[SIZE="3"]NOTE TO MODERATORS: This isn't copied and pasted. I spent my lunch break typing this, and I assure you I'll go insane if you delete it. It's not often I post something like this.[/SIZE]
So the world is going to end on the 21st of December, 2012, say the Mayans, who have predicted hundreds of things correctly throughout history, including the advent of Christ.
So Jesus is going to be coming down to Earth for the Second Coming rather shortly, say the Christians, whose religion is deeply rooted in Judeaist scripture.
So The Messaih is going to be coming down to Earth and bringing the End of Days to the nonbelievers within our lifetimes, say the Jews, whose religion is nearly as old as Man itself.
So the Prophet is going to destroy the sinners and take the faithful to his heavenly realm, say the Muslims, whose religion is also quite ancient.
So the world will end in a fiery explosion within this century, says Nostradamus, who predicted hundreds of things correctly, including the advent of Hitler and WWII.
And here everyone is, with no one knowing the real answer.
Coincidence has a lot of foundations with Science, who believes our astronomically perfect planet that is mathematically ideal down to the fraction to support our lives is just coincidence. Many of those who are faithful, however, believe this to be an obvious sign of a Go[COLOR="black"]d[/COLOR]. But as a race, we stand ignorant and hypocritical.
Hypocritical not only amoungst each other, as we cannot go for too long at any time without war and violence, and no two people can completely agree on every aspect of life, but also with ourselves. We want peace, yet we're inclined for war. We want to be above everything else; to rule, and yet we have a built-in urge to be governed, to be lead, for someone to give us answers to the things we don't know.
So it all comes down to a question of faith. What is G[COLOR="black"][COLOR="black"]o[/COLOR][/COLOR]d to you? History has shown that, in the absense of a higher being, people will worship anything, down to a caveat of Jews who worshipped a calf, structured from a combination of gold coins stacked on top of each other. What symbol of power grants something the spark of divine in your mind?
If G[COLOR="black"]o[/COLOR]d had his powers stripped of him, would he still be G[COLOR="black"][COLOR="black"]o[/COLOR][/COLOR]d?
Identity is such an important part of who we are. We live by the clock, and we shun all forms of instinct we have, replacing it with society. But deep within us, there's a longing, and something that we all really care about. That, I believe, is the purpose of life. We're all different, and as much as we'd like to think we know everything, we truly don't. I personally believe that you spend your entire life finding out who you are. And who is your higher power? Who is G[COLOR="black"]o[/COLOR]d to you? What is it that you truly care about? Many religions say mortals cannot look upon G[COLOR="black"][COLOR="black"]o[/COLOR][/COLOR]d without dieing. Moses, in both Christian and Hebrew scripture, saw the Lord of a brief moment, saw only an image of the Lord, and when he returned from the mountain, he had to wear a hood for days, as his eyes were glowing with divine light.
Can we know G[COLOR="black"]o[/COLOR]d? Is it merely a concept, built into our own hypocritical minds? If G[COLOR="black"]o[/COLOR]d came to Earth, and came to you specifically, just what would He have to do to prove that He was, indeed, the Almighty? What is your definition of a diety? Just as many authors take creative liberties when writing about vampires, and also abide by set rules, are there set rules for the Lord? Are there certain standards we are expectant of Him to meet?
It's a question of faith, my friends. And I, personally, do not know how I feel.
Perhaps I should've lead into a topic of conversation. Anyone who read that would have seen a fair share of questions they could answer about their own opinions, at least.
Hope you had a good lunch. :)
I did, surprisingly.
Well, that was definitely well written. Though questions like "can we know G[COLOR="White"]o[/COLOR]d?" and "what would he have to do to prove he was G[COLOR="White"]o[/COLOR]d?" are pretty straight-forward. At least according to religion. We can't know G[COLOR="White"]o[/COLOR]d because he transcends us, he can't prove he's G[COLOR="White"]o[/COLOR]d because then there would be no faith. His existence is entirely faith-based, and if he was proven to be real it would be no different than being proven to be fake.
As for standards, I don't think there are any. If there are any, he hasn't exactly lived up to them.
That's exactly the thing, though - if He can only exist through faith, then to those who require proof that He exists, He doesn't. QED.
I believe that every person is their own God, and to a certain extent the world around us is shaped by ourselves. What, when you get right down to it, is the difference between the creation of a world and the creation of the microchip?
If we wanted to, right now, we could create a planet in our Solar System. it would take time, but, loosely speaking we could bash together a load of meteors and provoke the right atmosphere, plant life, etc. We could transport amoebae and such over there. And we would have been "gods".
I think if you're spending time worrying about something that may or may not ever happened based on teh fact that thousands of years ago guys wandering the desert went on a mountain and saw something, then you're most likely missing a lot of things that are going on around you.
No sense in being contemplative, right? I, unlik eyou, happen to be a religious person, but I see a number of flaws in blind faith, and as such, I enjoy thinking on theological and canonical subjects. You may not, but I do.
All the objective contemplation that I've done never points to the exitence of a God or Creator. The only thing that comes near to making me doubt my reasoning is Paley's Watch, and that can be just as much of an argument against a god than for one.
I believe that in a greater power, but I am not sure I believe in having a close relationship with this power through prayer and worship. Sure from time to time I'll go to a particularly good conference and come away feeling blessed, but that's an emotion which cannot be trusted. It fades. Something powerful and awesome enough to make all of this would be better than that, something tells me. So I guess it just means my faith is lacking, because if *** just walked in the door and proved his existence to me, I'd have no need for faith. I was just thinking, I wanted to write, "..no need for faith, and therefore I'd have no choice but to do what he said," but the fact is that I'd still be able to say, "No, ***, I don't want to do that," or "I don't want to live that way." I mention this because as far as I can remember most people say, "Well if *** just proved his existence to you then you'd lose the personal choice he has given each of us."
