Many of the answers to my last theological debate question attacked me for implying the God owed us proof of his existence. This had not been my aim at all, but the responses got me thinking. As a practicing Conservative Jew, I have been taught that God DOES owe us some things. Judaism involves belief in the covenant, which is a deal between Jews and God. That means we both have our end of the deal to hold up. Many Jews post-Holocaust felt that God had failed to live up to his end of the bargain, as did others post-Exile, many centuries earlier.
Now, for the sake of this question, let's assume that God does indeed exist. Whether you actually believe so or not is irrelevant. But, if a God did exist, what responsibility does this God have to its people? Why should or shouldn't the God have to prove its existence to be worthy of worship? Please explain your answer.
Atheists should feel free to reply, too, but if you want Best Answer, be sure to work within the framework I have supplied you with.
2008-12-16T11:40:57Z
To further elaborate: If God expects people to believe that it is the creator and preserver of the universe, but fails to provide any evidence of this beyond mere existence (which has alternate explanations), do we owe it worship? If God expects worship, does God owe us proof of existence? Logically, why or why not?
Virginia B (John 16:33)2008-12-16T11:23:52Z
Favorite Answer
God has proven His existance from the very beginning. He came to earth as He promised He would, to take on a human body and then sacrifice Himself for our sins and for our redemption. He gave all He had, He gave of Himself, and He owes me nothing more. I have accepted His free gift of salvation, and for that I will be eternally grateful. God bless!!!
Of course God owes us something, He just wants to be free from the obligation. Yes, He created us, but He put us on this Earth without our consent. We weren't given a choice whether to be born or not. As such, He has a greater obligation to us. It is immoral to force someone to do something without their consent and then not provide for them. The idea that Heaven is a "great" enough gift doesn't cut. it If He thinks this life is such a great thing, let Him actually live my life for a while and see how much He likes it and how much He'll think God is so good.
I can tell you with absolute certainty that The One True God, The Creator of all that is this universe, is very real.
The thing is that God always keeps His end of the bargain...man most often does not... and The Nation of Israel has a long history of not keeping their end of the deal.... look at how many time God has had to slap them down since Abraham...
God dose not have to "prove" anything... He chooses to do so from time-to-time... but at His pleasure... not man's
The last time... and it was "The Last Time" that The Nation of Israel got in trouble with God He removed The Way to Him from the followers of The Law of Moses and commissioned The True Church... so that now, it is not through The Nation of Israel That one comes to God, but through The Way
God makes The Rules... play by God's Rules... or... ultimately... you lose.
Jew or Gentile... it matters not... Only those of The True Church will enter Heaven.
The universe is like a shaken bottle of water. The water represents timespace, energy the Father, "the substance of things hoped for"- Heb11:1. The air represents probability, energy the Holy Spirit, "the evidence of things not seen"- Heb11:1.The bottle itself represents the limitation of impossibilities. The shaking is the one substance exerting its oneness in one direction stirring closed circuitry, represented by the bubbles, that there be something to move out of the way and fill in behind, that all circulating the same way repel, by the basis of Planck's volume, "the stone which the builders rejected" - Mat21:42, energy the Son, administering orthogonality that not only pushes for confluence for undifferentiation but temporarily blocks the processes of undifferentiation. But, by the second law of thermodynamics undifferentiation is naturally inevitable, centripetal undifferentiating greater than centrifugal orthogonal blocking. Each bubble eventually ceases to exist having its original eternal nonexistence restored. What is it that God took away from us that He didn't give us, therefore that He owes us back? NONEXISTENCE!