God, Truth and Perception

[lobotomy3yes]

Sure, I can only look at specific details rather than the universe as a whole. Nothing wrong with that. That doesn't say anything about the existence of god. And quite frankly, my experience is that nothing in this world leads me to believe in a god. Religion has told us nothing, and philosophy shows us just how problematic god would be.

I don't know for sure if god exists, but I can tell you this. If god exists, he/she/it/god probably isn't worth knowing about. Certainly not worth worshipping. God would have some serious explaining to do regarding the state of things.

Nor do I wish for the existence of god. For years I believed the christian god existed, yet I hated everything he stood for. Now that is a mindfuck...It makes sense as an anarchist though. Even if god exists, why should I follow him? Eternity sounds infinitely worse than nonexistence. Just what is it about god that deserves my praise, the fact that he is god? Well I am me, and I say fuck god. If he wants to give me eternal damnation, so be it. At least I know I am not a) irrational b) ignorant c) despicable. The Christian god is a fucking monster when you think about it. Hell, any god that allows rape, murder, and bigotry is a fucking monster in my book.

After awhile I realized that there was no reason to believe in god anyway. I was basing my entire belief system on the experiences of other people and a stupid book.

Sorry if this offends anyone.

No authority but yourself.

 

[Gypsybones]

One might be both accused and excused of hyperbole if one were to assert that god has been utilized to justify more human evil than has satan. yet dozens of philosophers have pointed out that whatever its origins and promises, the reality of religion is this: it has often been less a force for liberation than a tool off oppression, an impetus for civil unrest, warfare and genocide.

wherever one stands on the religion divide, it seems clear that a new, life-affirming spirit needs expression as we end a century of carnage and move into a new millennium.
our supposedly enlitened age "the modern century" opend with a boer war; it is still folowing the bloody path:after the Armenian massacres came the world wars, the holocaust of the jews and manyother euro millions, and the atomic bomb on japan; then came Korea, Nam, (I could go on) wide spread civil unrest, not to mention the repression of one small country after another by self-appointed "peacekeeping" superpowers.

if religion has had no impact on the shedding of this blood (has it done anything other than aid and abed it?) then why the need for it? how is it that we have become so numbered, that we can pretend our faith is one of resurrection and life, when in reality it serves as one of the worst flashpoints of conflict in our culture of death?

Is our "GOD" the god of man alone? can a creator -god really bring into being creatures whose sole function is to serve the interests of themselves?

 

[Gypsybones]

here is some thing that I have been reading and relates I think.

Whereas some doubts have arisen whether children that are slaves by birth, and by the charity and pity of the owners made partakers of the blessed sacrament of baptism, should by virtue of their baptism be made free, it is enacted that baptism does not alter the person as to his bondage or freedom; masters freed from this doubt may more carefully propagate Christianity by permitting slaves to be admitted to that sacrament.

Statutes at large of Virginia, Act lll (1667)

 

[veggieguy12]

The bible has a mass amount of secular historical validity.

Not that I really want you to turn STP into a sounding board for preaching or further pseudo-philosophical rants, but your mere saying so doesn't make it so.
There really is zero proof of any Biblical claims of the miraculous. Sure, there were floods and plagues, but no passover by the death angel, no trumpet blair collapsing city walls, no Red Seas parting. Circumcisions I'll grant you, but I find them entirely unimpressive.
Next time you say it, ought to back it up...(And just 'cos a website says it don't make it proven, neither!)

...baptism does not alter the person as to his bondage or freedom; masters freed from this doubt may more carefully propagate Christianity by permitting slaves to be admitted to that sacrament.

Whatever one thinks of the Statutes of the great state of ol' Vuh-ginny, let it not be said that they ever discomforted slavemasters, no sir!

 

[RnJ]

How did this turn into a grammar war?

As far as my personal experience goes, God slashes an opening into a closed system - the human machine. I don't really have any arguments to contribute on some proofs or whatever, because unlike "science" and "facts" and "empirical verification", I've grown very weary and preoccupied in the past with trying to know the how and why of everything. My life has been a lot better since I've just decided to start going without knowing the next move, enjoying the mysteries, the wind against my face; faith.

heavens_fall, you are certainly pointing out pretty dastardly deeds done by "Christians," and you're a good writer/thinker. It seems to be though that it doesn't take a religious person to kill, steal, rape and destroy; to be a hypocrite; to be rotten. Those thing are common to all humanity. It happens in the industrialized word, and it happens among more primitive people. I think the problem is that many "Christians" have completely lost sight of Jesus as a non-violent, politically agitating, table-flipping character. As with anything remotely good, it has turned in upon itself by corrupt men. It reminds me of how I can't judge anarchy by observing just any anarchists. In reality, only 1 percent of people will read the Bible, the other 99 percent of people read "Christians."

