The god of Spinoza...and Einstein - “the sum of the natural and physical laws of the universe and certainly not an individual entity or creator”
Carl Sagan on the Existence of God
- Thread starter What Would Jesus Do?
- Start date
Do we need the bold?
Look, I think all this type of stuff....like WWJD is doing, is a waste of time.
I dont look to science for the same answers and science tells me how stuff works, but it never answers why. It isn't concerned with why. Ian Malcolm wasn't wrong.
Science will never give meaning to anything. If you don't seek meaning, its all you need.
Yet, you've been arguing that there is "meaning" in the current gaps in scientific knowledge. That this absence somehow demonstrates the reality of a god. Seek your meaning where you will. Don't pretend that your way is the only path. Kinda smacks of arrogance.
And, it would help, immensely, to refrain from literal interpretation. It's obvious that anyone can make anything fit, if you need it to fit. But, you can't expect others... and NEVER SHOULD YOU NEED OTHERS... to do it thesame way.
Dont straw man me.
I didnt say that at all. I said I search for meaning. I don't use science for that nor do I advocate that. Science is great and all. People can't use it responsibly, but that is another issue.
LOL...there's no straw man there. Maybe you don't understand the term. You've done exactly what I posted.
Why do religious-types quote Biblical scripture to non believers and the uninterested? The absurdity of the cryptic text is among the reasons for lack of belief.
I agree...it has absolutely not a thing to do with me. I really don't think you know what a straw man is.
I'm interested... and, in my own way, I definitely "believe." But, it's MY WAY of believing. Religious followers also have a "church" and their peers (other followers) to contain with. The church needs it to be a certain way so it can continue to be relevant. And, if the church goes away, then the "other followers" are soon to follow. So, those kinds of believers have to represent their churches and their fellow believers in situations like this. It's a tall order. And, of course, they usually believe God is a super-human, MALE parental figure that lives up in the sky. The liturgy absolutely describes such a thing, if you read The Bible.
But, if you go back through the thread, you'll see the Catholic fighting with the Jehovah's Witness over who believes "the right way." They quote Scripture, back and forth, trying to convince the other one that they're worshiping wrong, believing the wrong thing, pissing God off, headed to Hell, whatever. And, these are two people who "believe".
It's never a dull moment.
Doubling down on patronizing I see.
Sometimes maybe its best just to say nothing.
First of all... I don't think He "was." I believe that he "IS."
And, after all I've experienced in life, I think that we're all capable of being like Him. In a way... in a really important way... we are all exactly like Him. He is Us and We are Him. It's all connected, and it will always be connected. It's all created out-of-and-through an eternal, universal Connection.
A Middle Eastern rabbi with a, perhaps, revolutionary message whose teachings were subverted to control the masses. Render into Caesar his stuff...your reward will come after you die. Meanwhile, Caesar is living like...well...a caesar.
Why does he have to be any of the three? That's odd.
Because He said that He was God.
So either He was either lying, crazy or telling the truth.
I know this will be difficult, at first, because of what your church has taught you... but, aren't WE ALL "God in human form?" If we're not, then the whole basis of your religion is flawed.
They crucified Jesus, but allowed him to be the only one who was God. And, that's as far as they're willing to go, in practice. But, IN SCRIPTURE, Jesus tells us that WE are just like HIM. You don't need the church to have what you already have!
You heard him talk? You are really older than I thought!
I say that I am God. I mean it! I say that YOU are God... and I MEAN THAT!
Am I lying? Am I crazy, or am I telling the truth?
Jesus did all of that and it caught-on, and then they killed him for it.
No, we're not all God in human form, according to Christianity. Your religion is obviously different.
Well, yes, Christianity benefits from you believing that you're not God in human form. We are all God's creation. How that neuters being God in human form, don't know. But, I'm sure the church can explain it to you.
Jesus begged people to realize that if you can just open yourself to realize it, then you realize that You and God are the same thing. "I did it! And, you can do it, too!"
I can assure you, I'm not crazy.
You know what's ironic? If you were around Galilee, 2000 years ago, you'd NEVER have followed Christ! You'd be denouncing him with the other religious folks.
I have no doubt that is what you believe. The church has you right where they need you to be!
The church got to you. So, you need Jesus in a different way. Jesus said that if you couldn't believe it within yourself, do it through Him.
Are you sure? He's only said to make that claim in John - the last of the Gospels. The claim doesn't appear in ANY of the other Gospels nor in the writings of Paul...and you'd think he would write about that. Paul claiming that Jesus was God but separate from God would have been viewed as heresy before the Trinity was manufactured out of whole cloth.
Maybe whoever wrote John was a lunatic or a liar.
Yes. I think Jesus proved His divinity by resurrecting from the dead.
His apostles were killed for that belief with 0 reason to lie.
You read Scripture through a papal lens, dude. You have no choice but to absorb it through a Catholic filter.
I read it first on my own and came to believe Jesus founded a Church based on it.
900+ people killed themselves and their children in service to a madman in Jonestown. Cults can make you do all kinds of strange, self-destructive things.
