The Fremen Mirage
2 weeks ago
Random thoughts on the blue highways.
You never know what you will find on the blue highways. Particularly when the choice at an intersection is controlled by the roll of a die. About the only rule is that highway onramps don't count as an intersection. You don't even have to roll the die. If one road looks interesting, go for it.
God, god(s), and goddesses (henceforth referred to as God) is defined as an imaginary creation of a human mind or a group of human minds that has some powers over a defied group or tribe that persist essentially unchanged through several generations of the group or tribe. These powers are mediated and interpreted by a group of specialized members of the group, priests, or infrequently priestesses (henceforth referred to as priests) who have been given the power by the group to determine from the tradition what it is that God wants for and from the group.
God is endowed with powers, usually supernatural, to affect the lives of the defined group or tribe by enforcing moral precepts in this life or after death; protecting the tribe or group from "enemies" by granting exceptional skills or immunity to an individual or group of individuals in contact with the enemy; is normally in the form of an idealized human; is associated with certain rituals of worship which recognize the importance of God to the people; and is frequently identified as the creator of the group or of all humans.
Gods may be examined by scientific methods by observing the group rituals associated with group solidarity, moral teaching, and the protection of the group from predation, either natural, (unusual weather, e.g.) or other groups of humans. If the rituals identify an imaginary being or group of beings that imaginary entity is by definition God. The properties of God can be identified from the rituals defining the God.
If the group rituals are naturally centered or human centered it can be determined by scientific observation that the group has no God.
In short God is an imaginary entity, interpreted by priests from tradition, that determine the mores of and protects a defined group of humans.
The objective existence of God for Catholics is rationally observed in the Mass, in particular the Credo. The Credo describes what God is: One God, the omnipotent father, who created everything, and the Son who is one with God who came down from heaven and became a real person by the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary. (No hanky-panky by God, just magic and apparently a little help from Joseph and/or David, and/or God's eternal sperm bank.)
It describes what he did: Was sacrificed to expiate the sins of all men and was resurrected to once again become one God.
It tells why: so all will be resurected to enjoy eternal life.
Then comes the hook: God will judge all, and only those baptized for the forgiveness of sin will get the goodies.
There is nothing imaginary or unreal in that for Catholics. God is more important for them than Blü, J'Carlin, or any other person with the possible exception of the parish priest.Jul 20, 2015 -- 1:01PM, wrote:The objective existence of God for Catholics is rationally observed in the Mass, in particular the Credo. J'Carlin
"objective existence" ... "for Catholics"
Do you even understand the meanings of words you use? Rev atheist
The objective existence of God for Catholics is rationally observed in the Mass, in particular the Credo. The Credo describes what God is: One God, the omnipotent father, who created everything, and the Son who is one with God who came down from heaven and became a real person by the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary. (No hanky-panky by God, just magic and apparently a little help from Joseph and/or David, and/or God's eternal sperm bank.)Blü:Yes, gods don't have objective existence.
Perhaps we can get around to actually discussing atheism?We are discussing atheism that is: why we are not a believer in the various gods, God or G-d that we are respectfully asked to learn more about, distainfully demanded to learn more about, proselytized to believe in, forced to believe in, or forced to pretend to believe in to avoid ostracism at best. Historically, non-belief is punishable by torture and death. Whether that continues today is, shall we say, arguable.
rockyJew
Which do you imagine are 'critical stories' in the Torah texts?I am an atheist. I see nothing in any fable religious or secular that is anything but allegorical or occasionally ironic. Allegory must teach something of value that bears some relationship to the details of the story or it would not persist as a part of the lore of at least a tribe or subset of humanity. It is not necessary to believe that the wolf in Little Red Riding hood was anything but allegorical to understand that young women should be wary of strangers. Even strange women. Female wolves are as predatory as the males.
As you are well aware, JC, one of the Jewish principles of Biblical interpretation is that the farther back in time the narrative covers, the less 'historical' and the more allegorical the account is seen as being. JewOne
Jul 15, 2015 -- 9:50PM, Blü wrote:Which brings us to this thread, where we consider a being who, the story says, lives in heaven but was incarnated on earth to proclaim the imminent Kingdom - yet knew nothing more about reality than his time and place did. The report (or tale, as the case may be) matches human tendencies perfectly.
Again, I challenge you to take a look at just what the DNA Information coding and non-coding system is. The signature of Yahweh is there in every single "jot and tittle" of that three dimensional CODE-SYSTEM. Codes DON'T evolve! You need to deal with that FACT! --YECSorry, Yahweh, God or whoever that misanthropist was that Moses invented to control his people, was not around a few billion years ago when that first twisted strand of goo found a lipid bubble to live in and start the process of divide and conquer that resulted in the zoo, originally one celled replicating organisms that found out that cooperation beat fending alone in the difficult environment of the early earth. Those cooperating organisms made their DNA better and more efficient at eating goo and replicating, until eventually Moses, Yahweh, Blü and I evolved.
beliefnet
If you have one, what is your standard for measuring human worth?
OFS