Rockalocka Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 I believe that there may be a God, but it's definitely not the one in the Bible. Anyone else believe that? But it sucks because sometimes, the fears of the terrible God in the Bible creep back into my life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deva Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 Yes, I am in the same boat. The Christian god does not exist, but there may be others. I don't have the fear of Bible god anymore though. The whole Biblical thing just seems too incredible. It took me a long time to realize that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockalocka Posted July 23, 2011 Author Share Posted July 23, 2011 Yes, I am in the same boat. The Christian god does not exist, but there may be others. I don't have the fear of Bible god anymore though. The whole Biblical thing just seems too incredible. It took me a long time to realize that. I'm just hoping that there is some kind of perfect afterlife where you don't have to worship a big meanie forever. I mean, that's a big word. Forever. I just want a big life ahead of me. That's all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oddbird1963 Posted July 23, 2011 Share Posted July 23, 2011 There could be an entity with such ability or a nature that may appear similar to what we call a "god." But what does that word "god" mean? That's the rub. It may have a mind unfathomable to us or a physical mode of existence totally foreign to anything we could conceive. But does that make it a "god" or "God?" Just what does that mean given what we know of the universe and the way it seems to work? The ability to snuff of out of existence isn't sufficient. We can do that to others ourselves. "God" may be the most vague and useless word ever created by the human race. So yes. There could be an entity of some kind that exists in some way that could be called "god-like." But what would make it actually "God?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freespirit Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 Yeah, that's pretty much where I'm at Rockalocka except I don't think I fear the other god much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eugene39 Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 I believe that there may be a God, but it's definitely not the one in the Bible. Anyone else believe that? When it comes to God as described by the Bible, I am 100% atheist. "God" may be the most vague and useless word ever created by the human race. Totally agree!!! I almost hate to use that word because it means such totally different things to other people, and they think you're talking about what they are thinking. When I use the word "God", I'm talking about some Transcendent Mystery...pantheist...etc., something abstract. Christians hear the word "God", and it's some cosmic dude who...blah, blah, blah...no need to explain it to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostman42 Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 If there is a god, and by god I mean an all powerful, omni-everything being, he would have to be one sick bastard to ignore all the suffering in our world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chosendarkness Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 I don't know what a god is, so I don't know if one exists or not. I lean towards Pantheism, so I tend to think god is just everything we can perceive, and also everything we can't perceive. It's some 'power' of the universe out there, that's also us, and can be drawn from like flowing river. If a bible god exists, which I highly highly doubt ones does, I think he deserves to be told he's an asshole. If he's smart at all he should realize it's true. Then I'll tell him to get busy helping people out with all those super powers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thurisaz Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 I believe that there may be a God, but it's definitely not the one in the Bible. Anyone else believe that? But it sucks because sometimes, the fears of the terrible God in the Bible creep back into my life. 120 % agreed. I won't make a statement on what religion might be true (though obviously I do have my personal opinion on that ), but I do know which religions are NOT. Namely, everything abrahamic and all cults decending from them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deva Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 Yes, I am in the same boat. The Christian god does not exist, but there may be others. I don't have the fear of Bible god anymore though. The whole Biblical thing just seems too incredible. It took me a long time to realize that. I'm just hoping that there is some kind of perfect afterlife where you don't have to worship a big meanie forever. I mean, that's a big word. Forever. I just want a big life ahead of me. That's all. I somehow don't think the real God (whatever that may mean) needs or wants worship. Forever is something we just cannot grasp. I can't see humans as we are, enduring in any form that correlates with what we are now, lasting forever. I have toyed with the idea that somehow we are connected with something, some ground of being, that is timeless. All the physical forms of life, whole species, come and go, form and reform, and the whole thing just continues. If this planet were destroyed, I am sure it continues elsewhere in the universe. The universe is just so big that if life is here and so persistent, it must be elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JadedAtheist Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 But it sucks because sometimes, the fears of the terrible God