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

[Ocean Breeze]

ok......I hear ya and follow your distinction..

 

[Reverend Blair]

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.

'kay...but whaddya call it when an atheist routinely says, "JESUS CHRIST"? Okay, admittedly, I cleaned that up a bit for the board. I'm much more prone to say "Jesus *********** ******* Christ." Am I blaspheming or possessed by satan or merely trained by helping Catholics fix agricultural equipment.

 

[GreenGreta]

I do what I want, when I want, with whom I want. I live by my own set of rules and there is no invisible being going to tell me to live otherwise.

People who allow God to take the credit for the good in their lives are missing out. Maybe you made your life that way and God had nothing to do with it. God didn't give you that strength, you had it already.

Live your life like there is no tomorrow. Don't live your life like someone's watching. Christ, that's sick.

If there is a God, why do I have to spend two hours a day in line at a Tim Horton's? If God provides (like the bible says) why are there millions people starving to death?

They parted the sea, I parted my hair. There we're even.

 

[iamcanadian]

God does not have to be a entity. It can be as simple as a concept.

Some people believe in the law as written by men, in a code of condut, or code of ethics, or a constitution, bill of rights etc.. Each of these can be looked at as a concept for acting as religion to convey a need for control by a God of some kind and for people to have faith in.

These things all serve their purpose. There is not much difference in having a faith in a Religion and its practices to guide and protect you, and having faith in a Government and its systems say the legal system.

Many people out there have no faith in the legal system and behave lawlessly without respect for rules and practices. They can be kids in gangs abusing violence, or bureucrats in high offices abusing ethics.

So a god or a concept to take the place of a god is required to keep people under control since we have no limits to what we can do.

 

[peapod]

And in future when you post your opinions, DO not single out anyone individual with your judgements.

 

[DasFX]

I personally cannot grasp the concept of God, it is far to abstract. I also do not need the thought of God watching over me to keep me in line. I use my own conscious and sense of right and wrong to do that. I don't need someone watching over me from up above, I, with the help of my family and friends, are quite capable of doing that.

To date though, I have no proof of God or an afterlife, however that being said, I, in a twisted way, hope am wrong.

 

[bhoour]

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.

I think your problem might be that you are misunderstanding the concept of free wiil, and choosing limits for ones self. It is about being true to yourself. I'm sure Rev. can live with himself, because he knows himself. Not because his "conscience" told him he should be a nice person and follow a list of rules.
Who put the idea of "God" in your concience? Teachings from your bible, about your religion. It's what somebody else believes, you should believe.
FYI .....9/11 was not ones independent experience. It was organized by a group of "religious/political fanatics", who believed ,what someone else told them to believe.

 

[TenPenny]

I would rather live my life as if there is a God, and die to find out
there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't, and die to find out there is.

I would rather live my life as if it is important how I treat other people, than live my life as if I can do what I want to others and ask forgiveness from a third party who may or may not exist.

 

[peapod]

I would and I do! live my life without this nonsense.

Bears devouring 42 children
II Kings 2:23-24

Beating slaves to death in stages
Ex. 21:20-21

Beating your child black and blue
Proverbs 23:14
Proverbs 22:15
Proverbs 22:13
Proverbs 20:30

Boiling and eating your son
II Kings 6:29

Breaking and chopping up human bones and seasoning human flesh, flaying flesh off bones
Micah 3:2-3
Ezekiel 24:10
Daniel 6:24

Burning books, denouncing science, closing mouths, becoming fools
Acts 19:19 (books)
Titus 1:10-11 (mouths)
I Timothy 6:20 (science)
I Cor. 3:18 (fools)

Burning women accused of witchcraft and men accused of wizardry
Lev. 20:27
Ex. 22:18

Burning your only daughter alive to fulfill a promise
Judges 11:39

Burning your son as a sacrifice
II Kings 3:27

Burning 250 princes alive
Num. 16:35

Burying a criminal's wife and children alive
Num. 16:27, 33

Buying a wife with 200 male foreskins
I Sam. 18:25

Buying your brother to be your slave
Deut. 15:12

Buying your rape victim for your wife
Deut. 22:29

 

[Andygal]

RE: I would rather live m

I would rather live my life by my own moral compass rather then eating my morals canned from rules made up thousands of years ago by persons of questionable sanity who claimed to hear voices talking to them from bushes and such. In this day and age we have a word for hearing voices like that. it's called schizophernia and people that have it need drugs.

 

[peapod]

I am not very happy about this kind of shite either...how dare these people question our beliefs :?

Castrating men for the Lord
Isaiah 56:4-5
Matt. 19:12

Chopping off heads, hands, feet, ears and plucking out eyes
Matt. 18:8-9
John 18:10
Num. 25:9
Matt. 14:10
II Sam. 4:7, 12

Circumcising a child with a sharp stone
Ex. 4:24-26

Circumcising thousands at one time
Joshua 5:2-8

Circumcising yourselves to the Lord and taking away the foreskins of your heart
Jeremiah 4:4

Cursing a tree and three cities
Matt. 21:19 (tree)
Matt. 11:22-23 (cities)

Cursing children and animals
Deut. 28:18

Cursing people with blindness, leprosy, hemorrhoids, consumption, madness, sickness, starvation, thirst, pestilence
Num. 12:10
II Kings 5:27
II Kings 15:5
II Kings 6:18
Acts 13:6-12
Lev. 26:16-39
Deut. 28:15-68
I Sam. 5:6
II Sam. 24:15

Cutting up a woman's body and distributing the pieces
Judges 19:29

 

[Jay]

I suppose you could call me an agnostic.....

