Greatest I am
Active Member
Thanks for this.
The question was ,
"That does not mean I have to buy into fantasy.
Why did you?"
Regards
DL
Do you Believe in God?
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Thanks for this.
The question was ,
"That does not mean I have to buy into fantasy.
Why did you?"
Regards
DL
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DuhhhBlond
Duhhhlicious Pants Lady
you really got me with your clever wording 
Godsloveapples
Between darkness and wonder
Of course I believe in God, I'd be crazy to ignore my creator's existence!
Peter Parka
Well-Known Member
To be crazy not to believe something, you must have hard, irreputable evidence for it so that it is an undeniable fact. Care to share it?
Greatest I am
Active Member
Greatest I am
Active Member
Other than hear say or Bible say, what makes you think there is a creator?
Do you not doubt the words of men?
Have you had an apotheosis?
Regards
DL
perhaps to believe in God is to beleive in our own inherent ability to change and do good despite the teachings of others, if we free our minds and think liberally about consequence and act accordingly, are we not doing the work of God
Greatest I am
Active Member
Perhaps.
It all depends on how you define the word God.
I see the word God as a title or position.
Regards
DL
could be, if we take that view i would not want to limit title to any exclusive person or group, i think we all need to strive for that job, it is within us all, we can all be Gods
Greatest I am
Active Member
Minor Axis
Well-Known Member
HYB Christian= if I believe and I'm right, I get a reward, while if I'm wrong, oh well, no harm.
That is believing in the good of mankind or our spirits.
I don't understand what you are trying to say.
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bobbylite15
New Member
well, i have a sort of mangled view of god. when i am attending church it seems easier to believe in god, mostly because its easier to fit in. in my community of only 200 people, (arkansas), it is very hard to have a discussion about religion. everyone there believes and for me, being undecided, its kind of hard. I try to listen to the arguments of both sides. I also consider myself a 'scientific' person, and fact seems to take a stronger hold. i think that the deciding moment for me will be if god reveals himself to me, like i would want if he existed. I am also saved, but more so out of fear that the bible might be true than actual faith.
Minor Axis
Well-Known Member
There is just no way that religion can be discussed in a matter of fact way, mostly because there are no facts, just fear and hope and a bunch of people more than willing to make the leap to religiosity because they don't want to be punished for not believing, despite there being nothing factual to believe in. I imagine it can really be a predicament when you live in a small conservative community and you want to think with an open mind. The Bible can be picked to pieces with hardly any effort at all, just watch out where you try it.
Welcome to the forums!
By 'A B', in the collection of letters published in 1698 as The mystery of phanaticism:
"Twas well observed by my Lord Bacon, That a little knowledge is apt to puff up, and make men giddy, but a greater share of it will set them right, and bring them to low and humble thoughts of themselves.
Greatest I am
Active Member
Karen Armstrong - A History of God
[SIZE=+1]The 4,000 year quest of Judaism, Christianity & Islam. This book explores how the Jews transformed pagan idol worship into monotheism and how Christianity and Islam both rose from this foundation. Also explored are the variations of who or what “God” is thought to be by the various religious leaders over the centuries. A History of God completely changed my outlook on life. It is fascinating to see how humans have created and recreated various gods in their own image. Here are a few quotes from the book:
[/SIZE] “Effectiveness rather than philosophical or historical demonstration has always been the hallmark of a successful religion.”
“Religion was a matter of cult and ritual rather than ideas; it was based on emotion, not on ideology or consciously adopted theory. This is not an unfamiliar attitude today: many of the people who attend religious services in our own society are not interested in theology, want nothing too exotic and dislike the idea of change. They find that the established rituals provide them with a link with tradition and give them a sense of security.”
“Human beings are aware that something is wrong with their condition; they feel at odds with themselves and others, out of touch with their inner nature and disoriented. Conflict and lack of simplicity seem to characterize our existence. Yet we are constantly seeking to unite the multiplicity of phenomena and reduce them to some ordered whole. To find the underlying truth of reality, the soul must refashion itself, undergo a period of purification and engage in contemplation. It will have to look beyond the cosmos, beyond the sensible world and even beyond the limitations of the intellect to see into the heart of reality. This will not be an ascent to a reality outside ourselves, however, but a descent into the deepest recesses of the mind. It is, so to speak, a climb inward.”
“A God who is in some mysterious way a person and who takes an active part in human history lays himself open to criticism. It is all too easy to make this “God” a larger-than-life tyrant or judge and make “him” fulfill our expectations. We can turn “God” into a Republican or a socialist, a racist or a revolutionary according to our personal views. The danger of this has led some to see a personal God as an unreligious idea, because it simply embeds us in our own prejudice and makes our human ideas absolute.”
“The ultimate failure of a rational deity has something important to tell us about the nature of religious truth.”
“A personal God can become a grave liability. He can be a mere idol carved in our own image, a projection of our limited needs, fears and desires. We can assume that he loves what we love and hates what we hate, endorsing our prejudices instead of compelling us to transcend them. Instead of inspiring the compassion that should characterize all advanced religion, “he” can encourage us to judge, condemn and marginalize.”
