by The Dragon 28 Replies latest jw friends
If there is one thing that being a dub has tought me is that despite the best intentions, power corrupts. To use an ancient book and say you know its meaning is the claim of all religions, and by their knowing it you have to go to them to gain understanding. There are some good thoughts and messages in the Bible and there are some truly horific things written in it too.
CS 101
This is why, I like Thomas Payne (The Age of Reason) will say that 'My Religion, is my own mind and my bible is Creation' my God is not the God of the Bible, because that one is an evil psychotic being invented by men who wanted nothing but control.
IC
I believe there is a God who reveals himself to us through his creations. But I also believe that religious institutions are unneccesarry and were made up by men trying to force their views of God on other men. All religions claim to have the only real truth. I don't believe any one religion or book has all truth. When I gave up trying to find the only truth, I became I much more open minded and happy person and I have been able to grow intellectually and spiritually.
The times I feel closest to God are when I look into my children's eyes or up at the moon at night. Or, when I am looking at one of the many beautiful animals here on our earth.
As far as bible interpretation. We will never really know what the bible writers were conveying 100% because the bible was written so long ago. Instead of hanging on every word of the bible which I don't believe that was the writers intention to have people to do - we can simply use the principles of what is stated in the bible for guidance in our lives. That is what works for me. And helps me to be less dogmatic. Of course, I am not very well liked by most Christians because of my views. Lilly
The problem I have with religion is the whole faith thing. That goes for any religion.
So, we're supposed to believe in this god because a bunch of ancient Jews said we should?
Hell, if you raise someone to believe that Mickey Mouse is a real god, they'll feel the holy mouse spirit running through their veins just like the followers of any other deity.
When I think about it clearly or at all I come to these conclusions.
For God to be a person a personality must be there. The more dynamic and advanced the person; so too the personality.
IF such a being actually existed there would be no way at all any conscious living creature could avoid encountering that person and personality at all.
It is like the sunlight in the day or the moon at night.
The consciousness and thoughtfulness of such a being would radiate insuperably.
Yet, for a couple of thousand years we only get tales so anecdotal and similar to the ravings of UFO kidnap victims and Elvis sighters it makes you stop and wonder.
The so called OLD TESTAMENT is brimming over with miraculous and amazing encounters with this super being who is impacting nations, tribes and tongues with gargantuan regularity. Then........nothing.
A whisper and not a bang.
Into this void we find thousands of religious splinters. People who claim this and that and who tenaciously cling to a book call themselves Christian, yet, cannot agree on important understanding: who is this God and what does he want me to do?
Christianity is a mess and was from the outset.
Judaism thrashed about in the throes of some death rattle that has gone on endlessly. And all these worshippers are utterly convinced they "know" something compelling them to behave rather badly while calling it righteousness.
Whether it be Jehovah's Witnesses or Baptists or whomever.....these ardently convinced humans know very little while claiming much enlightenment.
They know enough to argue you to the ground if you disagree with them. They know enough to put you in your place quick enough. "Join us or suffer" is the messege.
I think a Supreme Being would be self-sufficient and not ache for the servitude of lesser creatures. Humans treat their own pets like kings, after all.
In what way is there a God in even the least way imaginable? I can only see it as illusory longing.
Ain't nobody anywhere gonna rescue you and me from ourselves and from ultimate death. Life is important because we die. What we do in the meantime is what our life is about. To throw away such precious time on chasing an illusion is radically wasteful and, in all liklihood, futile.
Argue if you like, but; God should have some responsiblity for being more available. That feeble book is just a monkeypuzzle and can be anything you want it to be.
In the final analysis, I don't know anything at all about God other than what other people say and have said.
For a while I acted as if I knew. But, I don't.
Everybody cannot be right. Everybody could be entirely wrong.
I think it was Thomas Payne who said that for every Scripture used to prove one point, he could find one to prove the exact opposite. This stuff is guesswork and little else.
seems to me that I have been way to easy to be CONviNcED about beLIEveRS B.lief S.ystems, only to discover later it was all unverifiable guessing presented as fact. I now strive to keep my self from taking any BS too seriously... even my own. As for Jesus... I find one lie told so often that everyone just assumes it is true... namely that he is well documented. Nothing can be further from the truth. The fact is the is no verifiable eye witness report about him from anypne. Visions may have counted in the first century... but hallucinations are not given much wieght today. The fact that Jesus parallels a dozen older myths does not help.
It depends where one stands I believe there is a true religion and a true God that is behind it and can be seen by the way it influences human society if applied by it. Christianity with its emphasis on the spiritual is a cause of great progress to the extend that it is applied. So it's not just a matter of guessing we should rather look at the practical results.
There have been many confessions to hoaxes, even that doesn't prevent people from believing.
Example- Loch Ness monster- The 1934 photo which made it famous was an admitted hoax,
the photographer said so on his deathbed. People just reverted back to the claimed sightings
before that, saying it must be real.
Point- Even though there may be overwhelming archaeological or historic evidence that something
is wrong with a religion, even if there are admitted hoaxes, cons, schemes within- someone
else will dispute the evidence.
My spiritual journey has shown me that much, if not all, of the bible was not derived by the claimed
methods, science and historians agree, yet you cannot get people to believe it.
One of the most difficult aspects to overcome is faith- faith that long dead people did and said and
wrote things that evidence (virtually) proves they did not. As long as I can insert VIRTUALLY, some-
body will say, "You don't 100% know."
My sister-in-law has been hit by the spirit and fell on the floor and yacked in an unknown tongue, so she knows she has the truth. Maybe the dove and voice from heaven proved to Jesus that he was God's son too. Jesus is back again in 1914 and we've seen all the sheep he has got together, this also proves it's true. And soon we will see this seven headed beast with ten horns and we will know the bible is true.
I think I will go nuts if I keep trying to find God.
Ken P.
