For those of you who know the bible better than I do...

[Moria Jackson]

I made a claim today that I should not have done without having specific examples in mind (and if this has been discussed before, please let me know).

 

My claim is that god is bipolar. Of course, there are other mental disorders we could label him with, but this is the one I want to explore.

 

It is evidenced initially by creation of the world.... he worked for 6 days with no sleep, and thought everything was good. (manic stage) and then he destroyed the world in a flood (depressed stage).  But what else is there?

 

I found this article later, and while it was amusing, its not quite the concrete, biblical evidence I want, though it does make reference to a few books.

[Julien]

What god? Now we're claiming he's sick? When will all the discussions about someone/something that doesn't exist end? It's outrageous...

[Moria Jackson]

Then don't participate.

[Julien]

Why? Because I think this whole discussion is pointless, it gives theists and their made-up god too much attention, or because I don't agree with you? I can find so many flaws in this discussion... that's why I did post here.

 

First of all, who is god? Does he/she/it exist? Can you prove it? If yes, fine; if no, what's the reason of this discussion?

If you have proven that god exists, is he/she human or at least is it an animal? If yes, fine; if no, how can you determine whether it is sick or not? After all, if you talk about the god we all know that does not exist but we've heard so many times about, he is supposed to be all powerful, all knowing, ..., so I guess he can't get sick. So, what's the point of this discussion?

 

If the answers to my main two questions are no, how can nothing be bipolar? So, you're claim is incorrect. In the end, I did participate, and I hope it helped you. It's nothing personal, but I find discussions about something that doesn't exist useless, except when you're trying to help someone understand if and why that something does not exist.

 

I guess hope you're just bored.

[Jānis Ķimsis]

Nigma, have you ever had a discussion on anything not real, like a fictional book or movie?

[Julien]

When a fictional movie or a book will cause as much suffering, I'll treat it like the bible and/or god. I may have been nitpicking a little, but that's how I chose to reply to her discussion. I think that god doesn't exist ergo he can't be bipolar. I'm not even off topic with what I've said so far. So, what's wrong with my answer? Is it incorrect? I don't think so. It's just different (apart from one post by Ava Germaine).

[Edwin Haigh]

What I don't get is why you would join an atheist discussion but refuse to talk about the character of the God character. You are right that you aren't off topic but you've somehow managed to missed the point... I don't know how you did it... I'm impressed actually.

[Julien]

I've answered this already in my reply to one of your posts already.

[Mo Trauen]

Yeah, but you didn't have the sense to simply say "my bad" and then get with the discussion.

[Julien]

You say "my bad" when you actually make a mistake...

 

Just so you won't say "Yeah, and you made a mistake" I'll just say it from now: I haven't made any mistake regarding this topic. The original post should have been enough for you to understand that, but you had to keep coming back for more. I am not apologizing for saying what I actually think.

[Mo Trauen]

No, he is off-topic.  A discussion of the mental or emotional character of the god of the bible on an atheist site implicitly includes the assumption that most or all of the participants think he doesn't exist at all and that the discussion is comparable to one about a literary character that one might have in a class on literature.

[Julien]

Most of literary characters are humans. Don't make this longer than it should be. How many non-human, non-animal "creatures" have you met in your life that you are so full of yourself that you can diagnose it like you would diagnose another human being? Your post is off topic, my original one isn't, because I was simply asking how can you diagnose god if you don't even know what it actually is, which is on topic, because it has to do with god, the one actually being diagnosed. If you're a cop you don't say: "I busted a fish for jaywalking." and not expect people saying that fish can't walk, can't breathe for long outside of the water unless you're talking about amphibious fish - but then why didn't you say amphibious fish and you said just fish? -, etc. If you take care of all the details before you start a discussion, then you can get angry for people talking about the details you have taken care off already, but if you just say "god is bipolar"... well, you either deal with it as it is your fault or next time pay more attention to details because not everybody is the same, and for others, the fact that god isn't in fact human, is imporant in deciding whether you can or cannot diagnose it like a human.

[Ryan E. Hoffman]

JESUS H. CHRIST! 

 

You have made such a big deal over nothing. Seriously. There are lots of gods and mythological characters that have human traits. That's because, as the exceedingly high majority of people on this site realize, they were made by humans as were the saviors they created. Zeus, Apollo, Thor, Gaia, Enkidu, Gilgamesh, Heracles, all human traits, all literary characters. To analyze God, as in the monotheistic character of Yahweh is just as valid.

 

You overreacted. Just let it go. If you don't want to participate, there's a little link that says "stop following."