Well I think there's some merit to the idea. I'm going to err on the side of a Mafia boss who will disembowel me if I don't keep paying him protection. For added spice, it's the Martian Mafia.

(August 16, 2013 at 5:19 pm)Minimalist Wrote:

Quote: I'd rather err on the side of there being a God

Only works if it is your god. Vishnu might rip your head off.

And I'm here to tell you all the good news of Flootie-Blinch, a god I just made up, who sends nonbelievers to double hell when they die! Ronny, wouldn't you rather be safe, and err on the side of my made up god, rather than risk the consequences? I mean, he might be real! What the fuck would I know?!

(August 16, 2013 at 5:19 pm)Minimalist Wrote:

Quote: I'd rather err on the side of there being a God

Only works if it is your god. Vishnu might rip your head off.

I like the Buddha's take on gods...that they are karmic beings trapped on the wheel of Samsara like any other sentient beings. Makes me wonder where Yahweh is now...besides not where Christians postulate.

(August 16, 2013 at 4:10 pm)Faith No More Wrote:

ronedee Wrote:I. on't believe there is any false god, or prophet that has used Jesus' doctrine to promot their own godhood.

What about this guy?

Not to mention Jim Jones of Jonestown infamy.

For fucks sake, ronadee, that's two *extremely* prominent examples in my living memory. How bad is your memory?

(August 16, 2013 at 5:30 pm)Captain Colostomy Wrote: I like the Buddha's take on gods...that they are karmic beings trapped on the wheel of Samsara like any other sentient beings. Makes me wonder where Yahweh is now...besides not where Christians postulate.

Oddly enough, the highest realms in Buddhism are heavens in which the beings have varying degrees of formlessness.

Encyclopedia Britannica Wrote:arūpa-loka, (Sanskrit and Pāli: “world of immaterial form”), in Buddhist thought, the highest of the three spheres of existence in which rebirth takes place. The other two are rūpa-loka, “the world of form,” and kāma-loka, “the world of feeling” (the three are also referred to as arūpa-dhātu, rūpa-dhātu, and kāma-dhātu, the “realms” of formlessness, form, and feeling).

In arūpa-loka, existence depends on the stage of concentration attained, and there are four levels: the infinity of space, the infinity of thought, the infinity of nonbeing, and the infinity of neither consciousness nor nonconsciousness. The rūpa-loka, which is free from sensuous desire but is still conditioned by form, is inhabited by gods. It is also further subdivided into the spheres inhabited by Brahmā, by the luminous deities, by the blissful gods, and by the deities of great fruits. Kāma-loka includes the six heavens of the lesser gods and the five lower worlds (the worlds of men, demons, ghosts, animals, and purgatory).

As superior as is rebirth in the higher worlds, such an existence is nonetheless temporary, subject to change, and involves the fundamental conflicts of existence within the limits of transmigration. This can be broken only by further spiritual insight, resulting in Nirvāṇa and release from the cycle of rebirths.