As much as I appreciate you, Smith, you should probably stop posting irrelevant one-offs and non-sequiturs. — ToothyMaw
He told his freshly minted humuns "Go, cavort in the garden and amuse me, but don't touch my special fruit... because, if you do, I'll kill you." No further reason or explanation given. Indeed, it would have a been wasted effort to talk to them about fairness, since they had no knowledge of good and evil. — Vera Mont
This is true. In fact, we should be just and true to each other. Besides, we all belong to the same race. We should therefore support and help each other. That is, we should be all perfectly rational beings, because we have this potential.. Yet, we are far from somthing like that. Because it is in your nature to be as rational as irrational; metally healthy as as mentally ill. And we also have to fight against physical sickness, and attacks from other species and all kinf of living organism. This is far from persection and justice, isn't it?We can make every act we do serve truth if we want to. — Benj96
Tell me if you were God for a day ... — Benj96
Would you spread your knowledge, your truth of truths, with the intent to save strangers that you have never met?[/img]
Of course I would. But this is the ideal scene. The actual scene is the opposite: a God that can and does punish us. Just listen to the priests as well as the devotional, God-fearing people. Imagine that you create a puppet --because this is supposedly the relation of God to Man-- and then you get angry and throw it down, insult it, etc. And, as a puppet it doesn't undestand why you do that. Yet, it is you who created it. Isn't that ironical if not insane?
— Benj96
Isn't this what Chirst did? If so, it means that he saw that there injustice in the world, which means he believed that His Father (as Son of God) was responsible for that injustice, did he? Because who created everything, including Man with a potential not only to be injust but also to kill his congeners?In all honesty if you aren't prepared to face injustice alone, to carry that burden for others, then you do not practice the truth, you would not know it nor possess its true power/authority. — Benj96
I believe so. I have not retained many details from my religion courses at school. I had to learn the material in order to pass the course! :grin: What I remember was that I had a lot of questions but didn't dare to as the teacher for fear of being punished! But by the time I entered adulthood and was free to have my own opinion, I had no questions any more! All that just dind't fit, for dozens of reasons. So, I have forgotten about the Genesis and the whole Old Testament, because it simply didn't make sense. And it was a useless subject.There were many more interesting subjects to get interested in.The God of Genesis wasn't omniscient or particularly fair, and didn't pretend to be. — Vera Mont
Exactly. To "no logic" I will add "no usefulness".To the hugely inflated Creator of the whole now-known universe, with all his later add-on superpowers, no logic can apply — Vera Mont
To "no logic" I will add "no usefulness". — Alkis Piskas
Of course. It is the earliest myth, in that region (probably Sumerian, though the other gods have been almost* expunged from the Judaic telling of it), of the shift in human organization from hunting-gathering tribes through herding-trading nomads to settled civilization.I think this [the Eden story] is a metaphor, an allegory for innocence, curiosity and revelation. — Benj96
Obedience and punishment onto all his generations. Not justice.Gen 3:17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
A little boo-boo in editing. And later transcribers and translators didn't dare to fix it, any more than they dared to remove the alternate creation story from the first chapter - because by the time it was fixed as scripture, the text had become too holy to alter.#:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
#:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
A little boo-boo in editing. And later transcribers and translators didn't dare to fix it, any more than they dared to remove the alternate creation story from the first chapter - because by the time it was fixed as scripture, the text had become too holy to alter. — Vera Mont
Isn't this what Chirst did? If so, it means that he saw that there injustice in the world, which means he believed that His Father (as Son of God) was responsible for that injustice, did he? Because who created everything, including Man with a potential not only to be injust but also to kill his congeners?
Carrying the sins of humanity on one's shoulders is carrying all the injustice and imperfections created by God. — Alkis Piskas
Us! :smile:Where does this composite image of the god or God come from? — Vera Mont
Yes, this is the other side of the story, which is more important, since it refers to the majority of people. My "uselessness" refers to the those who are not affected, who are the minority.He's been a wonderfully effective lever to move masses of gullible people into calamitous wars, as well as craven obedience. — Vera Mont
Yes, this is true. Buddha had chosen compassion. Quite similar. But I prefer Buddha's approach. Very "human", simple, direct, practical, no gods or even deities, etc. Christ, and the whole New Testament are very mystical and allow for a lot of interpretations, let aside the self-contraditions and other illogical elements it contains.But he chose to channel benevolence — Benj96
These looks like attributes of a revolutionary and politically-oriented person. I have read in the (very) past a few texts with these views in mind. Even that he belonged to Zealots, who I think were also amed!he would reveal truth and understanding to others, and they would love him for it, and he would naturally gain popularity and tip the balance of power in his favour. — Benj96
This is a view that may indeed well be more factual than the one presented in the New Testament. But, honestly, I don't care much! :smile:Of course the courts and governments of the time would be raging at such a person being offered authority and power that had previously been offered to them. — Benj96
He had pure faith from the beginning because the truth of the matter made sense to him. It was logical and ethical."
True. — Benj96
Yes, this is true. Buddha had chosen compassion. Quite similar. But I prefer Buddha's approach. Very "human", simple, direct, practical, no gods or even deities, etc. Christ, and the whole New Testament are very mystical and allow for a lot of interpretations, let aside the self-contraditions and other illogical elements it contains. — Alkis Piskas
These looks like attributes of a revolutionary and politically-oriented person. I have read in the (very) past a few texts with these views in mind. Even that he belonged to Zealots, who I think were also amed! — Alkis Piskas
My "uselessness" refers to the those who are not affected, who are the minority. — Alkis Piskas
Different cultural matrices evolve different spiritual bases for their collective morality. A collective morality is necessary for the survival of any social species - ask any meerkat or elephant. For humans, with the big brain, fertile imagination and constant awareness of imminent death, it's easier to devise and to enforce a moral code with the authority of a supernatural entity behind it. But even without a personification of righteousness, the code of right behaviour grows out of the geography and up with the history of a people.I think at the end of the day it doesn't matter what religion one pursues (if they wish to even coin themselves by any dogma at all) because beneath all religions or spiritualities seems to be a common ground. A sacred message about doing the right thing. — Benj96
And how many of our greatest leaders even just within the last few centuries were a force to be reckoned with, inspiring the masses and being assassinated for it? Or at least attempted assassination.
