I would rather live my life as if there is a God

[Summer]

Re: RE: I would rather live my life as if there is a God

I think your problem is missunderstanding the concept of God.

I like to think God is my conscience and conscience is my god. It has nothing necessarily to do with a book anyone wrote.

Even Rev here believes in the concept of God. Only he believes that he is God; hence his use of the term "being able to live with himself" as the only limit to what he can do.

This is what's scary. A lot of people think that way. So this also explains some of the social problems we have today, as people think they are god more and more.

People around them are then subject to whatever influnces that person had (good and bad) in their lives which shaped what they are willing, or able, to live with themselves with.

Nope, I think you're the one misunderstanding the concept of God. Along with it, you're seriously misunderstanding the view that many of us here have *of* "God".

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Re: RE: I would rather live m

Conscience is a guide, not a limit.

exactly. The "limits" are placed on people by society , societal norms, societal Laws , legal laws, ......and the humanitarian code of conduct. Why?? to maintain order and prevent chaos. as the humanoid slowly evolves

But the human is quite "free" to do as he wishes.....and be as barbarian as he wishes, or be as humanitarian as he wishes. He is also free to adapt and make the required changes within himself so as to lead a constructive life. Choices ..

 

[Ocean Breeze]

I think your problem is missunderstanding the concept of God.

that is a tad presumptuous and arrogant. ( IMHO)......as there are as many "understandings' of the concept of "God" as there are people and not one is absolutely right or wrong. What is "right" for one person ........or rather WORKS for one.......does not nec work for another.

the whole God concept requires a great deal of latitude......as you can tell each one has a different view of this .......and that is how it should be. We as a people were not cast from the same rubber stamp.

the worst thing anyone can do is get into the mindset that THEIR view is the only right one......as this is where all our frichen problems start and then no one can get along. There is NO 'right" one and no "wrong " view.......it is what works for the individual and that must be respected........but the respect must also extend to the fact that none of us have the right to impose our personal beliefs on others. We can state them.......and if some one chooses to pick up on them......fine.....but to persuade them into ones own thought format is totally out of line.

the key point is that we don't KNOW what , who, where, "God" is or IF he/she /it is. So how can anyone be "right" /or "wrong' about this??? For YT reason must prevail over "belief". For that matter ....... beliefs change when new data is added and new discoveries are made. Unless some are too resistive to change...

 

[Hard-Luck Henry]

Re: RE: I would rather live my life as if there is a God

I think your problem is missunderstanding the concept of God.

I like to think God is my conscience and conscience is my god. It has nothing necessarily to do with a book anyone wrote.

Even Rev here believes in the concept of God. Only he believes that he is God; hence his use of the term "being able to live with himself" as the only limit to what he can do.

This is what's scary. A lot of people think that way. So this also explains some of the social problems we have today, as people think they are god more and more.

People around them are then subject to whatever influnces that person had (good and bad) in their lives which shaped what they are willing, or able, to live with themselves with.

A lot of what we each experience is subject to the experiences that other people had in their lives which where beyond our control. So we all better start thinking more about what other people are doing to other people; since their independant experiences will inevitably, eventually, come back to haught all of us in one way of another. Look at 9/11 for example.

uh-huh. 9/11.:roll:
A fine example of independent experience coming back to haunt us.

 

[Reverend Blair]

That's scary Rev. You say you have no limits on what you can do. What stops you from doing anything then?

No confessor, remember? No imaginary forgiveness. Every day is judgement day. I have to live with whatever I do.

You CAN drive insanely DRUNK

Like I said in the other thread...I drive just like Steve McQueen. :wink:

 

[Calberty]

I'm an atheist. If there is some type of a god, however, the last people he'd want to surround himself with for eternity are sniveling ass-kissers who spent their lives singing his praises..oh Great One...I dedicate my life to...blah, blah, blah,

Surely he's want folks with more self -worth and independent thinkers. I'd feel my odds of getting invited to god's Grey Cup Game party would be better as an atheist than a religious zombie.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

I think your problem is missunderstanding the concept of God.

I like to think God is my conscience and conscience is my god. It has nothing necessarily to do with a book anyone wrote.

so who is stopping you??? That is YOUR choice. It might not be anyone elses to interpret things that way .....and that is their choice.

