I'm not against the speculation, but if people are allowed free will, how do you stop a rapist in the first place?

IF you control everyone in the world in this way, what other things would you have to control?

Where would it stop?

Would any person have free will at all any more?

I've been raped.

I would not want any one else to suffer it either. But I believe in harsh penalties for offenders so that it becomes a real deterrent.

I am a peace loving person, but repeat murderers should be executed and repeat rapists turned into eunuchs. Not because I want to see them suffer, but because there seems to be no way to bring them back to sanity once they've crossed that line.

Still, I don't know how a god would manage to prevent all rape.

do such a thing, not even in the realm of the possible.

(or a trump card, if the term can be pardoned) acting as coercion or a cudgel to cut off criticism or examination of whatever the want is. They're not genuine. They don't actually believe they know the mind of the deity. They're trying to hack the system and that's the passcode. It's more cynical and manipulative of others than delusional about any special cosmic insight on their part.

I don't think that any one who really has studied the life and teachings of Jesus can "hate anyone in His name" because it goes against everything Jesus ever said or did.


So people who promote hatred in "God's name" are fakes. USING the power of religion to get what they want or believe is "right".

Crusades were not any kind of "Holy War" it was the Church trying to be a power.

Borgias did a lot of damage.

Inquisition any one?

Pedophiles in the priesthood. Yah.

But I still believe in the example that Jesus set and taught is worthy of following. I have only my personal faith to say that He is from God and of God, but that is what faith is about.

What people do in the name of God that is Unholy is ON THEM. I don't blame God for human's choice to be evil.

It's like blaming the rules of the game when people cheat. IF the REF turns a blind eye, or if God lets people get away with so much.... I do kind of get mad at Him for not stepping in more. But I still don't think that God WANTS people to hate others in His name.

is an ego trip, not an experience of spiritual growth.

"It just seems REALLY POWER HUNGRY to put oneself in the place of GOD and DECIDE ON HIS BEHALF what should/should not be done."

I've never thought about it this way, but since you pointed it out, I absolutely agree. If more people could see things that way, I think it would solve a lot of problems.

When this thought came to me clearly, it felt kind of big and meaningful.

They're not placing themselves in place of God. They firmly believe God is on THEIR side and THEIR beliefs mirror God's will. That's their justification for punishing those who do things they disagree with, while feeling justified in their own transgressions.

At the time of the Old Testament, people understood that doing things certain ways helped their group survive and weaving these rules into the structure of their culture made many things better. And at that time enforcing rules by "the fear of the wrath of God" was better than just beating everyone that disobeyed.

But cultural evolution and new knowledge can be a reason to discard certain belief structures.

For example, we can see that the kosher food rule about not eating pork prevented people from dying because of tendency for pigs to wallow in their own feces and that wound up in the end product. Now that we have cleaner processing and ways to detect the problem and medications to keep animals from developing illnesses that can be passed on, it's not the only way to prevent death or illness from eating foods in a certain way.

As a Christian, I honestly wish that abortion was looked upon as a necessary, but limited option. I don't want any woman to have to die in child birth, especially when the fetus is non viable. I don't want women to have to carry a pregnancy to term from rape or incest. Even in relationships there should still be some availability to choose something like the morning after pill without being made our to be a murderer. And that a woman should be allowed all forms of birth control prior to and during sex without judgement.

But to look at abortion as a simple method of birth control that should always be available to me is a way to avoid taking responsibility beforehand. Because at some point and we don't know exactly when that happens, the fetus does become a person. So finding the point where we can agree to limit this option as simple birth control and choice when that choice affects a life becoming viable to me isn't unreasonable.

I still believe in choice, but I do understand someone wanting to preserve the life of a potential child.

But the way the MAGA and Federalists are going about it is horrible and resulting in awful consequences.