Did they all know the same thing? Were they all compelled by the same truth? I wonder. — Benj96
I fully agree on and support religious freedom. Even if some people chose to "belong" to a religious denomination for other reasons than actually following it.I think at the end of the day it doesn't matter what religion one pursues (if they wish to even coin themselves by any dogma at all) because beneath all religions or spiritualities seems to be a common ground. — Benj96
Nicely said!I believe Buddha reached his nirvana, his true inner peace, by letting go of his suffering, guilt and shame. By forgiving those who wronged him and by forgiving himself for what wrong he did against others knowing he didn't understand the true way to be, and thus allowing himself the chance to begin anew. Probably as jesus did. And Muhammad. — Benj96
Certainly. This is the healthy way to address the subject. Religious freedom is very important. Ironically though, the Churches and the people belonging to dogmatic religions, are intolerant to other beliefs. Very bad. I would say that they have got it very wrong, if they had not adopted this attitude for political and other reasons irrelevant to religion! (Think for instance of religious wars, even within a same country, e.g. the Bosnian war in the end of the previous century.)I don't have much use for deities, either. But I would not turn against them, nor deny access to them to people who need a spiritual reference in their lives — Vera Mont
Ironically though, the Churches and the people belonging to dogmatic religions, are intolerant to other beliefs. — Alkis Piskas
Much, if not most, of the plentiful violence committed by humankind is against God’s animals, their blood literally shed and bodies eaten in mind-boggling quantities by people. [It leaves me wondering whether the metaphorical forbidden fruit of Eden eaten by Adam and Eve was actually God’s four-legged creation.]
I can see that really angering the Almighty – a lot more than the couple’s eating non-sentient, non-living, non-bloodied fruit. I’ve yet to hear a monotheist speak out against what has collectively been done to animals for so long. — FrankGSterleJr
Then a few hundred years later, in Leviticus, He lays out a whole big list of what animal to kill for which minor transgression against Him.And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
but He wanted it sprinkled all over the altar and out on the ground.Leviticus 17:14 For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.
Right. I/we have talked about that.It is necessary, in order to keep the established elite in power, for the rank and file to hold a rigid sense of their own rightness — Vera Mont
Right. But hereses within a any system should not be tolerated. Otherwise, the system falls apart. However, in my country, the Orthodox Church calls "heresies" even Buddhists (!) and every significant minor religion that has nothing to do with Christianity. Aren't they totally nuts? I believe they have to call them as such, i.e. as if they are Christian schemes that deviate from the orthodox scheme (!), otherwise itm would seem as if they are provoking a religious war with every other religion!Thus the RC vs Jews and heretics; the Anglican kings vs the papists; the Stalin regime vs reactionaries; the Repub... well, you know. — Vera Mont
Yes, at last! The war lasted for too long!...the triumphs of science and rational thought — Vera Mont
It's baaaack!.[the triumphs of science and rational thought — Vera Mont]
Yes, at last! The war lasted for too long! — Alkis Piskas
The war is back? In what way? Have I missed the news? — Alkis Piskas
I'm starting to doubt I understand what it would mean for logic to not work because of your arguments. If God made logic stop working, how could we use it to come to any correct conclusions? — ToothyMaw
Thanks. Wow! That's a lot of homework! — Alkis Piskas
Yes. The Christians did themselves a great disservice when they promoted their god right up out of all probability. Are you familiar with the Peter Principle? Might be a bit outdated now...The issue I have with logical arguments about a omnipotent/omniscient/can make contradictions true God can be seen using an (imperfect) analogy. — PhilosophyRunner
Jehovah made sense as a local tribal god, like Thor; his magic was restricted to slinging frogs and burning bushes. Then Jesus came along, casting out demons, curing leprosy and shoving God up into the Kingdom of Heaven. Then Constantine set about imposing him on all the subject peoples of the Roman Empire, which meant rolling all the characteristics of their local gods into the RC's one big god (no wonder he split into three!)people in a hierarchy tend to rise to "a level of respective incompetence":
But this confusion comes from assigning a characteristic to God that I don't think you fully understand the consequences. What are the consequences of a being who can make contradiction true? I don't think you even understand such a scenario, nor do I, nor do I think anyone does. I'm not sure you, or I, are fully capable of understanding a world in which a contradiction are true. — PhilosophyRunner
The issue I have with logical arguments about a omnipotent/omniscient/can make contradictions true God can be seen using an (imperfect) analogy.
I have a being locked in a room. He has real magical superpowers and can make anything happen. I will argue he can't escape.
-The room has walls that are so thick it is impossible to escape
-The door is secure in a way that it can never be opened
-There are no windows
-There is no other escape route
Therefore the being cannot escape.
Have I proved my case? No of course not! For a normal human, sure if the above is true then he is not escaping. For a magical being with superpowers who can make anything happen? He can make anything happen, so of course he can still escape!
And he can escape not only any physical cage I put him in, but also any logical cage. For he can do anything - I have said so myself! — PhilosophyRunner
Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.