Do poly atheists know the Bible?

[Kidlicious]

Could God himself grant a faith so strong even he couldn't remove it?

But Job still sins. God rebukes him. He repents.

[Ben Kenobi]

That's logically contradictory while the idea of people naturally having stronger faith isn't.

If that were the case then one could define lack of faith as a disability. Sorta like being deaf to sounds, you could just be blind to God.

One day perhaps, they'll be able to fix it so that you can experience God fully.

[Ben Kenobi]

But Job still sins. God rebukes him. He repents.

Yep. God gives us free will - where we can choose to follow him or reject him.

[Ban Kenobi]

Lack of faith in God would be a disability if it actually hindered anyone's ability to live a normal life.

[Kidlicious]

Yep. God gives us free will - where we can choose to follow him or reject him.

He didn't reject God.

[Ben Kenobi]

Lack of faith in God would be a disability if it actually hindered anyone's ability to live a normal life.

Given that most people do have faith in God, we could then conclude that yes, it is a disability in that you are hindered from living a normal life.

That is, if it were actually true that people were hindered by a physical disability. It could even be corrected through surgery. Gosh, doesn't that sound like fun? Going under the knife so that you could truly see God?

[Kidlicious]

God isn't refining Job's faith. Job sin's. He is in the darkness. Nothing in the narative suggests that his faith gets him out. God rebukes him and shows him the light.

[Nikolai]

Lack of faith in God would be a disability if it actually hindered anyone's ability to live a normal life.

Oh, but it does. There is a life and there is a death. All people will at some point face either eternal life or eternal death. Lack of faith in God means you get eternal death.

[Ban Kenobi]

"Most people do have faith in God"? Are you ignoring people who live outside the US or are you including all religious belief systems in the "faith in God" category?

[Ben Kenobi]

God isn't refining Job's faith. Job sin's. He is in the darkness. Nothing in the narative suggests that his faith gets him out. God rebukes him and shows him the light.

Job 28:23-8

God understands the way to it
and he alone knows where it dwells,
for he views the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
When he established the force of the wind
and measured out the waters,
when he made a decree for the rain
and a path for the thunderstorm,
then he looked at wisdom and appraised it;
he confirmed it and tested it.
And he said to the human race,
“The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,
and to shun evil is understanding.”

Pretty clear to me. Job's faith is what gets him out.

My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.

[Kidlicious]

Job 28:23-8



Pretty clear to me. Job's faith is what gets him out.

When God comes down from heaven and directly points out your error you don't have faith just because you take his advice. That's reason, not faith. Faith is when you don't know something but you believe it anyway.

[Nikolai]

Which Job did before God came down in the storm.

[Ben Kenobi]

When God comes down from heaven and directly points out your error you don't have faith just because you take his advice. That's reason, not faith. Faith is when you don't know something but you believe it anyway.

As Job himself stated in Job 28 - in the part that I quoted. Job himself affirmed God and his justice, mercy and understanding contrary to others who did not. This is why God explicitly states that the other three are to give sacrifices to God and that Job is to pray for them.

[Kidlicious]

Which Job did before God came down in the storm.

You mean, "as surely as God lives, who has denied me justice..."

[Ban Kenobi]

God is apparently so determined to make people have faith in him that he has inflicted enormous amounts of suffering throughout history to make their faith stronger, yet even now only around half of the world's population is even monotheistic. I guess that's the best a all-powerful god who really wants people to have faith in him can do.