I must admit I wondered. At first I thought you were a strict atheist, but after reading various posts I could tell you were rather familiar with my religion....

 

[pastafarian]

'kay...but whaddya call it when an atheist routinely says, "JESUS CHRIST

I call it "needing to be more careful with that hammer." :wink:

 

[iamcanadian]

Well there appears to be a concensus building up on the concept of God.

Whether its a:

a conscience
a book
a story
an entity
a constitution
a code of ethics
a code of laws
a view of self writiousness

...the need for something intagiable to control human behaviour is clear.

The next question is when does a person form a personal moral character? I submit that it is sometime before adolescence is complete and starts forming soon after birth.

Children respond to stories and cartoons better than many other stimuli. So what is wrong with picking up any on of the formal religions and using this as the baseline to ensure people grow up with somthing to work with. As the child gets older these concepts and stories have a way of being imprinted and positively impacting on their character.

The problems with religion and god appears afterwards when it is applied as a means of directing political power. However the individuals that do direct political power having had a proper upbringing founded on good moral character will be a better person for it, than someone who feels anything is ok to do as long as its not illegal.

 

[pastafarian]

At first I thought you were a strict atheist

Jay, if I'm anything "strict", I'm a strict skeptic with a healthy side order of empiricsm and a touch of pragmatism. Anything else is window-dressing 'cause I like the way it looks.

 

[no1important]

RE: I would rather live m

Children respond to stories and cartoons better than many other stimuli. So what is wrong with picking up any on of the formal religions and using this as the baseline to ensure people grow up with somthing to work with. As the child gets older these concepts and stories have a way of being imprinted and positively impacting on their character.

Plenty. Teaching kids lies, unproven myths and what amounts to fairy tales as the truth is wrong. No proof any of the 100's of gods throughout time ever existed. Hell Christians still tell people it is Jesus's birthday on Dec 25 when that is an outright lie. Thats if he were too of existed, I don't believe he ever did.

Religion is just brainwashing people to control them.

 

[Jay]

At first I thought you were a strict atheist

Jay, if I'm anything "strict", I'm a strict skeptic with a healthy side order of empiricsm and a touch of pragmatism. Anything else is window-dressing 'cause I like the way it looks.

That's cool.

If by chance you ever want to discuss Christian religion, you know where my PM button is.

 

[TenPenny]

It doesn't matter to me how you raise your children. Don't send them to my door trying to convert me. Don't tell me, or my children, that we are "sinners", or somehow less worthy than you, just because you joined some special club.

In short, teach your kids whatever you want to; leave me and mine out of it.

 

[missile]

I would and I do! live my life without this nonsense.

Bears devouring 42 children
II Kings 2:23-24

Beating slaves to death in stages
Ex. 21:20-21

Beating your child black and blue
Proverbs 23:14
Proverbs 22:15
Proverbs 22:13
Proverbs 20:30

Boiling and eating your son
II Kings 6:29

Breaking and chopping up human bones and seasoning human flesh, flaying flesh off bones
Micah 3:2-3
Ezekiel 24:10
Daniel 6:24

Burning books, denouncing science, closing mouths, becoming fools
Acts 19:19 (books)
Titus 1:10-11 (mouths)
I Timothy 6:20 (science)
I Cor. 3:18 (fools)

Burning women accused of witchcraft and men accused of wizardry
Lev. 20:27
Ex. 22:18

Burning your only daughter alive to fulfill a promise
Judges 11:39

Burning your son as a sacrifice
II Kings 3:27

Burning 250 princes alive
Num. 16:35

Burying a criminal's wife and children alive
Num. 16:27, 33

Buying a wife with 200 male foreskins Finally,a reason for circumcision that I can accept :lol:
I Sam. 18:25

Buying your brother to be your slave
Deut. 15:12

Buying your rape victim for your wife
Deut. 22:29

 

[Summer]

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 think you seriously misunderstand the Rev's position.

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.

Ah, okay. So everyone but you thinks they are God? Puhleeze.

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

Anyone who blows another's head off just isn't thinking, period.

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

No, he's just acting without ethics. That doesn't require one to have delusions of godhood, it just requires one to not give a rat's rear about others.

Personally I have no hard defined concept of god but respect all religions as being good things to place perameters around human behaviour.

Including extreme fundamentalist Islam like that taught to suicide bombers?

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.

In some instances that would be child abuse. Far better to raise children with a healthy respect for the feelings and well-being of their fellow creatures including other people, and with a strong sense of ethics and socially healthy behavior. Including a wide variety of teachings from various world religions in that education is certainly not a bad idea, if for no other reason than to give them an understanding of what many people believe so that the kids will be able to function from a position of respect for the beliefs of others both in childhood and once they become adults. But instilling respect and healthy ethical behavior in children certainly does not necessitate raising them as members of a formal organized religion.