I am going to give you a crash course in theists making claims and then evading arguments that trash their claims. Some time ago, I wrote a piece looking critically at the “God as father” analogy: “Looking Critically at the God as Father Analogy” I don’t want to give See Noevo, resident fundagelical Catholic zealot any more oxygen than he deserves, but I will hopefully show his completely dubious approach to arguing, and not facing up to counterpoints.
His point (in response to “So, does God punish the children for the sins of the father, or not? The message seems to be rather fuzzy.”) was:
In a certain sense He does. God “punishes” the children with the effects of the father’s sins.
In other words, the children are not punished for their guilt, for they have
none in regard to the father’s particular sin. But they can feel the repercussions of the other’s sin. For example, the rape victim feels the effects of the rapist’s sin. Sin is not a personal matter, at least not in its effects.
Eric replied:
“So your analogy would imply that God is incapable of preventing children from feeling the effects of their fathers’ sins.”
No, it does not.
…………..
“… either [God] chose to create the rule that the effects of a parents’ sins would be felt by the children, or he was impotent to design the universe differently. Please enlighten me as to which of those two options your theology tells us is the case.”The former.
Eric points out the problems:
Thanks for the straight answer. You realize your answer completely undermines your “in a certain sense” and “not punished for guilt” arguments above, right? God is doing the punishing through his free-will selection of the metaphysics he uses to run the universe….
Let’s say I design a two-chamber skinner box. I put a rat in one chamber, and the rat’s child in the other. I rig the box so that when papa rat pulls the lever, baby rat gets shocked. Papa rat pulls the lever. Baby rat squeals in pain as the shock goes through his body.
Is it baby rat’s fault he got shocked, or mine? Is baby rat’s suffering just – i.e. did he deserve it?
The net closes in. See replies:
It’s your “fault” for not designing the skinner box to be heaven, with the two rats first coming into being with immediate, perfect, and eternal bliss there.
But I guess I sort of understand your mysterious ways.
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