Do You Believe in a God Who Gets Angry?
By ComplexMind
@ComplexMind (37)
United States
January 24, 2007 9:26am CST
This was one of the main stumbling blocks for me that ultimately caused me to loose faith in my old way of viewing God and adopt a much different, non-theistic view of who/what God is.
I could not square away in my mind that an omniscient, all powerful & loving God would EVER get angry as is so often portrayed in the Old Testament. To me, anger is by definition born out of ignorance and is something for which we should attempt to eliminate from our lives.
This doesn't mean that we don't wish for things to be different, its just that when attempting to initiate long lasting change, anger it seems that anger is never a very good starting point.
What are your thoughts on this and of a God who can become angry?
2 people like this
26 responses
@nkife52 (207)
• Canada
24 Jan 07
I agree that an all-powerful, all-knowing deity does not have the used for anger.
The Bible mentions that God is Love, but from a biblical view of an anthropomorphized god, perhaps this anger is out of love, in the way a parent will get angry at a child for doing something wrong, but only because they love them enough to discipline them properly. The parent may be angry, but they are not filled with hate.
As for an actual angry God, I don't believe human characteristics such as jealousy, anger or favouritism should be ascribed to it.
2 people like this
@melody1011 (1663)
• India
25 Jan 07
Yup, i agree to what you are saying, but we are no one to question teh actions of the one who created us. He is the creator and the all knowing one. How can we wonder and question what his actions are??
@JMPILAPIL (503)
• Philippines
25 Jan 07
I don't believe in god who gets angry and I don't even have fear of god because instead of fearing him I think we should love him. Although God is what human portray, I don't think God posesses anger because it is a negative characteristic after all. Every nation and religion has their own perspective of god.
1 person likes this
@innechen (1318)
• Indonesia
26 Jan 07
i do believe that God can gets angry, but His anger is because He really love us and dont want us to get lost in this world.but human sometimes put Him a side and do bad thing over and over again eventhought God had forgive them and keep giving them another chance.so i really do understand that God becaome angry because He is so sad seeing His children become so bad each day
@not4me (1711)
• United States
24 Jan 07
I'm atheist and while this isn't one of the main reasons, it's definitely something I've thought about many times before when I was teetering between agnosticism and atheism.
O personally believe the bible was written in a time when people feared the unknown and were a little more ignorant than usual. Early Christians converted others on the basis of fear - if you don't act like this and do this and this and this then god will send you to hell. In reality, they just wanted others to conform to their own issues and hang-ups.
I believe Jesus was a real person because of historical findings but I don't believe in the mythical/mystical aspect of his life. People back then couldn't understand what was going on and were afraid of being judged and casted away from society so they turned to Christianity. (Think of the "witches" of Salem - it was like a microcosm of Early Christianity.)
Hope I didn't jump around too much. As you can tell I could go on and on about this and I have many more theories about Christianity going around in my head lol. I don't look down on other religions though. I just don't believe in this one especially.
1 person likes this
@friendship (2084)
• Canada
25 Jan 07
Although God is a loving thing, He can be angry with us. Take an example of our parents. When you read New Testament, Jesus was upset when traders used church as their market place.
@ComplexMind (37)
• United States
25 Jan 07
This is precisely what I am talking about and one of the reasons I started to question the whole Jesus = God equation. What a childish thing to do, to go into a church and start throwing things around? Can you imagine somebody doing such an action today and it being seen as taking the high ground?
I don't care how much I disagree with somebody's actions, if what they are doing is wrong, then it is my job to enlighten/educate them not piss them off by throwing their stuff around. How about simply asking them to leave first? If they give you any hell, then there are a million different peaceful ways to resolve your differences than getting violent.
@friendship (2084)
• Canada
25 Jan 07
Hi Complex Mind,
Is it your dog? It is very cute, though. Hmmm... I believe that Jesus = God. You may disagree with me but you are entitled with your opinion. I guess... time will prove it. Yeah... at the end of the world, of course (he...he...)
@ComplexMind (37)
• United States
25 Jan 07
Yes he is my dog and thanks, I think he's adorable too :)
Oh and if you're right, us non-believers won't have to wait for the end of the world to find out...should be pretty clear upon our deaths I should think.
Grant it, I'm not opposed to the thought that Jesus = God, but if that is true then I would also then believe that God = Me as well.
@adik13 (26)
• Philippines
25 Jan 07
i believe in God, but i don't believe that he gets angry. I am a catholic but i don't have faith in the contradiction packed "Holy Bible". It is where all questions started.
God is all good i believe that for a fact. he gave us free will because he loves us so. We do crazy things because of that free-will.
Also I believe that God is all knowing and powerful. If he knows everything that has been, everything that is now and everything to come, then he must have known that by giving us free-will we will commit sin.
If he's not o.k. with that then why else would he still bestow that gift to us?
And besides evil is essential to recognize goodness. Bad things need to happen to force something good.
@ComplexMind (37)
• United States
25 Jan 07
Very excellent point adik13 and one most often overlooked in Christianity. Goodness needs evil to exist at all. Without the contrast, we would not even be able to recognize good deeds as such, let alone appreciate them.
@phon4u (2215)
• Laos
25 Jan 07
I don't believe in a god who gets angry. The good god is free of anger, because it is a roat of sin, or the road to the hell. I avoid who are angry with me, because I don't want to get high blood pressure with any angry god or people. So I don't want them lead me to that way.
@sidearthman (179)
• India
25 Jan 07
ya i believe in GOD.....but no one has seen him...i have fulll faith in GOD as my parents also believe in it ......but sometimes such situations are created in which we are forced to belive that science is stronger over the power of god.....what to do in these kinds of situations??????
@bwinright (44)
• United States
26 Jan 07
He was only angry while his time was on earth and he was in human flesh. By the way it is okay to be angry, as long as you don't sin while being angry. If your telling me anybody in this world doesn't get angry then you are crazy.
@red_dragon (260)
• India
25 Jan 07
i believe in god...
but a god who gets angry is not some thing that comes in his quality...
so some says there are warrior gods who will get angry and fight with devil so i believe in such kind of gods...
@moonmage (148)
• United States
25 Jan 07
It's not so much the anger but the violent responses to people doing 'wrong' that bothered me more than anything. I would much rather believe that bad things in life are part of a cycle rather than some kind of extreme punishment. Anger is not always a negative emotion, it's how we handle it that matters.
@akumei1269 (1749)
• India
25 Jan 07
I don't believe in a God who gets angry .I neither believe in a God who loves .God of my belief is above all human emotion . He is not like human being in any respect .
@wasim989 (2298)
• India
25 Jan 07
Some people out there argue that God is love so I ask them that if god is just love then why he created hell and the answer is simple that God can be loving and caring as well as he can be angry but the remarkable thing about god is that his love is more powerful then his anger and that means he rarely gets angry over anyone.
@rosie_123 (6113)
•
25 Jan 07
Well I am not religious at all - and this is a great point which illustrates exactly why I am not. In my view, a God should be loving, supportive and forgiving - not vengeful and angry - if He is vengeful and angry it makes Him no better than the human race in my opinion. So - no - I do not.
@peddhie (110)
• Australia
25 Jan 07
I believe God is Loving God.I think if we say God angry, His anger will be shown on Judgement Day.I believe if we say God warns us because He loves us instead of saying He is angry with us. Coz if God's angry, man, no human will bear His anger.