A bit of personal curiosity up in here. What is your personal religion? Do you fall into one of the major groups, or do you branch off into your own concoction? Personally, I am a third Christian, as in I interpret the bible (However, i believe in it's meanings and not it's literal interpretation), and a third agnostic, as in i won't be too bumed out if the bible isn't right, and a third scientific, as in I like to keep things within the bounds of what is physically possible.
I tend to not have religion. In that I don't go to church or believe what I am told by the rest of the people that only know what I know. I once attended church, but feel no need to now. That being said my approach to the bible is similar to yours. I interpret it myself. I wouldn't say I am agnostic because I believe in God. Science is not really relevant to beliefs and vise versa so I don't see the connection
The easiest way to describe what I believe is basically Gnostic Christianity/Neoplatonism heavily modified by Baha'i, Lutheran Christianity and assorted minor tidbits from other faiths.
My way is the YAH Way. If you start looking for the eternal safety and security of your soul, which is what we all desire, you find Yahushua, and when you find his name means YAH is Salvation, you find YAH. He is the only God that I've found that makes mistakes and admits it, is grieved about it, and repents and atones. for it. And he knows that all the imaginations of my heart is/was evil.
So your God is neither omniscient (He makes mistakes) nor omnipotent (He does not erase the mistake from the beginning). What basis is there for calling Him God? It seems to me God should have both omniscience and omnipotence. Otherwise, he's an immensely powerful being but not God.
I obviously don't mean this to be offensive, but I find it kind of silly to say that you're part Christian and part scientific. Science isn't a religion, and it is contradictory imo. As for myself, I'm a Protestant with Calvinist leanings.
I am a simple atheist, which I do not consider to be anything remotely close to a religion. If a religious person can drop some convincing evidence at my feet, I will change my world view, and make a 180.
That's what satan says. YAH made man, repented, was grieved, and atoned. Now man can inherit heaven and be served by angels - who are created spirits by the word of his mouth - satan and his make the same argument you make. They can't forgive YAH for making man, and they don't want man in heaven, nor serve them. So, obviously, satan makes a case to his angels that man is YAH's problem, YAH's mistake, let him pay for it himself, let the Father go to the earth and be beat and murdered by men, and see if he still wants to atone for them and forgive them, and welcome them into heaven. YAH never repented for making angels. And satan and his angles can not create, but they can make a computer chip from a grain of sand. So, let me ask you, if their is a God, and you need his forgiveness to gain peace for your soul, is a God who knows what it is like to make a mistake Good enough to be your God? Or would you prefer the one who claims to be infallible, but he is a liar because the only reason he didn't make a creation mistake is because he lacks the power to make that mistake. I think satan and his angels try to use the sacrifice of Yahushua against YAH. They would love to see YAH the Father come down here, so they could influence man to beat and murder YAH the Father himself. But I can't imagine YAH, the only true God, coming here and letting man beat and murder him. So he sent the words of his mouth that said "let us make man in our image and in our likeness" to earth to atone for that, because YAH repented for making us because all the imaginations of our minds are continually evil.
To whom did your God atone? Atonement is reparation for injury. If God needed to atone, there must be a being greater than He. That being would be God, not your YAH. Are all our imaginations evil? How can you know? A God who makes mistakes is not a God at all. The most he can be is a powerful being. I do not worship powerful beings. There are many people who are more powerful than I and I don't worship them.
all religion is 'personal religion'. it's all your own little fantasy, no matter what name you give it. just because other people use the same name to describe such fantasies, doesn't make them actually the same fantasy. that'd be like suggesting the expression 'bad dream' will mean the same thing (ie, the same ACTUAL dream) to everyone who has one. even when other people give particular names to characters in these fantasies, there's likely to be about a bazillion to one chance anyone on the planet has a version of said characters which exactly match your version.
YAH atoned to himself. To please himself. Yahushua came to fulfill the law that there would be no atonement of sin without the shedding of blood. As far as all the imaginations of our heart being evil, I know that in my case I felt guilty. Maybe you are so good that you don't need a God, especially one that you can't forgive for making a mistake. You assume there must be a greater being. I try not to assume, presume, or speculate too much about heavenly things. It is your opinion that a God who can make a mistake can't be God, and you and satan have similar minds. If you can't accept a God who made a mistake, well, maybe he won't accept you if you make one. You have the same problem satan has. He hates the idea of mankind being reconciled to YAH, and allowed into heaven, and served by angels. Satan feels like YAH made the mistake for making man, so satan and his angels don't want anything to do with a God who can make a mistake and evil men. They like to use YAH's mistake against YAH. You know how you don't like to be reminded of your mistakes. Satan and all angels were made by the word of YAH's mouth, made spirit. YAH never repented for making them. So they feel like they don't need a savior. I do.
