Brad: If you're advertising the Bible God again then this is the same circular logic you've posted before. Citing a book which states that God is just while at the same time the very same book states that God endorses genocide, sacrifice, slavery, and manipulates his creation to suit his whims doesn't establish anything except that there is an inconsistency between the claim the Bible God is holy and just and the evidence that he isn't. Your rationalization was, and apparently continues to be, that the Bible God is God so whatever he does must be holy and just by definition.
Christian: Excellent deduction! That is EXACTLY what my rationalization is. I believe that the only thing that makes ANYTHING just, holy, or good is that God endorses it.
Footnote: What can any rational person say to something as utterly absurd as this? The believer has confirmed that he is employing circular logic and that circular logic is the only evidence he needs to claim his God is genuine. In other words:
The Bible says God is good
therefore God must be good
because the Bible is from God.
This type of thinking illustrates why debates involving zealous believers of any concept who employ reasoning like this is a certain waste of time. The believer never has do establish anything. Anything can be asserted and is valid as long as it is found in a book whose authority is based on itself.
Brad: In other words, because God is alleged to be holy and just, any behavior he exhibits must actually be holy and just.
Christian: Yep. God is the very definition of holy and just, and all other things that are holy and just are reflections of Him as the moon reflects the light of the sun.
Footnote:
Well, fellow thinkers, there you have it. Simply ALLEGING that a God is holy makes him holy. How can a rational mind communicate with the mind of a believer that is completely programmed by a belief system? The answer is that it can't.You may as well try to have a discussion about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Since any assertion stands as valid, there is no evidence or thinking required. That's one of the insidious things about structured religions. They can make your life easier because you won't have to be burdened with having to think. All you have to do is nod your head up and down to whatever absurdity the religious hierarchy wants to feed to you. No thinking required.
That's the nature of the salvation prescribed by Christianity. All you have to do is believe the Gospel and presto! You're saved. If you don't believe it, you go to hell. Choose Jesus and go to heaven!
A western spiritualist named Vernon Howard summarized this type of superficial belief in the following parable:
COLORFUL PACKAGES
Student: I am afraid to question my acquired beliefs.
Teacher: Don't be afraid to see that you have been cruelly deceived. A hungry man asked some officials for bread. With many smiles and sympathies they gave him several packages with colorful wrappings, assuring him he would never be hungry again. On the way home he could feel that the weight of the packages was not right for bread, so opening them, he found stones. Something in you can feel the difference between truth and falsehood, but you must courageously open the packages. You will then see how easy it is to throw away useless stones.