This book should be required reading for any modern person Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them byJoshua Greene(Author)
Nitro said, "If your believe system doesn't hurt anyone else and you don't impose that belief system on others, why would anyone object? FWIW, these people are rare, but they do exist." You'd be surprised how many there are. I know I was. I do agree that organized religion has been the root of many world problems and fills heads with mis-information and twisted logic. That said, many of us will not let that fact deter us from believing in a Higher Consciousness of man. We have more questions than answers, but we leave our minds open to the possibility of anything. If one can believe that an entire universe can come from nothing, is it so far fetched that a collective consciousness from a multitude of living beings could in fact create something from nothing themselves? Can you say with absolute certainty that reality cannot be created from imagination? Forget the good vs. evil aspect of it all. Forget all of the contempt you have for religion. Forget everything mainstream, everything you've been taught. Imagine the possibilities. They are endless, which is why we do not live in a finite universe. It grows, it evolves as we evolve, and so it changes our reality over the eons of time. Time is not on our side as individuals, but it is on the side of life and all of the infinite possibilities. A God being just one of those possibilities.
Well, as I have stated over the years, I don't believe in God, but I do believe in GOD. I keep rehashing what that means, but basically the difference is that God is the biblical God, and GOD has very little to do with organized religion and is something like you are suggesting, but my version is for lack of a better word, more "complicated". One thing is certain, GOD is totally absent from the daily running of the (Multi/Uni)verse. In my version of GOD, GOD was simply the primordial mover, but that is the only role that GOD played. It certainly doesn't care what you do with your genitals or whether you congregate in a building on Sundays or that you face east seven times a day on a rug. It doesn't care if you kill innocent babies or whales or put people in an oven after gasing them with cyanide. It doesn't care PERIOD. The only evidence for GOD is the magnificence of existance.
I appreciate what you say because a combination of what you say and what the captain wrote would be my fallback position. But, how can you be seemingly sure GOD does not feel or respond to prayer. How can you be sure that the universe you live in is not impacted by your choices or GOD's choices especially if we live in a multiverse and God is outside of our timeline. There are so many possibilities how do you know that Penrose's Quantum mind ideas are not close to reality or even that in a way we are all one with Reality. Therefore how can you be sure that the idea that God and Jesus as Light and we are living in a hologram is not reality. Its odd to me that so many good thinkers can be so sure that some of us don't have it somewhat correct... even if it was by luck or by grace. My position is I don't really know but I am acting on faith that I have an acceptable understanding. I think that is all anyone can think whether they be atheists or theists. Its sort of stems from Descartes I think therefore I am. I have investigated and I do my best, perhaps with GOD's grace.
GOD doesn't care? Time will tell, but I tend to agree, at least not caring in the way we define it. Is it absent from us today? Perhaps, but I choose the very irrational position, and having no proof other than my own personal experiences which I know mean little or nothing to most, I choose to believe that a relationship with this Higher Being is possible.
All good. The only condition that the rest of society asks of your private belief system is that it is not imposed on others when making law that apply to all.
It doesn't matter. People like you confuse your private belief system and how those beliefs should be contrasted when making law for all people, whether they believe like you or not. This is known as meta-moral laws. The premise of this thread is that people want to quote some God to disprove any other belief system. That is where it crosses the line and that is where all problems stem from - WHEN YOUR BELIEF SYSTEM DICTATES NOT ONLY WHAT YOU BELIEVE, BUT WHAT I BELIEVE ALSO. That is not the role of religion, but common law. In America, you can believe in Scientology, or even make up a religion like the Mormons did in the 1800s. All good. What you do with your faith, or God and Jesus or praying or anything that you do to yourself, and any other thought that happens inside your head in the privacy of your own home or in the commune of people that choose to abide by the same faith that you do, is all good. That is what freedom of religious expression means. Learn to seperate your private beliefs with meta-moral laws that needs to apply to all in a truly free society.
I agree and that's where the problems begin. That said, I do understand, not agree with, but understand the need to share this great new thing, especially among the newly "reformed". Taken to extremes, as humans tend to do with their new found "wisdom", push back is inevitable. Somebody is always trying to enlighten who they believe to the the unwashed masses. And that's what makes politics are religion go round and round. Been that way forever and I don't see it changing anytime soon.
You realize will live in a system where we all vote our biases and the constitution is set up to protect the minorities from the tyranny of the majority where constitutional rights are concerned. You get to vote your biases, I get to vote mine and they get to vote theirs. Your bias are not superior in any way to someone who is a believer. I would argue our country started to fall apart in many ways when the Supreme Ct started to take God out of the public sphere starting in the 50s. yet we still allow you to vote your bias. Everyone votes their beliefs. To borrow from Roy Niderhoffer... " We are as humans essentially products of our hardware – that is an insight that I’ve taken with me into the trading side.” – Roy Niederhoffer http://toptradersunplugged.com/roy-...nt-how-to-overcome-cognitive-bias-in-trading/ )) I would say... We are all products of the bias of our hardware and our software. You vote your bias, I will vote mine and they can vote theirs. We have a constitution which allows for that and at the same time tries to protect our constitutional rights from the tyranny of the majority. But, again I stress I am so tried of bigots thinking their anti religious views make their votes superior. Its very inferior leftist and dangerous thinking. Its very animal farm and orwellian.
" We are as humans essentially products of our hardware – that is an insight that I’ve taken with me into the trading side.” – Roy Niederhoffer Reading your post I don't get the import of the message YOU, by quoting(and Roy) is trying to impart. Every living thing is a product of their hardware ie brain structure..so????? What's the insight that applies here??