|
God
Oct 17, 2023 12:21:56 GMT
Post by Reactionary Rage on Oct 17, 2023 12:21:56 GMT
What the hell is all that about?
Do you believe? How do you define your God?
Does your belief benefit you? How?
Am I a God?
|
|
|
God
Oct 17, 2023 12:33:02 GMT
Post by adamcoan on Oct 17, 2023 12:33:02 GMT
Is man one of God's blunders? Or is God one of man's blunders
|
|
rayge
Administrator
Invisible
Posts: 8,789
|
Post by rayge on Oct 17, 2023 12:54:07 GMT
|
|
|
God
Oct 17, 2023 13:21:21 GMT
via mobile
Post by fearlessfreap on Oct 17, 2023 13:21:21 GMT
I was raised Catholic, and as a small child I bought into it. I can pinpoint around the time it all went south for me. Two biblical stories, first there was the story of Abraham and Isaac where God told Abraham to sacrifice his son to prove his faith. I thought, wait a minute- the alpha and the omega, the all powerul creator of the universe would be that insecure and needy and, honestly that much of a sociopath to ask that. Second was the killing of the first born sons of the Egyptians - the textbook definition of genocide against innocent children, and we are being taught in church that this was a positive thing? He’s God, he could have, I don’t know, changed the Pharoah’s mind before it came to that. Finally, there’s the line that God created man in his image and that only man has a soul. I’m sorry, but the worst dog on the planet has more of a soul than the best person. I won’t discount the idea of a prime mover, but I can’t accept the bearded old man on a golden throne that hates a significant amount of his creations. To be perfectly honest, I don’t spent much time thinking about it, but the idea of that sort of perfect being being that imperfect hasn’t gelled for me since childhood.
|
|
|
God
Oct 17, 2023 13:37:15 GMT
davey likes this
Post by Stacy Heydon on Oct 17, 2023 13:37:15 GMT
I can't really believe in any way in the Judeo-Christian definitions of God. It just seems a lot of fairy tales. But as a kind of pantheistic life force? Possibly..I'm open to the idea, although I wouldn't go so far as to call it a belief. I guess 'agnostic who is interested in spirituality' comes closest to defining my position.
|
|
Sneelock
god
you're gonna break another heart
Posts: 8,545
Member is Online
|
God
Oct 17, 2023 15:01:50 GMT
Post by Sneelock on Oct 17, 2023 15:01:50 GMT
God is great. God is good. let us thank him for our food. amen. (chomp, chomp. scarf, scarf)
|
|
|
God
Oct 17, 2023 15:28:57 GMT
Post by Half Machine Lipschitz on Oct 17, 2023 15:28:57 GMT
I believed in god when I was a little kid, in the way little kids believe in all sorts of made up stuff (Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, etc.), but my family was in no way religious (my dad once took me to an Anglican church service just so I could see what was going on). At school we had to recite the lord's prayer every morning, for some reason, even though the schools I went to were all supposedly secular public schools, so I guess I had it ingrained in me that this dude was somehow real. I lost any interest in considering god by the time I was a teenager, and only really think about the question when threads like these arise. My thoughts haven't changed in any way - if you want to believe in god, go ahead, it's no skin off my ass.
|
|
|
Post by davey on Oct 17, 2023 22:11:10 GMT
I’m not a particularly observant Jew. But the part where God told Moses that he could not see his face and continue living struck a chord for me.
We aren’t in a position to define God. That’s the only thing I claim to know on the subject.
So my belief in God is kind of amorphous. I believe something is greater than me. I believe something more is at play. So to me, “God” is a kind of algebraic symbol. It’s the X that you put in the calculation where nothing else makes sense.
|
|
|
Post by souphound on Oct 17, 2023 23:06:30 GMT
When I was a child, on Sunday mornings, my parents would give my two older sisters and me 25c each to go to church and put in the basket (while they stayed home and romped a bit). My sisters would usually each give me their 25c and just went elsewhere to hang with their friends. I took the 75c and bought candy. Nah, not much of a believer. (I should add: You got a LOT of candy for 75c back in the mid-60s )
|
|
loveless
god
Bringing ballet to the masses. Sticking to the funk.
