Do theists not comprehend the concept of disbelief in God? (believe, Christ)
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Except that was this was credited to , anecdotally I might add without contesting the claim , was mindfulness and meditation, not faith . Faith is believing in things without evidence , largely based on the demands of some sort of religious dogma . Mindfulness is focusing ones attention on the present and developing better awareness of experiencing the present rather than mindlessly going through the motions of life distractedly focused on the future .
faith is focusing ones attention on god in every moment, in every situation, in every circumstance
mindfulness = "the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something"
faith = "complete trust or confidence in someone or something;strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion"
faith is focusing ones attention on god in every moment, in every situation, in every circumstance
mindfulness = "the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something"
faith = "complete trust or confidence in someone or something;strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion"
Faith is believing or trusting without evidence . Nothing in this definition relates to the practice of mindfulness, which is living in the present moment focused solely on the present moment . I'm not knocking faith here, but faith and mindfulness are in no way related as you attempt to claim .
It is easy to see how living a life solely focused on experiencing the present as it happens and being totally aware of each moment would foster the growth of neurons in the brain. There is certainly no evidence that blindly believing things will take place because some religious doctrine says they will is going to enhance the growth of neural activity in the brain. In fact one could make the case it actually stifles such growth .
Last edited by wallflash; 06-19-2016 at 11:04 AM..
faith is focusing ones attention on god in every moment, in every situation, in every circumstance
Faith is the practice of ignoring the supportable in favour of a desired belief. Its what you use when the evidence tells you what you don't want to be true. It's the last refuge of those who have had their arguments defeated by logic and reason.
wallflash and Rafius have it correct. Religious faith is belief without a requirement of evidence and in fact generally with a disdain for evidence. What Tz is describing ("focusing one's attention on god" all the time) is a description of obsession. And of course if you obsess about something it becomes your whole world. So of course religion would advocate such a notion. It wants as much exclusivity of your attention for its ideas as it can possibly get. It's also an overlooked aspect of "worship". Worship is not just about stoking the deity's ego; it's also about fixating on the deity.
wherever your thoughts and feelings go, there you are, and that is the world you create.
a person has to look no farther than their own daily life to see the "evidence" of what their thoughts and feelings and beliefs are creating.
which is it.... conflict and contention and derision? or peace and harmony and delight?
how do you view the world....fearful, random, hostile, impersonal, dangerous, uncaring? or safe, supportive, loving, giving, protecting, caring, nurturing?
Last edited by Tzaphkiel; 06-19-2016 at 12:45 PM..
wherever your thoughts and feelings go, there you are, and that is the world you create.
a person has to look no farther than their own daily life to see the "evidence" of what their thoughts and feelings and beliefs are creating.
which is it.... conflict and contention and derision? or peace and harmony and delight?
how do you view the world....fearful, random, hostile, impersonal, dangerous, uncaring? or safe, supportive, loving, giving, protecting, caring, nurturing?
I can agree with that. A person doesn't need God to do that though.
But God wants us to do that, though. It is how we reproduce what God IS. That is what children do, reproduce their parents.
I'm always wary of people who claim to know what God wants. If another human can do that without appealing to the supernatural I don't see how that is a problem. It will still be reflected in how they relate to others.
wherever your thoughts and feelings go, there you are, and that is the world you create.
Focusing on positive aspects of it is an important life skill to be sure ... although it took me until just few years ago to understand clearly why it is. Natural selection has biased us to be hyper-aware of real, potential and imagined existential threats. That is the human tendency to focus on negatives. At the same time, positives have a tendency to pass right through us. This is a great focus when avoiding predators, not so great in the modern world in which we live. So training your mind to let go of negatives and notice and "stay with" the positives is a very valid technique to "push back" against our negatively-oriented minds.
However, nothing about reality actually changes when you focus on the positive. What changes is your attention ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tzaphkiel
a person has to look no farther than their own daily life to see the "evidence" of what their thoughts and feelings and beliefs are creating.
which is it.... conflict and contention and derision? or peace and harmony and delight?
... which is why I don't care for the "blame the victim" mentality of the "create your own reality" crowd. It absolves them of any responsibility to care about or do anything about human suffering ... to be empathetic ... and can result in dismissive, judgmental, blaming attitudes. Reality is what it is; our response to it is the only thing we have control of. We don't create reality; we manage our responses to it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tzaphkiel
how do you view the world....fearful, random, hostile, impersonal, dangerous, uncaring? or safe, supportive, loving, giving, protecting, caring, nurturing?
All of the above, and then some. And I strive to focus on the pleasant stuff while not being so foolish as to discount the unpleasant stuff. Our job is not to deny reality or force a particular perception of it or to control it; it is simply to be present with it without judgment.
But God wants us to do that, though. It is how we reproduce what God IS. That is what children do, reproduce their parents.
Quote:
Originally Posted by L8Gr8Apost8
I'm always wary of people who claim to know what God wants. If another human can do that without appealing to the supernatural I don't see how that is a problem. It will still be reflected in how they relate to others.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THE SUPERNATURAL! Forgive my emotional outburst, but I tire of having to say this to every single poster who uses it against my posts. Sylvian seems to get it, but is having as much difficulty communicating it as I do. As children of God, our role is to reproduce God. In that sense, that is what God "wants." But it has nothing to do with claiming any special knowledge about what God wants.
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