hey deb, where did you find that? sounds like an interesting site
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hey deb, where did you find that? sounds like an interesting site
oh u r watching lots of matrix
deb.. I got tears in my eyes over that.. first I'd ever heard of it.. I like it, thanks.
Abtronic, here's where I think the original source of it was from..
"written by Bret Walters and directed by God."
http://www.wtv-zone.com/celestial/Mag/god.htm
JenJen, I'm glad you liked it, and also, thanks for the link. I didn't have one. Like I said, it was just something a friend of mine on another forum pasted, she didn't provide a link for it.
My own theory goes to God being manmade and not vice versa.
I believe that man wants to answer the questions posted previously, as well as many others. Given the body of knowledge 5000 years ago they had no better answer than to defer to a mysterious higher power. So you had a god of wind, god of water, god of lightning, etc.
What's funny is how the ancient Roman / Greek, Egyptian and other gods were so capricious and petty. Man gave them a lot of their own characteristics and turned it into somewhat of a soap opera.
I believe that the consolidation into a monotheistic deity was a power move. As long as there were 50 different factions worshipping 50 different gods it was hard to rule them all. So, lets eliminate all the gods and narrow it down to one. Then we'll have that one "true" god proclaim me king. With the backing of god the people will accept my power.... at least that is how it goes in my mind.
The bible was written by men (and maybe women). There were many books available and a group of rabbi's got together and voted on which books should make up the Torah. It was more a written history than a religious work in my mind, but regardless of what it was intended to be, the fact remains that men wrote the books and other men chose which books should be included and which should be brushed aside.
Over time we have learned much through science and expanded our body of knowledge. Things that were once "miracles" are now easily explained (although still possibly miraculous). There are still things that remain beyond our body of knowledge, but I consider it lazy or irresponsible to assume, still, that there must be a higher power to account for them. Just because we can't explain it currently doesn't mean it can't be explained.
I also believe in the power of the human mind and the collective subconscious though. To a paranoid schizophrenic- their reality IS reality. They don't know about or care about your reality- to them their reality is "true". Not to suggest that people who are religious are paranoid schizophrenic, but I believe that if YOU believe in your mind that your god is the one true god and that works for you- then it works for YOU. It is almost like a placebo, but I can't debate yuor god with you. Your truth is your truth and my truth is my truth. There are things for which there is no one absolute truth in my opinion.
I have had lengthy philosophical debates many times on theology, cosmology and other deep topics. I have read extensively across a range of religions and remain an atheist. I have friends- very intelligent and well-read friends- who have read much of the same stuff I have and come to the exact opposite conclusion so it seems that trying to apply logic to the problem is fruitless. Obviously my logic and their logic is not the same logic.
In the end, the root question always comes down to "if there is no God, how did we get here?" to which I respond "how did God get there?" It is a circular argument with no answer- that we know of yet. If god could just "be", then why can't we just "be" without a god? The mind of man has boundaries. We can only conceive of nothing in relation to something. We have no grasp of what nothing truly is. Time is a manmade concept and we have difficulty breaking from the linear thinking that says there must be a beginning and an end.
Much is unknown and yet to be discovered.
ASCII code 26 - End Of FileQuote:
what will happen when my file ends
I have always considered religions to be a method with which to explain the unexplainable. I cannot attribute everything I do not understand to a higher power. Simply because a phnomenon defies all explanation and logic does not mean it requires divine intervention to exist. It simply means we don't understand it.
There is an innate human instinct to understand everything. It is the driving force behind civilization, progress, and invention, and it is what seperates us from animals. The desire to understand is one of the few things on earth that is uniquely human.
But this desire to understand also extends beyond the limits of human comprehension. I came to realize many years ago that there are some things which I will never understand. To assume that these things must be divine simply because I don't understand them is rather arrogant. Rather than attempting to explain things with a higher power, I have come to accept that I never will.
God nicely fills in the gaps of everything we do not know. This is why I belive He is an illusion created by those unwilling to accept the fact that human reasoning and comprehension has limits.
People often come to this conclusion through some kind of tramatic event, or they are taught to believe and have no issue doubting it through culture. I don't agree totally with that statement. I know very intelligent people who have achieved great things, that believe in god. For some they feel it in their heart and even with great pressure to abide that belief; they stand. Now that I have said that, I think, with you, along a majority line, the vast majority of the flock does fit of your descritpiton. They don't want to challenge knowledge or absorb the accomplishment of mankind, they want to plod along and feel happy in their lower station on the chain of life, and turn an blind eye to anything outside of their commune. An excuse for their traits.Quote:
I consider it lazy or irresponsible to assume, still, that there must be a higher power to account for them.
My outlook on religion is that it was simply a way to impose a moral sense on people. It's actually scary but there's a lot of people who don't think for themselves, they think that without some kind of religion they would have no idea of what is right or wrong. It's this same reason why a lot of these religions claim to be better than the other, the people can't think for themselves and believe blindly in their religion without even attempting to think for themselves. Faith can be a good thing but with all things there's a line to be drawn where you've gone too far. It has been used to explain some things that we can't explain as well but I think the primary goal behind it was ethics. My 2 cents anyways.
Basically, it all comes down to faith. Nobody can prove God's existence to everybody's satisfaction, nor can anyone prove He doesn't exist. Nobody can prove that Jesus rose from the dead, and nobody can prove He didn't. That Jesus was a real person isn't questioned thanks to Josephus.
It's all a matter of faith, and I'd rather think that once my time is up, my soul goes someplace rather than dispersing into nothing.
Read Marx on religion, I know a lot of you wouldnt like reading Marx for obvious reasons but grab one of those introductory guides and you get a clear overview of how religion was formed.
I don't like explaining these things, makes me uneasy when my mother who believes in angels asks me to explain some of the stuff Im studying at the moment, basically some people I suppose need religion I guess.
Though I believe it is the opium of the masses.
There are some worthwhile attempts at the proog of gods existence, try Anselm for example.