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This presumes all sorts of things. That there is a divinely dispensed moral standard that has been transgressed, that there are automatic punishments for transgressions (itself bringing up a whole slew of issues), and that a particular posited god is only interested in relating to his creatures as either a punisher or a forgiver.
Also strongly implied: actual knowledge / education / assessment of facts on the ground are, at least, useless / pointless and quite probably ignoble or bad -- certainly, at least, from this deity's point of view.
Finally it is not enough to have a need and to "cry out" to god. It must be a correct sort of cry, a "sincere" one. Implying strongly that most cries are unworthy and disingenuous.
Since your view of god is all about transgression and avoidance of punishment and yet the cry must be one of True Love despite the dysfunctional basis for the relationship, it all sounds quite unworkable indeed.
I can tell you from personal experience that Christianity doesn't provide relief, much less instant, from truly acute "psychological pain", existential angst. It is an okay salve for mild anxiety from unexamined mortality and the like; in fact it needs people dependent on it for low grade soothing for its survival. But it's quite worthless for anything heavy duty and that's exactly what had pried many people like myself away from the fold.
Fundamentalism of course has its narrative of self-loathing, sin and redemption that moves some chaotic / criminal types toward authoritarian-based submission and this may be a practical boon in the short run to a certain kind of person. But in my experience their claims of transformative gospel and "new creations" are empty promises.
I also think you're underestimating locally influential religions. Just as Russians went back to openly embracing the Russian Orthodox Church when that society became more open, I think that the Japanese will REturn to what they know culturally -- Shintoism -- and the Chinese likely to Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, in far greater numbers than Christianity.
The inherent existential crisis manifest subliminally and onto to consciousness in people in different degrees. Perhaps its grip in your case is milder than the average theist.
It is true Christianity as with the other Abrahamic religions are not effective for heavy duty task to enable positive progress and advancement of human spirituality [in terms of real neural connectivity]. I note the Eastern religions has the means and are more effective for such heavy duty spiritual endeavors. The Abrahamic religions merely demand believers to believe in God and their respective chosen prophet[s]. Eastern religions proper on the other hand require believers to work [laboriously, rationally, intellectually] to improve one own spirituality.
Many [say 50%] Chinese will adopt their existing Confucianism, Buddhism, Chinese Folk religion, etc., but because due to exponential expansion in materialism many [the other 50%] will be exposed to a greater existential crisis. The Christians are more aggressive [than the Eastern religions] in proselytizing and amplifying the psychological fears and existential crisis in the already vulnerable person. Once they have done that, they throw in their 'love bombs' and pathway to salvation. This is more like a scam [imo] but it is unfortunately effective in gaining conversions. This is the reason why I think there will be an exponential expansion in number of Christians in China, unless the authorities take steps to prevent it.
The other alternative is for non-Abrahamic to counter with more effective and progressive methods [that uplift the spiritual quotient] to deal with the inherent internal existential crisis. I see this is a possibility in the future given the exponential expansion of knowledge and technology via the internet and other advancing means.
The inherent existential crisis manifest subliminally and onto to consciousness in people in different degrees. Perhaps its grip in your case is milder than the average theist.
It is true Christianity as with the other Abrahamic religions are not effective for heavy duty task to enable positive progress and advancement of human spirituality [in terms of real neural connectivity]. I note the Eastern religions has the means and are more effective for such heavy duty spiritual endeavors. The Abrahamic religions merely demand believers to believe in God and their respective chosen prophet[s]. Eastern religions proper on the other hand require believers to work [laboriously, rationally, intellectually] to improve one own spirituality.
Many [say 50%] Chinese will adopt their existing Confucianism, Buddhism, Chinese Folk religion, etc., but because due to exponential expansion in materialism many [the other 50%] will be exposed to a greater existential crisis. The Christians are more aggressive [than the Eastern religions] in proselytizing and amplifying the psychological fears and existential crisis in the already vulnerable person. Once they have done that, they throw in their 'love bombs' and pathway to salvation. This is more like a scam [imo] but it is unfortunately effective in gaining conversions. This is the reason why I think there will be an exponential expansion in number of Christians in China, unless the authorities take steps to prevent it.
The other alternative is for non-Abrahamic to counter with more effective and progressive methods [that uplift the spiritual quotient] to deal with the inherent internal existential crisis. I see this is a possibility in the future given the exponential expansion of knowledge and technology via the internet and other advancing means.
Actually my certainty and understanding comes from my experiences in deep meditation. It doesn't get any more "within" than that.
Except that is a weak basis indeed. As I have pointed out before - I have had every single experience in meditation I have heard you describe. You have not claimed a single experience I have not myself also had.
Yet I have failed to see a link between any of those experiences - and the claim there is a god - about as badly as you yourself have failed to establish one.
But personal experience feeds the certainty and understanding of many people - including those who think they are reincarnated - have been abducted by aliens - think that the government are beaming thought control waves into their brains - that elvis still lives - and much more.
Thankfully we have things like the Methodologies of Science to keep thinking people from placing everything at the feet of their mere personal experience - and it is designed to weed out personal bias and subjectivity of the form you base _everything_ you claim on. Claims that are themselves in no way supported by anything in that science.
This is going to seem silly to all of you but here goes. Why can't you believe that there is an alternative state of life or spiritual being after death even if you don't believe in God?
