The Passion of the Christ: please help me

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:


Remember that whole Noah deal? He had to erase the whole blackboard and start again.

Originally posted by Forumie Partie Markie:

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:


Remember that whole Noah deal? He had to erase the whole blackboard and start again.

That is the one bible story I have most trouble with.

For one it is not possible on many levels. Not genetically perfect, Lions would eat the antelope….. etc.

But more importantly, it shows a bitter god who has control over events and this world. Neither do I see as being particularly appealing. If he had the kind of power to cause a worldwide flood surely he could temper down a couple of waves.

So that sets up a conundrum, either he does not care, or he does not care enough anymore to do anything.

Originally posted by Forumie Partie Markie:
That is the one bible story I have most trouble with.

For one it is not possible on many levels. Not genetically perfect, Lions would eat the antelope….. etc.

But more importantly, it shows a bitter god who has control over events and this world. Neither do I see as being particularly appealing. If he had the kind of power to cause a worldwide flood surely he could temper down a couple of waves.

So that sets up a conundrum, either he does not care, or he does not care enough anymore to do anything.

The Problem of Pain answers the universal question, "Why would an all-loving, all-knowing God allow people to experience pain and suffering?" Master Christian apologist C.S. Lewis asserts that pain is a problem because our finite, human minds selfishly believe that pain-free lives would prove that God loves us. In truth, by asking for this, we want God to love us less, not more than he does. "Love, in its own nature, demands the perfecting of the beloved; that the mere 'kindness' which tolerates anything except suffering in its object is, in that respect at the opposite pole from Love." In addressing "Divine Omnipotence," "Human Wickedness," "Human Pain," and "Heaven," Lewis succeeds in lifting the reader from his frame of reference by artfully capitulating these topics into a conversational tone, which makes his assertions easy to swallow and even easier to digest. Lewis is straightforward in aim as well as honest about his impediments, saying, "I am not arguing that pain is not painful. Pain hurts. I am only trying to show that the old Christian doctrine that being made perfect through suffering is not incredible. To prove it palatable is beyond my design." The mind is expanded, God is magnified, and the reader is reminded that he is not the center of the universe as Lewis carefully rolls through the dissertation that suffering is God's will in preparing the believer for heaven and for the full weight of glory that awaits him there. While many of us naively wish that God had designed a "less glorious and less arduous destiny" for his children, the fortune lies in Lewis's inclination to set us straight with his charming wit and pious mind.

Originally posted by Celeste:

Originally posted by j_lee:
Enid tries to rebel but is ultimately just an onscreen cliche of every too-cool-for-that art student. If I want to experience that I can do it at any local university.

she should have shacked up with Steve Buscemi and lived happily ever after

Originally posted by Arthwys:
ggw….precisely what I was looking to reference after someone knocked me earlier for mentioning C.S. Lewis. I would also suggest checking out "A Grief Observed" it's basicaly Lewis writing in a journal all of his theological thoughts following the untimely death of the woman he had married only about 2 years before. Chock full of things like…"how could God be such a sadist?"

Originally posted by HoyaSaxa03:
I had to read a bunch of CS in a "philosophy and literature" course … I thank god […] that i never have to read that blowhard again …

Originally posted by Taipei Personality:

Originally posted by HoyaSaxa03:
I had to read a bunch of CS in a "philosophy and literature" course … I thank god […] that i never have to read that blowhard again …

So, then which author/philosopher do you appropriate your theological worldview from?