Everything fitting together like this to form our world is beyond me, and, I believe, beyond natural science. I believe that *** set things in motion and it showed itself not through divine lights instantly creating animals out of nothing, but through what we call evolution. And I think of the this greater power as a benevolent diety, probably because my life is enjoyable.
Opinions are largely influenced by environment, for example, I can imagine if I'd just been stuck with abusive parents and then turned to friends who were into drugs and partying at a younger age, never really finding peace, then I'd probably be ****ed off and believe that everything relied on myself.
How could the Maya have predicted the advent of Christ when he predated their civilisation by several hundred years?
Also the Maya didn't predict the end of the world in 2012. It's just that one of the long cycles of their incredibly accurate calendar ends then.
Also, I submit that life has no meaning and no purpose and that there is no G*d. But that's okay. Read [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_myth_of_sisyphus]The Myth of Sisyphus[/url], it's brilliant.
If I may quote my personal favorite philosopher:
"Yeah, well, thats just like, your opinion, man"
[center]"You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to The Judge again."
:([/center]
Anyways, I've been thinking about this kind of stuff quite a bit as of late and I came to one conclusion... I don't know.
I'm not a "religous" person, but I do happen to be very spiritual. I've studied Christianity, Islam, Daoism, and various other beliefs (even the old Greek, Roman, and Norse Mythology), and I still don't know what I want to believe.
"Who is God to you?" is a question I've spent years trying to get the answer to. And probably one I'll spend many more on.
I honestly can't say what *** is to me. It is comforting, from one perspective, to believe in something. To believe that the way events occur is part of some greater, more necessary whole. On the other hand, it is discomforting in that it means the sacrifice of all that we think we control. Man is an arrogant creature, which creates a great conundrum in that we either control everything, or nothing at all.
Beyond this, I find other realms of thought to impact my life to a greater degree. Honestly, what is this existance? This individual conscience? Why am I? For what purpose am I intended? All are questions we'd like to answer, but in the end, we can't in any real certainty. If there is a ***, you may live just to further someone else for a greater purpose. Maybe he intends for you just to say a few encouraging words to inspire them to conquer. If there isn't a ***, is there a purpose in living at all? To spread our DNA? To better the next generation?
And then there is the issue of when a *** becomes necessary. When in fear, people need their faith. But then, with the absence of fear, is one alive? Nothing makes one feel more in touch with their mortality then riding the edge of it, when every hair stands on end, adrenaline pumping through the veins. When we realize we could blink out of this existance, we fall back on some faith. Either faith that there is a spiritual realm to look forward to, or faith that death is the death of both body and "soul."
We all believe in something. We all have faith in some ends when we pass, regardless of what they may be. I haven't decided what path I should take in the spiritual sense for my life, but I know that I choose life; I want to live.
Though this isn't precisely on topic ... one thing I recall telling my friend in a bitter, bitter argument was, “Faith is a tree and religion is a branch. It can be used as a spear or a crutch.”
I was born and raised a Catholic, but as the days passed, my faith weakened not because I was influenced by other people, but because I couldn’t feel this spirituality or connection between this ‘Divine Essence.’ For me to be immersed in a religion, it’s not about fact or whether or not I plainly believe in ***, but this feeling that extends beyond a higher dimension. I eventually left the church mainly because I felt no bond – my logic, as far as faith goes, is to compensate the lack of fact should be emotion.
I think another partial reason why I left was because how decadent my church was – despite of the fact that not all churches are the same, by the time I was old enough to move on, my belief and hopes became so trampled on, I don’t think I would be able to recover or have my view “purified” enough for a long time.
Today, I still attend church – yes, the same horrible church I am stuck with. I try my best to go to different ones, but as long as my grandma is still with me, I don’t really have a choice. For the curious, the main reason why I grew to hate the place where I go to is because of the lack of compassion. People there were just so mean. In a time where I just wasn’t in the mood to deal with anymore *****atry, they enforced it on me more and more. During festivles, gambling booths were set up INSIDE the church walls. Some kid trips and falls down. He starts crying and the head honcho yells at him and drags him into the office while the kid was still on the floor.Though before someone jumps on me, I emphasize the fact that I have been to other places, and I found it pleasant, though I can just never pray and believe the same way I could ten years ago.
Today, I am agnostic – I try to be as neutral as I can to other’s beliefs. One statement that made me angry, however, was, “One who has no faith cannot be moral.” Though for the sake of this topic, I won’t go there. I want to be religious, to be honest, but I realized that it would be an insult to myself and those who truly believe because if I did, the only reason why I would commit myself is to impress my family members. At the very least I know that the things I do - any deed - community service is not to earn myself a cheap ticket in a paradise after my death.
Religion is something you feel.
Question to the undecided and noncommittal and vaguely theist:
Why do we need G*d? Is the world worse without G*d? Are our lives diminished? Is the world depressing or unbearable without G*d?
As a whole, no we don't need G[COLOR="White"]o[/COLOR]d. But many individuals do. The belief means a lot to them and helps them through many problems. It won't get them anywhere, but it makes them feel good. So G[COLOR="White"]o[/COLOR]d is important, much like a house cat is. He brings comfort to people who seek it.
But, what we do need is guidance, and something to take away our fear of the unknown, especially post mortem. THat explains a need in our hearts for most religions.
Guidelines are pretty moot. The ten commandments would have been used in today's law whether G[COLOR="White"]o[/COLOR]d said it was right or not.
Think of them as less of words from the Lord, and more of simple moral structure to help our normally chaotic society work together and function.
Right. Those would've been there whether or not a higher being told them to us or not though.