What are your thoughts on god? Part 3

POSTED BY: christhecynic
UPDATED: Sunday, January 22, 2006 06:51
VIEWED: 16563
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AURAPTOR

Tuesday, January 17, 2006 6:37 PM

Gee, I was gonna say

2) I do not believe....

but the way you put it, maybe I should say 2.5 intstead? Definitions as to what God™ is vary. There is much in the Cosmos which is greater than man, but I don't equate any of that to a Supreme Being.

So, I'll keep this simple. Unlike Mulder, I do NOT beleive. Instead, I'll go with what Carl Sagan said.. I do not want to believe, I want to KNOW. For Book's sake, I'll say I believe in science, but only for what it is, and not for any promises that it may hold. Science is a tool, a method by which we understand our surroundings, what and how things occur. But not always the WHY things occur. It rains because conditinos which favor rain to fall are present, and not out of any requirement for it to rain.

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

PHOEBE

Tuesday, January 17, 2006 7:14 PM

I do not believe! In fact I carry a strong torch *against* religion. My response to religious folks is - spell god back to front and tell me what you get.

USMC

Tuesday, January 17, 2006 7:49 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by cartoon:
Okay.

And, here I thought that your posts were invisible.

Anyhow, one part of your ten-thousand page treatise did catch my eye. The bit about how do we know anything we haven't seen is true?

Along those lines....

I wish I can remember where I read it, but I read somewhere (within the past year or so) that there is more ancient documentation supporting the accuracy of the Bible (Old Testatment) than there is supporting all other ancient writings (older than 2,000 years old) combined.

Maybe it was in the affore-mentioned Lee Strobel's "Case for Christ" book? I can't say for sure. My mind isn't quite what it used to be. And to be honest, it was never what I imagine it to be.

In other words, there are more existing copies of manuscripts which support the Hebrew scriptures (and even more of the Greek New Testament) than there are for anything else related to the ancient world period.

And believe it or not, there are people out there who wouldn't hesitate to say that Julius Caesar, Alexander, even Ramses actually existed and did the most of the things accredited to them, but don't believe in the accuracy of events accredited to Jesus, David, Moses.

If I can find whatever it was that I'm referring to, I'll post it later.

I just moved a few weeks ago (after having all of my stuff in storage for 18 months), so everything isn't easily accessible (if it even still exists).

I wish I can blame the disarray of my mental processes on the recent move, but alas, I cannot.

Not to argue, but just a correction. Many people think there religion is the best, so its no biggy that you say "Period" in your statement, but the facts are noone knows for sure the oldest/documented/accurate religion. But if you were to research it ,unbiased of course, you would find hinduism is actually meets your critaria much more accuratly. I am not arguing for this religion, I for one do not believe in any entity (god) of any sort. Just want to correct you, in case this arguement leads others to a different path. I am a history buff, a horrible pet peave, sry : )

CHRISTHECYNIC

Tuesday, January 17, 2006 7:56 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by queenofthenorth:
I'm still disappointed that no one responded to my post in part 2 at all. Sometimes I wonder if my posts are invisible and no one can read them. Hello? Can you see me? Or are my opinions really just that boring?

Would you please repeat yourself in this part?

CHRISTHECYNIC

Tuesday, January 17, 2006 8:06 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Phoebe:
I do not believe! In fact I carry a strong torch *against* religion.

I meant to say, and did in at least one of the other versions of this thread, that I'm asking about god NOT religion.

Quote:
My response to religious folks is - spell god back to front and tell me what you get.

Canine.

QUEENOFTHENORTH

Tuesday, January 17, 2006 9:04 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Phoebe:
I do not believe! In fact I carry a strong torch *against* religion. My response to religious folks is - spell god back to front and tell me what you get.

I take that to mean that you think dog is an insult. While I know lots of people use it as such, I don't think it is. Dogs are some of the most loyal companions a person could ever hope to know and have probably the purest souls on the planet. Certainly much purer than humans. Which makes them a very good thing, to my way of thinking.

Now, if you spelt a name for God backwards and got human, that might be an insult. Also, not to be extremely nitpicky, but I'm pretty sure this argument only works for English, not any other language. And English is by no means the oldest or even most widely spoken language out there.

Don't take this to mean a personal attack. And I'm also not religious in the sense that I follow any religion. You'll see what I mean when I repeat my post from Part 2 per Christhecynic's request. I'm just a dog lover.

"I'm having one of those things - a headache with pictures."

"Sucker! Competitive violence, that's why you're here!"

Like books? Go to this thread: http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=2&t=14862
to find out how to buy mine!

CARTOON

Tuesday, January 17, 2006 9:06 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by USMC:
Not to argue, but just a correction. Many people think there religion is the best, so its no biggy that you say "Period" in your statement, but the facts are noone knows for sure the oldest/documented/accurate religion. But if you were to research it ,unbiased of course, you would find hinduism is actually meets your critaria much more accuratly.

