Proteus wrote:
We say G-d condescended to become a human being. . .
To what end?

Did G-d require that He sacrifice to Himself (and as a Christian many believe Jesus IS G-d so this is really nonsensical).

Did your god screw up so badly that He had to condescend to become human and kill himself as a sacrifice to himself in some misguided sense of blood lust?   

The purpose of sacrifice in Judaism is to give something of value to G-d.   If G-d is the one MAKING the sacrifice -- where is the sacrifice to HIM?    In the Christian version the person gains nothing -- no wisdom, no growth, no sense of awe, no sense of foreboding that "there but for the grace of G-d go I" -- and they do not give something of themselves -- something that is valuable to them.  It is a worthless gesture where the Christian is an outsider -- a spectator -- to a god sacrificing himself to himself for no purpose at all. . .

Christians seem to think this "gift" is so beautiful but in fact it is disgusting.       The whole point of life is for man to exercise his free will to choose good over evil -- to choose life over death.  We should not blame G-d when men choose death.    Your comment:
PRECOGNITION.  One can wish that precognition were possible to the extent that one can be certain of G-d's plan for one's life. Then one would never again have to take risks or make decisions; one would never again be the victim of anyone's errors. But this does not happen. Whatever victories one may meet along the way, the wheel turns round to the point where we began, with the right question and the right answer.
shows that you do not truly understand the concept of free will or even why G-d created this world, let alone "where G-d IS."   I do not desire precognition -- that would defeat the entire reason He created me!

It is not odd that a Christian would think the main question is "where is G-d."  Pope  Benedict XVI asked this question at Auschwitz:
"Where was G-d in those days? . . .Why was he silent? How could he permit this endless slaughter, this triumph of evil?"
Christians may wonder where G-d is.   Jews don't need to ask this question.  We KNOW where G-d is -- and it is the wrong question.  It assumes that G-d is either powerless or does not care -- and neither are true.    "Where is G-d?"  is the WRONG (not the "right") question.  From Aish:

The G-d "who spoke on Sinai" was not addressing himself to angels or robots who could do no wrong even if they wanted to. He was speaking to real people with real choices to make, and real consequences that flow from those choices. Auschwitz wasn't G-d's fault. He didn't build the place. And only by changing those who did build it from free moral agents into puppets could he have stopped them from committing their horrific crimes.

It was not G-d who failed during the Holocaust or in the Gulag, or on 9/11, or in Bosnia. It is not G-d who fails when human beings do barbaric things to other human beings. Auschwitz is not what happens when the G-d who says "Thou shalt not murder" and "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" is silent. It is what happens when men and women refuse to listen.


סופי

And everything that Sarah tells you, listen to her voice. Bereshit (Genesis) 21:12
Last Edited By: Sophiee1 Wed, 5-Oct-11 20:39:43. Edited 1 times.