You know my opinion, we'll all be in heaven saying "I told you so" and arguing the details of how that happened in another 50 or 60 years anyway so it probably doesn't matter. But I'm curious.
Atheism is not a belief system…what they are saying is that they don’t choose to believe in religious dogma simply because it’s not sensible.
So instead of saying they believe in this or that they are simply saying is this myth is inconsistent with that myth and that myth is inconsistent with what we know about the Universe and that myth is inconsistent with what we know about Evolution and therefore the myths are unlikely to be true and they choose not to believe in them.
That is all Atheism is…is people saying this is unlikely to be true….it is not a belief system. To compare this as a belief system as what religion is…is a false premise.
The inherent existential crisis manifest subliminally and onto to consciousness in people in different degrees. Perhaps its grip in your case is milder than the average theist.
It is true Christianity as with the other Abrahamic religions are not effective for heavy duty task to enable positive progress and advancement of human spirituality [in terms of real neural connectivity]. I note the Eastern religions has the means and are more effective for such heavy duty spiritual endeavors. The Abrahamic religions merely demand believers to believe in God and their respective chosen prophet[s]. Eastern religions proper on the other hand require believers to work [laboriously, rationally, intellectually] to improve one own spirituality.
Many [say 50%] Chinese will adopt their existing Confucianism, Buddhism, Chinese Folk religion, etc., but because due to exponential expansion in materialism many [the other 50%] will be exposed to a greater existential crisis. The Christians are more aggressive [than the Eastern religions] in proselytizing and amplifying the psychological fears and existential crisis in the already vulnerable person. Once they have done that, they throw in their 'love bombs' and pathway to salvation. This is more like a scam [imo] but it is unfortunately effective in gaining conversions. This is the reason why I think there will be an exponential expansion in number of Christians in China, unless the authorities take steps to prevent it.
The other alternative is for non-Abrahamic to counter with more effective and progressive methods [that uplift the spiritual quotient] to deal with the inherent internal existential crisis. I see this is a possibility in the future given the exponential expansion of knowledge and technology via the internet and other advancing means.
Various groups with various agendas will use various platforms to try to gain influence.
All we Atheist-rationalist -humanists can do is go on preaching the doctrine of reason, tolerance and evidence-based data and continue calling for religion, politics and race to be kept where it belongs - off the streets.
no, you dont find God by studying.
you find God by hungering and thirsting to overcome your transgressions. It is a sincere cry that God answeres to. You are on the wrong track.
Finding god is like finding gravity, neutrino's, or the emir that is passing through you right now. You study "them" and you describe them as "they" are, not how you want them to be. It's ok to stop at "we don't know yet". Or suggest some possibility that is linked to what we have. "gravity" is a great example to guide us in using limits for speculation.
and some people just don't care to learn about these things. Thats ok too.
Neither side has a right to force their belief sytem on others.
The inherent existential crisis manifest subliminally and onto to consciousness in people in different degrees. Perhaps its grip in your case is milder than the average theist.
It is true Christianity as with the other Abrahamic religions are not effective for heavy duty task to enable positive progress and advancement of human spirituality [in terms of real neural connectivity]. I note the Eastern religions has the means and are more effective for such heavy duty spiritual endeavors. The Abrahamic religions merely demand believers to believe in God and their respective chosen prophet[s]. Eastern religions proper on the other hand require believers to work [laboriously, rationally, intellectually] to improve one own spirituality.
Many [say 50%] Chinese will adopt their existing Confucianism, Buddhism, Chinese Folk religion, etc., but because due to exponential expansion in materialism many [the other 50%] will be exposed to a greater existential crisis. The Christians are more aggressive [than the Eastern religions] in proselytizing and amplifying the psychological fears and existential crisis in the already vulnerable person. Once they have done that, they throw in their 'love bombs' and pathway to salvation. This is more like a scam [imo] but it is unfortunately effective in gaining conversions. This is the reason why I think there will be an exponential expansion in number of Christians in China, unless the authorities take steps to prevent it.
The other alternative is for non-Abrahamic to counter with more effective and progressive methods [that uplift the spiritual quotient] to deal with the inherent internal existential crisis. I see this is a possibility in the future given the exponential expansion of knowledge and technology via the internet and other advancing means.
yup,
I am not a Buddhist but the western religion need to shift towards a serious dose of eastern religion like Hindu and Buddhist. That shift might help fill the needs of some, I think most, rational atheist in that the influence of religion on people will drop to the level of a local youth group sports team.
If you know anything about having kids, you know it doesn't mean that your belief system will go away or not help guide your business choices. capitalism needs limits. "good sportsman ship" would be a great start.
I am not a Buddhist but the western religion need to shift towards a serious dose of eastern religion like Hindu and Buddhist. That shift might help fill the needs of some, I think most, rational atheist in that the influence of religion on people will drop to the level of a local youth group sports team.
If you know anything about having kids, you know it doesn't mean that your belief system will go away or not help guide your business choices. capitalism needs limits. "good sportsman ship" would be a great start.
Hinduism is not going to help. The religion is full of superstition. My former dil's parents are Hindu and they believe in astrology (choose the first letter of her children's names for her according to the stars). Her dad gave up all meat in order to *cure* the grandson's autism. It hasn't worked, but hey, he thinks it is doing some good, I guess.
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