There are places in the Bible where it sounds very much like God does not want to be clearly understood. I seem to remember a verse (I don’t recall which book it’s in...) where Jesus says that he speaks in parables (as opposed to plainly) because otherwise most people would understand him.
The general argument I’ve heard is that evil serves a purpose, and perfection according to God requires the experience of lots and lots of bullcrap. The obvious question is why he wouldn’t then create people with those experiences built in...
Jesus says that he speaks in parables (as opposed to plainly) because otherwise most people would understand him. The general argument I’ve heard is that evil serves a purpose, and perfection according to God requires the experience of lots and lots of bullcrap.
Those … don’t seem connected. You appear to be talking about theodicy.
As for “otherwise most people would understand him”, I think that’s in the context of hiding his messiah-ness.
I’m talking from the perspective of modern people like Newton. They didn’t consider a good God to engage in morally bad practices like lying and misleading.
An intelligent God could also write crap into a holy book to mislead people. A God that’s good has no reason to mislead people.
Or does he?!
There are places in the Bible where it sounds very much like God does not want to be clearly understood. I seem to remember a verse (I don’t recall which book it’s in...) where Jesus says that he speaks in parables (as opposed to plainly) because otherwise most people would understand him. The general argument I’ve heard is that evil serves a purpose, and perfection according to God requires the experience of lots and lots of bullcrap. The obvious question is why he wouldn’t then create people with those experiences built in...
Those … don’t seem connected. You appear to be talking about theodicy.
As for “otherwise most people would understand him”, I think that’s in the context of hiding his messiah-ness.
I’m talking from the perspective of modern people like Newton. They didn’t consider a good God to engage in morally bad practices like lying and misleading.
And I was joking.
That said, lying could be a necessary evil. Perhaps there are lovecraftian mind-destroying truths out there?
EDIT: relevent
EDIT: Retracted due to double-post.