How do find out what the nature of God is?

I thought as my first post I would address something that has come in to my mind from time to time. For those who believe in God, Allah, a supreme being or whatever you would like to call Him, how do you know what His nature is? From the Bible? The Quran? From your feelings? Through Prayers? From someone else who say they talk to God? People, who supposedly know God, talk as if they know what he wants. The people who crash planes in to buildings, no doubt, felt they knew what their God wanted and knew what their expected reward was. People who killed millions of men, women and children, thought they where doing God's bidding. Here, I am referring to things like the Crusades, treatment of those who don't believe as they do, witch hunts, Old Testament stories. I could go on, but you know what I mean.

The sources of what our supposed understanding of God can be somewhat be ambiguous, untrustworthy, and possibly goes against what we hold dear now. Let me begin with the Old Testament, does anyone actually read the entire old testament anymore? I remember in my Sunday school classes and other religious institutions would instruct us to read only certain parts and skip the rest. I remember when I read the Old Testament from beginning to end without skipping anything, I was shocked by the amount of sex, killing, and lying there was. Lot's daughters and what they did to their father, mass killings of villages and God was pleased! The deception is numerous, the whole Isaac and Jacob thing where the wives and the mothers had to deceive to make the right son get in the right place is something else. The old testament instructs us on how to treat our slaves. If slavery is bad, I mean if the God we know today has told us that slavery is bad and we have fought to get rid of slavery why did he make it alright in the first place. God could have made one of the ten commandments that slavery is bad and have to value for all human life. Can one imagine what the world would be like if all of humanity was valued and that understanding had started around 2000 BC, and if you believed that if you didn't you would go to hell. Some say that it was the Christians who ended Slavery, on the same tone, one could say that it was the Christians who prolonged it. The amazing thing is, slavery is still going on today. I find it hard to have the Old Testament be the source of the kind of God that looks down upon us. God is the one is doing most of the destruction and killing to those who do not believe. This is not the loving God that was taught to me back in my younger years.

Ok, so let's leave the Old Testament, it's, well .... , it's old. We have the New Testament, it's newer, it's says so in the the name. Let me review some of the things that are somewhat troublesome to me. Upon reading the stories of Jesus, it has become clear to me that this person is not the kind of guy that I would want as my spiritual counselor or mentor in life. Here is are some of the things he says, In Matthew he says "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." And the next verse something about breaking up the family. I certainly don't believe in that, I love and care for my family would do anything for them. Jesus also will reward those men who leaves their family for him. Again, why would Jesus want to me leave my family, didn't God command me to have a family, you know back in Genesis where I am supposed to multiple and all that. God/Jesus can't get this straight. In the book of John, it says that anyone who doesn't receive Jesus will have the wrath of God. So does this mean that all Hindus are going to hell? There are many different kinds of Christians, will they all go to heaven or are there some that won't, which would imply that some Christians are going to hell because they don't believe the "right" kind of Christianity. This might get me on another tangent, but this is another thing that gets me, why did God, assuming that He inspired the Bible, why did he make it so ambiguous that it generated so many different factions of Christianity, who, at times, fight amongst themselves? Is this some kind of game that God plays to see who will come out ahead? Anyway, I'm getting tired of the New Testament, I could on and on. I'm sure I could pick out those parts that would support the nice and loving Jesus that everyone seems to love. But that means we are free to pick and choose. If you believe that the Bible, the whole Bible, is inspired then that means you have to accept all of it or some how justify away those parts that you don't like.

Needless to say, I find it hard to use the Bible to find out what the nature of God is like or maybe one that I can accept. I would hope that those people who believe in the Bible want to believe in a God that is loving and caring. Obviously if you want to believe in a vengeful God, then the Old Testament will serve your needs perfectly. If you want to believe in a God where you are willing to give up everything including your family and all of belongings and anyone who doesn't believe in your Jesus will go to hell, than the New Testament will be the right book for you. I remember one time while a true believer in the Mormon Church and serving a mission my companion and I came across a certain fellow who believed from his readings of the Bible that he shouldn't get married and go off and serve God. Within 30min. I had convinced him with the same Bible that he should get married and serve God. It seems to me that the Bible can be whatever you want it to be, and for a God, who is supposedly all-knowing, would have made sure that that some of this ambiguity would have been somewhat reduced.

