Silly Posts About Your God.

[anarchosyn]

I'm no christian. In fact, although I'm past my juvenile anti-christian epoch (ala 6th grade), my love for modern christianity is akin to my love for railroad ties hammered into my urethra by latvian miners. It just isn't that strong.

Religion is the opium of the nascent masses, some might say. To each their own.

But, I ask you, if he* came back tomorrow, what would be your honest reaction? Seriously, would you convert if you discovered it was all seemingly true (at least the undead specture of a jewish carpenter coming back to haunt the masses)?

This was a seemingly silly question that was posed to me by a seemingly silly person, but it really does put a spotlight on personal convictions. Is the absence of christianity in your life (assuming there is one) based on a disbelief of the reality of it, or a distancing from the dogma (i.e. even if it was true, you wouldn't want to embrace that being the christians call god).

Just curious.

* You know, HE: That white dude with the hippie hair that came from the middle east but died for your sins.

[Orang Utan]

I am an atheist, but I have faith in science.
I don't think atheism is a 'distancing from the dogma' - atheists are just as tied up in dogma and rhetoric as people of other faiths.
If Jesus came back, I would have a lot of angry questions for him and his Dad, but that of course isn't going to happen.

[Hagbard]

If you had faith in scientific method you would be agnostic by default and wait for conclusive proof, of which there is none either way ;)

[pille'ocheoni]

id give him a hug and share a glass of wine. i welcome all the ascended.

[Loz]

atheism is a form of religion itself. I've met more atheists who want to convert people to their way of thinking than I've met Christians who do the same.

although, in response to pille's post, I'd give him a glass of water. He can make his own wine.

[Hagbard]

Originally posted by Loz
atheism is a form of religion itself. I've met more atheists who want to convert people to their way of thinking than I've met Christians who do the same.

Couldn't agree more Loz, belief is the issue.. and ultimately faith or strong beliefs are all too often the death of debate and intelligence.

Better to have an open mind I say.

[Loz]

Originally posted by Steev
Better to have an open mind I say.

I find the best way out of religious arguments is to feign complete and utter apathy.

[Hagbard]

Originally posted by Loz


I find the best way out of religious arguments is to feign complete and utter apathy.

whatever

[Loz]

Reminds me of a scene from Futurama

Fry: Voter Apathy Party! I want to join.
Party Representative: Not with that attitude you won't.
Fry: Bah, screw you then.
PR: That's better, sign here.
Fry: Wa-hoo!
PR: Get out of here.

[anarchosyn]

Originally posted by Orang Utan
I am an atheist, but I have faith in science.
I don't think atheism is a 'distancing from the dogma' - atheists are just as tied up in dogma and rhetoric as people of other faiths.

I never said atheism was a "distancing from the dogma". I would lump that into my first catagory, a disbelief in the reality of the situation.

Of course though, steev speaks the goddess honest truth (and has read Cosmic Trigger vol1, it seems :)).

[Hagbard]

Originally posted by anarchosyn

Of course though, steev speaks the goddess honest truth (and has read Cosmic Trigger vol1, it seems :)).

Yes it fitted in very nicely with my unbeliefs. http://www.polyfather.com/smiley.jpg

[thesnailsshow]

I don't need an explanation about life !!
I just like to stay in contact with everything.
My Family is catholic, when I was youger they wanted me to go that way, but there are lot's of ideas I just can't stand.
And the fact I don't believe there's a god up there.

[pille'ocheoni]

i totally agree.

i think there is no right or wrong, it all just is. the pursuite of truth is noble nonetheless, but i think public discussion on a general level of you own beliefs is a sign of doubt. which is good sometimes. all and all its ones journey, however it may turnout.

[anarchosyn]

Ok guys, I hear ya - but I didn't ask about your personal beliefs (hell, my "religion" is basically zen buddhism with a grocho marx twist, and even that was dreamed up by a pair of berkeley acid heads in the 1950s).

My question was: if we woke up tomorrow and discovered it really was true (or, at the least, jesus came back), what would be your reaction? Do you think it would effect your detachments from the religion?

I could have used any religious figure, but jesus seems best known amoungst us.

[pille'ocheoni]

if what the romans made up was true than yes id be a bit suprised. but if jesus came back and say hey im back. id probally listen to what he said and give em a dollar. cus i meet alot of those guys.

hehe.

[decadnids]

"Our tendency is to think of divine power in the same terms as our power, except to extend God's power unlimitedly. That is, there are limits to our power; there are no limits to God's power. If we can do some things, God is able to do anything. Thus, human 'ableness' provides us with the image to think about God's power. In this context, the image of a disabled God is not simply a shocker but also a theological reminder that we are not to think of God's powers or abilities as simply an unlimited extension of our powers or abilities. "

Burton Cooper

[cut out]

at the moment i've been thinking 'god' is a manifestation of the fact that life is 50% good and 50% evil and that mankind needs some way of rationalising that... also very similar to ant colonies too in that you have a queen (god), fighter ants (clergy/believers) and then the rest of the dirgey humanity (workers who get kicked out eventually)... a load of bollox i grant you, but that's what a few spliffs during the week does to me these days...

as for if jesus suddenly turned up i'd probably ask him if he could heal my dodgy hearing...