These are my opinions. I have been on the other side of belief before, and it sucked shit for me, so I just hope people can evaluate person A (me) for person A (me), not for person B (he/she/them/whoever). I make no claims to perfection, I'm, just trying to be transparent. If I'm ever being a douchebag, please just call me a douchebag instead of all other Canadians.

Anyways, I hope this is more on topic than the grammar/vocabulary wars were, and that the discussion can remain civil. Cheers.

 

[bote]

I guess you´re talking about me when you mention the grammar lesson, and about that I have only this to say:

Someone responding to comments with snide, rhetorical questions (¨I'm assuming you've never heard of Jesus?¨) and pompous insults (¨You are an ignorant, uneducated fool¨), can reasonably expect to meet with adversity.

 

[Gypsybones]

It seems to be though that it doesn't take a religious person to kill, steal, rape and destroy; to be a hypocrite; to be rotten. Those thing are common to all humanity. It happens in the industrialized word, and it happens among more primitive people.

yes but this isn't about normal people or as you so put it "more primitive people".
what is that more primitive people? those who don't live like us? those who kill by the spear rather than by advanced weapons and bombs. what make them so primitive? is it because their lack of capitalistic free markets, or because they don't wage war on a global scale to convert the dark-skinned heathens?
for century's in America the term "Christian" has been virtually synonymous with "white". it was used not so much to distinguish believers from unbelievers, but civilized, light-skinned colonized from uncivilized, dark-skinned natives-the so-called primitive Africans, savage Indians, and other such heathen.

Jesus was a true socialist who hated the plutocracy he and every one threw out history has lived in. did he not say it was "easier for a camel to pass threw the eye of a needle then a rich man to enter the kingdom of god." of for that matter "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."
yet when Jesus entered a temple one day and witnessed commerce, money passing threw hands of merchants, did he not flip our and toss tables around yelling that it was not a market but a house of worship that money had no place here.
after that they nailed his skinny Jew ass to a cross

yet so many people continue at Claim to be followers of the fettered, spat upon, naked God, yet they don't follow a single word that he, not the church, has preached.
this socialist, this terrorist to the status quo, is in turn nothing more than a symbol of oppression for the people that would have you oppressed.

I hear over and over again "those people weren't real christens" because they did this then and now it looks wrong, so like a real Christan I will denounce what another did and claim my self to be a true Christan.


People do not need religion to force them to act civil, my posts, no, history has shown this to be overwhelmingly true. if anything the lack of religion or disbelieve of god, has lead men to believe in one another and pushed them to create a better world, to coexist peacefully with everyone rather than "my god can beat up your god" bull.

"If we as humans are only good because we fear punishment and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed." ~Einstein~

 

[Gypsybones]

I take forever to type and arrow posted before me and I didn't see it till after, but
"Can't we all just sit around the hearth, toast a bowl, break some dumpstered bread, slug down a jug of wine, play a fiddle, fly a sign, participate in some good old dirty kid debauchery and get along"

"My higher power is the welfare check that assures me my kid and I are fed each day and the rent is fuckin paid."

well said lady!
your higher power need not to be a 2000yr old anorectic dead jew, a fat ass Asian that eats his feelings or a supposed invisible, illiterate Arab that has a flying horse.
the one thing they all are, is men, men with ideas that someone to too seriously and made them a god.
neither claimed it yet millions have killed because they were so sure what he wanted.


Why is it that freaks and fanatics are always so sure of them selves, yet the wiser of us are always so full of doubts?

 

[Gypsybones]

you may in deed but give credit where credit is due.
I remembered the quote but not the author, its Bertrand Russel who I quoted, I just had to pull out the quote bible to get the name.

 

[lobotomy3yes]

My higher power is the welfare check that assures me my kid and I are fed each day and the rent is fuckin paid. That's all I got, straight dope , no good grammer (Bote you fucking rock!) and no preaching...

Story of the fucking year. GG