Hi. Don't worry, no offense taken. Thanks for the input. And I'd never consider arguing with a military man (never in the military, myself, but like yourself, I enjoy history -- and the military parts are certainly the most interesting).

Also, whether I agree with you or not (and I don't on your beliefs), I respect anyone who serves their country as you have/are. Thank you.

(Why is there no emoticon for "salute"???)

Now, onto your point...

I wasn't saying (or mean to imply) that because there is more ancient manuscript documentation related to the scriptures that they are "true" (which I believe they are), but was trying to make a point that (for instance) many people accept as fact that Julius Caesar was murdered by the Roman Senate on March 15th in the year 44 BC (or whenever it was -- I'm too lazy to look it up), when there is far more ancient, historical manuscripts of the Bible, which they often dismiss entirely, or at best think is just "silly".

Okay. I just dug it up, and that bit about the shere number of ancient manuscripts corroborating the Bible (as opposed to things from secular history) was indeed from Strobel's book "The Case For Christ" (specifically chapter 3 - pps 60-61). I won't quote the bits here, unless requested, as they're somewhat lengthy.

QUEENOFTHENORTH

Tuesday, January 17, 2006 9:11 PM

There. Here's the repeat of my previously invisible post, in case anyone missed getting hit over the head by my opinions.

Okay, I have lots of thoughts on god, life, the universe, and everything. So bear with me, cuz this is prolly gonna be a long post.

First off, I'll start by saying that I believe in a higher power. A being of divine wisdom that created us and everything, blah blah blah, etc. For convenience's sake, I will hereafter refer to this higher power as "God". It's shorter and easier to type than higher power. I believe that God is an embodiment of everything, an "all-in-one" kind of deal, male, female, father, child, hunter, hunted, and so forth.

Now, as to why I believe in God, it's simple. To look at the infinite vast complexity of the universe, the earth, all the species on it, not to mention just how complex people themselves are, and to attribute all that to some accidental "big bang" seems EXTREMELY farfetched to me, even moreso than the concept of God. I also think "big bang" is quite possibly the dumbest, most unoriginal name a person could think of for that occurence, but that's not the point.

Then there's also how people's lives turn out. Yes, I do believe we have free will and the ability to make our own choices and all that, but looking at the way things end up in people's lives even if that's not the way they thought or wanted things to happen, leads me to believe there must be something guiding or directing us.

Take, for example, the way my parents met. My dad left home at the age of 17 and traveled all over western Canada moving from job to job. One day he just happens to be in Red Deer, Alberta, and sees an ad on a bulletin board for a job in Ponoka, a little town that he'd never heard of before. So, he packs up his bags, heads to Ponoka, and gets the job. He then meets my mother at the bowling alley (they're both bowlers) and then they date, blah blah, and get married. But when you think about all the circumstances and other things that had to happen in order for my parents' paths to cross and for them to get married and have me and my brother, it gets very hard to believe that all this could happen by accident. I mean, if my dad had never seen that ad, there would be two people who wouldn't exist (me and my brother), and his life and my mom's life would be completely different, which in turn would affect probably hundreds of other lives. So it seems ridiculous to me to assume that something isn't guiding all of this.

So yeah, those are my compelling reasons to believe in God. That being said, I am not a religious church-goer. I do believe in God, and I try to live my life being a good person, not stealing, killing, and trying not to lie, etc. However, I don't follow any religion, because I believe that religions are man-made, fallible, entirely too flawed, and hypocritical. Not to mention, a lot of the religious people I've met have been some of the worst people that I've met.
Like my cousin's grandma, for example. (Not the one that we share, but their other grandma.) She was a very religious Christian, went to church twice a week, had lots of Jesus stuff, didn't even use the word "stupid" because she figured it was a swear-word. She was also the meanest bitch I've ever met. She treated my aunt like absolute crap because she didn't think my aunt was good enough for her precious son. Not to mention the way she treated me because she thought I was a bad influence on my cousins. She also treated all their friends absolutely horribly. Nobody, not even my cousins or her son, was really sad when she died. Which sounds horrible to say, but it's true. And she lived her life around a religion that is supposed to teach kindness and tolerance of others. Apparently she wasn't getting the message, even though she heard it all the time.

There's also the way that religions or religious intolerances have been responsible for some of mankind's most horrible atrocities: Crusades, Salem witch trials, Holocaust, 9/11, etc. People who believe they have the right to kill or judge in Go

CARTOON

Tuesday, January 17, 2006 9:23 PM

I'd almost swear that someone posted something between my previous post and this one.

Nah. I must be imagining things. There's nothing there.

QUEENOFTHENORTH

Tuesday, January 17, 2006 9:40 PM

Hey now, that's really not funny . . .

Oh, wait, actually it is. Please continue.

"I'm having one of those things - a headache with pictures."

"Sucker! Competitive violence, that's why you're here!"

Like books? Go to this thread: http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=2&t=14862
to find out how to buy mine!

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