving god want to create evil in the first place? A loving god could've just made everything good from the start. The story makes no sense no matter how you look at it.
Why do you think there's no free will?
Think about your statement that a loving God could have made everything Good to start with. I mean really think about it. How would you even know everything was good unless you had something bad or less good to compare everything to?
Let's say God made everything good. In order for you to be only good you would have to be programed like a robot to only do what you were programed. God didn't want robots, he wanted children. Even you wouldn't want to create a child that only did what it was programed to do. Instead of making robots God made sons and daughters. He put them in a place where it was all good and all they needed do was follow the instructions.
Man has always had free will. The Garden of Eden is the story of when he first used it. I don't know if it's literal or not. I expect not but it doesn't matter at all because it's just a way for human minds to grasp an idea anyway.
No free will - luck of the draw where you are born and how you are raised. Infant cancer is not a free will decision. Remote people have/had no idea of the Christian god - not through free will choices.
The story around god results in robots in heaven don't you think? Abandonment of "free-will" through coercion.
The garden of Eden story demonstrates a set-up by an omni-everything god - a poor excuse to condemn all off-spring to eternal hell for something that they had no "free-will" control over, unless demands are met. Luckily, it's ridiculous enough to see through it.
Originally Posted by mauserand9mm
Originally Posted by mauserand9mm
Originally Posted by Raspy
Whatever you said...everyone knows you are a lying jerk.
That's a bold assertion. Point out where you think I lied.