If YOU would rather live YOUR Life as if there IS a "God".......FINE.......that too is YOUR choice......but I am getting the impression you are trying to do some "converting" here......and that is NOT your right or your priviledge.

aka.......I respect your right to believe as you do ........but don't lay your beliefs on YT.

( sorry if that is a tad BLUNT.............but clarity seems important)

 

[peapod]

Even Rev here believes in the concept of God. Only he believes that he is God

What is the purpose of that statement? Are you trying to start something person? You posted that for no other reason, that to incite something, tell me does your god teach you that.

Now if it is your intention to single out the rev personally in your posts, and your intention to single him out to incite something, than its not going to be tolerated.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Re: RE: I would rather live my life as if there is a God

I'm an atheist. If there is some type of a god, however, the last people he'd want to surround himself with for eternity are sniveling ass-kissers who spent their lives singing his praises..oh Great One...I dedicate my life to...blah, blah, blah,

Surely he's want folks with more self -worth and independent thinkers. I'd feel my odds of getting invited to god's Grey Cup Game party would be better as an atheist than a religious zombie.

bravo.!! good post..

 

[Paranoid Dot Calm]

I'd rather live my life without the constant guilt-trips. I can handle remorse better then guilt.

The elite love pushing religion down our throats because it controls our violence towards them. The worse the economy gets, the more religious our media will become.

The elite hope that our conscience will prevent us from stringing all the rich folks up by the eyelids and kickin' them all in the balls till they blink.

Calm

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Like I said in the other thread...I drive just like Steve McQueen.

then.....my dear rev......You are IN. S. McQueen....(pant pant).. :wink:

but I digress....sorta.

 

[JomZ]

I'm agnostic, I don't know either way and I do not really care either way. Like Rev said, everyday is judgement day, in the sense that you hold yourself accountable for your actions.

I would trust a person that did that then, anyone who went to a confessional and said that they were forgiven for their transgressions. As if the slate is wiped clean.

I have always thought that those who have too feel the need to have a God watching them at all time are those that are lacking in a conscience. That the only way they can function as a human being is to have a superhuman being constantly watching them. It seems to me underhanded and a failing in those that lack the rationality, common sense, and conscience too know what is right and wrong in life.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

I'd rather live my life without the constant guilt-trips. I can handle remorse better then guilt.

The elite love pushing religion down our throats because it controls our violence towards them. The worse the economy gets, the more religious our media will become.

The elite hope that our conscience will prevent us from stringing the rich folks by the eyelids and kickin' them in the balls till they blink.

Calm

this whole "guilt " thing is quite fascinating......and a psychological impairment. "religion" has done a marvelous job at guilt induction as opposed to providing healthy understandings of life. Relgion is a control tool........and those that have managed to emancipate from those clutches .......realize how they were "brainwashed". Most just choose the line of least resistance and go along with it. One has to assume it is safer that way. The safe route is not always the smart route.

"religion" and such foster DEPENDANCE and is excellent ( ???) for the followers in society. Independant thinkers and doers are more objective and tend to free themselves of these limiting beliefs.......as they are limiting.

It would seem that it is about NEED.........or filling a void within . Lack of personal fullfillment in life.

 

[iamcanadian]

Even Rev here believes in the concept of God. Only he believes that he is God

What is the purpose of that statement? Are you trying to start something person? You posted that for no other reason, that to incite something, tell me does your god teach you that.

Now if it is your intention to single out the rev personally in your posts, and your intention to single him out to incite something, than its not going to be tolerated.

Woah lady... First ready the whole sentence slowly.

"Even Rev here believes in the concept of God. Only he believes that he is God; hence his use of the term "being able to live with himself" as the only limit to what he can do. "

I said it to make the point of fact that many people think they are God. You may even say that I think I am god from the way I write, but that just the style in the way I write.

The black kid who blows another kids head off thinks he's god.

The Chief Bureaucrat that does as he pleases with public authority thinks he's god too.

Personally I have no hard defined concept of god but respect all religions as being good things to place perameters around human behaviour. I also believe that every child should be brought up in some formal structured religion up to the age of reason to give them something of a baseline to work with by the time they start watching MTV.

