religion

no it's koran in english and qur'an in arabic.
i'm islam so i'm pretty sure.

@ultenth
could god even feel pain and anguish because of his rebelious creation?
i think god was supposed to be the strongest mentally.immortal.no?

oh you saw that huh?. I was trying to cover that up. I was typing it before your post was up. Yeah, I know if anyone here would know it'd be you.

Personally, I don't think god even feels emotions the way we know them. As I stated earlier in the thread, I believe what we refer to as god to be more of a central subconcious. The sum of everything we feel. A central sourceof souls to which we are all destined to return. So it really wouldn't be a question of strength. (not to answer for you ultenth)

Nah, I'm not that much of a feminist to really care either way. lol But I 100% see your point.

Maybe we're one big soap opera and earth is gods big screen tv :D
God I hate soaps. lol

I never said he would, I'm saying if it was me >I< would. That said, god seemed to have done plenty of things in the past because he was offended or pissed off, so I think we have plenty of precident for that.

no,maybe this 3d world is just a first person action mmorpg,and us being the charas played by 4d being we call "god",like in star ocean 3.

heh heh I like you female, your pretty cool. I'm not for any group in particular. For the most part I'm a nhialistic misanthrope. I like individuals, not the species. I like your soap opera theory. Which would support g-moneys "dick-with-a-lousy-sense-of-humor" theory.

Absolutely. If there is a god in this world, he's got to be the universe's number one dickhead.

In my opinion, my ideal of a "God" is one who watches over us like a true parent does, helping us along our way on the road to life, letting us fall down and learn while also helping us get back on our feet. If anyone ever read the the novels Xenocide and Children of the Mind, by Orson Scott Card, the definition of god is described by one of the characters as a parent.

If God is like our true parents, then we humans can change into a spoiled, selfish beings that wants everything God can make for us. Humans are by nature a greedy, unsatisfied being. Knowing that our "parent" can fulfill our every wishes, the "bad" humans will certainly take advantage of it.

If I can compare God to a certain animal, than God will be like a sea turtle. They left their Eggs (Creation) in the sand (Earth), and then left alone. After they hatch, the baby turtles (humans) have to survive a trip back to the ocean and grow to be an adult. Some will die and some will live.

God leaving us alone has some good points, We are forced to stand up for ourselves, not to rely too much on a mere miracle. We are forced to build our own paradise. If humans can't stop wars, and the slow but surely destruction of the earth, when we will achieve our own paradise before dying.

Thats My Opinion. :D

You misread my post, kaimax. I said that a God lets us fall down, and occasionally lend a helping hand if truly needed. Parents don't teach you everything, and neither should God. That's what makes life interesting and challenging.

Yeah, I think I got the wrong interpretation, and I'm just pointing that if God is too helpful, then will end up like humans in my previous post.

Yeah, some miracle from God can be pretty useful in this time of need. We just need a little push from God to help end many ordeals.

:D

i never said anything about a god that welcomes us with big cuddly arms i find that version of a god a load of bull shit this is the reason i said "it may be a person who don't even know that they are god" and yes there has been a load of crap gone down into history but i don't actually belive that this is a "gods" fault

I get the Haruhi reference, and no, I don't believe in that either.

Simply stated, the idea of God as some sort of entity, whether it gives a shit about us or not, is short-sighted, egotistical, and naive. I'm not saying we should stop looking for it or stop believing. For some, faith is the only thing that can help them survive in this bullshit world we live in. All I'm saying is that if you're going to search for God, be somewhat realistic about it. The concept of the existence of some entity that created existence is self-contradictory, being that it would have had to create itself from nothingness.

God is what you make it out to be. It can be something that always listens when you pray, but only has a 50% chance of actually answering. It could be the Flying Spaghetti Monster. It could be the whole of the consciousness of all living things. It could even be you.

Religion is what it is because humans need structure so they don't start killing each other all willy-nilly. Religion is a structured set of beliefs that tells you what you need to know so you don't have to worry about the unknown. I don't condemn religion, well all that much, only because it manages to keep people in line with a higher success rate than the majority of the world's governments. If people have qualms about the beliefs of a religion, they say fuck it and part ways. If people have qualms with their government, they start gathering together people of similar beliefs and when they have enough people, they rebel. Internal conflicts within a religion create new religions. In a worst case scenario, a religious war may start, but that's not all that bad because in those cases, its zealots and crazy mother fuckers picking each other off. In the case of government related rebellion, otherwise rational people get roped in and it tends to throw entire nations into complete chaos.

Another positive quality about religion is that there are some that, in no way, condone killing others. Now that kind of goes against my beliefs because, personally, I think its acceptable to kill people when the situation calls for it, but in most nature based religions, they don't so much preach respect and civility, as they do encourage it.

As for the negative aspects of religion, there are far to many to name, but one of the most significant flaws is the rigidity of their beliefs. Most religions stand on a foundation that, while maintaining a seemingly strong structure, if one thing goes wrong, everything will collapse. There is no flexibility in the beliefs of religions. There's no, "Well there is the possibility that we could be wrong." Instead its, "We're right, everything else is wrong, and if someone gives a logical alternative either they are or are influenced by [insert evil deity here].

My personal opinion is that "God" isn't something that anyone can be aware of. It is a force beyond subjective consciousness and the workings of the world are not necessarily controlled by it, but a result of its existence because it is the subtle energy that composes the whole of existence itself. "God" per se, is not necessarily something that controls what is, rather it is what is as a whole. The only reason we can call it or any part of it "God" is because we have a tendency to feel as if there has to be something more, something in control at all times, that guides us.

