Finding the value of God; Isn't it better to believe in a deity?

by Caupon 21 Replies latest jw friends

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  Caupon

  The question as to what believing in this entity called God entails is a fairly important question that needs to be answered first. To me, the key difference between a universe in which God exists versus one where God doesn't lies in the idea of teleology. In my view, a universe with God entails some sort of process towards an end, an end which can be characterized with words such as Bliss and Unity and others. On the other hand a universe without God entails that there isn't any end. There isn't any inherent meaning or purpose to existence. It's all sort of arbitrary.
  
  The latter characterization of God is one more in line with Abrahamic faiths. One can also contemplate the idea of a universe in which existence doesn't have a purpose or end but God still exists. The Hindu contempt of Lila comes to mind in which the eastern traditions in so far as I have studied them are quite silent on the idea of teleology. Anyway, to me, the relevance of the concept of God ultimate lies in its utility. To what end is the belief in God a useful one?
  I can't deny the sense of calm I've felt after praying, for example. The sense of calm in the idea of having someone guiding you towards a state of blissfulness. The idea, ultimately, of some kind of inherent order underlying the chaos which I perceive.
  
  Yet, sometimes I feel that a universe with order is too unsatisfying, funnily enough. That it doesn't possess enough instability to produce anything interesting. Perhaps I ought to start contemplating the idea of God as a chaotic magician. Here I'm not limiting myself to the Jehovah's witnesses or any particular religion's interpretation of God. Sure, those can be helpful but I've always found that something which comes from within works best in the end. Also, what does it entail though? How can we stand the idea of existing in an arbitrary universe, if we are to discard the concept of God?
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  slimboyfat

  For a number of years I leaned toward the conclusion God does not exist. It's just wishful thinking. But now I find myself leaning slightly back. Except the more I contemplate God the less sure I am what it means to "exist".
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  Finkelstein

  For thousands of year mankind has been thinking and assuming that there is a supernatural creator that put man on this planet for a reason and purpose and these deities were controlling everything that happen on this planet.
  

  Over time mankind has acquired a vast amount of knowledge of the psychical workings of this planet and of the outside universe that supports the position that there may not be a suspnatral being who is involved with anything including are selves.
  

  It might therefore be advantageous and fortuitous for mankind to work within are psychical acquired knowledge to the best of are capabilities, until its known with positive certainty that there is a grand creator and if it actually cares what happens to us.
  
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  ttdtt

  God is just a mechanism to make you feel that there is something after death.
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  Finkelstein

  Is there appreciative value in the God ( Jehovah ) of the bible ?

  “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”

  
  ― Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
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  prologos

  ttdtt: God is just a mechanism to make you feel that there is something after death. or better yet during life, for like my young daughter, she is continually putting things together, caring for her pet dolls, dogs. so typical of imitating what we see in nature/creation if you will. Even a one-way force of gravity is pulling matter into empire structures of stars, nicely balanced by velocities. Consider yourself part of a building/caring project.
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  cofty

  How can we stand the idea of existing in an arbitrary universe, if we are to discard the concept of God?

  Awesome isn't it?

  The order in the universe isn't all it seems. It is heading inexorably towards heat death. We live in the window of time when we can see the other galaxies. One day an inhabitant of earth will see nothing but blackness.

  
  
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  fulltimestudent

  caupon: I can't deny the sense of calm I've felt after praying, for example. The sense of calm in the idea of having someone guiding you towards a state of blissfulness.

  Guided or not, many quite distinctly different 'spiritual ways' achieve that kind of feeling, including Buddhists who do not see "God" in any way similar to the way you may see "God."
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  Finkelstein

  The sense of calm in the idea of having someone guiding you towards a state of blissfulness.

  I'd call that guidance sourced from delusion , which cant be good for humanity in a interrelated sociological level.

  Some people take the redemption from the Christ god to sin and not be concerned of others based from that appealing assumption.
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  Village Idiot

  Perhaps I ought to start contemplating the idea of God as a chaotic magician.

  That is close to the Deist concept that god created the universe and left it to work it's way up. You might conceive of 'god' as a cosmic scientist living in a multiverse who's inventing universes just for the heck of it to see what happens.