God is "an evil, capricious, monstrous maniac"
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From: K
sure - and I did not mean to be disparaging
anything that helps people to live a better more fulfilling life and find inner peace is 100% ok with me - and that is the absolute truth from the bottom of my heart
anything that helps people to live a better more fulfilling life and find inner peace is 100% ok with me - and that is the absolute truth from the bottom of my heart
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Correct me if you think I am wrong.
My perception is that you are either preaching (not my gut feeling in this case) or that you are looking for reinforcement.
There are a severely limited number of people on here with either the intellect or inclination to help you in this respect. I certainly fall into the latter (I would say agnostic, but mostly because certain atheism is narrow-minded) and no doubt a few would argue the former.
My perception is that you are either preaching (not my gut feeling in this case) or that you are looking for reinforcement.
There are a severely limited number of people on here with either the intellect or inclination to help you in this respect. I certainly fall into the latter (I would say agnostic, but mostly because certain atheism is narrow-minded) and no doubt a few would argue the former.
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I'm not looking for either reinforcement or help. Perhaps feedback and constructive challenges. I treat NSR as my internet home, it is after all the only site I've ever frequented and posted on. I also think there are a number of very bright users whose opinion I care for. It often conflicts with mine, but I'm a firm believer that truth springs from argument amongst friends.
Subaru ownership before enlightenment?
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From: Home
Scooby Regular
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 14,758
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From: Home
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From: west sussex
God does not exist in time, bible says a day is like a thousand years and visa versa! So to ask where he comes from is to imply God has a beginning, in fact if he did he wouldnt be God.
Lol if only it was that simple, but you avoid the question of where did the heat come from, every thing has to be created, it cant just come from nothing, can it?
God does not exist in time, bible says a day is like a thousand years and visa versa! So to ask where he comes from is to imply God has a beginning, in fact if he did he wouldnt be God.
God does not exist in time, bible says a day is like a thousand years and visa versa! So to ask where he comes from is to imply God has a beginning, in fact if he did he wouldnt be God.
Oh and if God doesn't have a beginning how can he exist.
Last edited by ditchmyster; Feb 7, 2015 at 10:17 PM.
I disagree, he was created by man when the fear of man wasn't enough to control man, hence the term god fearing, then create an afterlife where one either enjoys many benefits of being a "follower" or burn in Hell, strange coincidence how fire was chosen, probably due to it being some sort of mysterious entity that swept all in it's path.
It doesn't require a great deal of deep thought to work out how it all came into being or not as the case maybe.
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From: K
I had the bitter sweet experience of realising my gorgeous 7 year old twins questioning the existence of Father Christmas (this year), a great story that has kept them entranced for the last 5 years
Wonderful
Interestingly, Sorrel still wrote a heartfelt story to the tooth fairy only last week, so who knows
Stories are fantastic and part of the human condition
Wonderful
Interestingly, Sorrel still wrote a heartfelt story to the tooth fairy only last week, so who knows
Stories are fantastic and part of the human condition
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I had the bitter sweet experience of realising my gorgeous 7 year old twins questioning the existence of Father Christmas (this year), a great story that has kept them entranced for the last 5 years
Wonderful
Interestingly, Sorrel still wrote a heartfelt story to the tooth fairy only last week, so who knows
Stories are fantastic and part of the human condition
Wonderful
Interestingly, Sorrel still wrote a heartfelt story to the tooth fairy only last week, so who knows
Stories are fantastic and part of the human condition
I was brought-up in a household that was nominally Christian. As I said earlier, my father, who was an intelligent man, was a strong atheist although he was ethically and morally Christian. My mother was and is a Christian. She has a believer's heart, but struggles with some of the deeper ideas - the Big Bang, infinite regress, vicarious redemption and so forth are alien to her. Her faith is simple and childlike.
I didn't attend a faith based primary school, but we did say the Lord's Prayer everyday and we acted out the nativity and I can distinctly remember being told that God created the world when I started asking the big questions. With that as a backdrop, as well as attending cubs, Sunday school and living in a very white, middle-class and culturally Christian area, it's fair to say that I was socialised into Christianity of sorts.
This all changed as I entered adolescence. I distinctly recall being sat in the physics classroom at an all-boy grammar school in Plymouth. We were being taught the truth: the universe is 13.8 billion years old; the earth is 4.5 billion years old. Then in to biology: Darwinism; humans have been around for 100-200 thousand years. In to R.E. and a plethora of other faiths were explored which brought with it the crushing realisation that culture and belief is relative. I stopped saying the Lord's Prayer in assembly and thought that believers were ignorant. School didn't teach theistic evolution - one was either a young earth creationist or an atheist. This of course proved to be a false dichotomy.
About a decade of general debauchery ensued. I led an amoral life centred around me, money, sex, drugs, cars and rock and roll. But it wasn't enough. No amount of coke, track-days and all night sessions could sate my appetite - there was a massive void that I just couldn't fill. I went back to uni' to study for a politics and sociology degree thinking that the answer lay there. It didn't. I turned to Buddhism for a fleeting moment, but it proved unsatisfactory. I adopted various philosophies: nihilism and Stoicism and integral theory...I wanted structure and was looking for a antidote to the gross materialism that surrounded me.
I eventually met my current partner and she calmed me down significantly. I was offered a job in Wales and took the opportunity. A succession of promotions came my way and the money was rolling in. By this time I was in to visualisation and the law of attraction. I became interested in the ancient mystery religions and even became a Freemason. All the boxes were ticked and yet there was still this sehnsucht.
