Did you discover god on your own,...

[UG]

pyro,

<... The closest thing to a god is......well........ME! ...>

So, you are unnecessary, too? [EDIT] [/EDIT]

Isla,

<...Thank goodness for the Humane Society!...>

So, theists should be protected from societal persecution by the ASPCA?

 

[Isla]

LOL, you all think I am kidding or drunk (okay, maybe) but the truth is I found God in the least of us.

My experience of what society calls &quot;God&quot; has been what I have seen reflected in the eyes of the weak, the poor, the handicapped, the homeless.

The Priest tried to explain God to me and so did the Pastor. I pretty much blew them off as egotists.

The only convincing argument I ever had was in the eyes of the most pure and the most humble.

So maybe I am a freak now because of it... but I would say I have been truly touched by God, in It's most pure form. Stray dogs and mentally handicapped children. Yep.

 

[Isla]

OK, maybe I should provide details.

I remember the asking the priest if animals went to heaven, and he said no.

I thought, &quot;Bullshite!&quot;

In remember asking my oldest sister, who was a Southern Baptist for several years, if Anne Frank went to heaven. She said &quot;No.&quot;

I thought, &quot;Bullshite!&quot;

One Christmas, my then three-year-old neice asked &quot;Why did God only have a Son? Why didn't he have a daughter?&quot;

And I thought, &quot;Uh-oh!&quot; And I smiled.

God may be different things to different people. What I know as &quot;God&quot; does not fit in very well with established religions. To me, religion is just an institution of society. But do In believe that there is a higher power, one that the generations have tried desperately to define?

Yes.

And I did come to that conclusion alone, despite the obnoxious propaganda thrust upon me day and night.

 

[Tripleshot]

Isla






Why aren't you Elite by now?:frown:






God is the smile that wells from deep within your heart when you gaze upon the treasures of the natural world around you and realize you had nothing to do with it,but someone did,and you know who!

 

[convex]

because her comments are regurgitated &quot;nice stuff&quot;? just a thought. No offense of course, well maybe a little bit, always fun to read her posts...anyway, if one doesn't find god on their own then they haven't truely found god eh? thoughts from a sick and twisted agnostic

 

[Tripleshot]

convex
Your not sick and twisted. An agnostic is still searching for the truth. You have all the time you need to discover it. Press on in your search. You will find the answers you seek.

 

[Isla]

<< because her comments are regurgitated &quot;nice stuff&quot;? >>



LOL!

Mr Isla will tell you that I make him face every false illusion he ever had on a daily basis. (He was the religious one.)

Never, ever, ever marry a woman who majored in Psychology. (and minored in Sociology. Evil, evil stuff.)

 

[guyver01]

Everyone's going to hell no matter which way you look at it...

To the christians.. if you dont belive in god you go to hell
To the jews.. if you dont believe in their god, you go to hell
To the muslims if you dont believe in allah you go to hell
To the buddihts if you dont believe in buddah you go to hell.

Face it.. you go to hell no matter what!

 

[convex]

of course i'm sick and twisted, that has nothing to do with me being agnostic ...isla, i'm pretty sure you'd make me cry if we ever spent any time together, i get that feeling for some reason..

 

[Tripleshot]

guyver01
better to keep your mouth shut and let people assume you are ignorant,than to open your mouth and prove to everyone you are!

 

[Isla]

convex,

But all I'd want to do is make you feel good!

 

[convex]

/begin smooth convex/ now i could interpret that in a couple of ways.. aww yea /end smooth convex/

in all seriousness, your posts actually give me some sort of little glimpse that not all people that make &quot;positive&quot; posts are complete retards. It's great that you're sensitive to other peoples views, something that is difficult to find on this board..

 

[MustangSVT]

Guyver


Everyone's going to hell no matter which way you look at it...

To the christians.. if you dont belive in god you go to hell
To the jews.. if you dont believe in their god, you go to hell
To the muslims if you dont believe in allah you go to hell
To the buddihts if you dont believe in buddah you go to hell.

Face it.. you go to hell no matter what!

If none of these ppl believe in that religions's god, how can they be christians, jews , muslums, or buddists? if they dont believe in god then they dont believe in existence of hell or heaven, so they dotn goto hell and if they do believe in their religion they will goto heaven , or achieve nirvana (or comeback to this life if not).

So actually no one goes to hell how u look at it.

 

[Elledan]

<<To the buddihts if you dont believe in buddah you go to hell.>>

ARGH!! Please take my two cents:

1) Learn to spell: Buddhists and Buddha.

2) Buddha isn't &quot;the god of the Buddhists&quot;. He was the founder of Buddhism. Buddhism doesn't have (a) god(s) nor a hell. According to Buddhism, souls are being used again in new Humans.

I really wish people would stop referring to Buddhism as 'yet another religion' and to Buddha as being a god.

 

[Shalmanese]

I was born into a family of apathists(dont care), brought up religion wise by chrisitians, rebelled at 12 to become an atheist and have only just realised that that was a knee-jerk reaction and am now a agnostic who wants to be left alone until he has enough time to critically examine this whole relgion thing without any bias

 

[Double Trouble]

Nice post Isla, I think she grasps the concept best. While 'representatives' of all the religions all too often try to use their views to promote certain agenda's or achieve personal gains, it is in the humble that you will find God.

Nobody can make you believe (you can lead a horse to water....) , it's something you'll have to find in yourself.

Most people go through their teens and early twenties in a type of rebellious stage where they think they know it all and they are 'too smart' to go for this religion nonsense.... and then when you get a little further in life and actually experience life you *might* change your mind. Some do, some don't.

