How does a god know he/she is all there is?

What about the sin of prosecution for blasphemy?

Quote: FrGamble

if God is to still allow us freedom and therefore the ability to love there is not much more that He can do besides provide us with moral laws,

In other words, god is just about worthless
in any practical manner. He can do nothing
except shake his finger and point out our
flaws. That much is obvious, just look at
the suffering in this miserable world.

Good thing with have organizations like the Red
Cross, depending on god and his shaking
finger will get you a bellyful of nothing.

Who said anything about wagging a finger, that sounds more like the accuser, aka Satan. I'm talking about a loving God who offers us a moral law to bless our lives and a hug to comfort us when we fail. The suffering in this world is because we don't listen to the God given moral law written in our hearts.

Good thing we have a God who forgives us and helps us to do what is right. Depending on a God who just shakes His finger will get you nothing. Depending on a God who loves you, forgives you, and sees how wonderful you are will get you everything.

Quote: FrGamble

Who said anything about wagging a finger.

My grandma used to wag her bony
finger at us when we weren't obeying
her rules. Maybe she was Satan, who
knows.

To sum up, god is powerless to help
his people on earth, other than having
a few morals for us to follow. Have I got
that right? All that stuff Jesus said
prayer would do, that if you asked
it would given, was just bunk added
later by some over zealous NT
writer. Is that what you're telling us?

Quote: FrGamble

It might be helpful to this discussion to think about St. Anselm's simple definition of who God is:

"God is that of which nothing greater can be thought."

The Steel Curtain is God?

Mind blown.

Quote: rxwine

So...how would even a God know that he is all there is?

You'd expect a "superior" being to be aware of their limitations and to heed Socrates' Maxim, i.e. "If I am the wisest man in Athens, it is because I alone know that I know nothing."

So a god who think themselves omniscient would not be aware of not knowing something. A wise god, then, would look for things they don't know.

Quote: Evenbob

To sum up, god is powerless to help
his people on earth, other than having
a few morals for us to follow. Have I got
that right?

I think you know the answer to your own question. Have you ever gotten anything right in regards to our discussions on Christianity?

Quote: FrGamble

I think you know the answer to your own question.

I was summing up what you said.
God gives us morals and that's
about it. The NT claims Jesus
promised to give all believers
whatever they asked for in prayer,
but what he was really selling was
an after death insurance policy.
Believe in him and be rewarded
later. He asks a lot for a completely
unverified promise of return. Talk
about putting all your eggs in one
basket. Always an unwise business
move.

God does give us morality and I think you are completely ignoring what an amazing gift that is. Try to put together an IKEA piece without instructions and that is nothing compared to trying living life without some guidelines and instructions. We are lost without this, but thank God it is given to us. Not only that but God gives us the help we need to live the moral life. In every religion there are ways to ask for and receive forgiveness and some type of sacramental and/or communal prayer or meal that unities us together as a community. Mankind cannot live in isolation we need a community, God provides that. He also answers are deepest prayer, which is not a million bucks or a new car, but what we think it will give us - happiness, peace, and a feeling of being loved. Any prayer you can come up with is really about that and asking for that. Jesus promises to answer that prayer and to give us what we truly seek. By living a good and moral life we find ourselves happy, peaceful, and loved. (N.B. This doesn't mean that life will be easy if we live the right way, we still live in a broken world and sin effects the innocent as well) All this God gives us as well as a promise that the joy, peace, and love we experience in life is just a foretaste of the perfection that awaits us forever in Heaven.

Quote: FrGamble

God does give us morality

No, morality is an evolving thing, it
constantly changes as society changes.
The big ones, killing, stealing, lying,
never change. But the rest do. Morality
is fluid, never written in stone.

Quote:

He also answers are deepest prayer, which is not a million bucks or a new car.

Even if that's your deepest prayer, he
gets to decide what's best for you?
So you admit what Jesus supposedly
said about praying and getting what
you want is just made up hokum to
sell the new religion to the rubes.