YAH atoned to himself? He repaid Himself for the damage He did to Himself by sacrificing Himself to Himself? You realize that's like saying you made up to yourself for stubbing your big toe by amputating the toe, right? If you're not speculating about God or other heavenly things, what are you doing on this forum? That's the point of it. It's not that I don't forgive God for making a mistake. IMO God is incapable of making a mistake, being both omniscient and omnipotent. Your YAH lacks one or both of those attributes, therefore cannot be God. So you're saying that God created Satan and does not regret it, does not consider it a mistake. Even though Satan is in rebellion against Him. Yah created Satan and punishes him eternally and calls it good. Here's another problem with that story: if Satan is smart, he knows his rebellion cannot succeed and what his punishment will be. Only an idiot progresses on a quest he knows to be doomed.
You seem to be hung up on this "omniscient" and "omnipotent" and your conception/ perception of God. My YAH is the God of Israel, the one who admits making man was a mistake. He was grieved at his heart for making man. When you are grieved about a thing, you weep. YAH took his mistake very seriously. My feelings about satan is that he should know better than to rebel against his creator, after all, he beholds the face of God. He was special at one time when he and Yahushua sang together - the morning stars sang together. YAH may or may not consider it as mistake to have created satan and his angels, but as far as I know, he hasn't repented for making them, nor has he atoned for them, so they need a savior. Satan and his reject the will of God, which is probably why Mohammad said that people who follow him are muslim [ in submission to the will of YAH], and their religion is simply submission to the will of YAH. Rebellion is rejecting the will of YAH. I truly believe that satan thinks he can challenge YAH's godship due to his mistake, and challenge YAH's holiness by throwing satan and his into heal, and saving evil man. How can satan, who beholds the face of God, was favored by YAH, was a friend of YAH, and is in open rebellion of YAH, in spite of knowing him for eons, be forgiven for rebellion against the will of YAH? You don't get to pick and choose who YAH will save, YAH doesn't need your help deciding who he can and cant save. Satan: "how can you throw us, your angels, into hell and save evil men? What about fairness? What about your Holiness? He rejects the redemption of man! He would love to make a case for YAH to reject the atoning work of Yahushua. That's why jesus satans tell you that you are going to hell, even after Yahushua said "it is finished". The atonement is done. So, who is Yahushua coming to kill? The people he died on the cross for, or the ones who say the atonement isn't for you?
I admit I require omniscience and omnipotence of any God I worship. Anything less is simply not God, only a powerful being. If there is no being that fits the bill, there is no God. If your God makes mistakes, He is obviously (to me) not God. In fact, you might want to look up some of the beliefs of Gnostic Christianity. According to them, that being you call YAH could be an evil demiurge on the Earth presenting himself as God to confuse people as to what is right and wrong. Truly, there is no Satan. Humans can be evil enough to each other. We need to help to make us sin against each other.
You are the epitome of satan. That's his attitude. Satan would say "any god who makes a mistake cannot be god". That's the whole fukkin problem. You think you can "require" something of God. A God who can make a mistake, admit it, atone for it, is what drew me to him. Infallible does not exist. Birth defects are a result of a fallible reproduction system. Asteroids hitting planets are the result of a fallible solar system. YAH can also be reasoned with and change his own mind, such as when he told moses he was going to kill the Hebrews for making a golden calf. Moses said "the Egyptians will laugh and say you brought them into the desert to kill them". So YAH repented of it and changed his mind.
forgive my quoting you in full - computer trubbles! anyway, you say you require 'omnis' to worship any god. I'm curious to know why these are your primary concerns, and not ethics and demonstrated benevolence. it seems power is more important to you than an ideal role model for humanity. happy to stand corrected if I've read you awry!
I mentioned the 'omnis' because they were conspicuously absent in BLL's YAH. Benevolence is also a concern, but in this our ideas of God were identical (I assume). I do not feel ethics is a divine concern. I believe that the fact we can happy is a demonstration of divine benevolence; that following a code of ethics makes us more successful and happier is a further demonstration.