Everyone who believes in God says that they revere him/her/it/them or whatever above all else, but that isn't true. Its a harsh reality, but anyone who believes in something with undying faith subjects their God to a standard that it cannot uphold and that is completely disrespectful. An omnipotent, omniscient, all powerful being hears, sees, and knows everything that everyone wants and does all it can to guide the world to function so that it doesn't fall apart. Who are you to ask it for anything. Maybe you feel you really need something. Perhaps you're dying and, naturally, you want to live. So, you pray to God to let you live. If God's plan is absolute, there's no point in praying for your survival because you are not special. You are a tiny, expendable, replaceable part in the machine that is your God's great work. Your God letting you die doesn't mean that it has abandoned you or that it doesn't care, its just that it has so much to take care of that paying special attention to you could destroy everything that it has put all of its effort into to create and maintain for the duration of existence. This is where the concepts of the afterlife and/or reincarnation come in. You can't have a book without a definitive ending, unless there's a sequel. Everyone who has ever felt that their faith has been cast aside or ignored by God needs some sort of closure in death. So in death, there is a divine justice system that either rewards you for your faith, condemns you for your transgressions, or in some cases, sends you back to start life as something new in order to continue your spiritual evolution.

Thank you The Jesus. No, seriously thanks. You crammed so much into my head at once my brain is in a glob stuck to the wall behind me.

Interesting read though. You confuse me sometimes, "druggie" and yet, philosophical at the same time. I want the shit you were using!

I like to think that the "druggie" aspect only added to my perspective. Its always been my personal philosophy that regardless of your state of mind, you can always find something worth considering.

A while ago my friend was having trouble and I told her that the walls that block your path are mirrors. In times of crisis you tend to reflect upon yourself and what is behind you. However, when you gather the courage to break through, the mirror shatters and each shard reflects the world from a different angle allowing you to interpret things in new ways. Its kind of out of context in that sense, but you can apply the mirror concept to perception. Perception acts as a mirror. Initially, you can only reflect upon yourself and your past experiences to form your conception of reality and the way things are. When you manage to shatter that mirror, you're able to see things from angles beyond self-reflection. Whether you use drugs or beat yourself in the head repeatedly with a hammer, in an altered mind state you see things are presented to you in a new light.

Very simple in why religion exists. Back then people did not have the knowledge we do today, many thigns remained a mystery. At the same time people feared death and knew nothing about it or hwo to answer it. This easily caused people to think that greater beings were at work here causing all these events. For them this is the answer to all these unswered problems. As it evolved religion became part of daily life and people easily adopted it and finally it jsut became natural for people to have since they had nothing else to ahve in life. People wanted something to help them lead their lives because most people were usually confused and had no idea how ot live their life. This is when religion became a weapon though. People of higher power would see that people were so disallusioned that they would do anything for their "Gods." In this case people were taken advantage of and forced to fight in wars for the higher ups. This helped gain success and glory for those people. Today people continue to adopt religion because they still don't know how to really live their lives and need a guide on how so religion is pretty much "The Dummy's Guide to Living Life," and at the same time people continue to fear death and that is why they use religion to clear things up.

Just my opinion on this matter with some history being used to form it.

Wow, tnx The Jesus. Your first post actually verbalized a few things I for some reason was unable to put into words. Generally people tend to want to put things into "black and white" which really doesn't work. As far as this subject goes, there is very little black and white. there are so many grey areas we really can't know anything about god and what comes after death. Like I've said before I don't believe any religion has it right. I treat my religious beliefs more like theories. They're more an educated guess, in that to be able to come to an absolute answer we would have to speak with god directly, and good luck with that. If anyone pulls that one off let me know.

@The Jesus: I've also heard of this take on "God", and as much as it is up to our perception, there's a lot of people out there who share the same perception. While I might have stated that God is a prick, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I'm waiting for a sign from higher up or someone proving to me with facts that it exists.

I do condemn religion for warping peoples' mindsets and making them act like idiots for some "holy" land or in the name of (insert god name _____). It gets people stirred up in a fervor up to a point where people are fighting for useless reasons, much lke GSDAkatsuki pointed out. In this sense, religion does not appeal to me, though at least in recent decades people have dropped that zealous outlook. (With an exception to those idiots in the Middle East, those poor people are being used by TERRORISTs.)

Stop that! Its an interesting take and pretty similar to my philosophy.

wow, i think i might just get enough from this topic to write a friggin essay on it.

i've always thought of religions as rules to tell people how one should live their life, of course, there is nothing wrong with following the certain concepts that they preach if u agree with it on the basis of how u will live ur life. but just to be frank, folks, all of this is simply make-belief, after all, we're the ones who wrote the history book-bible. personally, i don't categorize myself with any sets of religious believes, but i tend to be open, everything is on my table.

god is indeed an interesting subject to discussion. rather than an entity that manipulates everything behind the curtains, god seem to be an excuse to most people, after all, it "is" the ultimate resolution to anything unanswered or unexplained. i tend to think of god as a sort of spiritual self-support rather than objective entity. believe in god to me is like believing in urself, with god as a concept of good will and faith, u give the ultimate trust to urself to overcome certain obstacles in life, while receiving mental self-support, even nothing of extraordinary force is at work, the simple strong belief or faith that u behold lend u unimaginable power. but the actual existence of a materialized entity is rather questionable, sometimes i can't bring myself to accept "god"s randomness in doing things, maybe it's out of boredom or just curiosity in things, well, god may just be another kid with a sandbox after all.

Nothing is absolute or exact, everything will always be questioned, everything is a matter of opinion, every religion with each sets of beliefs hold its unique thoughts or preferences in doing things, every person is different, as to every mind thinks differently as well, whether or not one should follow is ur own choice in the end.