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I find it very annoying and odd when people say "God wants this" or "Does God want us to do this?" My initial reaction is to tell them that they could not possibly believe him to be all-powerful and read his mind at the same time. Maybe it's just me....
The concept of "God wanting me to do this or that" is really nothing more than the brain trying to justify a choice that has already been made - especially those "iffy" choices that don't have a clear-cut right or wrong course of action. Ultimately, you are going to make the choice you want to make; God will have absolutely nothing to do with it. But, once the choice is made, you can comfort yourself with the illusory belief that God guided your actions. The choice you made was the one God wanted you to make. After all, why else did you choose that particular option, right? Because of God!
All it amounts to is a mechanism whereby people foist some of the responsibility for their choice onto God; making a decision alone can be daunting, but as long as you can convince yourself that you're having a consultation with a Supreme Being before making a choice, you can also convince yourself that the path you chose was the right one.
It has far more to do with psychology than the existence of God.
It's just more confirmation that what people think is 'God' is their mental identity, inflated to divine proportions. Starting with Paul and whatever theology he fiddled on the basis of mangled OT quotes to support what he wanted to achieve - to get his fellow citizens (Greeks) saved as much as the Jews. Which he saw could be achieved through 'Faith in Jesus'. Thus whatever ideas he got in his head he ascribed to Jesus.
It has been the same ever since, with rival sects down to bods on Christianity slagging each other off over how you read 'Aion' or about Tithing and all thinking that their Interpretation is gotten directly from Jesusgod, so it has to be right. It's the same mechanism that finds an apologist declaring what God wants or what God meant or what God Thinks. It doesn't even occur to them what they are doing - creating God in their own image.
Can there be any more gross example of hyper-inflated self - importance? Is there any clearer evidence that Human consciousness in neither God nor Jesus? Nor revelation nor Inspiration? It's just what we think in our own heads.
The only time I have an emotive reaction, such as annoyance, is when they apply it to the death of a child. When a friend loses her infant unexpectedly and someone has the gall to say it was 'god's plan', yeah, I get pretty annoyed. If it's just day to day stuff like 'it's a sign from god that I find another job', I really couldn't care less if that's their justification.
I find it very annoying and odd when people say "God wants this" or "Does God want us to do this?" My initial reaction is to tell them that they could not possibly believe him to be all-powerful and read his mind at the same time. Maybe it's just me....
Personally, I think thoughts and ideas can have consequences. The problem I have with someone tapping into his or her god is when that god expresses bigotry or violence. We do not have nationwide gay marriage in the U.S. largely because people have been told by their god that the gay lifestyle is sinful. I do find such things annoying or even at times alarming.
Back in the day, when I was younger, I had a highly religious girlfriend who would occasionally stop and ponder what her god would want her to do when she was confronted by various situations. That too I found annoying. That relationship did not last long despite the fact that -believe it or not- her god seem to be telling her that I needed sex regularly.
I find it very annoying and odd when people say "God wants this" or "Does God want us to do this?" My initial reaction is to tell them that they could not possibly believe him to be all-powerful and read his mind at the same time. Maybe it's just me....
I find it very annoying and odd when people say "God wants this" or "Does God want us to do this?" My initial reaction is to tell them that they could not possibly believe him to be all-powerful and read his mind at the same time. Maybe it's just me....
Yeah, it is just you and a few unfortunate other people.
The only time I have an emotive reaction, such as annoyance, is when they apply it to the death of a child. When a friend loses her infant unexpectedly and someone has the gall to say it was 'god's plan', yeah, I get pretty annoyed. If it's just day to day stuff like 'it's a sign from god that I find another job', I really couldn't care less if that's their justification.
Usually it doesn't really "bother" me, either, but sometimes it does. It's just a peeve I have because it comes across to my ears as prideful boasting. Few people like to be around someone who is constantly patting themselves on the back. Now, I realize people always crediting God with things aren't meaning to sound that way, which is why I usually give them a break. But if I'm in a mood, I can get really irritated if it happens too often.
Why do I see it as prideful boasting? I guess it's because you have to be pretty arrogant to think that the Supreme Creator and Ruler of the Universe is helping you decide whether to get steak or chicken at the restaurant. Having said that, I HAVE experienced strange events in my life that seemed almost staged, as if some "director" was behind the scenes cueing up people and causing certain things to occur as if I were an unwitting participant in a scene from a movie. It's pretty rare, but it has happened. I could fully understand, perhaps even empathize, if someone felt a situation like that was being influenced by an all-powerful creator.
But it's usually not some serendipitous set of events that causes a person to pull out the "God dunnit" card. It's most often some banal, run-of-the-mill, everyday occurance that could have just as easily been chance.
A good example occurred not long ago when someone on my Facebook page was gushing about God because her car broke down, she called a tow truck, and the guy just happened to have the part she needed in stock. WOW! What a miracle! I was rather unimpressed. Besides, why gush about God when a REAL God who really cared wouldn't have let her car break down in the first place.
It also sends a negative signal to everyone else. What about all of those people who broke down and didn't get help right away? What about those occasional stories you hear about someone breaking down on a rarely-used country road and freezing to death before help could arrive? What does that say about the unfortunate ones? That God doesn't give a shyte about them? That they were not special enough? Righteous enough? Pious enough?
I want to weep. Those two idiots praying together and then ploughing us into a major way the fallout of which we are still dealing with. The pair of them should be put on trial as war criminals with no defence but insanity.
Those two idiots praying together and then ploughing us into a major way the fallout of which we are still dealing with. The pair of them should be put on trial as war criminals with no defence but insanity.
Believe me, I understand how you feel.
It reminds me on 1940 when the British idiot Churchill got involved in a war with Germany and begged for our help. Of course, we helped poor old England, but then on Dec 11, 1941 Germany declared war on us, which cost us a lot of American lives.
I guess no good deed goes unpunished.
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