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Maybe there's something like a god out there.
June 2, 2020 at 9:48 pm
wut up dudes
As certain as I can be about anything, I'm certain that every earthly religion is full of crap. The gods we all worship are fictional characters. Every person who claims to have communicated with some god is, at best, confused about an unusual experience. I guess that still makes me an atheist.
But, I feel that there's enough of an opening in my mind to where I can say that I can accept the nominal not-impossibility that something like a god exists, and even that it was responsible for the creation of everything we consider reality. We are just stinky, sweaty meat bags with limited senses and perception. We know there was a big bang, and that set in motion all the mechanical and physical processes which govern the universe. We don't know, and perhaps can never know, if that event was the absolute beginning of all time, or if literally anything else happened before that. We don't, and cant, know why anything is here at all.
What separates this understanding from a theist's understanding is, these uncertainties and un-knowable factors do not mean a god is true, or likely, or possible. They merely provide an opening for the existence of such a being. Maybe a god, existing on a level we could never comprehend or sense, is behind it all. Maybe the universe, itself, is a god. Maybe existence is a daydream. Maybe a god is a fat, undersexed computer programmer on a higher plane of reality and we're all assets in a simulation. I really do not think any of these scenarios is impossible. Which, of course, does not imply any probability, but it also makes me reluctant to ever think the phrase "there's no such things as gods", because while that seems apparent to someone who isn't indoctrinated in a belief system, it's also maybe not true, and I don't believe science, or any other tool, can ever resolve that uncertainty.
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RE: Maybe there's something like a god out there.
June 2, 2020 at 9:52 pm
There's a definite distinction between what science can explain, and what humans understand about said science.
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RE: Maybe there's something like a god out there.
June 2, 2020 at 10:02 pm
The mad Arab Abdul Al-Hazrad posited a god at the center of the universe. It is a blind idiot god, Azathoth, constantly spinning and chortling as its bilious and squamous mass constantly spawns monstrosities. Any of those that get too close are reabsorbed to create something more monstrous. Cthulu is one of the children of Azathoth, he lives in R'lyeh and will rise up some day when the stars are right and destroy everyone. Nyarlathotep is the harbinger and vassal of Azathoth and if he comes to you he might consume you or drive you mad.
If there is "Something like a god out there", there is no good reason to believe that we would want to cleave too closely to said god for fear of becoming raw materials to entertain that god.
There are thoughts that aren't worth having and some thoughts that could wake something best left sleeping.
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RE: Maybe there's something like a god out there.
June 2, 2020 at 10:06 pm
(June 2, 2020 at 9:48 pm)Ryantology Wrote: wut up dudes
As certain as I can be about anything, I'm certain that every earthly religion is full of crap. The gods we all worship are fictional characters. Every person who claims to have communicated with some god is, at best, confused about an unusual experience. I guess that still makes me an atheist.
But, I feel that there's enough of an opening in my mind to where I can say that I can accept the nominal not-impossibility that something like a god exists, and even that it was responsible for the creation of everything we consider reality. We are just stinky, sweaty meat bags with limited senses and perception. We know there was a big bang, and that set in motion all the mechanical and physical processes which govern the universe. We don't know, and perhaps can never know, if that event was the absolute beginning of all time, or if literally anything else happened before that. We don't, and cant, know why anything is here at all.
What separates this understanding from a theist's understanding is, these uncertainties and un-knowable factors do not mean a god is true, or likely, or possible. They merely provide an opening for the existence of such a being. Maybe a god, existing on a level we could never comprehend or sense, is behind it all. Maybe the universe, itself, is a god. Maybe existence is a daydream. Maybe a god is a fat, undersexed computer programmer on a higher plane of reality and we're all assets in a simulation. I really do not think any of these scenarios is impossible. Which, of course, does not imply any probability, but it also makes me reluctant to ever think the phrase "there's no such things as gods", because while that seems apparent to someone who isn't indoctrinated in a belief system, it's also maybe not true, and I don't believe science, or any other tool, can ever resolve that uncertainty. Welcome! I agree that every earthly religion is crap but recently I have been checking out the Tralfamadorians. Maybe there is hope.
