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the brains turns anything it doesn't understand into something it understands. So we, I mean you and I, know the universe is in our brain. Plus, "The scientist" might put the universe in human terms, so again you are correct. Scientist will explain god in human terms.
The question is, does the rest of universe exist outside of our brain? Can you have anything the universe does not have more of?
At times. But fundamentalism is essentially a humorless enterprise. One of the things I love about my wife is that she knows how to laugh at absurdity. It helps pull my head our of my touche ... a place where my fundamentalist origins originally thrust it.
Sorry for the imagery but it is apt ...
did she laugh at your false claim? or the door that came off its hing?
I am very reluctant to get into a discussion with those of organized Faith (and that is going to be Christians, here) and it will become apparent why in due time. I can say that what I am getting - It is nothing like me seeing Him, of course, but rather He revealing himself to me. I should have understood that - is that He loves (that is such an inadequate word for what that really means and you would not believe how much I was reaching for capital letters there) all of us as as we are created His. That is actually right: 'His Created' is not. However we came to be - and I have not been given anything to relegate Lucy to the recycling bin - we were or became His. Don't ask me whether we are his children or (If I can risk a little blasphemy - He really does know how to smile, and does appear to have a visage, by the way) Charles Fort's 'We are property' might apply, for all I know.
In a way this is very intimidating as ..well, it's damned intimidating, and I need to believe the love or I wouldn't dare.
. I can say that what I am getting - It is nothing like me seeing Him, of course, but rather He revealing himself to me. I should have understood that - is that He loves (that is such an inadequate word for what that really means and you would not believe how much I was reaching for capital letters there) all of us as as we are created His.
If you're getting a wonderful feeling of assurance and love ....that's Him.
If you're getting a wonderful feeling of assurance and love ....that's Him.
I can't help but wonder if "God" is actually a kind of fundamental human emotion. There's happiness, sadness, anger, jealousy, embarrassment, fear, love, hate, and (perhaps) "God."
Oddly enough, even as an atheist I have sometimes felt like there was "someone with me" while I was alone. And it can be helpful to think that "someone is with me, watching over me, helping me".
Remember that scene in the movie Angels in the Outfield when the pitcher is convinced that he has an angel helping him out? And the whole crowd is waving their arms (imitating an motion of a flying angel) trying to confirm his belief that he really does have an angel helping him? Imagine how helpful that could be in a life-or-death situation like a battlefield! People with the "ability to believe" could have a survival advantage. I'm certainly not the first person to suggest that evolution could have produced a tendency toward religious belief.
I am very reluctant to get into a discussion with those of organized Faith (and that is going to be Christians, here) and it will become apparent why in due time. I can say that what I am getting - It is nothing like me seeing Him, of course, but rather He revealing himself to me. I should have understood that - is that He loves (that is such an inadequate word for what that really means and you would not believe how much I was reaching for capital letters there) all of us as as we are created His. That is actually right: 'His Created' is not. However we came to be - and I have not been given anything to relegate Lucy to the recycling bin - we were or became His. Don't ask me whether we are his children or (If I can risk a little blasphemy - He really does know how to smile, and does appear to have a visage, by the way) Charles Fort's 'We are property' might apply, for all I know.
In a way this is very intimidating as ..well, it's damned intimidating, and I need to believe the love or I wouldn't dare.
Arq,
It seems to me that a critical thing here is to demonstrate that you are really dealing with an "other" and not with a shard, so to speak, of your own self that you have heretofore underestimated or neglected to pay attention to.
To be clear I'm not suggesting schizophrenia or multiple personalities or anything like that. Jung and others taught us that trauma or need can split off parts of who we are, even to the extent of experiencing them with a certain degree of independent volition under the right circumstances. Knowing that the human mind is capable of this, it seems that we have to evaluate personal subjective experiences in the light of that.
I submit that you can "believe the love" because it is your own love for yourself. Of course that is not a testable hypothesis; it is simply a more likely explanation to my mind than that you have been specially favored with the oceanic, unconditional love of a separate capitalized pronoun.
Which leads me (and forgive me for this, Arq) to this question: If "He" is what he appears to you to be, then why is he withheld from the rest of us? I don't begrudge you your experience for one moment, but ... it DOES beg the question, why you? If there is a deity or being who loves humanity and feels, as you put it, ownership of us (and I hope that means responsibility of stewardship, not the control of a master), why doesn't he get you, me, Shirina, Viz, Eubie and JeffBase and Mystic* all on the same page? Not to mention everyone else and most particularly the up and coming next sociopathic madman who wants to fly a plane into a mountain? It sounds like that guy needed the comfort of unconditional love from his benevolent Owner more than all of us put together, and there are 149 people and the thousands of bereaved who would very much agree.
* Allright those of you who feel left out, I can't list you ALL.
I can't help but wonder if "God" is actually a kind of fundamental human emotion. There's happiness, sadness, anger, jealousy, embarrassment, fear, love, hate, and (perhaps) "God."
Oddly enough, even as an atheist I have sometimes felt like there was "someone with me" while I was alone. And it can be helpful to think that "someone is with me, watching over me, helping me".
Remember that scene in the movie Angels in the Outfield when the pitcher is convinced that he has an angel helping him out? And the whole crowd is waving their arms (imitating an motion of a flying angel) trying to confirm his belief that he really does have an angel helping him? Imagine how helpful that could be in a life-or-death situation like a battlefield! People with the "ability to believe" could have a survival advantage. I'm certainly not the first person to suggest that evolution could have produced a tendency toward religious belief.
I think a lot of people have a need to believe there is something bigger out there or their life is worthless.
It seems to me that a critical thing here is to demonstrate that you are really dealing with an "other" and not with a shard, so to speak, of your own self that you have heretofore underestimated or neglected to pay attention to.
To be clear I'm not suggesting schizophrenia or multiple personalities or anything like that. Jung and others taught us that trauma or need can split off parts of who we are, even to the extent of experiencing them with a certain degree of independent volition under the right circumstances. Knowing that the human mind is capable of this, it seems that we have to evaluate personal subjective experiences in the light of that.
I submit that you can "believe the love" because it is your own love for yourself. Of course that is not a testable hypothesis; it is simply a more likely explanation to my mind than that you have been specially favored with the oceanic, unconditional of a separate capitalized pronoun.
Which leads me (and forgive me for this, Arq) to this question: If "He" is what he appears to you to be, then why is he withheld from the rest of us? I don't begrudge you your experience for one moment, but ... it DOES beg the question, why you? If there is a deity or being who loves humanity and feels, as you put it, ownership of us (and I hope that means responsibility of stewardship, not the control of a master), why doesn't he get you, me, Shirina, Viz, Eubie and JeffBase and Mystic* all on the same page? Not to mention everyone else and most particularly the up and coming next sociopathic madman who wants to fly a plane into a mountain? It sounds like that guy needed the comfort of unconditional love from his benevolent Owner more than all of us put together, and there are 149 people and the thousands of bereaved who would very much agree.
* Allright those of you who feel left out, I can't list you ALL.
Drugs?
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