Why is biblegod so passive, passive/aggressive?

by Satanus 6 Replies latest jw friends

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  Satanus

  Why does he "use people" to do stuff. I grew up a jw, and continued jw for a few decades as an adult. I did my best to serve the wtbiblegod during all that time. As far as i know, god never had me do anything for him directly, during that time. He never asked me to do anything. In other words, as far as i could tell, i was never "used" by him to do anything to/for somebody else. As well, i was a christian for 2 or 3 yrs. Again, i never got an instruction from god to do anything, at least as far as i could tell. Perhaps, i was not good enough, or nothing needed doing, or i did what he wanted without knowing it, or god is a passive do nothing, or he doesn't exist.

  Some people think that bad things happening to them are god's punishment. This is ambiguous. They could be just bad things. Why does god not SPEAK to people directly w warnings, directions, or whatever??

  As well, a huge part of the world believes that after death comes god's judgement. God has been passive all during their living days, so now, after departing their bodies, god will take out his aggression on their souls.

  Just wondering...

  S
• 

  poppers

  I believe there is a God, but not the God as depicted by any religion. God is not a personal entity, and therefore doesn't act as personal entities do - that's why you aren't "getting instructions". Those who claim they are getting instructions are deluding themselves, getting lost in their own mind's ability to conjure up images and thoughts, especially when it come to religious ideas. People build religions and dogma out of their own ideas and impose it on others and effectively control them, and that control is not easily given up by those who believe they know what their God wants or demands. That kind of God is an illusion only, sustained through belief/faith Instead, God is impersonal and is the bedrock out of which everything arises, but in no way "judges" anyone. God just "is", just as you do at your very essence. Sensing your own "isness" brings you into conscious awareness of the isness of God.
• 

  Satanus

  I aggree. My very first foccused meditations were on biblegod, as i thought i knew him. Nothing, nothing, nothing from him. However, what you describe is what i sense, at times. It's a wonderful and ballancing reset from the crap that my mind can so easily put up. W it, i can stay out of depression, most of the time. As a jw, my depression was a lifelong lead wieght that i carried around. As a christian, there were some good times, high times, but serious down times were the rule. What you describe works, therefore must be reality. But, let everyone see it for themself.

  S
• 

  poppers

  But, let everyone see it for themself.

  That's right, they have to see it for themselves. No amount of talking about it or believing it does any good. So many people aren't even willing to try, and would rather cling to time worn ideas and beliefs because the are familiar and comfortable. They are so thoroughly entrenched in what is in the mind that they fear what will be found beyond the mind.
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  mindmelda

  People make God in their own image. (I believe in God as an entity, but I still think they do that.) The WTS god is a combination of a "good old boy" who gives you sugar when you're doing things for him and an SOB when you're not because that is how THEY are and they've remade God in their image. In fact, they kind of are God to their followers.

  The real God would have to be something we almost cannot comprehend as humans, because he has to exist outside of our space and time and universe. That's why they muck him up with a lot of their own nonsense.

  So, we just can't fathom God too well, we're limited about fully understanding things that are infinite in nature. But, I guess that is why Christians have Jesus because he is an humanistic and tangible expression of God they can get a handle on.

  Since the WTS doesn't do that, they're stuck with the "needs an anger management course" corporate version of God. Sort of like I think the OT God is like that because he was as humans of that very barbaric time conceived him. They couldn't very well have had a more modern, humanistic concept of God, they were stuck with the one they had.

  And no, I can't prove there's a God with a scientific test or some complex line of reasoning, there isn't one that I know of. I'm not smart enough to prove that God doesn't exist, either.
• 

  Narkissos

  With the loyal you show yourself loyal;
  with the blameless you show yourself blameless;
  with the pure you show yourself pure;
  and with the crooked you show yourself perverse.
  -- Psalm 18:25f.

  Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
  -- Matthew 5:8.

  Leave dualistic moral judgementalism out of those statements and they say something very important and true I think: that our (perception of) "God" -- or whatever we may call it -- is bound to reflect our mental and psychological architecture. To some (among whom I include myself) it can never be simple -- or exceptionally, accidentally, in a more ecstatic than introspective way. But to others it can -- at least I suppose, I believe, I hope so, for how would I know?

  Mythology and theology (in the Bible or anywhere) are hardly productions of "simple souls". But they do point to "simplicity" from a number of angles, and always from a distance, which is the humiliation of their pride, the misery of their wealth, etc. The perversity (crookedness, complexity) of paradox and dialectics is simplicity seen from afar. We are what, or rather where, we happen to be.
• 

  mindmelda

  LOL Narkissos. I've had people ask me "Why can't faith be simple for you?" and I have to say, "Because I'm not simple and I think too much about EVERYTHING!"

  I'm not inclined to complexity as far as rational construction or deconstruction, but as far as mysticism and the psychology of belief and the philosophy of belief, yes, I'm attracted to the complex. I have to go through the complex to get to the simple, but that's just the way it works for me. *G*

  When you learn the context of belief, myth, God, religion, it fits in so very neatly with what it was at the time and place it arrives. Christ could not have been inserted into human history at a more advantageous time...or if you don't believe in his literal existence, the IDEA of God made Man is even remarkably necessary as an evolution and break from old, tribal authoritarian religious constructs. (even though there was an immediate desire for some to return to those and there continues to be, I.E. Fundamentalism and Jehovah's Witnesses, among others)

  Religion evolves with man or fades and dies just like everything else. The desire to appear static and fundamentalistic is just that, a desire. Even the most orthodox, fundamentalist and conservative structures are forced to embrace change to survive at some point.

  The question is, will you change willingly, embrace the natural evolution of thought and culture that is a necessary component of faith, or will you be dragged into it kicking and screaming, or will you grow static and die? All things that remain static eventually die from their stagnation, their inability to adapt to the changing needs of human themselves.

  The WTS is static as regards their authority structure, it has only tightened it's authoritarian and patriarchal structure rather than adapted in any beneficial way. I predict growing disintegration and slow death without radical change to a more democratic structure. It's what history tells us will occur. As humans in general, we are moving away from static authoritarian constructs and reaching towards more democratic ones everywhere. Authoritarian religions or expressions of religions will be less and less tolerated, just as authoritarian governments are now decidedly going out of favor.

  Time will tell. I think this is happening to all religion and it's interesting that only the Fundamentalists and highly structured versions of religions regard it as a definite threat. Jehovah's Witnesses definitely do, the break in general in society from unquestioning respect for religious authority structures frightens them a great deal, which is why they constantly rail at it and throw scripture at it.