Simply believe the abstruse and become a trusted member of society. The fact that one does not believe “the story” turns them an immoral criminal with shifting values, no? Worse—simple unbelief is the grossest of moral crimes and self decay.
Meanwhile, belief in something not seen—ever, in prayers answered—never, and confessing allegiance to a cause that has failed its objectives—forever, is the highly honored tradition. Am I missing something here?
Yesterday I realized how wrong I must be when Ryan (Dolphinwrites) stated “to prove a point is not as important as really seeking” This is like warming yourself by thinking about a fire, sunning your mental self from the dungeon of faith by an imagined beach, where thoughts are only valued by belief in ideas that have never grown the body of Christ to fruition—ever!
Each dream of fulfillment dying at the last breath of life never to be realized—consummation zero, with bliss the dying wish of every faithful—but to seek is the important part—and it must be a search within the defined parameters of religion to be of value. How has this become the gold standard of honor? Oh how the easy and absurd has become the respectable, the permissible, where foolish is the pinnacle of promise.
Pick any religious system of any kind—and it is belief that is respected and protected, while evidence be dammed and agendized—with belief nigh unto death erasing the checkered past and offers love and acceptance by the believers themselves, while mere unbelief of the decent is a ripening for hell.
while evidence be dammed… or simply twisted until it is no longer recognisable for what it actually is.
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What is it about belief that is so highly prized it must be protected by law? I know the why there—it can’t stand on its own merits, but it’s a belief for god sakes, and a belief required by total conjecture without merit
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Voting blocks, or military ranks depending on the time.
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It also depends on what you believe. If I believe there’s this magic wizard in the sky with a beard who made clay puppets called human beings and who raped a young woman to deliberately impregnate her with his illegitimate kid, who he then arranged to have his kid tortured to death, just to save his clay puppets from a torture he himself created in the first place, well, then that’s okay. That’s fine and dandy.
But if I believe I’m an alien from Alpha Centauri and I’m here to save you from the evil space cannibals, well, right away they start dragging out the straight jacket and drugs.
Frankly, the odds of that second paragraph being true are considerably greater than the first.
BTW: The space cannibals will be here a week from next Thursday. If you want to be saved send me $500 in cash and I’ll give you special instructions about where the holy bunkers are located. Oh, kick in a few more bucks while you’re at it because I need a private jet so I can spread the word.
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You do accept Apple Pay and PayPal I hope. So, Religion has kept up with the times. I was wrong
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Hey! Grouch—you sound more like me than I do. (You’re not me, by any chance, are you? God moves in mysterious ways, don’t forget …)
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The Brit system of government is a triumvirate of monarch, people/state, and church. Three legged stool sort of thing. Each leg supports the other two, remove any one of them and the whole thing topples.
I read quite some time ago that HM the Q is no longer ‘defender of the faith’ (Christ-ianity) but is now ‘defender of faiths’. … Sneaky …
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Hello Jim. It makes my brain hurt the way some apologist string words together as if they make a coherent thought. I admit to not being the most learned person, but if I can not understand what they are saying even if I know all the words they are using, how does this help prove their point? But like you say, the proving of a thing no longer counts, it is the belief in the thing. I wonder if I go to the grocery store and get to the check out if they will accept my belief I already paid them? Or if kids dying of lack of food can be fed with the idea of seeking their bellies full? I admit these types of doublespeak piss me off. Thanks for pointing out the worthlessness of the idea. Hugs
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I believe you’re right Scottie. And those points you make can be tested and proven fallacious. Religion is no different, but that matters not to the believer
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I had a genuine hallucination a couple of mornings ago—the Spouse is in a wee bit of a bad patch and I’ve lost/missed an awesome amount of sleep. I shan’t describe the hallucination save that it was a frightening manifestation that I actually photographed whilst watching it actively fighting for its own survival.
After I got some sleep and checked the images I found out it was nothing more than a small everyday object quite incapable of motion and utterly inert under any circumstances short of typhoon or earthquake.
So if Uncle Mo saw Gabby in the cave and took dictation, I can now better understand. Lack of sleep worked for me but I wonder what he was on?)
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Hello Argus. I am glad your spouse is better and you got some rest. I do not know about sleep deprivation but I have seen people go through alcohol withdrawal and the nightmare hallucinations they go through are horrifying and totally real to them. I remember when I was a kid I believed in ghosts and spirits and convinced myself I could see them and see the things they effected. Weird what the mind will conjure for us. Hugs
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They have to be making that shit up. It makes no sense other than “be as I am … or else.”
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They’ve certainly played on our natural desires to fit it in—as evidenced by the betrayal after non belief. Fear keeps many in the churches and it ain’t of hell, but abandonment
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Oh I think you’ve hit on something g with the fear of abandonment and stretching it further…maybe loneliness as well
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Steve, an excellent summation.
But you left out the “… pay me, or you can’t be in my club” bit.
