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If I were to offer you the idea of the belief in God, but with no connection to religious teachings, of any kind, would that be acceptable?
Not a being that humans are created in the image of, but a being of light and unbelievable love.
To atheists, is it the religion part that causes problems?
Just questions, but maybe an answer too.
I don't have any desire to believe in a deity. Sure, I do wish that I could have supernatural miracles in my life, but the fact of the matter is that's not the world we live in. When suffering and thinking how great it would be if there could be supernatural intervention, I stop to think: What makes my situation so special that it needs intervention when everyone else is and has suffered even worse than me and are not receiving help (or didn't ever and are now gone)?
The religions we have are certainly a problem. So many of them have barbaric, hateful texts and teach people to deny the reality in front of them. Many teach people to devalue the life they have right now. But... Why would I desire the existence of a deity? I don't see any point in the existence of such a thing. Simply, we live in an existence where there is no reason to believe in such a thing, so it just needlessly complicates things. We should instead learn to value ourselves and the people around us. We should do our very best to reduce suffering and make quality of life better for everyone. This life is what we have in front of us, and it is the only experience we can be sure we'll ever have.
If I were to offer you the idea of the belief in God, but with no connection to religious teachings, of any kind, would that be acceptable?
Not a being that humans are created in the image of, but a being of light and unbelievable love.
To atheists, is it the religion part that causes problems?
My primary malfunction with theism of any kind is epistemological in nature. Theism tends to offer assertions that can't be examined critically, as there is no substantiation for the truth claims. All religion is guilty of is systematizing and weaponizing those assertions. To me, the fundamental problem is fuzzy definitions and no proof.
If you were to offer me the idea of belief in god, you'd need first to clearly define this god, and describe his character and motivations. The more specific you get, the more the abstraction leaks. Also this "no connection of any kind with religious teachings" is kind of a meaningless claim. It is still your teaching, or someone else's teaching that you are passing on, and so there's a holy book or oral tradition or some nebulous principles behind it and now we are talking about a belief-system, however small / unpopular / informal it may be. And if any significant number of people got involved with it, it would become a new religion anyway.
For me, it all comes down to what truth is, and how we identify truth vs falsity. Claims of things outside nature (the supernatural) are inherently meaningless because the natural world is all that we are able to engage with. We can of course engage with thoughts about anything, however fanciful, but if there is nothing to distinguish fact from fancy, then what is the point?
If I were to offer you the idea of the belief in God, but with no connection to religious teachings, of any kind, would that be acceptable?
Not a being that humans are created in the image of, but a being of light and unbelievable love.
To atheists, is it the religion part that causes problems?
Just questions, but maybe an answer too.
For me, it is not about whether it is acceptable or not. Believing is a behavior that humans default to, so believing in a God is understandable. The conflict for me would be your intention. It is often discussed that people should know the difference between fact and opinion and that people should stop promoting opinion/belief as fact. I say that statements, whether they are fact or opinion, don't exist in isolation. If somebody told me the sun is the center of our Solar System, I would wonder why they want to point out this statement to me. The same would be true for a God statement. If somebody told me that God existed, I would wonder why this statement is being pointed out to me.
For me, it is not about whether it is acceptable or not. Believing is a behavior that humans default to, so believing in a God is understandable. The conflict for me would be your intention. It is often discussed that people should know the difference between fact and opinion and that people should stop promoting opinion/belief as fact. I say that statements, whether they are fact or opinion, don't exist in isolation. If somebody told me the sun is the center of our Solar System, I would wonder why they want to point out this statement to me. The same would be true for a God statement. If somebody told me that God existed, I would wonder why this statement is being pointed out to me.
Right. One can never teach or preach about divinity to someone until they are ready to receive it. And it is smart to question why anyone is trying to sell you something you have never needed or wanted.
I am not sure god belief is the default. Children are taught to pray, are told mythological stories, taught how to worship, taught the language of the spiritual texts. As the grow up they may choose to stop doing all that or develop their spiritual seeking. Spiritual seeking is a want, a need to be fulfilled.
Right. One can never teach or preach about divinity to someone until they are ready to receive it. And it is smart to question why anyone is trying to sell you something you have never needed or wanted.
I am not sure god belief is the default. Children are taught to pray, are told mythological stories, taught how to worship, taught the language of the spiritual texts. As the grow up they may choose to stop doing all that or develop their spiritual seeking. Spiritual seeking is a want, a need to be fulfilled.
There are other things that humans do -- sex as just one example -- that are 'wants', 'needs to be fulfilled'...and it demonstrates that all those wants and needs are not always wise.
There are other things that humans do -- sex as just one example -- that are 'wants', 'needs to be fulfilled'...and it demonstrates that all those wants and needs are not always wise.
Since wants are LEARNED "desired solutions" to INNATE needs of course they can be unwise, It is also why wants vary so much. Our needs are not wise or unwise because they simply ARE!
Most come to God for escape due to personal trouble, but as soon as the trouble is subsides they return to what caused it.
Jeus called for repentance, because if one does not recognize the error of their ways, they have no impetus to shun that behavior.
One must first seek God's forgiveness for the rebellion in their life from God, and repent turning against such behavior in themselves, and secondly require Jesus' lordship in their life for the guidance to overcome their offensive behaviors. remember that the sin/rebellion is between man and God that needs addressed, but secondly behaviors against others needs to be addressed as well.
Ones offences will be addressed either now on earth or on judgment day when the unsaved have a say as well.
God maintains record of all things we say and do, all things, even idle conversation.
We do not tend to recognize the power in our words,(spoken or written) but God does, and there is a result, both positively and negatively. Question is where does the guidance come from that inspire those words?
Unlike religion, Jesus provided the Holy Spirit to teach in His place. This has been God's intention from the beginning of creation, but the rebellions spirit in man creates this division.
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