Wednesday, October 27, 2010

A violation of free will

The bible states that men were created with free wills, and that they have within them the choice to do either good or evil. It is also said that the biblical God cannot violate a persons will and so based on this understanding man does as he pleases.Yet,there is one story in the bible where God has done just that! It is the story of Jonah.

When I was coming up this story used to be called the tale of Jonah and the whale, although the bible never says that it was a whale. The scriptures refer to it rather, as a big fish. Like the tale of Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit people have somehow with the passage of time turned that fruit into an apple, although again the bible does not specify what type of fruit it was.

This tale is found in the book of Jonah chapters 1-3 in its entirety. Basically, God had told Jonah that he must go to Nineveh and warn them that if they did not repent of their works that their city would be destroyed and they would all perish. Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh, so he boarded a ship going in another direction. Because of his actions God brought up a huge storm at sea and if it were not for the crew tossing Jonah into the sea, they would have all perished. When Jonah was in the sea he was swallowed up by a big fish, and he miraculously was preserved from death in the belly of this fish.

After he repented and decided to do God's will he was then spit out on dry land, where he was once again given his instructions by his god to go to Nineveh and relay his message of warning. Now here is my problem with this story besides the obvious stupidity of the "big fish" and his apparently non-functional digestive tract. If God went through all of this just to relay a message to a people why did he not just do it himself.

The way I see it a thundering voice from heaven would have been just as effective, the bible is full of tales where God can manipulate matter and interfere in nature etc. yet for some reason he could not do anything here. Not only that, he forced Jonah to go to Nineveh, this was definitely one situation where Jonah had no choice or free will to deny the lords request. In my view this tale alone throws that whole free will defense to the dogs. It states that Jonah fled from the presence of the Lord, as if this were possible. Since the bible teaches that God is everywhere present or omnipresent.

This is just one but there are many, it is theological inconsistencies like these that let me see the bible for what it is: a fraudulent work by fraudulent men.

5 comments:

  1. Chatpilot, I have identified your problem in trying to understand this parable.

    You are trying to understand it.

    Especially relative to the rest of the bible. If you were just to swallow (pardon the pun) this and other stories and not look for consistencies between them - you would finally be able to open your heart and allow the flying spaghetti monster into your life. Remember when 1+1+1 = 1 - logic and consistency is not of utmost concern

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  2. Lmfao Dennis! Too funny but so true. In order to believe the bible you have to turn off your bullshit meter and run with it.

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  3. God uses material objects to overtly relay his divine message so it would appear that he does not personally intervene, so that he cannot be held personally accountable for anything that may just happen to go awry.

    The bible God is a two-faced child minded coward! It reflects the minds of the authors, two-faced cowardice men.

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  4. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. John 14:6

    For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. 2 John 1:7

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  5. Anonymous you need to visit your local library some more and read more. Apparently the only book you seem to know is that bible and quite frankly that is an embarrassment.

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