I agree that there is a God. It is kind of an ethereal concept (pun intended), but I will try. I believe that God is more of a collective consciousness than a single being of any kind. I think God is basically the sum total of the energy, knowledge, and experience of all souls. When we leave our human existance, we go back to the "pool" of souls that make up the collective consciousness and we add the experiences and knowledge we acquired during this life to it. I don't see the collective consciousness as a fluid, where we mix and become indistinct from one another, but more like the pool of balls they have at Chuck E. Cheese or Discovery Zone. We are distinct souls, but we are able to share our experiences and knowledge with each other so that the entire collective consciousness gains the wisdom taken from each life lived. My connection to God here on Earth is a connection that I call the collective UNconscious, since we are not as connected on Earth as we are when we exist in the form of pure energy. We are able to draw knowledge from the collective unconscious (God) to gain advice or guidance. This is also where most new ideas come from. My best example of this is the cotton gin, which every schoolchild knows was invented by Eli Whitney. However, records show that within weeks (too soon for the information to have traveled by Earthly means), equivalent devices were created in parts of Asia and Europe. That is a basic overview, if you would like more details I would be happy to discuss them.
I tend to agree with that statement. I think people just make crap up for their own gains. I believe there is a god but he doesn't love you more than anyone else just because you believe something.
Religion is the opiate of the masses, and it seems that Americans are getting higher than ever before.
ummmm...if early Christians were just making it up for their own gains, they weren't real smart. let's just say they weren't real accepted by the authorities! you remember..lions and all that...crucifixions!
i guess it depends how you're defining religion. if you're saying that my time in prayer...my time worshipping God...quiet times...fasting...self-denial...service...is religion and i'm just using that as an opiate....then i'm mildly offended. i don't think i'd choose my faith as an opiate, if i were just choosing among "drugs."
unless of course, they're absolutely right. unless of course they really did witness what they claimed to witness.
so what makes it smart? They made the logical, rational decision to endure some pain short term in order to enjoy mega bliss in the afterlife? Sounds more like gambling and luck than smarts.
it's not about that. it's about not denying their God. they weren't using it as a means to an end. they were put to death largely for atheism -- because they didn't follow the Roman gods. They were faithful. It's about being faithful even in the face of fear. but these guys didn't believe in some writings from a cave or something. they said they SAW something...and then they went around the world to tell about it, because they said that Christ commanded them to.
A fear that is logical and rational - so martyrdom due to faith is both illogical and irrational according to human nature - hence my description of it as not being "smart" by definiton
Haven't we done this before? Unfair, I guess, since Manny has had innumerable "what's in your CD player? " threads. (not that there's anything wrong with that, Manny!) I'm agnostic. I suppose that falls under, "maybe, maybe no... " Keep D&D Civil!!
no, you're not agnostic, you're hedging your bets. being agnostic means realizing that there is no answer.
