What if God is intentionally hiding?

[SarahM32]

21. Ya gotta love Carlin. He's right on. That concept of God IS bullshit.

However, because the concept of an Almighty Superman in the sky who promised an eternal reward in heaven for good behavior and threatens everlasting punishment in hell for disobedience IS bullshit, it does not mean that God does not exist.

It's just that God is not what most religious people think it is. (See The Nature of God.)

The God I know is not controlling but has ensured that we have free will.

The God I know does not mete out extreme punishment, but is merciful, understanding and forgiving, like any good parent, even though in one sense he/she does have his/her a way of chastising us when we do wrong and are offensive.

However, it is not imposed. It's the natural law of reciprocity and cause and effect, action and reaction. It's when we experience the karmic consequences of our words and actions, or "reap what we sow." Because what goes around comes around.

Granted, the texts of the Abrahamic religions contain a lot of patriarchal nonsense. There's no question about that. But we have to consider how long ago they were written, and how much humanity has learned since then.

Also, as it says in an article titled Why the "Religious Right" Is Wrong, it is helpful to observe how Liberals and Conservative interpret Christianity differently.

Conservative Christians focus on the patriarchal aspects and love to quote all the things based on the idea that "I am the Way, and the Truth," even though they don't understand what Jesus meant by that. Instead, they sum up Jesus’ message as "Obey me or you're going to suffer in hell for eternity." It's an authoritarian, patriarchal approach.

Liberal progressive Christians, on the other hand, focus on the matriarchal aspects that are around the Golden Rule, and around peace, love, freedom, compassion, charity, forgiveness, and pacifism, acknowledging the idea that it will be the humble, gentle, peaceful and meek who shall inherit the earth.

Those two approaches inevitably produce the situation we have now, with proud and militant Conservative Christians trying to impose and enforce their beliefs, while Liberal Christians usually do not retaliate but instead tend to turn the other cheek

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In other words, people interpret the Bible as they so inclined, and truth, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
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