The Idea of God.

by Blueblades 25 Replies latest jw friends

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  sarcen

  Here's one secularist-humanist standpoint, neither atheistic, agnostic or deist. One has to subscribe to evolution for it to work, however. Take with salt, as needed.

  1. Big bang.

  2. Condensation of matter from pure energy.

  3. Formation of physical laws, including Newton's I-III.

  4. Newton's II causes autocatakinetics (self-assembling structure)

  5. Autocatakinetics causes biologic evolution.

  6. Biologic evolution results in sentient, perception-response life forms.

  7. The complexity of any given life form is subject to its available resources, plus parameters.

  8. If humans evolved on one planet, what would be the complexity of a life form that had orders of magnitudes more available resource?

  9. A HYPOTHETICAL life form sufficiently advanced COULD HAVE appeared to our human ancestors as "infinite", "eternal", Alpha and Omega, superlative, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, ad infinitum.

  10. There's nothing in the accepted validity of biologic evolution that precludes life forms growing into the maximum potential of their environments.

  11. The universe is at most 15 billion years old, at least 26 billion light years across, and comprised of at least trillions of galaxies. If a HYPOTHETICAL 'god' life form arose, it has had the means (energy and matter), motive (Newton's II and autocatakinetics), and opportunity (at most ~14 billion years, since matter distilled into recognizable form at 1 billion years)

  12. Ergo, the age and mass of the universe could hypothetically support a life form that humans would interpret as a "god".

  13. A HYPOTHETICAL god existing in our space-time in no way invokes some kind of craven, cowardly, timid, fearful, servile, subservient, slavish, compliant, deferential "moral obligation" to listen to its statements.

  14. Evolutionary self-preservation might encourage a life form to sacrifice freedom through the construct of religion, but religion itself, i.e., the idea that we OWE some superhuman entity, is a complete fiction.

  15. A HYPOTHETICAL god with sufficient power to kick our ass back to eucaryotes does not, through some axiom of "might makes right", deserve slavish obedience or deference. Evolution is all about extinction.

  16. It may be that human independence in its own evolutionary experiment is worth far more than self-preservation through slavery. "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heav'n." -Milton
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  SYN

  Hi Sirona!

  (When I say that it sounds like a song I once heard...hi Sirona...hi Sirona...can't remember who sung it though)

  Yes, I fully agree with you, however, my remarks were pointed mainly at the predominant Judeo-Christian school of thought that tends to occur on this board - if this had been a Bangladeshi board, my comment would've been slightly different
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  be wise

  After being away from the JW mindset for a while now I think God to be following your own instincts or your nature because that's what got me through a lot of the mess of being a JW. I think it's not what you put in your head but what you take out because the 'idea' of adam being perfect in the beginning is kind of a simple observation because he would have had no influences to affect him other than what was around him. I think the idea of God gets many people out of situations that may have been very damaging for them but when you start to try and control it yourself then your taking Gods place like JWs do.

  be wise.
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  link

  I think that it depends on if we are talking about the Christian God or a god.

  I believe that everyone is born with an inner need for a belief in something that we could call supernatural or a meaning to life. How this need expresses itself is dependent upon our emotional make up. or personality. and our life experiences as we grow. For some, the need will become urgent and for others it will almost disappear – and we must not forget peer pressure in either direction.

  Freddie, it is not necessarily true that most African tribes do not have some form of "religion" with a figurehead. As a young man, many years ago, I was a bit of an adventurer and spent some of those years exploring the more remote parts of East and Central Africa. I had some experiences that are perhaps beyond belief to most people in the developed world and one of these concerned a tribe of Africans who "worshipped" a troop of albino baboons. They might not have been genetically albino but they were white and had pink eyes, unlike any other baboons I had ever seen.

  The point is that to that tribe these baboons represented some form of governing body with the dominant animal as a deity. So I think that in some way everyone, whatever their situation or status, is looking for what we call religion or the religious type experience. Neither is it connected in any way with logic or the intelligence of a person.

  link
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  pc

  For myself, I believe God is real. I have found since leaving the JW organization he is much more in my life. I often wonder why (and this is just about me not meant to insinute anything about anyone else) all the doubt. In the end if I'm wrong who cares. I hopefully lead a life not looking down on anyone else, respecting everyone's views. I am not here to be a preacher. I teach my children everyone is a special gift. For the really horrible events, I can't possibly understand why they happen, so I don't try. When I die I believe there is a reward and nothing I can possibly imagine could be as grand as God has planned. I read the bible and feel God's mercy for us will be much greater than we could ever understand. I look at the Bible and the historical evidence of Jesus and what that crucifiction was like. I look at the way Jesus lived and I thank God for his son. PC
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  Freddy Krueger

  LINK -

  Freddie, it is not necessarily true that most African tribes do not have some form of "religion" with a figurehead.

  I never said "African" tribes or religion.

  There are many tribes and peoples that have no concept of a god.

  That was my statement, but that doesn't mean I don't agree with you also. Their belief with the baboons is still based on this belief within their tribe. No outside influence. I guess that kind of agrees with Gumby -

  It is part of a humans makeup to ponder the idea.......that someone bigger and greater is out there watching.

  -Freddy