Religion: The Great Delusion

Provide us with a solitary example.

 

Nonsense, as it man's attitude that defines success, and the

Nature can destory that metropolis in a blink of an eye. I'll take the awesomeness of God over man any day....

 

The problem with the "first cause bit" is what caused it?
Another first cause, or perhaps some mystic dimwit,
though more likely than not it really was just this
The never to be denied, the non-contradiction premise.

So you see, it really matters naught,
Be it a cause, a fit, or a magic kumquat
It really is just as simple as this,
You fools! You fools! Existence exists.
And really, that's all there's to it.

 

And Man will rebuild it in a nano-second of eternity, better and stronger, until nature submits.

 

What God has given Man:

The sacrifice of the good for the sake of evil.



No thanks, I choose this instead



Howard Roark: “Thousands of years ago the first man discovered how to make fire. He was probably burnt at the stake he'd taught his brothers to light, but he left them a gift they had not conceived and he lifted darkness from the face of the Earth.”

Man brought light to earth. God mucked it up, so to speak.

 

Nature submit? Laughable. The perimeters of man's creative cabalities were designed by Nature. Good luck with that though....

 

Well, gravity doesn't stop jets or spaceships. Nature builds mountains, Man flies over them. Oceans roar, rage, and rise, but Man still navigates the globe.

What is most obvious, and so hidden from the view of those minds dimly lit by religion, is that Man is Existence's...is Life's... is Nature's highest expression of itself. God is fool's gold. Man's is the universe's only true creator, the real gold nugget.

 

Though I do agree, for inspiration, look to the heavens:

"There's Opportunity Here" by Bryan Larsen


http://cordair.com/artists/larsen/works/theres-opportunity-here/index.html

 

It's no more magical than the big bang theory and any of a number of different competing theories on the origins of life.

 

But man will always be limited because of his inherent material nature. God wins in the end because He is the Indivisible, the Pure. Man cannot know the totality of all possible outcomes in existence, for everything in the universe is in constant motion. Ergo, man cannot harness infinity, but Infinity encompasses all things, the Destroyer of time and all things.

 

The last line is true. The dark ages and the fall of Islam and the renaissance were not global events.
There's God and then there's religion. The religion may be false but the religion itself, any religion has no bearing on God. The two are totally different subjects or should be. There isn't any religion of any kind on the spirit side.

 

I see. Hmmm...Because God can create Giraffes out of coke cans, this makes him more powerful than the mind that cured polio, performed heart transplants, landed on the moon, and looks at galaxies far, far away.
And because Man is not omniscient, but God is...God can rewrite reality so that Man can really never gain true knowledge of true reality. Oh, you're a good Kantian.

Ayn Rand on Man:
"The power to rearrange the combinations of natural elements is the only creative power man possesses. It is an enormous and glorious power—and it is the only meaning of the concept “creative.” “Creation” does not (and metaphysically cannot) mean the power to bring something into existence out of nothing. “Creation” means the power to bring into existence an arrangement (or combination or integration) of natural elements that had not existed before. (This is true of any human product, scientific or esthetic: man’s imagination is nothing more than the ability to rearrange the things he has observed in reality.)"
http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/creation.html

Hmmm. I stick with Man, Existence, Objectivism, and Ayn Rand

 

Human is a herd animal which need social contacts to feel well, like a dog. Religion is a complex thing and a lot of things mixed, superstitions, philosophy, rituals, symbolics, social structures.
I think that most of religion still exist because they are powerfull link creator. Church, mosques, synagogues, temples are powerfull social-contact creator.

 

I'm probably one of the only one, but I consider communism as a form of religion. I mean, they believe in a perfect ideal society which will exist in the future. But otherwise placing this ideal society after death in an outer realm like does muslims and christian, they think it will come on earth after an all-magical revolution which will solve every problems.
What I mean beyond that is that even the communists which rejected strongly religion ended to have a simili religious cult in the end, with its prophet Marx and its bible, the communit manifesto.

 

There cannot be power without Power.

But God is the Reality. A material perspective cannot realize this as long as man relies solely on the physical to navigate through existence. Humans are limited by their material selves, and man can never truly know anything, because he can never be definite about what anything could mean at any given singularity in time.

But God can, which is why the arrogance of man is always met with total and utter abasement, for of course, He is the Abaser.

 

Infinity:
"There is a use of [the concept] “infinity” which is valid, as Aristotle observed, and that is the mathematical use. It is valid only when used to indicate a potentiality, never an actuality. Take the number series as an example. You can say it is infinite in the sense that, no matter how many numbers you count, there is always another number. You can always keep on counting; there’s no end. In that sense it is infinite—as a potential. But notice that, actually, however many numbers you count, wherever you stop, you only reached that point, you only got so far. . . . That’s Aristotle’s point that the actual is always finite. Infinity exists only in the form of the ability of certain series to be extended indefinitely; but however much they are extended, in actual fact, wherever you stop it is finite."

--Dr. Leonard Peikoff
http://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/infinity.html​

Infinity is not a mystical construct designed to immolate Man, which is how you use it; but is indeed a mental tool, a cognitive device, a concept to enable the creative mind to deal with mathematical concepts of existential probabilities, i.e., its not a mind game to screw Man over, its a tool for Man to use to create tomorrow."

 

Okay. You keep the fantasy; I'll stick with the objective.
You like Plato, I bet.

 

I certainly have my doubts about God.....and I don't practice any religious rituals or go to church.......although I pray sometimes and I thank God when things go well.

God and I have a friendly and somewhat humorous relationship.

I don't choose to express my doubts about God's existence for one reason........a lot of people fear death and their religion gives them comfort.

I see that the older they get, or the closer to death they get--the more important this comfort gets.

I'm not going to say anything to them to take away that comfort or cause them pain.......I have even prayed with them.

If there are militant religion-haters here......do you think that common courtesy and compassion should cause you to keep your mouth shut sometimes in order to avoid taking away the comfort of religion?

 

It cannot be a mental tool, because that would imply the encapsulation of Eternity within limited perimeters. No, the Eternal expects nothing; you either submit to it, or be totally engulfed by its Magnificence.

 

You do that. As for Plato...he's okay. Not that big a fan of Western philosophy. Too much ego.

 

Ah, keep smoking the reefer.

 

As a good luck charm, He's harmless; but as a sentient being who's omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, he's a delusion and a neurosis destroying the best within us.

 

The Mind of Man: The Great Creator


The Mind of the Mystic: The Great Inquisitor

 

Careful. Careless use of cognitive tools ultimately lead to wholesale slaughter.

 

Faith vs Reason

What the men of reason created:


What religious men of faith destroyed: