Will humanity EVER outgrow God?

by nicolaou 70 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Narkissos

  Qcmbr,

  As Abaddon pointed out (on the first page of this thread) "God" (in its various versions, i.e. different monotheisms) has affected only a small part of human history since his "birth" around the 6th century BC. There were "rich, proud and self-sufficient" societies (and poor, meek and dependent ones too) within and without his realm of influence.

  More generally, it is apparent that the realm of "religion" has shrunk almost everywhere. In traditional cultures it was coextensive to society, now it is reduced to a definite territory. Even in "theocratic" regimes (islamic states for instance) science, medicine, psychology, philosophy and art are distinct from religion in principle and in fact. That's what we call secularisation and it is a worldwide and probably irreversible phenomenon. The other side of the coin is that religion, discharged from the general care of society, is getting more and more religious -- and even the wildest dreams of religious restoration reflect that fact.

  Will "pure religion" (with or without "God") eventually maintain itself as an irreducible bastion or completely vanish in the long run, that is the question. Anyway it will have to cope with the fact that large segments of society have already got used to make sense of life without it.
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  JamesThomas

  Perhaps "humanity", as we generally define it as: individual humans in group, will never "outgrow God"; because the very act of believing ones' self an individual human cut-off from all else, is the foundational source and reason for a need and desire for a sense of Completeness/Wholeness/God. In other words: "God", may very well be an intrinsic component of being "human".

  Only when consciousness clearly sees it already truly is what it seeks, will there be no need for surrogates. Then, "humanity" will not be the prime Identity, but rather: I AM.

  j
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  jst2laws

  JT,

  always interesting.

  Aniron,

  They are always keep saying that one day beings from another world will make contact with us.

  What if they do and we discover that they worship a God, shall we say, what if they believe in a Creator. Very similar to peoples belief on Earth of a Creator.

  How would that affect us?

  What if they already made contact . . and thats where we got our legends about gods?

  Jst2laws
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  Narkissos

  Steve

  What if they already made contact . . and thats where we got our legends about gods?

  Raelian next?
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  jst2laws

  Narkisos,

  Raelian next?

  AH, YES, legends derived from legends, assumptions derived from assumptions, myths derived from myths . . . new religions derived from old religions.

  Jst2laws
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  seeitallclearlynow

  I would answer "hopefully".

  Same here, Nic.

  Too divisive, all the different beliefs in gods, and too much "waiting on God" to do what we ought to try to accomplish ourselves, together.
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  Sirona

  I find it interesting that atheists seem to think they are more developed than believers, because they've "moved past" needing a "safety blanket". Whereas believers think that they are more developed than atheists because they've opened their minds to the possibilities of the spiritual realm and don't need everything to be proven by an experiment.

  Sirona
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  Markfromcali

  It's just 'me, myself and mine...'
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  Qcmbr

  All the things that hold families together are given by religion.
  
  Without a belief in God there would be no such concept as marriage (it becomes a bit of paper) indeed we see secular society broadening the definition of marriage to include gays and at the same time downgrading it from a promise made in the presence of God's representatives to a civil union merely for legal purposes of division of assets. Children are not given the privilege of married parents as a right (the normal condition under religious society) and instead we see schools / government and fringe liberals pushing the agenda of disparate families tied by no more than some shared dna and a dalliance with no commitment.
  
  Without a belief in God we are left with the concept of evolution as our God and the Nazis are proved right - a pure species where the mighty rule the weak becomes desirable because nature demands it. It becomes required to destroy the non-providers, the parasites , the physically unable because we are just animals and survival of the pack demands the cull of the burdensome. As soon as someone is born with an 'evolutionary advantage' (skin color, physical strength, good looks etc..) it becomes beholden to propogate their advantage as far and as wide as possible and to ensure those genes survive.
  
  Without a belief in God we must go to war with other races because they are using resources that should be ours - every foreigner mining, burning, eating, living is a threat. Wars such as Iraq are necessary without God - if we are threatened for any reason we must strike when we are sure of winning.
  
  Without a belief in God their is no such thing as love, altruism, charity, sacrifice, committment, beauty etc.. these are all just a madness of the brain, chemical messages and chemical messages do not find soul mates, create art, write poetry or conceptualise feelings. We are all just brute animals suffering a collective madness that makes us thing we are unique individuals having feelings.
  
  Without a belief in God you are my enemy and I owe you nothing, you are not my brother and sister and when your back is turned I should destroy you as fast as possible until such a time as there are few enough humans so that I can consume without being dsturbed.
  
  The communists outgrew God - now the West is gladly following them. Well I'll stand with the few last belivers and watch the end.
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  Markfromcali

  It sounds like your entire argument is belief based. Do you really think there would be no such thing as love, charity and altruism if there is no belief? Do you really think that these things are learned, driven by the mind? What about the idea of natural affection? Does it exist, or is just another idea you learn?

  I don't see how lack of belief in one thing necessarily leads to the other, unless you think all of it has to be thought driven, and the other is all that we're given when we were born. Even if we say the idea of original sin is true, isn't there SOME good in there? If on the other hand these things do exist aside from the programming of thought, then any version of it based on thought is just mimicking the real thing, at best a watered down version limited by the judgemental nature of acquired mind.