[quote]Makavali wrote:
Scrotus wrote:
God told me to eat out my neighbors wife. He caught me in the middle of it, [/quote]now they are divorced[quote] and he wont talk to me.
Fixed to avoid the cannibalism jokes.[/quote]
It wasnt a cannibalism joke, it is a cheating wife joke. I guess it isnt funny if I have to spell it out though. Still made me laugh.
“The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.”
Albert Einstein,1954
Reposted with permission:
In the beginning of mono-theistic ideas things were not so clear. Whether we look at El (Yahweh) or Al-Lah, they were part of a pantheon. Worse, they were parts of pantheons of, at the time, utterly unimportant peoples(Arabs and Canaanites).
So they did what a god got to do to make it far: They initiated a putsch. After that they started to rewrite (religious) history. That way it would one day sound as if the other gods never really existed. Gods have that in common with totalitarian human regimes.
Anyhow, things did go well after that for Yahweh and Al-Lah. Finally they were in a position where they could even pretend to have created the world. That’s why Genesis is the latest addition to the Pentateuch and not the first, as non-proficient bible supporters think.
But from then on it seems that it all has been downhill. Figure this: God made the world in 7 days and in a certain arrangement (a water sphere contains the earth and stars are little bulbs in the ceiling) and in a certain sequence (first there was light, etc).
This geocentric and anthropocentric (the purpose of the world is to host man, and man was made in god’s image) world view has been on the retreat ever since.
First it was replaced by the heliocentric view.
Heliocentrism - Wikipedia No biggie, it seems. We leave the story all the same: God made the world, etc; god made man in his image, etc. But we put the sun as god’s nurturer for man at the center.
Giordano Bruno and Galileo are known for going beyond a heliocentric system, putting the sun away from the center of the universe. As more and more of the gigantic nature of the universe became known, this was increasingly a problem for the old way:
How can man be the purpose of god’s world, if man is situated in a far away province of the whole wide world? Well, at least we ‘know’ that man was made in god’s image, don’t we. The rest will fall into place and god’s ways aremiraculous.
Then came the theory of evolution
Modern synthesis - Wikipedia. That was a major change to the game plan. We now have to oppose science and insight in general because we can see that this will never work out. Let’s summarize: We are not at the center of the world and we have not been created as literal bible belief has us think we were.
God’s place is now at the decision making board: I will set the world up such that man will evolve (in my image). -Which shows that god is intellectually challenged because the statement violates two pillars of the theory of evolution.
Then came Einstein. With him was born the idea that mass and energy are related (a soul wrenching concept for fundamentalists, really, if they only would understand what it means and implies).
And, with General Relativity, came space-time and the end of miracles being a feasible possibility.
Worse, at the same time the principle concept of chance was cemented into any understanding of nature via quantum physics:
Now that is as much a blasphemy as evolution is because it means that god has no idea what was going to happen to his ‘creation’ at any time, and now we do have a god who has been reduced to ‘pushing the button’ and waiting things out in awe being surprised every step along the way.
Religion and God are two very different things — religion is someone trying to tell you of their experiences with God. If they try and force you to believe them, that is wrong. If they simply witness, that’s fine; its your choice to believe or not.
Knowing God is very different from anything else. There is no comparison. Going to church on Sundays or turning toward Mecca 5 times per day is NOT knowing God.
God has spoken to me, clearly and distinctly, yet I care little for religion. It is not possible for me to prove a subjective experience.
So, you cannot disprove anything about God by attacking religion. You guys attacking religion are barking up the wrong tree.