in the Bible creep back into my life. Do some further reading into the Bible and it's origins. That fear will eventually dissipate and never return. While you're at it, do a little exploring and I'm sure you'll find a path that makes the most sense to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asanerman Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 I believe that there may be a God, but it's definitely not the one in the Bible. Anyone else believe that? When it comes to God as described by the Bible, I am 100% atheist. "God" may be the most vague and useless word ever created by the human race. Totally agree!!! I almost hate to use that word because it means such totally different things to other people, and they think you're talking about what they are thinking. When I use the word "God", I'm talking about some Transcendent Mystery...pantheist...etc., something abstract. Christians hear the word "God", and it's some cosmic dude who...blah, blah, blah...no need to explain it to you. I'm right there with you Eugene! For a number of years I have worked with the notions (for lack of a better word) that follow. When I consider perspective rather than perception each theme seems to engulf other (I think I said that right). [quotePaul Tillich: The name of this infinite and inexhaustible depth and ground of all being is God. That depth is what the word God means. And if that word has not much meaning for you, translate it, and speak of the depths of your life, of the source of your being, of your ultimate concern, of what you take seriously without any reservation. Perhaps, in order to do so, you must forget everything traditional that you have learned about God, perhaps even that word itself. For if you know that God means depth, you know much about [God]. … The name of this infinite and inexhaustible ground of history is God. That is what the word means and it is that to which the words Kingdom of God and Divine Providence point. And if these words do not have much meaning for you, translate them, and speak of the depth of history, of the ground and aim of our social life, and of what you take seriously without reservation in your moral and political activates. Perhaps you should call this depth hope, simply hope. … It is comfortable to live on the surface so long as it remains unshaken. It is painful to break away from it and to descend into an unknown ground. The tremendous amount of resistance against that act in every human being and the many pretexts invented to avoid the road into the depth are natural. The pain of looking into one’s own depth is too intense for most people. They would rather return to the shaken and devastated surface of their former lives and thoughts. The Depth of Existence Paul Tillich from The Shaking of the Foundations The Scribner Library pp.57,59 ] How much knowledge did you think you had to cram into your head in order to know God, when God is the ever-present Knower? How much of this book—or any book or books— did you think you had to read in order to find Spirit, when the very Reader of this sentence is Spirit? When the very reader of this sentence is God fully revealed? Feel the Reader of this sentence, feel the simple feeling of Being, feel the Feeler in you right now, and you are feeling the fully revealed God in his and her radiant glory, a One Taste of the divine Suchness of the entire Kosmos, a not-two-ness of self and Self that leaves you breathlessly enlightened and fully realized in this and every moment. Hear the sounds all around you? Who is not enlightened? Integral Spirituality Ken Wilber pp. 208-209 I find the next quote from Wilber really interesting and one in which I agree. Many of the spiritual realities referred to by... writers do in fact have all the requisites for converting them from meaningless metaphysics to meaningful post-metaphysics. ...But until these types of integral updates occur, religion and spirituality will remain metaphysics dismissed by intelligent men and women, or reduced to their mythic-level manifestations, where they are embraced by, frankly, less intelligent men and women. The bright promise of spirituality as the core intelligence of ultimate concern is arrested at its mythic childhood level, ...or anchors itself in states of consciousness that have profound reality but are severed from the rest of the Kosmos and thus ends up fragmenting and splintering its own practitioners. Everywhere the bright promise of spiritual intelligence is crippled, cropped, and crucified, run into blind alleys of horrifying neglect, mugged in rational parking lots, suffocated with clouds of materialism, regressed to new-age infantilism, housed in mythic and metaphysical nonsense, this bright promise of my own ultimate concern. When will it stop? When will your own deepest tomorrow begin? "...if that word [God] has not much meaning for you, translate it." says Tillich, the theologian. For Wilber, the philosopher we await "integral updates." I use the word God only when necessary, its translation I use in common language: " this bright promise of my own ultimate concern." "How exactly were you going to force God to show his or her Face, when God’s Face is your Original Face?" Welber Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outlaw393 Posted July 24, 2011 Share Posted July 24, 2011 I believe that there may be a God, but it's definitely not the one in the Bible. Anyone else believe that? But it sucks because sometimes, the fears of the terrible God in the Bible creep back into my life. Sounds like you're agnostic, or possibly a Deist. I personally don't believe in the biblical god. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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