[Sheridan]

if jesus came down from heaven and I saw it with my own eyes and I knew it wasn't a hoax, I might convert right there on the spot. but not before I gave him a serious bitching out as to why he has been allowing all the fucked up stuff happening on earth to go on.
We sure could have used a little divine intervention during the 2000 election, or maybe we already got it...

[Martin23]

I don't believe in anything, including the last statement.

[decadnids]

Originally posted by Martin23
I don't believe in anything, including the last statement.

besides from talking greek dogs...

[marcel]

whot? whos coming down? jesus or his dad? and why are we referring here to the christian religion only? i'd rather like talking to zeus that ol'freak:)

anyhow, if its the christian god or whoever, i'd ask him/her why he/she* is such a perverse voyeur.
or maybe i'd ask for entry at heaven. whatever is coming first to my mind..

to be honest, i dunno if i would be happy or not to just finally know _it_ now. maybe i would ask to have a talk with my dad




*me on a pc-trip today. ay:D

[decadnids]

For I am the first and the last.
I am the honored one and the scorned one.
I am the whore and the holy one.
I am the wife and the virgin.
I am {the mother} and the daughter.
I am the members of my mother.
I am the barren one
and many are her sons.
I am she whose wedding is great,
and I have not taken a husband.
I am the midwife and she who does not bear.
I am the solace of my labor pains.
I am the bride and the bridegroom,
and it is my husband who begot me.
I am the mother of my father
and the sister of my husband
and he is my offspring.
I am the slave of him who prepared me.
I am the ruler of my offspring.
But he is the one who begot me before the time on a birthday.
And he is my offspring in (due) time,
and my power is from him.
I am the staff of his power in his youth,
and he is the rod of my old age.
And whatever he wills happens to me.
I am the silence that is incomprehensible
and the idea whose remembrance is frequent.
I am the voice whose sound is manifold
and the word whose appearance is multiple.
I am the utterance of my name.
.............................. .............................. ...........
.................
I am the knowledge of my inquiry,
and the finding of those who seek after me,
and the command of those who ask of me,
and the power of the powers in my knowledge
of the angels, who have been sent at my word,
and of gods in their seasons by my counsel,
and of spirits of every man who exists with me,
and of women who dwell within me.
I am the one who is honored, and who is praised,
and who is despised scornfully.
I am peace,
and war has come because of me.
And I am an alien and a citizen.
I am the substance and the one who has no substance.



quoted from the thunder, perfect mind - from the The Nag Hammadi Library

[May Kasahara]

I would be gutted that the mysteries of the spiritual world had turned out to be that limited.

[anarchosyn]

There are like a million great posts here I could respond to, and I most certainly will (don't all go getting excited just yet!) - but since I'm leaving work now, let me leave the day with this:

My most Favorite Jesus Quote:


From Matthew 10

32 Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.

33 But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.

34 "Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.

35 For I have come to set a man 'against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

36 and one's enemies will be those of his household.'

37 "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;

38 and whoever does not take up his cross 15 and follow after me is not worthy of me.




Ghee.. guess I'm not worthy. That's ok though, I can live with that.

[Hagbard]

23 replies I see.

23% of women would cheat on Jesus too

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3783031.stm


____________________

I'll eat the hair of the god that bit me.
-Steve Taylor

[wheezer]

ooooh genetically preprogrammed infidelity, how delicious.

I don't consider myself atheist in the classic sense, and I'm not sure what I'd have to say to Jesus, besides how would I get to talking to him with the rest of the world fawning around him anyhow? :)

Seriously though, I mostly have difficulty accepting that there is some individual with so much power/knowledge/wisdom of some sort concentrated onto him, not exactly an exclusively christian concept but I think that with assuming such concepts it's much easier to accept all kinds of unfair treatment on this planet as "god's way", for lack of a better word.

I also have my doubts about the afterlife, personally I think it's healthier to assume that there is none and make the most of what one has in the here and now...

[decadnids]

Originally posted by May Kasahara
I would be gutted that the mysteries of the spiritual world had turned out to be that limited.

what be you refering to?

[animal night train]

As an agnostic I've always said that I'll consider believing when I've been given reason to do so i.e. evidence. Right now there is none.

I've had "discussions" with Jehova's Witnesses at my door, trying to convince them that if the god they believe in really does exist, it won't mind me waiting until I meet it before acknowledging it's existence, cos it must be smart enough, despite making a complete arse of life on earth, to understand that nobody in their right mind would believe in it based on any "evidence" that we currently have.

[animal night train]

I always liked a quote from Bram Stoker's "Dracula", in which Van Helsing defined religious faith as "that which allows us to believe what we know to be untrue".

[decadnids]

Originally posted by animal night train
cos it must be smart enough, despite making a complete arse of life on earth, to understand that nobody in their right mind would believe in it based on any "evidence" that we currently have.

i think life on earth has been pretty successful so far....

