Did you create your God or is it only me who created one
Itâs my observation and my thoughts on the matter.
Just as you cannot understand faith as it was discussed here, I cannot see the point in pressing your argument with someone who holds faith. Itâs certainly not convincing in any respect to someone who has faith in God.
Clearly we donât understand each other. (You should agree with me on that.)
Nope.
Of course not.
You call it âpressingâ. I call it discussingâŚyes i have noticed that religious people can be very defensive and not put honest effort into understanding alternative viewpoints. When atheists try to understand by asking questions, its âpressingâ. When Christians go to africa or door to door its âspreading the wordâ ⌠but if you have faith and you think you are more in tune with some spiritual realm that other people just cant understand and you dont appreciate philosophical exploration of alternatives, thats certainly your right. Faith to me seems limiting and its something i gladly abandoned years ago.
Why did you say i created a God?
In Meriweatherâs posts here I read all of the Catholicâs churchâs rationales that allowed it to acquire itâs vast wealth and, in an earlier time, immense temporal power.
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Itâs not the questions.
Itâs the misinterpretation and mischaracterization of the responses.
How many times have I said, âI didnât say that âŚâ
Youâre not trying to understand. At least you donât come off that way.
It gets old.
Not a God.
A god.
You are dictating how god should be. Thatâs your creation.
This does not accurately describe faith, which is based on reason. The Beatitudes are an example of this. A person reads through this, and while some of them may not sound logical, that person takes a leap of faith and incorporates these teachings in his/her life. At that point, a kind of âlaboratoryâ work can start. One can observe what happens and/or how life and relationships change when teachings are put into practice. One thing that happens is that the love of the Lord increases. When love expands, it expands to others we come into contact with.
Faith begins with a thought the size of a mustard seed, and then with one small action after another. Our goal is to grow in love and towards Love.
Im not creating a god. I think you are creating a god. Lower case g. Plus, since i say so, it must be so.
this just sounds like âhappy thoughts bring happinessâ. So, if i just keep repeating in my head âjesus loves me god is realâ over and over, i can eventually convince myself its ârealâ because it makes me feel emotionally better. It doesnt mean it reflects reality outside of my own emotions. Brain has powerful imagination. And really, christians arent inherently any happier or more loving than another group of people. Its just another religion where people think they are special and imagine a reality to feel better about the mystery of being. Being âlovingâ isnt unique to jesus teachings.
christianity and belief that jesus was god is not necessary to do this.
people take drugs and they feel more love⌠is that God? Someone gets a good nights rest they feel more love. Is sleep god?
What separates christianity is belief that jesus was divine and rose from the deadâŚwatering it down to âjust love each otherâ isnt really factualâŚa lot of people preach that across many religions
That sounds more like the calvinist approach.
Not what I said. The Beatitudes (or Jewish Law for others) are not about âhappy thoughtsâ. You said that, I didnât. Both are about implementing and following a way of life. They are both about acts and actionsânot âhappy thoughts.â
Did I claim we were happy or special? I did not. Again, this is something you said, not anything I said.
Finally, did I claim Jesusâ teachings were unique? NoâŚAgain, something you said, not what I said. Jesusâ teachings were simply a different approach to Jewish Law. Jesus told us this, that the Commandments are based on love of God and love of neighbor. The other six hundred plus items of Jewish Lawâand the Beatitudesâare based on these two Commandments.
Good luck with a mantra that simply repeats Jesus loves people. It is not something I would advise (at least not on its own), but perhaps it works for others. I suspect not. I suspect you tried it, found nothing, and decided to toss religion altogether. I know I might have.
The reason discussion is hard with you, is not due to any âpressing.â It is because of taking what someone says and telling them what they âreallyâ said. Perhaps in the future, keep this quote in mind:
I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but Iâm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant. Keep in mind that in your case, it wasnât even what I said. You addressed an argument against your own already formed conclusionsâand an argument against your conclusions is not what I presented.
Who are you arguing with? This not anything I said or claimed.
No one has watered it down to âjust love each other.â I recommend following the Beatitudes. Where in the Beatitudes does it say, âJust love each other?â
Since God is love, it doesnât surprise me one iota that love is the foundation of many religion. Duh.
Iâd say thinking you are in tune with and following the will of God is an implicit claim of being special. So you do good things for people and you love people. Great. So do a lot of other people who arent Christian. The difference is that other people dont think jesus rose from the dead or was âgodâ.
Thats what you are doing to avoid the logical/empirical question. Your response was that âfaithâ is action based and it gives âresultsâ. That was your âreasonâ. It certainly isnt a good reason to assert that jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead. It certainly isnt âchristianityâ. Its just being a good person.
Except you subscribe to only one.
