Depraved

@chaney3 said
Jesus never commented on the issue of homosexuality.

Perhaps the thinking is, Paul and Jesus had a conversation about homosexuals on the outskirts of Damascus.

@kellyjay said
What standards do you use to identify what is good or bad, righteousness or evil? Scriptural standard is perfection, not something that is sporadic, which means consistency!

But your preference for scripture, and your evaluation that it is "perfection", are both just your subjective opinions.

@chaney3 said
Why can't there be a discussion about the validity of some things in the Bible?

The functions of doctrine are [1] precluding questions [2] ending doubt [3] defining proscribed ideas and [4] identifying the "Us" and "Them" groups.

@chaney3 said
Why can't there be a discussion about the validity of some things in the Bible?

God created Adam and Eve, and claimed His creation was "very good". A few chapters later God stated that all of His creation lived to do evil. Then at Noah's time, God regretted creating mankind at all, as if He was unaware of what was to unfold.

Clearly something is wrong.

Edit: Genesis 6:5 says it all.

So yeah, how does an omniscient being not see that performing a particular act would be a mistake?

I mean, the simple answer is that the Bible was not divinely inspired, but rather written by mere mortals who fancied the ideas popping into their heads were being put there by the Almighty.

@fmf said
The functions of doctrine are [1] precluding questions [2] ending doubt [3] defining proscribed ideas and [4] identifying the "Us" and "Them" groups.

The purported doctrine must be competently written, however. If it's a rag-tag assemblage of ill-fitting short stories that contradict one another in whole or in part, there will arise questions that an answer like "the Lord works in mysterious ways" is not going to put to rest.

@soothfast said
So yeah, how does an omniscient being not see that performing a particular act would be a mistake?

I mean, the simple answer is that the Bible was not divinely inspired, but rather written by mere mortals who fancied the ideas popping into their heads were being put there by the Almighty.

I always thought that it was by no means clear that the Bible says God is omniscient. It seems like more of a prevailing interpretation.

Yes, he knows a great many things, and can at times see the future, but there are other indications against omniscience, for example, God says that he needs to go down and see for himself if the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is as bad as he's heard.

That particular example argues against omnipresence, as well.

@soothfast said
The purported doctrine must be competently written, however. If it's a rag-tag assemblage of ill-fitting short stories that contradict one another in whole or in part, there will arise questions that an answer like "the Lord works in mysterious ways" is not going to put to rest.

"The Lord works in mysterious ways" is, indeed, the all-purpose antidote to the weaknesses in an ideology about magic and divine beings.

@fmf said
"The Lord works in mysterious ways" is, indeed, the all-purpose antidote to the weaknesses in an ideology about magic and divine beings.

Who knows what the crabby little sprouts of the Blind Idiot God will post next?

Stay tuned to find out! 😉

-Removed-

From the supreme determinant of excellence himself.