i guess if you dont have to be intellectually honest with yourself and need a crutch to guide your life it can work for you. only one question. which god concieved throughout history do you pick? most of them promise to torture you forever if you make the wrong choice.
If you don't believe religion is the product of a primitive mind, go watch shia muslim men ritually beat themselves, or go watch people 'slain in the spirit' at a Benny Hinn revival. Scary stuff, humans are really quite dumb en mass.
Shhhhhh... I'm sure it will appeal to jem any day now. Is this what passes for real poetry [not pseudo poetry] these days? You are plagiarizing me. This is what I've been saying all along: "The universe" is an attempt to pass utter balderdash off as truth, but in truth only to produce a place for your own version of a God to surreptitiously creep about! That's what I'm saying! You keep taking the word of God out of my mouth! No offense, just saying "the universe" is... not real. Christ! P.S. - Why can't you people keep "the universe" in your homes and churches?
You will be bound as you bind others. Dig a pit and you will fall into it...blind, leading the blind. The bible is, like everything in "the universe" a combination of concepts that cannot be reconciled. As such, it is "wheat and tares" which can only be judged as Christ tells the difference. To swallow it whole is like to swallow a camel whole. And yet, the truth is simple, and you strain at it. The bible equates to ancient tribal pop media, much in the same way that stage plays and movies appeal to mass audiences today. The "wheat" in the bible is useful for parables, just as pop media - movies - are useful for parables. Parables point to truth. When the parables are understood and applied, the truth can then be experienced. Here are a few movies with parables that point to truth: The Matrix The Village The Bourne Supremacy There are many more. Someone who thinks with the "mind of Christ" could select the useful parables among these that they might serve the masses to whom the stories have mass appeal. Otherwise, the stories are meaningless entertainment. If Jesus was born in an indian tribe, he would have interpreted the totem pole to mean something other than meaningless myth. Hebrew scriptures equate to a meaningless totem pole unless interpreted to have meaning. Otherwise, it is merely a phallic symbol, worshipped by those who wish to puff themselves up above others...their own personal idol built in the interior factory of their imagination. It does not matter which parts of the bible may be based on history. All of history is a meaningless story, unless interpreted by one who knows how the story begins, and how it ends. Sorry to be a spoiler. Christ!
Well like I said to take everything as a literal fact is somewhat absurd, but until something gives me a more solid answer as a foundation for life i really cant agree in "intellectual honesty" as i suppose i'm somewhat post-modernist in my thought, but at a philosophical level i dont find intellectualism to be enough in itself to provide any basis for life.
"He is, therefore, visible only to faith and can be attested only by faith........" You have faith that god exists. There is no fact because you just agreed that it isn't a fact. Therefore my argument of Frodo and Gandalf being real is just about as legit as your argument of god being real. Why is it just as legit? The reason is because in order to believe in a god all you have to do is have faith that the god or idol exists. I can easily say that I have faith that Frodo and Gandalf exists and existed so therefore my argument is just as strong as yours. Barth Vader your long monologues of explanations pertaining to why there is a god only shows your insecurity and lack of evidence when it comes to proving there is a god. This is your one and only argument for proving there is a god- "I believe in god and so therefore he exists." This is my one and only argument for proving that Frodo and Gandalf existed- "I believe that Frodo and Gandalf existed so therefore they existed." I am a very big fan of religion and the morality it inspires people to have but honestly I cannot bring myself to believe in a god with so little reasoning behind it.
Faith is not truth. Faith is faith. Thats the problem. Don't you have faith in god I am? Having faith and having truth is quite a different thing. I don't have faith in the presence of my left hand because I KNOW of the presence of my left hand. You cannot have faith in something being reality when you know it is reality and you cannot know something is reality when you only have faith that it is reality. So what is it I am? Do you have faith that god exists or do you know god exists? Or if you don't want to answer honestly than you can go on looking like a living paradox.
Quite, and the deceit is in the volumes of double speak hippy bullshit you feel obliged to muster in attempt to conceal your nonsense.