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What gets me is all these believers telling us about who atheists are, and I have yet to hear one of them describe me, or you, or anyone we know. They are as sure they know us as they know their own god. Sad to say, but I have to agree with them…
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Good point rg. I have been assumed so many times and no matter what I say, they claim to “really know” that atheists are believers too. I don’t only not believe in god, but anything, really. If I have a change of experience I’ll share it, but nothing for now has convinced me to believe anything at all.
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If only more people would admit that, at least. But they believe because they are told to, and by the time they are adults they forget they were told to, and think they believe because that is who they are. Of what tangled webs….
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Minds are easily hijacked by ideas. Especially the young or vulnerable. Most people have no idea what there own ideas might be. Just versions of others ideas and choices
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That’s your job, Jim, to teach them, lol.
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They do that to paint an easy strawman to beat
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And they beat it regularly, if you know what I mean…
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Sad how people see atheism as militant and subversive…A few bitter people do not define the secular community anymore than the religious one. And also, not excusing hostility, but I’m sure many became embittered through painful ostracism from their families and communities…
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Like I stated before, anyone that accepts you because of belief will abandon you over simple unbelief in an idea. Many atheist are still pretending believers because of it. They know the baggage of belief
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There’s a lot of truth right here on this page. Not only sin, but crime.
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It’s interesting and disturbing how belief has been pushed to the head of the class as some type of genius. It isn’t, nor is it producing the desired effects. Nice play on human psychology to promote the easy way of belief as some type of prize standard of excellence.
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Nice post, I am also a fan of Mr Watts 🙂 Please check out my blog too if you get a chance, great minds think alike 😉 thetalkingmind.home.blog xx
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It is very interesting how religion gets special protection from criticism.
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I’m mad as hell with fake outrage too over the oppression Christianity is facing. The attack on the church never ends, lol
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Yeah Christians love to act like they’re being persecuted.
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Religious belief , to me, is a very strange thing, especially that it is still in full force in the modern world of science and technology.
It must be atavistic DNA or genes. If a behavior and belief is reinforced over millennia and through early and constant indoctrination, it must become permanent in the gene pool, so to speak. A few, of course are free of this, but worldwide, most are not.
So is it up to evolution to eventually take care of this defect or is it in evolution as an adaptation to insure eventual destruction, therefore leading to a “clean” startover?
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We essentially have removed ourselves from evolution at this point. There will be no future versions of sapiens as there has in the past. This is it. We do the manipulating now and that will only get bigger. We’ve become so efficient at life there will be nowhere to live. Religion has outlived its usefulness.
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I meant a “clean” startover with a new species.
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Also why are people so bound and determined to believe in fantasy…gods with no proof, beliefs that defy logic etc. I
know volumes could be written on the “why.”
The “why” question is more important than the what. Why so many chose to believe things that can’t be proven at all as opposed to things that can.
Because we are thinking creatures, does this automatically mean we will think of things untrue and illogical and make a conscious choice to believe them anyway?
It’s got to be something neural ..some defect in the thinking part of the brain. To believe something totally unproven and illogical makes no sense.
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It is a masterful play on the foibles of human psychology. Trying to prove you’re right over and over hardwires the ability to ignore contradiction. The problem now is physiological. But you’re right. Why here, is the imperative. Fear comes to mind, and the fact that we have great imaginations, dopamine receptors, and cave to peer behavior from our herd instincts. Is outlived it’s usefulness and now we can’t seem to evolve the way we used too.
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Evolution in something our size, with over 37 trillion cells, would not be visible for hundreds of thousands of years, at the least. Individual cells might be evolving, but that is so far beneath our notice we might as well say there is no cumulative effect. Yet! Let us hope we are still evolving, even if we will be long forgotten before anything is distinct.
Evolution is a longterm process.
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The ‘why’ is so self-obvious as to make the question redundant. Pelf, dammit—unearned wealth and power.
The more ya get the more ya want, so religions expand—and face it, they have the ideal product:
ya ain’t goddit
ya sells it
ya still ain’t goddit
ya keeps on selling it
ya god a good thing going
so (under your strict control)
ya franchises it
and everyone wins! Boom boom!
Everyone?
Yep … you make yer bundle of boodle and they all get forgiven and go to Heaven. BOOM BOOM!
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Of course it makes sense~! Sheesh! (How else could they sell it and stay in business?)
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I believe I’ve encountered a new word today (abstruse), but I can’t believe it escaped my attention for all these years. Does that make me a sinner or a saint?
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Well, if you looked it up it makes you wise and ever learning. It is a great word to have handy isn’t it?
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I’ll bet your abstruse question gets some obtuse answerings …
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God (Yaweh) or in my case Gods have existed before I believed in Them and They will continue to exist long after I am dead. Belief as they say is in the eye of the beholder.
You don’t make it a sin – not to believe. If you have to force people to believe, then you have failed and your religion is useless.
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So, Nep — ya needs a better USP, no? (USP = Unique Selling Point)
Which explains the multitudes of different ‘religions’ and likewise of brands and franchises within those ‘religions’. Hell, even the Truly unique WOG has two major brands (and they are at each other’s throat).
(WOG being ‘Word Of God’.)
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