Dutch rethink Christianity for a doubtful world
POSTED BY: Niki2
UPDATED: Wednesday, March 11, 2026 00:29
VIEWED: 9348
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I believe that each of us is part selfish and part cooperation. How much of each we are depends on a lot of factors, but we all have both in us, the selfishness and the kindness, those are the two sides in us all and to deny one or the other is simplistic and rather childish and lacks realisticness.
"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya
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Quote:
Originally posted by Niki2:
From all I've read here, the concept of Christian God seems to be of a very capricious, selfish, domineering patriarch, which pretty much defines any god of any religion, and depends on worship, submission, unquestioning acceptance on the part of humans. Good way to control them, but not logical at all. That's just how I see it. The final nail in the coffin for me is people being so adamant in every religion that if you don't accept THEIR god, you're doomed. That's an incredibly human concept, and has never turned out to be a good one. So I'll stick with buddhism.
Personally I have never understood why God, and Organized religion have to be mutually exclusive.
Also, something I find interesting is that Einstein believed(as does Stephen Hawking) that God does not exist. Yet both are certain that somewhere in space aliens abound. Quick to discount people that worship a higher power....yet little green men? Just seems strange to me.
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One theory says that it would be a pretty huge and empty universe if we were the only intelligent life that ever existed, and the others says that there is a being that created the universe and everything in it /additionally some believe that that being exists and knows all our inner thoughts and watches over humanity and sends help sometimes when we ask for it/ additionally some believe that that being judges us on our thoughts and actions and decides what happens when each of us dies/ additionally some believe that we are joined together with that being and others if we and they have been deemed by that being to be worthy and that place is kind of a different plane that can't be seen or experienced by the living.
so quite different theories and beliefs really
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Quote:
Originally posted by OPPYH:
Also, something I find interesting is that Einstein believed(as does Stephen Hawking) that God does not exist. Yet both are certain that somewhere in space aliens abound. Quick to discount people that worship a higher power....yet little green men? Just seems strange to me.
1) I have never heard it claimed that Einstein believed that "god" does not exist.
2) I have likewise never heard it claimed that either he or Hawking were "certain" that space aliens abound.
"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill
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Quote:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36769422/ns/technology_and_science-space/t
Originally posted by Kwicko:
1) I have never heard it claimed that Einstein believed that "god" does not exist.
2) I have likewise never heard it claimed that either he or Hawking were "certain" that space aliens abound.
/hawking-aliens-may-pose-risks-earth/
Einstein didn't believe in God.
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Quote:
Originally posted by OPPYH:Quote:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36769422/ns/technology_and_science-space/t
Originally posted by Kwicko:
1) I have never heard it claimed that Einstein believed that "god" does not exist.
2) I have likewise never heard it claimed that either he or Hawking were "certain" that space aliens abound.
/hawking-aliens-may-pose-risks-earth/
According to the article, Hawking believes aliens "almost certainly" exist. Of course, he's also said that the universe doesn't NEED a god to explain its origins. But none of those are hard-and-fast claims of certitude, are they?
Quote:
Einstein didn't believe in God.
I think you mean he didn't believe in YOUR god.
From the Wiki:
Quote:
On 24 April 1929, Einstein cabled Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein in German: "I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals himself in the harmony of all that exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and the doings of mankind."[1]
In a 1950 letter to M. Berkowitz, Einstein stated that "My position concerning God is that of an agnostic. I am convinced that a vivid consciousness of the primary importance of moral principles for the betterment and ennoblement of life does not need the idea of a law-giver, especially a law-giver who works on the basis of reward and punishment." Einstein as an "agnostic" has been referred to as an agnostic theist, sometimes called as a form of deism or pantheism. Einstein referred to his belief system as "cosmic religion", and authored an eponymous article on the subject in 1954 which became a book in 1955. The belief system recognized a "miraculous order which manifests itself in all of nature as well as in the world of ideas", rejected a personal deity who rewards and punishes, rejected a conflict between science and religion, and moreover held that cosmic religion was necessary for science. "God," he says, "is a mystery. But a comprehensible mystery. I have nothing but awe when I observe the laws of nature. There are not laws without a lawgiver, but how does this lawgiver look? Certainly not like a man magnified."
And there are his own words, such as "God does not play dice with the universe!" and "My sense of God is my sense of wonder about the universe."
None of those really sound like disbelief in a god or absolute certainty of aliens.
Personally, I've seen more evidence of alien life in the universe than I have of any gods.
"Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill
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Quote:
Originally posted by Kwicko:
Personally, I've seen more evidence of alien life in the universe than I have of any gods.
Well of course, you live in Texas, and there's governor goodhair as a prime example, right ?
Quote:
"That disguise is terrible, this guy's obviously an alien"
-Agent J
-Frem
I do not serve the Blind God.
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Good point, Frem. I've been kind of idly wondering, *IF* (big "if" there) Perry did manage to get himself elected President of a country he has expressed a desire to secede from, could Texas still then secede? Bit of bitter irony there, yeah? We send him to DC and then we stick the rest of you unlucky bastards with him and go on our merry way!
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Hello,
God is necessarily an extra-terrestrial, as are the angels. By definition.
Any debate between Gods and Aliens is a debate about capability, motivation, and history.
But aliens? That's a concept that Christians and Scientists agree on, even if they don't realize it.
--Anthony
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“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all”
Jacob Hornberger
“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”
Mahatma Gandhi
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Quote:
Originally posted by Kwicko:
I think you mean he didn't believe in YOUR god.
I don't belong to any religion, so MY God is exactly what I believe him to be. A creator of life, and the universe. Given the spirit realm is unknown I can't begin to speculate what happens after death, but I think it will be better than life on earth.
I seen many different articles claiming Einstein had no belief in God. I can't remember where I read them over the years, but I did read them. If the WIKI article is true, then his God seems very, very close to what I believe.
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