[animal night train]

On it's own, yeah, since it (or at least, humanity) was kicked out of paradise. I meant [life] based on the model that god apparently intended, according to the *cough* "instruction manual".

[thomas hooked]

Originally posted by Loz
atheism is a form of religion itself. I've met more atheists who want to convert people to their way of thinking than I've met Christians who do the same.
.

I think this is a very important point.

i am default athiest really (maternal family theologian legacy) - although not without want for belief in something. i think this need is innately human.

the nearest i have to a theistic solution is that to me, proof of lower, apparently autonomous but ultimately controllable intelligences and technologies, in an infinite universe, makes me believe in a kind of analogue heirarchy of diety upwards as well as downward from human consciousness.

everyone has different names for their internal monologue. fair do's to attack zealots who seek to alter the world to the shape of their beliefs. relentlessly baiting people for the quaintness of their belief system however is a less honourable pursuit.
Regrettably, life is too short, too complicated and ultimately, too hopeless for a great deal of peoples on this earth to be expected to deconstruct their inherited beliefs to fit in with a wholly post -enlightenment worldview.

[decadnids]

Originally posted by thomas hooked

Regrettably, life is too short, too complicated and ultimately, too hopeless for a great deal of peoples on this earth to be expected to deconstruct their inherited beliefs to fit in with a wholly post -enlightenment worldview.

or as has be said many times


fuck'em if they can't take a joke.

[bitch one]

you might as well ask 'what would you do if it turned out pigs really could fly?'

it's a silly question

[decadnids]

you might as well ask 'what would you do if it turned out pigs really could fly?'



i would train them as currier pigs. for delivery mail, and the likes.

[Hagbard]

I'd invent a flying BBQ and get Jesus to market it for me.

[wheezer]

I'd have Jesus invent the perfect breast implant and market 'em myself.

[May Kasahara]

Originally posted by decadnids


what be you refering to?

The idea of a monotheistic male white-bearded God turning up and saying "Yes, out of all the many multiplicitous belief and value systems you people have come up with, all of which share a remarkable number of elements, only Christianity is real. Everyone get on your knees now please." The idea of a god/dess figure, a higher power that is the spiritual in all of us, is able to embrace and represent the whole weirdness and variety of creation precisely because it is so nebulous - it's higher than us or greater than us because it's everything we know plus everything we don't or can't know. Having one tiny element of that turn out to be the whole shebang would reduce the concept of the divine to merely mortal, as limited and lame as any human.

[decadnids]

Originally posted by May Kasahara


The idea of a monotheistic male white-bearded God turning up and saying "Yes, out of all the many multiplicitous belief and value systems you people have come up with, all of which share a remarkable number of elements, only Christianity is real. Everyone get on your knees now please."

hence my quote from thunder, perfect mind - gnostic text.

[bitch one]

it seems to me perfectly obvious that god=the universe.

i suppose that would be my belief system there.

i don't see how otherwise intelligent people can believe that god=some bloke

[pille'ocheoni]

i agree

[decadnids]

Originally posted by bitch one
it seems to me perfectly obvious that god=the universe.

i suppose that would be my belief system there.

i don't see how otherwise intelligent people can believe that god=some bloke

Buckminster Fuller used to always refer to the universe as Universe for that exact same reason.

[Hagbard]

I reckon anything 'perfectly obvious' to us mortals concerning the infinite is probably wrong ;)

[drop]

it still wouldn't change my view of religion:
religion has nothing to do with God and everything to do with earthly power. faith is the only thing thats really important.
i agree with bitch one that God is everything, its what i was taught in sunday school as a child. i never understood the whole "war in heaven" thing that happened btwn God and the angels, for me God is also satan. if were made in His image then he made us to reflect that He is both good and evil.

[thomas hooked]

buckminster fuller knew his shit for real. the future's a poorer place without him

[anarchosyn]

Originally posted by bitch one
you might as well ask 'what would you do if it turned out pigs really could fly?'


Well, I wouldn't trust them to ride - not high in the sky anyhow, but I would probably use them for moving to and from the various rooms in my apartment.

[decadnids]

Originally posted by thomas hooked
buckminster fuller knew his shit for real. the future's a poorer place without him

yeah for sure,

shame some of the noddies in power dont take time out to read some of his work. the fools.

[bitch one]

Originally posted by Steev
I reckon anything 'perfectly obvious' to us mortals concerning the infinite is probably wrong ;)

actually, god lives in a bedsit at 39a acacia avenue, romford.

he is suffering from mild depression

[Hagbard]

Originally posted by bitch one


actually, god lives in a bedsit at 39a acacia avenue, romford.

he is suffering from mild depression

Sweet, thats my dads address.

Y'all better be nicer to me from now on.

Anyone got any recommendations for Bucky reading? Read a lot about the great man, but none of his own writings. 'Manual for operating spaceship earth' always appealed to me.. well the title anyway.