God thinks it's fun to confuse primates. Larsen's God!
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RE: Maybe there's something like a god out there.
June 2, 2020 at 10:16 pm
(This post was last modified: June 2, 2020 at 10:19 pm by brewer.)
(June 2, 2020 at 9:48 pm)Ryantology Wrote: wut up dudes
As certain as I can be about anything, I'm certain that every earthly religion is full of crap. The gods we all worship are fictional characters. Every person who claims to have communicated with some god is, at best, confused about an unusual experience. I guess that still makes me an atheist.
But, I feel that there's enough of an opening in my mind to where I can say that I can accept the nominal not-impossibility that something like a god exists, and even that it was responsible for the creation of everything we consider reality. We are just stinky, sweaty meat bags with limited senses and perception. We know there was a big bang, and that set in motion all the mechanical and physical processes which govern the universe. We don't know, and perhaps can never know, if that event was the absolute beginning of all time, or if literally anything else happened before that. We don't, and cant, know why anything is here at all.
What separates this understanding from a theist's understanding is, these uncertainties and un-knowable factors do not mean a god is true, or likely, or possible. They merely provide an opening for the existence of such a being. Maybe a god, existing on a level we could never comprehend or sense, is behind it all. Maybe the universe, itself, is a god. Maybe existence is a daydream. Maybe a god is a fat, undersexed computer programmer on a higher plane of reality and we're all assets in a simulation. I really do not think any of these scenarios is impossible. Which, of course, does not imply any probability, but it also makes me reluctant to ever think the phrase "there's no such things as gods", because while that seems apparent to someone who isn't indoctrinated in a belief system, it's also maybe not true, and I don't believe science, or any other tool, can ever resolve that uncertainty.
Hello god. Where you been all this time?
In your absence I've developed a lot of pent up frustration and guilt you need to remove. And there are some people you need to smite for me. Clear your calendar.
I don't have an anger problem, I have an idiot problem.
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RE: Maybe there's something like a god out there.
June 2, 2020 at 10:17 pm
Oh well, it's another one of those "I feel" God might exist.
I just wonder which religious lunatic on this forum will try to indoctrinate you first into his religion.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
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RE: Maybe there's something like a god out there.
June 2, 2020 at 10:24 pm
I'm not a smiting type. Love and compassion are the highest ideals.
Quote:Oh well, it's another one of those "I feel" God might exist.
I just wonder which religious lunatic on this forum will try to indoctrinate you first into his religion.
Money's on Drich, if he's still around.
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RE: Maybe there's something like a god out there.
June 2, 2020 at 10:29 pm
(June 2, 2020 at 10:24 pm)Ryantology Wrote: I'm not a smiting type. Love and compassion are the highest ideals.
NO MORE WORSHIP FOR YOU.
I don't have an anger problem, I have an idiot problem.
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RE: Maybe there's something like a god out there.
June 2, 2020 at 10:42 pm
(June 2, 2020 at 10:29 pm)brewer Wrote: (June 2, 2020 at 10:24 pm)Ryantology Wrote: I'm not a smiting type. Love and compassion are the highest ideals.
NO MORE WORSHIP FOR YOU.
Guys! Orange=former staff. I expect he's looking in on the place again.
If you get to thinking you’re a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else’s dog around.
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RE: Maybe there's something like a god out there.
June 2, 2020 at 10:46 pm
(June 2, 2020 at 9:48 pm)Ryantology Wrote: and I don't believe science, or any other tool, can ever resolve that uncertainty.
But maybe your feeling comes from human obsession with something that science can't (yet) explain.
I mean take bigfoot. People get so obsessed with it, they go into the woods to find it, they love listening stories about it.
But what would happen if someone actually discovered some giant apes to be living in forests of Nevada or Alaska? People probably wouldn't get excited about it anymore, it would just be zoology, shelved with all other animals.
The same would probably go with aliens, goblins, unicorns, dragons, gods... Once something is explained and understood, most people lose interest in it, and it becomes appealing only to experts in the field.
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
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