Why does God hide away in secret ?

[modeller]

In the bible it repeatedly reports what God said but it's always in a loose unproven way. He supposedly talks to prophets privately, so the people for whom it is intended never actually hear it. e.g. Moses on top of a mountain
Sometimes he even uses a proxy to pass on a message e.g. Archangel Gabriel .
He supposedly talks to the prophets through dreams and visions but the prophets themselves all describe him differently.
In the Quaran he talked to Muhammad many times in a cave again when the prophet was alone.

Why the secrecy ?
If God wants us to believe in him and to hear his messages why not just tell us direct. Is that so difficult for a God who created the Universe.

[tonyav]

Maybe God is not hiding, perhaps God is just not there.

[modeller]

argostran #Flies and insects play an absolutely fundamental role in sustaining life on the planet . #

I'm glad we agree on a fundemental fact in ecology. A fact that can be demonstrated experimentally . Now you show me an experiment that proves God is involved.

[wildwood]

^^ //I'm glad we agree on a fundamental fact in ecology. A fact that can be demonstrated experimentally . Now you show me an experiment that proves God is involved.//

Ditto.

[birdie1971]

He's 'hiding' in the same way that fairies, unicorns, mermaids, goblins, etc. are all hiding...

[beso]

Those who have seen gods are most likely expereincing an epileptic seizure of the temporal lobes of the brain. This has been observed to induce hyper-religious thoughts.

Others were probably experiencing the effects of psychoactive substances. Just what species was that burning bush? And how much smoke did they inhale?

[birdie1971]

By his own admission, Mohammed had a series of 'seizures' which he later claimed were as a result of speaking directly to god. Even his own wife thought he was bonkers.

[beso]

Abraham was about to murder his son when he had what a normal person would call a moment of relative sanity.

[beso]

Joshua and his followers rampaged through the "Promised Land" slaughtering everyone in at least 30 tribes because god told them to.

Does that sound sane?

[FredPuli43]

The 'burning bush' is preserved in a monastery in Sinai, still growing from the original stock. The monks have stationed a large red fire extinguisher next to it. I''ve seen that and postcards on sale there show it,without any apparent sense of irony. Like so many things in the bible, there may be a natural explanation for this burning; some plants give off oil which vaporizes and will burn.

God does , of course, pass his message only to those who believe and who he entrusts to disseminate it. And then he waits for them to have it heard and written down with a lot of it being denied later by his own son. Makes sense. He is supposed to work in mysterious ways.

[naomi24]

^^If the burning bush still worked it would be handy. ;o)

[tonyav]

Parting the Red sea would be useful, save on those ferry trips.

[naomi24]

//maybe God does "speak " to us but not in words . What about instincts ? What about feeling fearful about doing something because deep down you know that it would be wrong ?
If he told us directly in words , at what point would he stop ? Would he be "in your ear" all day ? Would he do it so that only you can hear (in private/secret) or would he do it so that everyone could hear ?//

We may think God speaks to us, but how can we know it is God? Similarly, people claim they’ve seen Jesus, but how would they know it’s Jesus when they have no idea what he looked like? Human imagination is a great trickster.

Personally I don’t think the God of Abraham does hide away in secret. He's not there. He's dead.

[beso]

Unfortunately the god of Abraham is alive and well in the minds of billions of people. It is the biggest problem we fact in society.

[sandyRoe]

to be dead you must have once lived

[naomi24]

^^ Yes, indeed.

[modeller]

You may have heard of the God Spot in the brain. It is an area of the temporal lobe that is the most active when thinking of the supernatural.
It is very active in epilepsy and it can be stimulated magnetically and tests have shown that atheists respond the least. It may be a survival attribute
because it offers hope/answers despite evidence that none exist.

I thinke religion is a crutch that enables many people cope with life and for that purpose it has some merit.

There is the saying:Did God create our brains or Did our brains create God ?

[mibn2cweus]

"There is the saying:Did God create our brains or Did our brains create God ?"

Do they believe because they need to or do they need to because they believe?

[Batexia]

God does not hide. In fact, the Bible says, "He [God] decreed the appointed times and the set limits of the dwelling of men, for them to seek God, if they might grope for him and really find him.”—Acts 17:26, 27.

[modeller]

batexia : When I read that I thought that doesn't seem right according to any of my bibles so I checked them and it wasn't there in that form. On second thoughts I checked the JW Watchtower and there it was.

Why didn't you quote the source . ? Hiding it away ? Secret is it ?

Not that it matters because, in the event those words were as usual hidden away . Why set limits and times ? Why should man have to grope for them ? Surely if God exists he wants us to hear them not groping around in the dark at special times and within limits .