Another Reason People Invented "God" -- Absolution

by AlmostAtheist 17 Replies latest jw friends

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  AlmostAtheist

  We've all hurt people at one time or another. Some may have managed to keep it to the "made me feel bad" level, but others of us have hurt people severely. This has almost surely been true down through the ages.

  Sometimes the people we hurt can't be asked for forgiveness. Perhaps they've died. Or maybe it was 20 years ago and we don't know where they are. Or maybe they've moved on from the hurt, and we think approaching them will reopen the wound.

  Enter God. An invisible creature capable of bestowing forgiveness for any sin, if you only beseech him to do so. Regardless of any other circumstance, a god that can be approached and begged for forgiveness -- even imagined forgiveness -- would be a welcome thing. You can imagine people turning to the god that gives the rain and the crops and the seasons and asking him to forgive them of their transgressions. After all, if he can do all these other marvelous things, surely he can write off such paltry emotional debts.

  There is no such being. But I wish there was. God, I wish there was.

  What do you think? Any validity to this idea?

  Dave
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  Wild_Thing

  I think that may be another reason why the invention of God has remained. I think primarily he was invented to control the masses of people.

  This reminded me of an argument that people use to still justify believing in a God. Free will. When people ask ... why does God allow this or that? Why does God not intervene? etc. Their answer? Because God "granted" us free will! Yeah right! That is just a cop-out answer to justify them still believing in an imaginary being who does NOTHING!
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  purplesofa

  I am told that God forgives me before I forgive myself. OK

  Then, when I have mastered forgiving myself I have not be forgiven by God yet.

  Its a vicious circle.

  purps
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  Satanus

  There might be some validity. I have also attempted to find research on the earliest origins of the god idea, the worship urge, and religion. Looking at it from the jungian aspect of a universal subconscious. If indeed there is such a thing, then the communal subconscious could do those things that you listed. The idea of this subconscious could have been transformed into a god idea by the greater masses that could not percieve the subconscious. If that is what happened, then god is falsehood for the consumption of the ignorant majority.

  S *getting off the platform*
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  EvilForce

  I've always wondered if the belief in God is part of the human condition. As a human species we strive to better ourselves regardless of where we started. Is the belief in God just another part of that condition that we must believe in something larger than ourselves? Is that what started us from being different from the other mammals of the earth?
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  Narkissos

  From a historical standpoint, we are all standing upon heaps of corpses and torrents of blood. And each one of us has sown his/her share of tears around.

  "History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake." (Joyce)

  Absolution. Atonement. Reconciliation. How could we not dream of that.

  As a trace drawing, and consenting to, its own ineluctable erasure...
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  El blanko

  the communal subconscious

  Even that is an amazing concept and tends to push a person towards a belief in the supernatural.

  I believe in a higher mind, operating at least at a local level. When I pass from town to town I see this in operation. An area does have a spirit, or invisible dimension of thought and feeling that I tap in to, which helps me to determine my place within the landscape.

  This is partially forged by the architecture and partially by the energy of others moving through the area.

  Personally, I still believe in a higher intelligence, beyond our own, call it what you will

  I have also attempted to find research on the earliest origins of the god idea, the worship urge, and religion.

  ... and did you find any decent books?
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  DanTheMan

  I think I often sound like a total novice when I try to comment on a thread like this, but I'll give it a try...

  I think you're right Dave. I'll try not to get all morose here (moroseness being a specialty of mine) but I have a lot of shit in my past that I deeply regret, that can't ever be undone. So yeah when I dwell on that stuff and get to feeling all guilty inside, at those moments I long for some absolution, a permanent removal of that guilt.

  The WTS's (and various other fundies) "sinners in the hands of an angry god" theology is enough to make a person schizo though. On one hand, you're taught in many overt and subtle ways to feel terribly guilty for being so Imperfect, for Falling Short of Jehovah's Standards, on and on, I mean, every prayer at every meeting ends with something along the lines of "...we're so imperfect, we ask that you forgive us for when we fall short..." . But at the same time, the "defective bread pan" Adamic sin theology that they espouse, if you were to get really technical about it, is quite mechanistic and therefore if you were to take it to its logical conclusion you wouldn't feel guilty about anything at all, because it's all Adam's fault, right?

  So now that my ability to believe in God or absolution has been shattered completely, but yet I still carry the baggage of guilt and the accompanying desire for absolution, I guess that perhaps my only way out of this psychological conundrum is to reject free will, but the idea of free will is so firmly ingrained in the way our culture interprets behavior that this is almost impossible to do, so I guess I'm condemned to a life of neurosis LOL.

  thanks for enduring another installment of Dantheman's novice theology and social commentary LOL.
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  Satanus

  El blanko

  ... and did you find any decent books?

  Not on the earliest formation. Shamanism came up as possibly the earliest in the group setting. It develops spontaniously when they are in a tribalist society. But, it doesn't necesarily have a god. It works w animal spirits, nature spirits, and other people spirits. Shamanism does not conflict w the communal subconscious theory. When the grouping gets larger, shamanism is replaced w other religious forms. I think karen armstrong's book is on later developments.

  S
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  JAVA

  There is no such being. But I wish there was. God, I wish there was.

  
  "Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee. And I'll forgive Thy great big one on me." -- Robert Frost