I've only read parts of the Quran, but what I seem to get from it, is that you if you don't follow Allah and Mohammad some of the following will happen:

1. I am evil. Verily We have revealed unto thee clear tokens, and only miscreants will disbelieve in them.
2. I am doomed. For disbelievers is a shameful doom.
3. I will burn. ...those who disbelieve will not avail them aught against Allah; and such are rightful owners of the Fire. They will abide therein.
4. I fight for the devil. ...those who disbelieve do battle for the cause of idols. So fight the minions of the devil.
5. I am perverted. Thus are they perverted who deny the revelations of Allah.

By the way, all of these apply to all Christians as well and anyone else who doesn't believe in Allah. So basically, Muslims will burn in the Christian hell and Christians will burn in the Islam hell. And people wonder why we can't all just get along. Since a lot of people believe these are literal truths and not merely myths, I fear that people will be fighting over this for some time.

Feelings and prayer and pretty much the same thing to me. Humans are so easily deceived by their feelings or what we perceive. Have you ever gone to a magic show and through the performers slight of hand you're senses have been fooled. Yet somehow when we pray and feel Gods presence we know without a doubt what God wants. My ex-wife, shortly after our divorce, decided to pick up everything and move to another state to marry a man that has several kids himself. They told me they prayed about this, they being my ex and my kids, and they knew that this is the right thing that God wanted them to do. Within a year, she divorced him and moved back with the kids. So, did God really speak to her and tell what to do? And in so doing disrupted the kids lives and my life. It was very tough to watch my kids leave like they did, especially when they told me to my face that they wanted to leave, because they prayed about it. I really couldn't understand it, doesn't Mormonism believe in family? I guess it only applies if you are a believer too.

Ok, so now lets think about people who claim to be spokesmen for God. First off how do we know that they are actually spokesman for God? Because we feel it? In that case, please refer to my previous paragraph. Like I mention before our feelings and emotions can fool us. Haven't you ever gone to buy a used car and and felt good about the purchase, only to find out a week later that it was a lemon. If you think back, the used car salesman was there to help you feel good about your purchase. Telling you all of the good things and not the bad and reinforcing those things you said you liked. All being done so that you will feel good walking out. So that's all good and fine, but a smart buyer would have someone that you know, who is independent of the salesman, who knows about cars, look at it and check it over and have them give you their, hopefully, unbiased opinion. If we only trusted the salesman, we may be overlooking serious issues about the car we are thinking of purchasing. If someone tells you that they speak for God, how do you know? This is a tough one, because in the Mormon church, I know that some of the leaders tell you that you are not allowed to criticize the leaders of the church, even if they are wrong. That, by itself, should raise a red flag to anyone. Can you imagine if say the President of the US said that, it wouldn't go over well. Yet when it comes to a spiritual leadership people thinks that's ok.

I guess to me it seems to be nearly impossible for us to understand what it is that God wants. If you were born in Iran, you would grow up trying to understand what it is that Allah wants. If you were born in Spain, more than likely will trying to understand what God wants from a Catholic perspective and of course, if you happen to be born in Utah, you would be thrust into the Mormon ideology. Each one of these religions think that they have the understandings of God and that they, and they alone, have the truth. If you are a Catholic do you think that when a Muslim prays, that they pray to nothing or maybe your God just doesn't hear them? If so, why? Doesn't your God love them too? Or maybe it's the same God, but he gives conflicting messages to each just to see who will battle it out and win. In the Old Testament it talks about how God battled it out with other gods, maybe that's still going on. If you believe that then you believe in a plurality of gods don't you?

Anyway, I have found that one can live quite happily when you don't need to figure all this out.