When you see someone battle incredible odds and personal tragedy and have the strength to help others in their life, you will understand God, regardless of what religion you choose to adhere to.

 

[SuperSix]

I never &quot;found&quot; God, I was told about him, and he (SHe?) has been forced upon me as a youth and now as a middle-aged adult.

I have a hard time with religion, being the pessimistic bastard that I am. I went to a Catholic boarding school for 3 years as well.

The church my wife/son/daughter goe to (Actually, they're there right now) is a HUGE commecrial entity. Ever heard of Idlewild Baptist Church Isla? Organized religion looks to me like a cash business, I know we &quot;give&quot; $30.00/week to the church. I don't have a problem with that, it's my wife's decision, not mine. I encourage my son to go, I of course don't preach my beliefs (or lack thereof) on anyone, as I think everyone can make their own decision on their beliefs. My wife has stopped pressuring me to attend, we are happier that way.


I have no problem with people's religion and or their attendance, it's just not for me.

I find it REALLY hard to accept that we know what donosaurs ate by analyzing their dung and stomach contents, but there no CONCRETE proof corroborating any of the &quot;classic&quot; Christian events? (No, don't throw the Shroud at me, I have researched it, but that's another thread).

 

[guyver01]

Tripleshot, that was a rephrased saying from something i read... it actually went..

&quot;Are you screwed or not when the world ends?&quot;
To the catholics, if you're not catholic, you're screwed
To the jews, if you're not jewish, you're screwed
To the muslims, if you're not muslim, you're screwed
To the Buddhists, if you're not Buddhist you're screwed..
So face it... no matter what.. you're screwed!!

and if you got your head out of your sphincter, you'd probably have heard it somewhere else too (in fact it was on a major tv show recently)

 

[Impact55]

Why would it matter if Jesus was Black or not?

 

[Impact55]

My Church Experience...

Kind of forced by parent's to go, but not a big deal since I go to Sunday School. My Church has a lot of stuck up kids however, and makes me sick. Example - whenever we are at the end of the class and we have to pray about things, the stuck up girls like pray for their homework and tests, and football games. People have made religion too cheap these days.

 

[UG]

What role in finding god is played by the sense of belonging to a group of like-minded people?

Is being an accepted member of a group of people -- a group wherein one gains the benefits and advantages of the group's emotional and utilitarian support -- a factor in a person finding god (god, allah, RA, or Zeus, etc.), the same god as found by other members of the particular group? A god which is invisible and unknown to a person unassociated with the group until the group advertises its particular vision(s) of god?

What role in advancing and giving credence to the existence of a group's god is played by the group's orchestrated efforts to grow the number of its subscribing members?

If god is a universal quality of Nature, shouldn't god be universally obvious to all individuals and not just those banded together in groups, groups that set themselves up as necessary translators and interpretors of what is god because god isn't obvious enough to be found by an individual without the group's unduplicable abilities?

Is an indivdual's personal relationship with god enhanced or lessened when it becomes an indistinguishable component of a group's relationship with god?

 

[UG]

Is god a conceptual virus? Perhaps the question is better phrased: is god a viral concept?

 

[apoppin]

Perhaps you could answer these questions for us believers, UG.


Did you discover atheism for yourself,...

. . . or did someone tell you that no god exists?

Be intellectually honest.

You were too young to discover the non-existence of god for yourself at the time that someone close to you began telling you that no god exists.

You had someone telling you what god was before you had the ability to recognize no god for yourself.

How can you be an atheist when you're using someone else's retread, questionably motivated, shared revelation of what is or is not a god?

Why isn't your original idea of the existance or non existance of god equally valid, if you ever had one?


Anyway, I think it goes both ways for believers and atheists.

 

[UG]

Apoppin. Good to see you.

Umm, I'm asking people for their own words and thoughts and not my own thrown back at me as if I were peeing into the wind.

Got anything useful to contribute?

 

[Isla]

<< What role in finding god is played by the sense of belonging to a group of like-minded people? >>



Ah, you see I have never fit in very well anywhere.

That's precisely why I don't go to church... it's a club.

Every church I tried... even metaphysical churches, even the Wiccan crowd... they all were about social hierarchies and I never could play the game right (mostly because I just can't play social games well.).

Ha, I can't even get accepted to Club Elite here!

SuperSix, yes, I know Idlewild. I went to St Mary's as a kid, you know the one with the priest and the gay sex scandal?

Mr Isla was emotionally and mentally abused by his mother in the name of God. He used to be an &quot;on fire for Jesus Christ&quot; kind of Christian, but really he was a very angry and hurt young man. Now he is an agnostic. That wasn't MY doing, it had to do with the way his mom twisted God around to give her power to belittle, reject, and control him. I lived with her for a year and saw her behavior first hand. She calls herself a Prophetess of God, a true Christian saint. I call her selfish, sadistic, and deluded. He doesn't have much to do with her anymore, and consequently doesn't really care to have much to do with God, either.

He would have probably embraced atheism, but I think being married to me made that hard for him to do. I'm a spiritual woman, just not a religious one. I don't call myself a Christian but I do call myself a follower of Christ. Buddhist philosophies are also a big part of the way I try to live my life. He is, slowly and on his own, coming to his own conclusions about God without any interference from me or anyone else.

I really think you have to find God for yourself, and that if you are really seeking, you will eventually find what you are looking for.

For me, it is a sense of peace.

edit: Thanks, tagej.



<< When you see someone battle incredible odds and personal tragedy and have the strength to help others in their life, you will understand God, regardless of what religion you choose to adhere to >>



Well said.