“The mystical experience of God has certain characteristics that are common to all faiths. It is a subjective experience that involves an interior journey, not a perception of an objective fact outside the self; it is undertaken through the image-making part of the mind--often called the imagination--rather than through the more cerebral, logical faculty.”
“Today many people in the West would be dismayed if a leading theologian suggested that God was in some profound sense a product of the imagination. Yet it should be obvious that the imagination is the chief religious faculty. Human beings are the only animals who have the capacity to envisage something that is not present or something that does not yet exist but which is merely possible. The imagination has thus been the cause of our major achievements in science and technology as well as in art and religion. The idea of God, however it is defined, is perhaps the prime example of an absent reality which, despite its inbuilt problems, has continued to inspire men and women for thousands of years. As in art, the most effective religious symbols are those informed by an intelligent knowledge and understanding of the human condition.”
[SIZE=+1]The 4,000 year quest of Judaism, Christianity & Islam. This book explores how the Jews transformed pagan idol worship into monotheism and how Christianity and Islam both rose from this foundation. Also explored are the variations of who or what “God” is thought to be by the various religious leaders over the centuries. A History of God completely changed my outlook on life. It is fascinating to see how humans have created and recreated various gods in their own image. Here are a few quotes from the book:
[/SIZE] “Effectiveness rather than philosophical or historical demonstration has always been the hallmark of a successful religion.”
“Religion was a matter of cult and ritual rather than ideas; it was based on emotion, not on ideology or consciously adopted theory. This is not an unfamiliar attitude today: many of the people who attend religious services in our own society are not interested in theology, want nothing too exotic and dislike the idea of change. They find that the established rituals provide them with a link with tradition and give them a sense of security.”
“Human beings are aware that something is wrong with their condition; they feel at odds with themselves and others, out of touch with their inner nature and disoriented. Conflict and lack of simplicity seem to characterize our existence. Yet we are constantly seeking to unite the multiplicity of phenomena and reduce them to some ordered whole. To find the underlying truth of reality, the soul must refashion itself, undergo a period of purification and engage in contemplation. It will have to look beyond the cosmos, beyond the sensible world and even beyond the limitations of the intellect to see into the heart of reality. This will not be an ascent to a reality outside ourselves, however, but a descent into the deepest recesses of the mind. It is, so to speak, a climb inward.”
“A God who is in some mysterious way a person and who takes an active part in human history lays himself open to criticism. It is all too easy to make this “God” a larger-than-life tyrant or judge and make “him” fulfill our expectations. We can turn “God” into a Republican or a socialist, a racist or a revolutionary according to our personal views. The danger of this has led some to see a personal God as an unreligious idea, because it simply embeds us in our own prejudice and makes our human ideas absolute.”
“The ultimate failure of a rational deity has something important to tell us about the nature of religious truth.”
“A personal God can become a grave liability. He can be a mere idol carved in our own image, a projection of our limited needs, fears and desires. We can assume that he loves what we love and hates what we hate, endorsing our prejudices instead of compelling us to transcend them. Instead of inspiring the compassion that should characterize all advanced religion, “he” can encourage us to judge, condemn and marginalize.”
“The mystical experience of God has certain characteristics that are common to all faiths. It is a subjective experience that involves an interior journey, not a perception of an objective fact outside the self; it is undertaken through the image-making part of the mind--often called the imagination--rather than through the more cerebral, logical faculty.”
“Today many people in the West would be dismayed if a leading theologian suggested that God was in some profound sense a product of the imagination. Yet it should be obvious that the imagination is the chief religious faculty. Human beings are the only animals who have the capacity to envisage something that is not present or something that does not yet exist but which is merely possible. The imagination has thus been the cause of our major achievements in science and technology as well as in art and religion. The idea of God, however it is defined, is perhaps the prime example of an absent reality which, despite its inbuilt problems, has continued to inspire men and women for thousands of years. As in art, the most effective religious symbols are those informed by an intelligent knowledge and understanding of the human condition.”
This is a very information-rich book. Armstrong tackles a history of the three major Western religions, covering the evolution of philosophy and theology in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam since the time of Abraham. Unless you've taken a particularly good history of religion course, you will likely learn quite a lot from A History of God, particularly if you were educated in the United States where the history of Islam and post-Christianity Judaism are sadly neglected.
http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/0-345-38456-3.html
Greatest I am
Active Member
This is a very information-rich book. Armstrong tackles a history of the three major Western religions, covering the evolution of philosophy and theology in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam since the time of Abraham. Unless you've taken a particularly good history of religion course, you will likely learn quite a lot from A History of God, particularly if you were educated in the United States where the history of Islam and post-Christianity Judaism are sadly neglected.
http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/0-345-38456-3.html
I personally do not care if those are neglected. they were plagiarized from older religions. Mostly from Egypt it seems.
Christianity screwed everything up when they literalized myths and tried to make the Bible into a history text. It failed on both counts. So does Islam.
There is somethings we can learn from them for sure,as books of wisdom, but to really understand, I think we have to return to Egypt.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x84m5k_2007doc-zone-pagan-christ-1-of-3_news
I do like how this philosopher interprets the Christian story of Jesus though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qSCaxaUyf8
Regards
DL
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