By this time I had developed a theistic outlook of sorts. Technically, it's know as deism. I'd been struggling with the notion of infinite regress for some time, no amount of Dawkins, Hawking, Hitchens or Harris could resolve the issue. Additionally, I couldn't know the impersonal God of deism. Pandeism, then? Surely knowing God through nature was the answer. It wasn't. Eventually I looked inward and didn't like what I saw! Some posters will recall the thread on altruism and it was around that time I began to despair at what I saw as a selfish world full of greed and materialism.
I needed somebody I could trust and call a brother, somebody who was selfless. I asked the NSR crowd who their role models were. I was still searching.
When I was 35 I went to South Africa and had a deeply numinous experience as I looked-up at the Southern Cross. I'd just witnessed the most awesome sunset and saw beautiful creatures in their own spectacular setting. I was on my knees, confronted by the I overwhelming sense that I was home.
Within a month I'd stepped down from a senior management position and moved in to a much more relaxed job. I also enrolled at Cardiff Uni' on a philosophy course. It was here that I realised I was now a full blown theist. I'd also come to realise that the only way to truly know God was through Jesus Christ. I went home one evening around Christmas, got down on my knees and asked Christ to come in to my life. After a period of contrition and deep repentance I began to attend my local baptist church. The first conversation I had with the pastor (who's since become a good friend) was "Hitchens was wrong". That was nearly four years ago now and I genuinely haven't looked back.
Anyway, this is the longest post I've written and I'm terrified it'll disappear. I'll probably edit it and modify it a bit as I read it back through. I know there are large chunks that I've missed and may well add these in a bit later.
I didn't attend a faith based primary school, but we did say the Lord's Prayer everyday and we acted out the nativity and I can distinctly remember being told that God created the world when I started asking the big questions. With that as a backdrop, as well as attending cubs, Sunday school and living in a very white, middle-class and culturally Christian area, it's fair to say that I was socialised into Christianity of sorts.
This all changed as I entered adolescence. I distinctly recall being sat in the physics classroom at an all-boy grammar school in Plymouth. We were being taught the truth: the universe is 13.8 billion years old; the earth is 4.5 billion years old. Then in to biology: Darwinism; humans have been around for 100-200 thousand years. In to R.E. and a plethora of other faiths were explored which brought with it the crushing realisation that culture and belief is relative. I stopped saying the Lord's Prayer in assembly and thought that believers were ignorant. School didn't teach theistic evolution - one was either a young earth creationist or an atheist. This of course proved to be a false dichotomy.
About a decade of general debauchery ensued. I led an amoral life centred around me, money, sex, drugs, cars and rock and roll. But it wasn't enough. No amount of coke, track-days and all night sessions could sate my appetite - there was a massive void that I just couldn't fill. I went back to uni' to study for a politics and sociology degree thinking that the answer lay there. It didn't. I turned to Buddhism for a fleeting moment, but it proved unsatisfactory. I adopted various philosophies: nihilism and Stoicism and integral theory...I wanted structure and was looking for a antidote to the gross materialism that surrounded me.
I eventually met my current partner and she calmed me down significantly. I was offered a job in Wales and took the opportunity. A succession of promotions came my way and the money was rolling in. By this time I was in to visualisation and the law of attraction. I became interested in the ancient mystery religions and even became a Freemason. All the boxes were ticked and yet there was still this sehnsucht.
By this time I had developed a theistic outlook of sorts. Technically, it's know as deism. I'd been struggling with the notion of infinite regress for some time, no amount of Dawkins, Hawking, Hitchens or Harris could resolve the issue. Additionally, I couldn't know the impersonal God of deism. Pandeism, then? Surely knowing God through nature was the answer. It wasn't. Eventually I looked inward and didn't like what I saw! Some posters will recall the thread on altruism and it was around that time I began to despair at what I saw as a selfish world full of greed and materialism.
I needed somebody I could trust and call a brother, somebody who was selfless. I asked the NSR crowd who their role models were. I was still searching.
When I was 35 I went to South Africa and had a deeply numinous experience as I looked-up at the Southern Cross. I'd just witnessed the most awesome sunset and saw beautiful creatures in their own spectacular setting. I was on my knees, confronted by the I overwhelming sense that I was home.
Within a month I'd stepped down from a senior management position and moved in to a much more relaxed job. I also enrolled at Cardiff Uni' on a philosophy course. It was here that I realised I was now a full blown theist. I'd also come to realise that the only way to truly know God was through Jesus Christ. I went home one evening around Christmas, got down on my knees and asked Christ to come in to my life. After a period of contrition and deep repentance I began to attend my local baptist church. The first conversation I had with the pastor (who's since become a good friend) was "Hitchens was wrong". That was nearly four years ago now and I genuinely haven't looked back.
Anyway, this is the longest post I've written and I'm terrified it'll disappear. I'll probably edit it and modify it a bit as I read it back through. I know there are large chunks that I've missed and may well add these in a bit later.
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Joined: Oct 2014
Posts: 50
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From: west sussex
I disagree, he was created by man when the fear of man wasn't enough to control man, hence the term god fearing, then create an afterlife where one either enjoys many benefits of being a "follower" or burn in Hell, strange coincidence how fire was chosen, probably due to it being some sort of mysterious entity that swept all in it's path.
It doesn't require a great deal of deep thought to work out how it all came into being or not as the case maybe.
