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I have to wonder, what does an atheist make of their own spiritual experiences? I've had a few that could certainly be called "the hand of God" saving my life or showing me things that I could not have seen in a non-spiritual world.
The meaning of this cartoon could be construed more than one way. The man receiving the blank sheet could be invited to write upon it his own understanding of God and spirituality. That would be what Jesus preached - make your own personal relationship with God.
Though we may not know what god is we can know what god isn't, its in the comparison to when god gets understood backwards.
dog
the territorial imperative is manifest in dog
dog sets up us and them
therefore the opposite of that could be thought of as to what god is
As to the other spellings of god through all the languages it brings up a strangeness of the English language.
How many possible learning's exist just in playing with the words as though there are no laws to limit understanding,
In the same comparison, say that ~ live ~ is all you wish to do, that within that all the gradients of survival exist
as though god gave one command ~ live
if you get that backwards all you get is ~ evil
We know that terrible things happen if there is/are god/s, or if there is/are not god/s.
We know that wonderful things happen if there is/are god/s, or if there is/are not god/s.
We know that we will die if there is/are god/s, or if there is/are not god/s.
We know that Rick Santorum (et al.) is a weenie if there is/are god/s, or if there is/are not god/s.
We know that Pinnacles National Park is awesome if there is/are god/s, or if there is/are not god/s.
Therefore we know that it just doesn't matter if there is/are or if there is/are not god/s.
It just does not make any difference.
If people want to waste their time on superstitious nonsense (IMO) whether it is organized, culture wide religion, or the new age mumbo-jumbo that is locally popular, that's their business, if they try to use it as a justification to try to affect policy, then it is all our business. Otherwise, god? meh (I shrug) who cares?
One of the interpretations of 911 and its following actions has struck a near fatal blow to the Constitution of America and set up a perpetual war on terrorism.
This war has nexus in the conflict between the descendents of Isaac and the descendants of Ismael.
So there is a reason to care about this god thing. At least to have a grasp on history and to wonder what took place at that moment when Abraham came down from the mountain because that is where the enmity began.
Ismael was first born and deserved the blessing of Abraham which go to the first born in those times, as it was he was banished with a pittance and Isaac received the blessing.
In any relationship that goes bad it has a beginning and a cause. Any resolution must address that beginning.
So that's the why and the what of " who cares about god? "
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Posted in reply to the post by oldbaldman:
Notice what you wrote about has nothing to do with god, and everything to do with a family.Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Thad:
That's not about caring whether or not there is a God. That's about trying to relate a mythological treatment of history to current events. The mythological conflict was about jealousy and greed. The fact that some old patriarch got hold of a visionary inebriant and saw a god and communicated with it is incidental to the themes that should concern us; the ravages of patriarchy, the lust for power, competition for land and resources, still in progress in that part of the world. Not much learned from the old beard in the sky after all these millennia I guess. Myth and history are fascinating indeed.Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Thad:
Part 5 of Jared Diamond's The World Until Yesterday is "Religion, Language, and Health" and includes a chapter titled "What Electric Eels Tell us About the Evolution of Religion" describing why we hold onto systems of myth and fantasy that are no longer needed for many of the original functions they served. Highly recommended. (not that this old bald man's recommendation would be considered high, except for my own visionary inebriants).