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How do you feel about God.

beautifullywild77 said:
Love how you are now psychic and know what people are thinking in the back of their minds and how they view their own beliefs. Or are you just making assumptions as to what all of humanity thinks or should think of religion and deities.
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How do you deal with your beliefs internally when they go against someone else's beliefs? Do you look at your beliefs and think that yours are wrong? Do you think that their beliefs are right and yours are wrong?
 
How about, some of us analyze our beliefs and see which fits us most, and change accordingly...


Why is it that, while there are militant religious people out there, it is the militant atheists that just keep on blowing wind, going on and on about why everyone who has a belief is stupid? Even the most militant religious person I have met gave up after a little while of not making any headway in the conversation... Oh, and this was a 6,000 year earther...
 
Outcast said:
How about, some of us analyze our beliefs and see which fits us most, and change accordingly...


Why is it that, while there are militant religious people out there, it is the militant atheists that just keep on blowing wind, going on and on about why everyone who has a belief is stupid? Even the most militant religious person I have met gave up after a little while of not making any headway in the conversation... Oh, and this was a 6,000 year earther...
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What is a militant atheist?

Who is calling anyone stupid?

I believe we all have beliefs and I believe that one culture/religion's beliefs whether they be creation myths or otherwise often differ. I believe that for someone who honestly believes there are pixies, fairies, gnomes, yuwipi, etc. that their belief is just as valid as someone else who believes in Horus, Zeus, Allah, Tunkashila, or any other spiritual power or deity. I also believe that no culture/religion can lay any more claim of legitimacy than any other cultures religion or creation myth can as they all rest on blind faith. I base my own beliefs on proofs and evidence and when I find proofs or evidence that refutes my beliefs I am more than willing to change those beliefs in light of the new evidence and facts.
 
I do like that you analyze your beliefs and change them accordingly though or am I interpreting that wrong? How do you see your beliefs that do not fit in or that go against other peoples beliefs. Say for instance, that there is a belief that stoning children is right and your belief is that stoning children is wrong. How do you internalize the two differences?
 
Meaning, when you have changed accordingly and realize the two beliefs are still diametrically opposed to each other... do you ever say, one of these beliefs is untrue or do you hold that both beliefs are true? Take for example the belief that stoning women or children is okay and another cultural/religious view that stoning women or children is not okay? Do you ever just take a stand and say, that belief is wrong?
 
Carpe Serpentis said:
Meaning, when you have changed accordingly and realize the two beliefs are still diametrically opposed to each other... do you ever say, one of these beliefs is untrue or do you hold that both beliefs are true? Take for example the belief that stoning women or children is okay and another cultural/religious view that stoning women or children is not okay? Do you ever just take a stand and say, that belief is wrong?
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Reading some of your posts makes me wish I were stoned..........just sayin'.....
 
starsevol said:
Reading some of your posts makes me wish I were stoned..........just sayin'.....
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And speaking of stoned and your desire to get stoned, there are many religions which use psychotropics, entheogens, magic/tricks, etc. to get people to help foster beliefs. So, blind faith and even outright deception can be used along with mind altering substances to alter ones beliefs. An example of deception/magic/trick is when a yuwipi medicine man is tied up in a blanket and is subsequently unwrapped by "spirits". "Spirits/yuwpi" come in and make the room light up with their presence, make it rain inside a room, etc. Sometimes, these ceremonies even have the addition of peyote another psychoactive substance added to them.... or when in an inipi ceremony (sweat lodge) one sees the water sparkle or light up as if the breath of the creator and the spirits of the inyan were really there. Parlor tricks easily duplicated.... so, outright deception is sometimes used.
 
I have to admit, that if I were able to have a conversation with aliens, I certainly would be interested to hear their opinions about God.
 
Easter eggs are another hybrid element of the christian religion. Pysanka as they are called by one culture and were once used and perhaps still are used by some cultures as symbols representative of spring, rebirth, the sun, etc. The bottom line is many religions share hybrid elements from other cultures religions/beliefs as they evolve, go extinct, etc.
 
I believe there is more intelligent life in the universe so we are all aliens to someone or something anyway :)
 
SnakeAround said:
I believe there is more intelligent life in the universe so we are all aliens to someone or something anyway :)
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I don't believe there is intelligent life in the universe. I mean look at us... but then who knows what may be out there. I do think it is more probable that there is life other than what we find on our own planet than there is a god.

But, if I were to have a religion or to adopt a religion, I do believe the Jedi religion is one that I could immerse myself in.
 
Carpe Serpentis said:
I don't believe there is intelligent life in the universe. I mean look at us... but then who knows what may be out there. I do think it is more probable that there is life other than what we find on our own planet than there is a god.

But, if I were to have a religion or to adopt a religion, I do believe the Jedi religion is one that I could immerse myself in.
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Personally, I would find it absolutely shocking to find out that in this HUGE universe that humankind is the most intelligent race out there, much less the ONLY intelligent (relatively speaking) race in the universe. The odds alone make that pretty darn unlikely.

Of course, the question remains of why such advanced civilizations have not made overt contact with us. At least that we are aware of. One answer is that there has been covert contact, for whatever reason that may be compelling to them. Or secondly, maybe they have no reason to. Let's face it, maybe colonies of rats living in the deepest bowels of the fetid sewerage tunnels underneath New York City speak of us only as unsubstantiated rumors because WE don't climb on down there to spend time with them.
 
Rich Z said:
Personally, I would find it absolutely shocking to find out that in this HUGE universe that humankind is the most intelligent race out there, much less the ONLY intelligent (relatively speaking) race in the universe. The odds alone make that pretty darn unlikely.

