Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Thank you for sharing your experience with your family. Your observations may be spot on for some Americans. All my closest friends including my husband were born and raised outside the US. I am the only one from here. They have been the best models for us sitting around the dinner table with the ability to talk about religion and politics in a nice productive manner. Those topics do get boring quickly, however, because in the end, the politician doesn't really care about us and if there is a god, we have to figure things out on our own anyway.
Yes. Being essentially a spectator when it comes to most things politics can be frustrating. The more in the way of passion and opinion one may have, all the more frustrating in the bleachers. Even if in the ring, however, how frustrating must it be? I used to consider getting into politics, but imagine how frustrating to be hamstrung by all the others with their oar in the water, paddling in an opposite direction?
Takes the patience of a saint that I don't think I possess. My hat is off to those who are in the ring for this reason and a good many others. To those who are "fighting the good fight" on our behalf.
You don't have to believe me, Phet. As a consequence of my experiences of God, the fact that they match exactly the God Jesus demonstrated on the Cross, and the plausibility of my scientific explanations of how the God I encountered could be possible combine to make it obvious to me.
Of course, the current irrational and illogical rationale used to explain the wrathful interpretation is preposterous on its face, IMO. Does it actually make sense to you that God would get wrathful at the first and only act of disobedience by His newly created lifeforms who did not even know about Good or Evil?
Do you actually think He would curse them and their descendants in perpetuity UNTIL He could sufficiently scourge and crucify His own Son (Himself, BTW) to appease His wrath and vengeance enough to forgive us for "whatever" because His crucified Son asks Him to??? In what universe does any of that make any sense whatsoever???
When I imagine a God, I imagine her having a good laugh about all these notions, stories and holy books that make a mockery of God. Also a good cry over all that people do to one another as a result of so much ignorance and wrong-thinking. What doesn't kill us, God is curious to find out...
Then why the question about it being settled doctrine. The flat earthers had their own experience of the flatness of the earth for their settled beliefs too. It is no mystery that ignorant primitive savages misinterpreted God so badly. What astounds me is that so many not so primitive minds have embraced it for millennia!!! Why that happened is the real question, IMO.
Are you referring to the greatest epic story known as the Bible? Among other things I assume...
At least I'll give you credit for recognizing this obvious fact, but a good deal that fuels the likes are all these competing notions about God; what God is, what God wants, who knows God, who doesn't, etc., etc.,
Might be worth considering what all inspires so much of these interpretations by "primitive minds" and modern day minds still to this day!
When I imagine a God, I imagine her having a good laugh about all these notions, stories and holy books that make a mockery of God. Also a good cry over all that people do to one another as a result of so much ignorance and wrong-thinking. What doesn't kill us, God is curious to find out...
Well, having encountered God, I would disagree about the laughing. I agree with the crying. I am quite certain it is infinite sadness and frustration, certainly NOT wrath and vengeance. The epitome of frustration is caused by our ignorance and the fact that absent programming us as robots, there is no way to avoid or prevent any of it. We have to evolve, mature, and learn to see and want things to be different on our own by sensitivity to our inner guide (conscience), who I call the Comforter.
Well, having encountered God, I would disagree about the laughing. I agree with the crying. I am quite certain it is infinite sadness and frustration, certainly NOT wrath and vengeance. The epitome of frustration is caused by our ignorance and the fact that absent programming us as robots, there is no way to avoid or prevent any of it. We have to evolve, mature, and learn to see and want things to be different on our own by sensitivity to our inner guide (conscience), who I call the Comforter.
If such a god didn't get a good laugh from so many of these notions about what she is all about, she must lack a sense of humor. I also have to wonder about there being "no way to avoid or prevent any of it." Most people who believe in god seem to think she can do anything. Might be she just chose not to, for whatever her reason(s).
Better explanation far as I can tell is that no god is involved whatsoever.
Whatever it is you call the Comforter helps me to draw the conclusions I do, best I can. Quite frankly, those conclusions are plenty okay for me from a comforting standpoint. "Is what it is" in any case. For you same as me, and I'm quite sure none of us has anything to fear or concern ourselves about when it comes to what it is. Even less fear or concern about what it is not...
If such a god didn't get a good laugh from so many of these notions about what she is all about, she must lack a sense of humor. I also have to wonder about there being "no way to avoid or prevent any of it." Most people who believe in god seem to think she can do anything. Might be she just chose not to, for whatever her reason(s).
Better explanation far as I can tell is that no god is involved whatsoever.
Whatever it is you call the Comforter helps me to draw the conclusions I do, best I can. Quite frankly, those conclusions are plenty okay for me from a comforting standpoint. "Is what it is" in any case. For you same as me, and I'm quite sure none of us has anything to fear or concern ourselves about when it comes to what it is. Even less fear or concern about what it is not...
Given the kind of havoc and evil that these different notions of God have wrought on human society since the beginning, I am certain there is nothing to laugh about from God's point of view. The human wishful thinking about the Omnis is simply not credible enough to dissuade me from my view that there is "no way to avoid or prevent any of it" without essentially making robots of us.
Given that evolution and maturation seem to be the operative paradigms, I see no easy path to the desired outcomes of love of God and each other given the current psychological makeup of humanity. Coercion or threats are counterproductive to the desired outcome making them largely impotent.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
