“But I've read the whole Bible”
So have I, a few times - cover to cover. But I didn’t have any childhood preconditioning that has affected my objectivity.
“The father whose child has disowned him knows that the prospect for peace and unity is zero until their situation changes.”
A reasonable statement but the problem I see is that the consequence dictated by the “loving” God is the death of the son.
“The impression I get is that atheists imagine that a hypothetical righteous God would be one who makes no moral demands on humans, has no right to punish, and at the same time is obligated to "fix" every human discomfort (diseases, accidents, natural disasters).”
If there was a god I dare say he would basically share our moral values (the whole being created in his image thing). Punishing the child for the sins of the father, vicarious redemption, genocide, murder, rape etc are simply immoral and I wouldn’t expect a loving god to have any part in these actions. So the question of his right to make moral demands or punish or his obligation to fix everything is not relevant.
“Our most significant problems that challenge humanity are self-inflicted, and moral issues.”
I agree to the first part and state further that they have been since we reached a point that we could control our environment and attained a population size that is unsustainable. On the subject of morals, I’m less sure. Morals have evolved with the changes in the circumstances of humans. One’s ethics may differ from another so is that a problem? You may believe that morals are purely objective. I don’t. I don’t buy the declining morality story as preached by many churches. I don’t see mankind as having fallen. We’re just doing the best we can in the circumstances. I’m not banking on a supernatural quick fix. It will take a lot of hard work. It worries me that there are believers in positions of great power who believe god gave us this earth for our sole benefit and there is no point taking care of it because Christ will return shortly.
“As for the Biblical story you're referring to (from Genesis 19), Lot's actions there were not actually consistent with Biblical morals.”
It would assist me greatly if God would please clarify his requirements. Surely that’s not a difficult thing to do. As an engineer would you think much of a manufacturer that provided an instruction manual written in a way that required so much subjective interpretation? And starts with "Rule 1: never press the red button".
“But I've read the whole Bible”
So have I, a few times - cover to cover. But I didn’t have any childhood preconditioning that has affected my objectivity.
“The father whose child has disowned him knows that the prospect for peace and unity is zero until their situation changes.”
A reasonable statement but the problem I see is that the consequence dictated by the “loving” God is the death of the son.
“The impression I get is that atheists imagine that a hypothetical righteous God would be one who makes no moral demands on humans, has no right to punish, and at the same time is obligated to "fix" every human discomfort (diseases, accidents, natural disasters).”
If there was a god I dare say he would basically share our moral values (the whole being created in his image thing). Punishing the child for the sins of the father, vicarious redemption, genocide, murder, rape etc are simply immoral and I wouldn’t expect a loving god to have any part in these actions. So the question of his right to make moral demands or punish or his obligation to fix everything is not relevant.
“Our most significant problems that challenge humanity are self-inflicted, and moral issues.”
I agree to the first part and state further that they have been since we reached a point that we could control our environment and attained a population size that is unsustainable. On the subject of morals, I’m less sure. Morals have evolved with the changes in the circumstances of humans. One’s ethics may differ from another so is that a problem? You may believe that morals are purely objective. I don’t. I don’t buy the declining morality story as preached by many churches. I don’t see mankind as having fallen. We’re just doing the best we can in the circumstances. I’m not banking on a supernatural quick fix. It will take a lot of hard work. It worries me that there are believers in positions of great power who believe god gave us this earth for our sole benefit and there is no point taking care of it because Christ will return shortly.
“As for the Biblical story you're referring to (from Genesis 19), Lot's actions there were not actually consistent with Biblical morals.”
It would assist me greatly if God would please clarify his requirements. Surely that’s not a difficult thing to do. As an engineer would you think much of a manufacturer that provided an instruction manual written in a way that required so much subjective interpretation? And starts with "Rule 1: never press the red button".