Of course, the question remains of why such advanced civilizations have not made overt contact with us. At least that we are aware of. One answer is that there has been covert contact, for whatever reason that may be compelling to them. Or secondly, maybe they have no reason to. Let's face it, maybe colonies of rats living in the deepest bowels of the fetid sewerage tunnels underneath New York City speak of us only as unsubstantiated rumors because WE don't climb on down there to spend time with them.
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Excellent Point!
 
to further the point....

Take ants for instance. Intelligent in their own right. the work together for a common goal...they hunt together...they interact with one another...there is an order to be followed....a Queen... etc...

You & I wouldn't give them a second thought..(Unless they were fire ants...but thats another story...some other time..)

100 billion Galaxies out there...... Gotta be someone/something out there.
 
Rich Z said:
Personally, I would find it absolutely shocking to find out that in this HUGE universe that humankind is the most intelligent race out there, much less the ONLY intelligent (relatively speaking) race in the universe. The odds alone make that pretty darn unlikely.

Of course, the question remains of why such advanced civilizations have not made overt contact with us. At least that we are aware of. One answer is that there has been covert contact, for whatever reason that may be compelling to them. Or secondly, maybe they have no reason to. Let's face it, maybe colonies of rats living in the deepest bowels of the fetid sewerage tunnels underneath New York City speak of us only as unsubstantiated rumors because WE don't climb on down there to spend time with them.
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If one considers the idea that our own universe is simply a part of a multiverse and there is life here... it seems very plausible that life could exist elsewhere. Time, distance, resources, etc. may play a role if there is indeed a desire to meet other civilizations outside of their own. Perhaps there is even a plethora of different religions and gods on each of these inhabited planets as well. We may never know. There could even be a planet of atheists and they wouldn't know what to call themselves if they did not have the concept of gods. I admit, I like to think about such possibilities as well. The Jedi religion accepts members from all universes if memory serves me so there is no speciesism there. As for contact being made already... who would believe a single individual or even a group of individuals who claimed to have had contact with aliens? The movie "Paul" springs to mind where the alien was indeed an atheist and had what many would consider supernatural powers. I was once stationed at Fort Riley, KS and one of my SGT's at the time was reading a book about a government coverup of aliens at Fort Riley believe it or not. I wish I could remember the name of the book, but its been some 16 years since that day. I do remember reading it though. To be sure there is much we do not know and much we may never know in our lifetime.
 
Carpe Serpentis said:
If one considers the idea that our own universe is simply a part of a multiverse and there is life here... it seems very plausible that life could exist elsewhere.
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Actually I find the concept of a "multiverse", or multiple parallel dimensions, quite fascinating in it's own right. I had an experience when I was a teenager that shook me up pretty badly that I just cannot explain. A car accident I SHOULD have had did not take place. I just clutched the steering wheel, bracing my arms, and closed my eyes waiting for the impact with that parked car that filled up my view dead in front of me, thinking "Mom is going to KILL me", because I was driving her car. Next thing I knew I opened my eyes and I was PAST that parked car I was headed for, driving down the road slowly. There was absolutely NO WAY I could have avoided hitting that car, yet I did. So over the years this has haunted me. I tend to look for logical explanations for things, but this one just doesn't seem to have one. What the hell happened?

So the concept of multiple dimensions in parallel where all possibilities are happening simultaneously sounds intriguing. Can people pass through a dimensional boundary from one to another? Maybe I did. Maybe I passed into a dimension where I didn't have that accident I was waiting for. Maybe people do this all of the time, but don't realize it.

Have you ever run into two people arguing over a past event that they shared together that both are equally adamant about what happened, but both couldn't possibly be true? Yeah, people tend to just brush this off as faulty memory at work. But is it? Maybe a cross-over happens more commonly than anyone would suspect. Things just might be subtly different if you don't realize this happened to you, but you might doubt your own memory, or perhaps even your on sanity if you notice the difference. Maybe except in rare instances, you might not even know things are different. But perhaps CUMULATIVELY, when you are older and notice differences that have accumulated over time if you have slipped through multiple times, you just think you're getting some marbles breaking loose in the noggin. How would you know? What yardstick could you use to measure your reality against?

Perhaps a person CAN live forever, just not how we usually think that means. Maybe when you die you really do move on, just not this heaven and hell thing at all. Maybe the point of existence that is YOUR consciousness just MOVES it's frame of reference to a different plane. Maybe when you think, "I don't remember it like that", maybe it really WASN'T like that for YOU in YOUR past.

Heck, a while back when I had a minor operation because of kidney stones and the doc wanted to check for kidney damage, I passed out in the hospital when I went into the bathroom of my hospital room to urinate afterwards. Next thing I knew I had doctors and equipment all around me. They said my heart had stopped and they revived me. Connie swears to this day that I changed from that moment on. That I am not the same person now that I was before. Funny thing is that I SAW Connie standing at the door looking at me while I was laying on the floor, with panic in her eyes (I guess she was looking at me dying), and a couple of nurses forced her out of the room. Only problem is that this was WHILE I had to have been unconscious.

Oh yeah, in case you are wondering, she says she likes this rendition of me better than the old one. But where did the "old me" go to? Maybe the other Connie in another dimension isn't quite so happy with that switch.

Yeah, I know, all kinds of logical wrinkles in this concept. But is it completely and absolutely impossible? Heck, do we really even KNOW what is impossible? Maybe our definition of "possible" is too limited and narrow because of our own lack of understanding of concepts that we don't have the capacity to grasp.

Like I said, this is interesting to me. Now if I could only CONTROL this and pick and choose the universe I actually wanted to be in. Kind of like selecting a channel from an infinite number of channels on the TV. Let's see, where is that "King Rich Z" channel.. :rofl:

But seriously, perhaps we are able to understand the workings of God as well as earthworms would be able to understand us. Which is not at all.
 
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