You might read this and think, 'this guy wrote some good pointers about general health, and used the opportunity to cram his religious and political opinions on us'... yeah... that's pretty much what i did here... hopefully you are reasonable and smart enough to find the baby in the bathwater :-)
i don't need to insert myself into some other people's argument, smarter people have already done so, but sometimes folks need to hear it again, in a different way... there is no paradox between a loving God creating things that are capable of evil... God did not 'create evil', God created (gave away) life/intelligence to things that are capable of keeping the first commandment, and exercising responsible use of free-will like the second most important commandment... some of those created things got too big for their own britches/ego, and used their intelligence to practice/exercise evil... God didn't 'create evil', God created things that are capable of good and evil, and some of them didn't chose wisely and follow God's lead, it was creation that rebelled, not a 'hypocritical' God paradox, the paradox doesn't exist, but it's a clever/cunning argument by folks that don't care for God, not caring for the God that offered life is the paradox... the better question/paradox, is 'why did you choose to rebel'
i get hung-up on this 'golden rule' thing sometimes... the most important commandment involves giving our creator/GOD his proper respect and appreciation, and not valuing others people/things/gods over the real thing... so i dunno, maybe that's the 'Platinum Rule'? ... and then mutual respect/appreciation for others is still the 'Golden Rule'? ... i dunno, i'll let smarter people bicker over details, but both ideals deserve their place on the trophy-shelf of decision-making, and interacting with creation
You might read this and think, 'this guy wrote some good pointers about general health, and used the opportunity to cram his religious and political opinions on us'... yeah... that's pretty much what i did here... hopefully you are reasonable and smart enough to find the baby in the bathwater :-)
i don't need to insert myself into some other people's argument, smarter people have already done so, but sometimes folks need to hear it again, in a different way... there is no paradox between a loving God creating things that are capable of evil... God did not 'create evil', God created (gave away) life/intelligence to things that are capable of keeping the first commandment, and exercising responsible use of free-will like the second most important commandment... some of those created things got too big for their own britches/ego, and used their intelligence to practice/exercise evil... God didn't 'create evil', God created things that are capable of good and evil, and some of them didn't chose wisely and follow God's lead, it was creation that rebelled, not a 'hypocritical' God paradox, the paradox doesn't exist, but it's a clever/cunning argument by folks that don't care for God, not caring for the God that offered life is the paradox... the better question/paradox, is 'why did you choose to rebel'
i get hung-up on this 'golden rule' thing sometimes... the most important commandment involves giving our creator/GOD his proper respect and appreciation, and not valuing others people/things/gods over the real thing... so i dunno, maybe that's the 'Platinum Rule'? ... and then mutual respect/appreciation for others is still the 'Golden Rule'? ... i dunno, i'll let smarter people bicker over details, but both ideals deserve their place on the trophy-shelf of decision-making, and interacting with creation