leibowde84
Veteran Member
Something that we aren't aware of or understand yet.
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Why do so many need a god ?.
- Thread starter psychoslice
- Start date
Are you sure all of your facts are correct? Based on the Bible and it's teachings, when we die, our thoughts perish as well:
:...his spirit departs, he returns to the earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." Psalm 146:4
"For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know not anything." Ecclesiastes 9:5
"...for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave..." Ecclesiastes 9:10
These are just 3 scriptures that contradict any teaching that the dead are conscious. They are not.
Scott C.
Just one guy
I could ask "why do so many people think that we need the life force"? Well, if it exists, then we need it. If it doesn't, we don't.
Wirey
Fartist
Thanks. How you doin'?
psychoslice
Veteran Member
Yes we need it, but we don't have to think about it because its just there, its what we are, so if you call the life force god, then it is no different, no need to even think about it, as there is no need to think about the sun. It makes more sense to worship the sun than a god that cannot be proved, at least we can see the sun, and the sun gives us life.
St. Mark the Ascetic, writing in "On the Spiritual Law: Two Hundred Texts", says, "Let all involuntary suffering teach you to remember God, and you will not lack occasion for repentance." Because of that and other things, I think Mark might have taken solace in the notion that his god gave his life some measure of purpose or meaning that made sense of his sufferings. But what interests me most about his statement is the implication that repentance is an effective means of dealing with suffering.
While I believe I can understand how focusing on repentance might distract someone from their suffering, and therefore provide a measure of relief, I suspect it is something of a desperate act. That is, I see seeking a distraction as something a person would resort to when they knew of no more effective means of dealing with suffering. And that, to me, is a core problem with Christianity. The religion does not seem to provide more than band aides like repentance, hope in a blissful afterlife, an ideology that "explains" suffering in terms of sin, and so on. These things are none of them solutions so much as they are distractions and rationalizations. At least, that's my take on it.
McBell
Unbound
There have been a number of members who say that without their fear of punishment and hope for reward, they would murder, rape, steal, lie, etc.
I myself don't necessarily need a God but I do seriously want to know what/if the purpose of my life is. And if I conclude that there is a God or gods of some sort, then why not use them to help fulfill my purpose.
But actually I found non-dualism (God and creation are not-two) to most accord with my objective deliberations (from my study of the paranormal and eastern teachings) and that God is the core of everything. My goal is to experience my core. There are then beings very much in concert with their core who can be likened to gods and they can assist us in our quest for realization of God. So I wouldn't say I need a God/god as I am already God at my core. I just need to realize that.
buddhist
Well-Known Member
I agree, but I don't think it's limited to Christianity ... IMO most religions only provide temporary distractions from sufferings for the immediate present, and weaves unverifiable stories to explain those sufferings in order to provide their adherents with not much more than a hope for some distant resolution of that suffering.
buddhist
Well-Known Member
In a sense, when we learn things, we're not learning something new, we've just remembered something we've fogotten.
psychoslice
Veteran Member
The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. It should transcend personal God and avoid dogma and theology. Covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from the experience of all things natural and spiritual as a meaningful unity. Buddhism answers this description. If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism. (Albert Einstein)
I've heard that sentiment before in other circles, and I'm just amazed every time.
psychoslice
Veteran Member
Yes that is so sad.
I agree. Good point!
I have noticed that, in those cases where its possible to know someone's religion, the people who say such things are usually one sort of fundamentalist or another. I don't mean that as more than an observation. It seems that some people need, or think they need, an external authority to keep their behavior in check, and that they tend to gravitate toward fundamentalisms. There are significant fundamentalist strains of at least four major religions, and those strains have much in common. Indeed, I have sometimes thought they are more like each other than they are like the different religions they are part of.
I suspect you're thinking of spiritual truths, but that also seems true enough of many things that people call "wisdom" (in those cases in which wisdom and spiritual truths are not actually the same).
psychoslice
Veteran Member
I have my own concept of what god is, but I don't need it, it could change tomorrow, who knows, I was a Christian for over 17 years, and at that time I felt I needed god, but after years of contemplating I realize that my need was because I was insecure. I didn't really know where I was in my life, and by clinging to my belief system, and communing with like minded people made me feel better. Of course there is nothing wrong in that, its good to commune with like minded people, be that religion or sports or whatever.
But like anything if you let it get hold of you it will control you, be that a belief system or drugs, smoking or drinking, its all the same, it all can be addictive. Those who are addictive are usually the fundamentalist of whatever belief system, and why are they like that ?, because they are insecure, of death, losing their family members and never seeing them again, they are also frightened of themselves doing what they don't like about themselves, there are many reasons.
So what I am really trying to say is, why do you need your religion, your belief in god, and why do many get so upset when their beliefs are challenged, after all its just a belief, or isn't it.
But like anything if you let it get hold of you it will control you, be that a belief system or drugs, smoking or drinking, its all the same, it all can be addictive. Those who are addictive are usually the fundamentalist of whatever belief system, and why are they like that ?, because they are insecure, of death, losing their family members and never seeing them again, they are also frightened of themselves doing what they don't like about themselves, there are many reasons.
So what I am really trying to say is, why do you need your religion, your belief in god, and why do many get so upset when their beliefs are challenged, after all its just a belief, or isn't it.