Religion Discussions > Religion :: Namely, the Baha'i Faith

God does not punish

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Truthsayer:
I am a true believer in reincarnation and 'second chances'. It is said that, "Fate guides the willing and drags the unwilling". I don't like the word 'fate' as it sounds so harsh and final. I prefer the word 'Karma', as with karma free will still applies.

Those who deny or refuse to face their karma may feel that they being 'dragged', by the hair, kicking and screaming through life, forced to face certain fears and truths about themselves they'd rather not. Through their own denial or refusal, they are not being punished by any outside force, least of all God. Moreso, they are punishing themselves.

We are our own judge and jury, God is our witness. Since no one can lie against God's witness, this truth we must face, and facing the truth about oneself can be the most frightening, difficult and painful thing we will ever have to do in life. It is through the facing of the truth about ourselves that I define the concept of "hell". The longer one denies or refuses it, the longer one remains there. God does not punish us for our actions, but in some extreme cases, may God have mercy.

Husker Du:
Hmmm, I've always been back and forth with this.  For a long time I thought "How could god punish and be angry?!  He is all loving."  Then again I'm all over the place with faith.

The way I tend to look at it (when I'm into faith and God) is God has similar aspects from all faiths.  All loving, all caring and in a way the parent to us all because with out God there wouldn't be an us.  Now if we look at it in that way then if God was a good parent he/she would punish us right?  A good parent doesn't say "I love you.  Do what you want.  Run into the street, hit people, fight, curse etc."  A good parent will punish their child.  They do it out of love.  Yes, karma, we get what we put out, but who allows that?  God, that is if you believe God is all powerful and opulent.

I dunno my two cents.  

misfitguy:

My belief on God punishing us, is that it is just to much form me to accept that a benevolent God will cause pain and sorrow.  He gave us free will and a soul.  If we nourish our soul with prayer, recognition of God and good acts, our soul will help us as a guide to do the right things every second of every minute of the day.  If we don't nourish our soul, we become guideless, but we still have free will.  So now every decision of every second of every day is dependent on ourselves, exclusively.  This is where we create our own sorrow and pain...most of the time. 

Of course we live in a dynamic of 5 billion people and each of them have free will and each of them can cause pain and sorrow to others.  To suggest that God stirs this soup of humanity up to teach me a lesson would be arrogant of me.  Fate and kismet suggest that there is a plan that we can't circumvent, which would then eliminate any free will.  Karma is used to explain what has happened and not what will happen.  I can't accept that God is involved with each of my decisions I make except through my soul which was a gift from God and that is what makes us different from other animals.

Mick

Husker Du:

--- Quote from: misfitguy on August 31, 2009, 07:36:30 AM ---
My belief on God punishing us, is that it is just to much form me to accept that a benevolent God will cause pain and sorrow.  He gave us free will and a soul.  If we nourish our soul with prayer, recognition of God and good acts, our soul will help us as a guide to do the right things every second of every minute of the day.  If we don't nourish our soul, we become guideless, but we still have free will.  So now every decision of every second of every day is dependent on ourselves, exclusively.  This is where we create our own sorrow and pain...most of the time. 

Of course we live in a dynamic of 5 billion people and each of them have free will and each of them can cause pain and sorrow to others.  To suggest that God stirs this soup of humanity up to teach me a lesson would be arrogant of me.  Fate and kismet suggest that there is a plan that we can't circumvent, which would then eliminate any free will.  Karma is used to explain what has happened and not what will happen.  I can't accept that God is involved with each of my decisions I make except through my soul which was a gift from God and that is what makes us different from other animals.

Mick


--- End quote ---

Animals don't have souls?
And when a loving parent is punishing a child are they really causing pain and sorrow?

misfitguy:
The answers to your question is no and yes.

What separates us from the animals, what makes us human is our knowledge of God.  The gift God gave us is logic and rationality so that we can know Him and a soul.  It is nice to think that it is so, but there is no sign of a soul in an animal.

When a parent punishes a child, of course there is pain and sorrow.  Maybe you are different than me, but I never once loved my Mother more because she spanked me or my Father more because he mindlessly berated me.  If you experienced any of these things, did they give you comfort?  A parent should give guidance and direction and never punishment.  I once took my daughters drivers license away from her for a month because she had a beer at a party.  It wasn't punishment.  It was guidance and direction.  I had to take her to school everyday for a month.  She couldn't drive.  A lesson that twenty years later, she still talks about. 

Corporal punishment has never worked, other than to create fear in a person. 

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