Posts: 2,796
|
Post by loveless on Oct 18, 2023 0:10:43 GMT
I was raised by a tribe of atheists - my mom, my dad, my stepdad...(all of whom I'd come to learn were severely lapsed Catholics, assuredly beaten by nuns and/or their own church-going parents).
So...as a child? The basic concepts of religions and deities were openly mocked and derided. I think I got stuck going to church ONCE as a boy when I slept over with some other family. I'd go for weddings and funerals in subsequent years, but...that was that.
But...you start to form your own views pretty early on, they continue to evolve, and with any luck, nuance increases as you go through life and experience. I've never had anything remotely resembling an epiphany, but...things happen. Forever changes. I'm generally pretty correct with Davey's sort of "man's periodic need to make sense/order of chaos", but also...there's just...fortune, misfortune, balance, things that go a little deeper than happenstance or coincidence. Beauty is a big one. You hear about people like Brian Wilson and Marvin Gaye always giving God a shout out when discussing their most transcendent and otherworldly works, and...on whatever scale you have your own most meaningful or deepest creative and/or collaborative or interpersonal moments, it can certainly feel as if something beyond you is guiding the process. Not every day. Not every year. Family, children, WHEN things happen - I don't at all want to sound like Insane Clown Posse here, but...you know..."magic". The universe.
I have a dear friend who is a pastor/worship leader, born again maybe 25 years ago, had his experience(s) and transformation(s). Not once have I ever doubted his reality. Nor his family's relationship with prayer. I think another person's palpable realism is...it's not nothing.
So, classically, this all takes up a downright infinitesimal part of my own existence, and yet...all of the chicken and egg issues regarding morality and ethical values and a sense of justice and responsibility and all that shit...I wouldn't argue that it comes from God, but that it is more likely part of the DNA behind the manufacture of God.
|
|
|
Post by davey on Oct 18, 2023 6:36:56 GMT
I’ll say this much: I was on an airplane last week and the turbulence got baaad. It was about three hours solid that our plane was tossed around. The flight attendants were visibly worried.
I believed in God for those three hours.
|
|
|
Post by adamcoan on Oct 18, 2023 6:49:52 GMT
Did you believe that God caused the turbulence. Or that God would stop the turbulence. Maybe that God would protect you from the turbulence Possibly that God had decided your time had come and the turbulence was your cause of death. Did you believe in God at the time because of what would become of you should you die. Or, did you believe in God ,so that he would let you live ?
|
|
|
God
Oct 18, 2023 8:13:58 GMT
quix likes this
Post by DarknessFish on Oct 18, 2023 8:13:58 GMT
I just don't see a reason to believe in a God. Is there a question that the existence of God provides an answer to?
|
|
|
God
Oct 18, 2023 8:36:29 GMT
Post by Reactionary Rage on Oct 18, 2023 8:36:29 GMT
I'm pretty sure I saw god on stage in a pair of cuban heels during a Prince concert.
|
|
|
Post by Reactionary Rage on Oct 18, 2023 9:26:26 GMT
I'm more interested in God as an idea, a concept, a path to the transcendent that you can use to enhance your life and give it more meaning, purpose but also comfort. These days I'm edging towards the idea of you yourself as a personal God whilst simultaneously thinking of God not as a supernatural deity but more in general pantheistic terms. In the former scenario it's understanding that your life has meaning, a higher purpose. That it is something sacred and important, the God within you and in recognising that experiencing a connection to something beyond yourself which is the path to the transcendent. In this way the great artistic creations of man or the splendid churches our ancestors built are a product of the God within us all and an attempt to connect to that. In the second scenario God is the universe and life which has afforded you the blessing of existence in all its pain and suffering but also it all its beauty and glory and in recognising that you experience a sense of gratitude and connection to the infinite.
|
|