So God... wrote a book?

The Jesus character had the same superstitious beliefs that the Pharisees had.

 

I am explicitly not stuck on the Jewish one. The OP applies to any God who is said to have sent a prophet messenger or a holy text.

 

Regarding fairy tales, it sounds like you are saying that neither God nor Satan are even real. If so, then you can have no charge against a God who in your estimation doesn't exist. Consequently, your fabled quest for a head has ended, fruitless. Still I know that God lives. And that like a net, his word has gone out to the corners of the earth, strong and true, drawing up the willing. The pious shudder and tyrants shriek, where is our glory and esteem. They seethe with envy, casting aspersions at the haul. None can stop the work of God, as they too serve a purpose, like a polishing grit.

 

We can analyze and criticize fictional characters. We do it frequently. And when there are people who do believe the characters are real and may act accordingly, then it becomes vital to address the characters. Your vision of God matters to me regardless of if your God exists or not, because it tells me what I can expect from you. If you see God as a hippy dippy peace and love Jesus, that tells me something about you. If you instead believe in an authoritarian judgmental heaven and hell fire and brimstone God, that tells me something quite different about you.

 

The Jesus character said that he will have his minions toss you into the fire and roast you if you don't believe in him, John 15:6.

 

There is only one God, and he lives. If you want to know this or his expectation of you, you will have to ask him. If you are sincere, and if it is right, fitting, and his desire as well to answer your prayer, he will. But if you are set in the notion that he isn't real, then praying to him may be a bridge too far for you....a truth never uttered. A prayer is like speaking honestly with a trusted confidante. What is there to lose. Yes, keep your wits in so doing. If you look for buried treasure, whether trinkets, coins, gold, old bottles or what have you. Though you keep an eye out for danger, snakes, sharp objects or what have you. Yet you maintain your search and discovery in faith. Maybe you will be pleasantly surprised. Prayer is an honest heart, the courage to give or grasp in reception.

 

... and yet different people who do what you say so often claim to know very different and conflicting Gods.

 

I can only speak for myself. Attempting to address such a kaleidoscope of belief and adventure, is to me, like dabbling in the occult for direction and purpose in life, when we already have our consciences, intellects, and the power of choice for our drive and steering. Why add uncertainty to ones course when certainty is the goal, and thereby procrastinate coming to harbor or to the embrace of truth. We are all only beholden to the truth we know. And God is nothing but fair. For all that we are, our good and our bad, we are blessed with life and the lengthening of our days. To us all we are gently turned to the sun and the seasons roll on and the earth bears up its bounty. And God is in the reserve. He does not spring upon us unawares like a murderous lion and rip us asunder for the multitude of our sins, saying aha, I've caught you at this and that and the other. So to hell to hell to hell you go. No, he abides, extending mercy and blessings all our days. He actually practices in regards to us what he preached in his sermon on the mount:

And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.

Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

I say and quote this not to further or sneak a fable but rather to address fear and the hateful rhetoric of religious zealots who condemn us while we live, and who see not that the true and living God sustains us all, no matter our religion or sins. Instead he gently appeals in our quiet chambers to our better natures and the hopes dancing on our several horizons. It is why you know that not only are the hateful religious zealots wrong, regardless your sins, but that they do not know or represent the God who sustains us all and withholds judgment, preferring to fill our bowls with his kindness, day in and out. So if we are called, then let this be our calling, that God is kind, that he dines with sinners, and that the self righteous are ungrateful brutes at the precipice of the bottomless void. And that when or should we come more fully to Gods favor than our present bounty, it will be by the increase of his grace within us and not the godless whip from without. God is already with us, all day, every day. The others would leverage us away from him by our faults, and into the adversary's arms who profits us nothing but self exalting and self righteous hate as if it were the work and will of God. That is the fairy tale in which many live, a perversion or distortion of the plan of salvation. Well, that's what I think.

 

Then why do so called "Christians" keep saying "nobody's perfect"....
if He told them..."be ye therefore perfect"....then why are they making excuses instead?

 

I agree.

That includes all the supernatural gods.

The occult is no better than the mainstream religions. They all use fiction.

Regards
DL

 

would you prefer 'be ye therefore the bottom of the gene pool' like some of the atheist arguments I have seen out here?

 

Why would he say so if they already were? It is that which one should endeavor to be. And he laid down a few principles on that path to follow that it might be achieved.

 

Yes good point...maybe we try a different prospective.
What if he is referring to a possible choice to be made...
As an example....if you were to be one of the characters in a play,
but you had a choice as to which one you could be.
Maybe he is implying that humans are simply choosing to be something they are not.....
that humans mistakenly choose to believe that they are unworthy creatures
who must strive to be better...or else hell.
Do you know that the word "sin" is actually an archery term, that means "missing the mark"?

 

Interesting. Sounds something like transfiguration....I don't know. Jesus did say "ye must be born again to see the Kingdom of heaven." But still that infers a following period of spiritual growth after conception. And is therefore more of a return than a going away as was the nature of our first birth and bliss.

 

You are urged to be reborn so that then you will put away the things of children and grow into adulthood.

That would include all supernatural and fantastical thinking.

That is when you recognize that heaven is here and now, and that the world is the best of all possible world, because it is the only possible world.

You recognize that the only worthy god is nature.

You are a part of that all, so to speak.

You recognize that we are all in this together, alone.

Regards
DL

 

That is the answer....IMO

 

Perhaps that may be the case if spiritual growth is pursued,
but the majority of humans are only interested in the growth of their bank account.
Your salvation is "here and now" as @Greatest I am has stated in his post above...
Salvation can never be in the future. It will always be in the "here and now".

But I agree with your idea of..."more of a return than a going away"
That is the message of the prodigal son story...is it not?

 

Thanks.

Christians should try following it, then they would become Gnostic Christians and stop following Satan instead of the Gnostic Jesus. The good Jesus and not the Armageddon one.

All good Christians will condemn their genocidal Yahweh/Jesus to hell.

Regards
DL

 

Agree! If Jesus somehow were to return...
they would again be yelling..."crucify him!!!".

 

If he were to return, all would bend the knee, except me.

As instructed by the Jesus I know, and his god, Nature, I would be giving up my birthright to be the best of breed.

FMPOV, for me to give that up, that has to be earned by a more moral entity than the Armageddon Jesus.

Regards
DL