Is God punishing and wrathful or...?

Originally Posted by Moonglow

Life

Give the man a cigar.

[Moonglow]

[quote=Altair
This is true, but calling this ''God'' leads to all sorts of problems, expectations and even fighting.[/QUOTE]Hi Altair,

This can be true and reflected through out history.

A question I propose is; Who is creating the expectations, problems, and fighting to begin with?

Seems a lot of blame gets placed on “God”. Perhaps it is “our” (in regards to being a collective) own doing in many regards.

There seems choices are given at times as to how to respond and adjust. Which can exasperate things or calm them down.

[Moonglow]

Originally Posted by Greenslade

Hey there Moonglow
Does God need to punish us when we're doing a sterling job on our own?

Hey Greenslade,

Is it God punishing us or is it just what life may throw at us at times?

Are many things humans do to each other Gods fault or “our” own?

Not looking at the mirror does not mean there is no reflection there.
Meaning, at times need to take a look at oneself before throwing blame around.
(Not directed at you. Just a lesson I learned in life)

Btw: love the Alan Watts quote; “God is women and she’s black”, lol

Originally Posted by Moonglow

Is it God punishing us or is it just what life may throw at us at times?

Hey there Moonglow

Having God to blame for our ills means we don't have to take responsibility, God's punishment is the reinforcing of the victim mentality.

Maybe if there were no God we'd find the God within.

[Aknaton]

Somewhere in the Bible it says that Love covers a multitude of sins. We must also remember Karma is a law and if an individual doesn't allow God's Love to cover they're Karma then they get to work on it themselves I think.
We can imagine if the physical world comes to an end and we need to inhabit a higher body, the law of Karma would still be in effect and because we didn't use our physical time and resources to work out our karma or at least let the love of God touch and clean our karmic records, then we would have to work it out in a different way.
Now, suppose we got to inhabit a body which is more spiritual than this one when the world sorta comes to an end, and we most certainly know that five minutes in any spiritual plane feels much looooooonger than five minutes in the physical body, so if we are paying our karmic debt in a spiritual or more subtle time... Ouch!!! That would feel like hell wouldn't it?!

Is God punishing and wrathful or...?

God is what you want him to be.

Originally Posted by Aknaton

We must also remember Karma is a law and if an individual doesn't allow God's Love to cover they're Karma then they get to work on it themselves I think.

Karma and God don't come from the same cultures, God came from either Sumer or Egypt depending on which part of the Bible you're talking about while karma came from the Indus valley. The original Sanskrit word meant 'action', then a layer of ethics was added. God also provides an ethical compass.

[lemex]

Originally Posted by hazada guess

Is God punishing and wrathful or...?

Would we accept a God that was is my question. Would God accept us if we were punishing and wrathful or pretend. Observation helps give an answer, doesn't it. We always make it about us. If we got it wrong, what then, no harm, no foul, no understanding.

[Moonglow]

[quote=Greenslade]Hey there Moonglow

Having God to blame for our ills means we don't have to take responsibility, God's punishment is the reinforcing of the victim mentality./QUOTE]
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Hi Greenslade,

In one way can see God’s punishment as a type of victim mentality.
Can also in some ways be what one has been taught.

Something in either case is experienced to reenforce the view that God is punishing, IMO. Once again bringing the thought is it God doing this or oneself?

Guess depends upon a person view point and how one may feel about it.

If there be no “God”, then what is this “God with in”? To play with this a little.

There seems something deep with in that can be sought to connect with. It is almost like expectations are set up to have it be a certain way.

When these expectation are not met, then there seems a disappointment and even anger arise. Which seems gets projected upon God. “He didn’t support me or protect me” type of thinking, IMO.

Drop the expectations, what happens?

I have looked at God from other angles away from what is told and defined. In a way away from the term God as well. Still use it for reference and discussion purposes. Over all have come to peace with it.

Find that life goes on, things and circumstances occur. Some easy to get through, while others demand a real effort to get through. Some have been and at times continue to be wake up calls as to what is going on with in and around me. Call it what one will.

Originally Posted by Moonglow

In one way can see God’s punishment as a type of victim mentality.
Can also in some ways be what one has been taught.

Hey there Moonglow

This is where history can play its part in understanding what God is. The Roman Catholic church was established and not long after that it began its consolidation of religion. At the time the Holy Land was rife with small groups of rebels and trouble makers who opposed Roman rule, and the area was too large and scattered for the Romans to police. The idea was that if you controlled the religion your controlled the people, and God became punishing and wrathful. It was a control mechanism.

People can have victim mentalities so yes, God's punishment comes from their victim mentality. I've been told that God has a plan for me even though I'm an atheist, because I survived a crash that should have killed me. It works that way too, that while God is punishing and wrathful he's also merciful.

People look to rationalise what they don't understand, they try to fit it into a framework of some kind. In some ways this is where God comes from, as the creator and the prime mover but other cultures have something very similar. People still believe that natural disasters are God's punishment.

People derive comfort from where they will, it's human nature to look outside ourselves for what we need or a place to lay the blame. But if you look at Jesus' words, we all have a slice of God inside us.