God is only one

[Truthseeker]

Angels, saints, Jesus, your dead ancestor, anyone who's between you and G-d.

In my opinion, we need the Prophets as intermediaries. We cannot comprehend or relate to the infinite.

 

[Rival]

In my opinion, we need the Prophets as intermediaries. We cannot comprehend or relate to the infinite.

You don't pray to prophets.

 

[Truthseeker]

That is a good question. It seems to benefit most believers because they get a feeling of being connected to God.
It does not benefit me that much because I do not even want to be connected to God.

One of your peculiarities.

 

[Truthseeker]

You don't pray to prophets.

You can pray to God through Prophets.

 

[Rival]

You can pray to God through Prophets.

No, you can't. Maybe in your faith you can, I don't know.

 

[Truthseeker]

So your God wants worship because it's good for some believers (because it makes them feel connected to God somehow). That seems like a weak reason.

When you are really connected to God you feel ecstatic. That's my experience.

However, You would have to experience it yourself to validate this.

 

[Trailblazer]

Ye

The second quote is what I was trying to remember. You have an photographic or eidetic memory. Of course you also keep files of everything. I needed help to remember how to spell eidetic. My memory has gone to pot.

So many of your quotes come from Gleanings.

Yes, I have hundreds of Word documents saved by subject and they are in folders so I know exactly where to find them. Many are from Gleanings but I have many more from other books and a Bible folder with many more documents. After all I have been doing this forum gig for about nine years so I started saving files from the beginning. I now have these all saved on my hard drive in addition to my external drive because my life would be over if I ever lost these.

 

[Trailblazer]

When you are really connected to God you feel ecstatic. That's my experience.

However, You would have to experience it yourself to validate this.

The last entity I want to connect to is God, but you already know how I feel about this.

 

[Trailblazer]

You don't pray to prophets.

No we don't pray to prophets, we pray to God through prophets.
We have prayer books with prayers that were written by the Bab and Baha'u'llah.

Prayers by Category

 

[Truthseeker]

God created us out of His love for us, but God wants us to love Him before we can feel His love for us.

3: O SON OF MAN! Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty.

4: O SON OF MAN! I loved thy creation, hence I created thee. Wherefore, do thou love Me, that I may name thy name and fill thy soul with the spirit of life.

5: O SON OF BEING! Love Me, that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can in no wise reach thee. Know this, O servant.

The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 4

God's love is always there, we just cannot feel it unless open up our heart and let it in.

What Baha'is believe is different from what Christians believe, that God comes running after us with His love even if we don't love Him. I don't believe we can have a connection with God unless we are willing to love God first. Since I do not love God first I do not get the benefit of God's love.

So honest!

 

[F1fan]

That might be true for some people, but not for all people. To say it is true for all people would be the fallacy of hasty generalization.

Sorry, no. The material facts show that religious thoughts fire up the emotion and reward centers of the brain. You have no evidence there are any "other people", do you?

Most times when I think of religion I get angry.

That's your emotion center.

I don't feel good and I don't feel like I am being rewarded, it feels like a punishment. What always makes me feel good immediately is my cats. I love them so much but I cannot say the same for God.

The reward center means a part of our brains that secrete hormones, and that includes anger. The reward is the subtle experience of the hormones in the blood that stimulate the brain.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Really, ...and what's that, a birth-mark on your head?

That is the Hindu Swastika. I am an atheist Hindu.

“Consider the mercy of God and His gifts. He enjoineth upon you that which shall profit you, though He Himself can well dispense with all creatures.”

What made him create them in the first place?

God created us out of His love for us, but God wants us to love Him before we can feel His love for us.

You cannot see emperor's new clothes if you have not got your nose cut.

 

[Aupmanyav]

The last entity I want to connect to is God, but you already know how I feel about this.

No we don't pray to prophets, we pray to God through prophets.

Consecutive posts. What an oxymoronic thing to do. You want no connection with God but you pray to God. Why? Trailblazer, you are a bundle of contradictions.

We cannot comprehend or relate to the infinite.

Quantum Mechanics can help you to comprehend or relate to the infinite.

 

[F1fan]

Well, the answer is because they taken their own subjectivity for granted, but that is not limited to theists.

So you acknowledge that theists are having trouble with their faith, and are confused. So what do you suggest is a solution?

 

[Trailblazer]

Sorry, no. The material facts show that religious thoughts fire up the emotion and reward centers of the brain. You have no evidence there are any "other people", do you?

Do you have evidence that is true for everybody? I doubt there are any studies with everybody in them.

That's your emotion center.

And so what? I get angry about a lot of things.

The reward center means a part of our brains that secrete hormones, and that includes anger. The reward is the subtle experience of the hormones in the blood that stimulate the brain.

Do you have a point to make?

 

[Trailblazer]

What made him create them in the first place?

Out of His love for us...

3: O SON OF MAN! Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty.

The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 4

 

[Aupmanyav]

Do you have evidence that is true for everybody? I doubt there are any studies with everybody in them.

Yes, science is that, except for people who want to remain in Seventh Century.

Out of His love for us...

Yeah, his love is amply demonstrated by earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, fires, floods, droughts, typhoons and tornadoes, abnormalities at birth and diseased like SARS, Ebola and Covid-19 (243,745,106 cases and 4,953,505 deaths, many infections lead to residual problems).

 

[F1fan]

Isn't all belief ultimately from a personal view?

Emotional beliefs, yes. Beliefs that are judgments made from evidence can be objective.

 

[F1fan]

In my opinion, we need the Prophets as intermediaries. We cannot comprehend or relate to the infinite.

The middlemen to God. They can tell you whatever they want and you wouldn't know if it's true or not. If you as a believer are that deficient then how can you discern the authentic from frauds?

 

[F1fan]

Do you have evidence that is true for everybody? I doubt there are any studies with everybody in them.

Studies don't work by assessing everyone, an educated person knows this. It takes a sample and assesses it. What is fact is that people whose brains are scanned and think religious thoughts the emotion centers and reward centers fire up.

Do you know of any scans that reveal something different?

Do you have a point to make?

Yes, that religious thoughts process in the emotion and reward centers of brains. They don't process in the frontal lobes.