 

[pastafarian]

The worst atrocities have been committed in the name of God from the Inquisition, to the slaughter of Africans and native Americans to human sacrifice to paying the Jews back for "killing Christ." There are no "limits" that flow from belief in a God(s). Pat Robertson, George Bush and Jerry Falwell advocate murder in God's name as do the suicide bombers and Jihadists. Hindus use their God(s) to justify a repressive caste system.

Only children do good for fear of punishment; I suppose the Pascal's Wager types worship a God who doesn't relate well to adults.

For the most part, people manage to be decent in spite of, not because of religion.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Re: RE: I would rather live my life as if there is a God

The worst atrocities have been committed in the name of God from the Inquisition, to the slaughter of Africans and native Americans to human sacrifice to paying the Jews back for "killing Christ." There are no "limits" that flow from belief in a God(s). Pat Robertson, George Bush and Jerry Falwell advocate murder in God's name as do the suicide bombers and Jihadists. Hindus use their God(s) to justify a repressive caste system.

Only children do good for fear of punishment; I suppose the Pascal's Wager types worship a God who doesn't relate well to adults.

For the most part, people manage to be decent in spite of, not because of religion.

absolutely!! Much destruction and insanity has happened under the auspices or belief /delusion about "God".

How many psychologically disordered people claim that it was God that told them to do........whatever crime they committed?? A delusion like this is just an extreme extension of a "belief"....

Of course there are the con men who USE the "god " factor to create destruction. kill and claim to be doing it for some "higher" purpose. These are manipulative psychopaths who have the gift of the gab.

 

[Reverend Blair]

Even Rev here believes in the concept of God. Only he believes that he is God; hence his use of the term "being able to live with himself" as the only limit to what he can do.

They told you not to eat the brown acid, dude.

You may even say that I think I am god from the way I write,

That'd be Hunter Thompson, not you. He did it like music, or at least a Tom Waits song. If you practice a lot, you might make the level of an Abba clone band.

The black kid who blows another kids head off thinks he's god.

What about the white kid who blows another kid's head off? Do you use the word "nigger" openly, or just in your head?

 

[pastafarian]

All that being said, from time to time I find myself living in a godly Universe, though I admit finding the fiction difficult to sustain. It's a matter of choice, really. Believing the Jesus myth makes Christmas more significant and Easter worth celebrating, though it's pretty useless for anything else. It's a pleasnt operational hypothesis sometimes, but it doesn't really stand up to close scrutiny.

It's kind of like in the great musical black comedy, The Ruling Class , wherein Peter O'toole's character, an Earl who believes that he is a reincarnation of Jesus, is asked how he knows he's God. He replies "I realized that when I was praying, i was talking to myself."

 

[Ocean Breeze]

All that being said, from time to time I find myself living in a godly Universe

I do too.......although would not phrase it that way. There are times when for eg......one is out on a gorgeous day....and feels in touch with the world around one, the natural beauty, and almost feels like one with the world...... it can be a moving . special moment. Some call it a spiritual moment. These are not part of any "religious" beliefs or preset paradymes. They are just a sense of higher awareness and defy description. It is a real felt sense and very personal.

 

[pastafarian]

We're talking about slightly different things, OB, which is why the way I phrased it strikes you as a bit weird.

What you're talking about is spirituality. Awareness of living, Being, the Eternal Now. This is the ecstatic basis of true spirituality and you're right: it has not a thing to do with any sort of belief.

What I meant by a "Godly Universe" was a universe in which God exists. It's more of an intellectual postulate or a belief and is independent of spirituality, which is something much more profound and much more real than a hypothesis.

I suppose you could call me an agnostic, except that I often preceive the world as though God exists. More frequently, I spend time in a Godless universe, as an atheist. The spiritual aspect of my life is unchanged, except that in my Godly universe, I'm not talking to myself when I'm talking to myself, if you get my drift. :lol:

I particularly like the way this thread is titled, because it suggests a healthy theism, which, of course, I think mine is.

And in the end, it's an aesthetic decision, in a kind of a half-full vs. a half-empty glass way.