God is not dead, but isn't what religion think's it is. God is up there, screaming at us that it loves us, but wondering why we can't hear it. God loves each and every person, regardless if they love it back. God requires not worship, or praise, or even acknowledgement, God's love is truly unconditional. Any religion that says anything otherwise is following a false God. God does not demand from you, it loves you. God does not require from you, it loves you. God will not punish you, it loves you. Your life is your journey, and God watches, hoping you do the right thing, and forgiving you when you slip up, It doesn't interfere with your life because it's yours to live. There is no final judgement, except by yourself. The Abrahamic God is an evil deity. Who judges, and punishes, and strikes down, that God isn't real, the real one would never harm you for living your life the best you can. There is no final judgement, except by yourself. You judge your actions. God accepts you for who you are regardless of how you live your life, it may not approve of your deeds, but loves YOU regardless. No, God is not dead, it lives, and it loves you, because that is what God truly is, God is Love.
An HONEST expression of your opinion, intelligently supported, and I salute you for presenting it without polemics. Indeed, "I/we don't know." in a sense that we all can agree on. I see a vast, bewilderingly complex universe comprised of way too many millions of "coincidences" for it not to have come about without the deliberate involvement of a creative intelligence. You may not, but each of us can respect the other's right to an earnest opinion. In our current state of development, it may not be possible for us to make a great deal of progress in resolving this enigma. For many years, I have thought that we (collectively) may come to understand much more after humans have undergone an experience somewhat like that described in Arthur C. Clarke's largely ignored masterpiece, "Childhood's End". Cheers!
where would a God come from, would it not be more complex for a God to "just" exists, then for energy to exist and change over time to what exists now.....
The idea of God as the creator of the universe and the rulemaker, which then expanded into the ideas of all the various gods that have existed throughout history.
Is God dead? In the minds of liberals, yes. The mental condition that makes men believe that men are God and capable of making God like decisions is not a virtue.
If I select a number between one and a hundred, and give you only one guess at that number, it would be remarkable for you to guess correctly (quite a coincidence). If I select a number between one and a hundred, and give you 100 guesses at that number, it would be remarkable only for you to not guess correctly eventually. In my earnest opinion, the same principle on a larger scale, applies to the "coincidences" you attribute to a creative intelligence. - - - Updated - - - I see lots of assertions, but not one shred of logic or reason to accept any of them as true.
I do not consider any religious concept of "god", being wrapped up in so much human generated dogma, to exist or to ever have existed. I believe god is a construct of our own ego-centricity and conceit. If there is some entity that could be described as the creator of the universe, to think that it also "created" humans and loves humans and listens to humans and protects humans and answers human prayers while readily willing to condemn humans whose behavior it doesn't like to eternal damnation is the acme of conceit. Our universe is many billions of years older than our planet. Our G type star is one of trillions of trillions of trillions of the same kind and as such is completely unremarkable, our spiral galaxy is also nothing special. Humans are "special" because we possess both sentience and sapience and as such can observe, experiment, explore, discover, experience, preserve knowledge and communicate it across generations. We are constantly striving to control and modify our environment to suit our needs (something humans and beavers have in common). A God simply isn't required at any stage of our existence or development. We are simply the apex predator of our very own ecosystem.
Thank you for helping buttress my main point. There's all these billions and billions and more billions of stars, planets, galaxies, and who-knows-what-else outside the atheist's window, and his reaction...? "Nothing created any of this -- I'm certain of it!"
I am an agnostic atheist. I choose to believe that in the absence of evidence to the contrary, the very recent expansion of our scientific knowledge of the universe, the fact that "our" world/sun/system is entirely inconsequential within that universe and the realization that we are merely the top of the food chain in our ecosystem, that there is absolutely no need for any supernatural force. Occam's razor.
OK, then, good for you. At least you know what you think. It's amazing how many don't think at all. When I look "out there" it is impossible for me to think that the whole gigantic, complex, interwoven thing is an accident. Would it require "intelligence" to create such a, uh, universe...? Very, very likely. If you can stand in the middle of all this and say to yourself nothing created it, then that is surely a different mindset than I have. At present, neither can prove the other wrong. Did you ever read, "Childhood's End" by Arthur C. Clarke. Seriously, you may enjoy it and find it very thought provoking.
yes we seem to be polar opposites. I look at the universe and its complexity and see the purpose of our sapience - to comprehend, you look at that complexity and envision an answer. I have read all of Clarke's sci-fi and some of his other writings as well. He does pose an interesting premise and his "alien" rendering as a classic devil is quite an ironic little twist. I am a big sci-fi fan and have over 1500 books in my collection.
God cannot die. He is eternal. He suffers us, even though we don't deserve it. God is great. Were this not so, then the expanse of endless space would be the immeasurable scope of our sorrow and the unfathomable depth of our despair, for all of our endeavors would be in vain. And we should never hope to meet again those gone before or to come after in fondness and thanks. All would be for naught.
I don't know. Nobody has been able to prove that there is a God. Nobody has been able to prove that there is no God either. But yes, sometimes weird and scientifically inexplicable things do take place.
Such a question indicates that the poster believes that God created the universe [and something else]. Furthermore this thread suggests that God is not eternal, but that He can die. Now, if the author of the thread accepts the idea of "God" / "Creator" and so on, he should be familiar with the conception of omnipotence ... to be omnipotent could even mean to be able to die and to come back from death. So that ... even if God dies ... He can come back when He wants ... what's the problem with this?
I agree with near death experiencer Mellen Benedict that God is alive and well but not as adversarial about religious customs as we humans tend to be. http://www.near-death.com/experiences/reincarnation04.html#a09 .
Why do all the gods insist on playing it so coy, concealing themselves and taunting some folks with, "Guess!" It's understandable that there are those who consider it a very silly, childish games for gods to be playing, and walk away from it saying, "When you're all ready to come out of hiding and behave responsibly, we can talk." In the meantime, some make up their various descriptions of their favourite divine recluses, and chat about them.
Perhaps the process of asking and at least guessing at answers is more important in the big picture than we tend to imagine. If intelligence first came into being and evolved in fundamental energy……. that first intelligent life form would not have higher level spiritual guides to ask questions of….. and would have to figure out what to do on their own. (I do suspect two types of intelligence in fundamental energy, Super Strings - rays of light seem to be in the masculine thought pattern and Super Waves and gravity seem to be more like the feminine behaviour pattern). http://www.near-death.com/experiences/reincarnation04.html#a05
As a biological imperative, genes seem hellbent on perpetuating themselves. In the case of humans, ethical codes may be one manifestation of species perpetuation, and assigning them divine origin, edicts from the mighty unknown, would bestow upon them a legitimacy that might otherwise be challenged. The basic reward/punishment implications might, ultimately, be a manifestation of genes insuring that humans serve them.
