Theists: what does your god want for you?

[jstrodel]

It is based on a serious and multi-year investigation of American culture which has involved traveling to various places, talking to a lot of different people, thinking critically about my whole life and all the people I have encountered, being exposed to various statistics and meditating on common knowledge, such as the prevalence of atheism and drug use among young people in higher ed.


I understand there are some atheists that are well adjusted 47 year olds who don't drink or party and whose atheism is purely a result of reading and understand a lot of books about religion (whether they understood them fully, I do not think they did). I apologize for including them in my view of atheism.

I still believe firmly that the atheist stereotype of a sort of cocky, arrogant 20 something who goes out to bars and clubs and has sex with his girlfriend (not wife) and tends to be politically liberal or leftist and has an above average but not genius IQ is basically accurate.

The people with really high IQ's tend more towards agnosticism than atheism (or Christianity or Judaism).

[Ryantology]

I still believe firmly that the atheist stereotype of a sort of cocky, arrogant 20 something who goes out to bars and clubs and has sex with his girlfriend (not wife) and tends to be politically liberal or leftist and has an above average but not genius IQ is basically accurate.

If one defines the Christian stereotype by yourself, then the average Christian is a cocky, arrogant, possibly insane 20-something who is socially-retarded, is in dire need of getting laid (and may very well be in the closet), is a simple-minded conservative and has just enough IQ to know a few big words like 'epistemotology' and use them over and over because of the crippling intellectual insecurity one must feel when he feels compelled to shout to the world that he knows that his invisible sky daddy is totally real but can never prove it to a single person.

Just for the record, you have used some variant of the word 'epistemotology' 66 times in 664 posts. Do you have a quota? Are you paid per-use?

[jstrodel]

Lol. I would like to teach epistemology. I probably think about it more than other people. I think it is because I see people talk about "proof" as if it is a concept that fell out of the sky and was revealed, instead of something that changes every 50 or 60 years.


How does any of that relate to the evidential status of Christianity as it exists in my mind. I suppose my age would and if I am cocky, but I don't think I am cocky. I have had many people tell me that I am humble.

---

Bertrand Russell was a womanizer you know. How much do you think a womanizer will understand God. Not surprise he is an atheist. How does getting laid help you understand God, if nearly every religious tradition has had cautionary views of sexuality? Don't you think that would bias you towards atheism, if your assent had to be strong enough to overcome your ingrained habits of sexual behavior?

[Neo-Scholastic]

if I am cocky, but I don't think I am cocky. I have had many people tell me that I am humble.

That's probably just an affectation of your writing style. Some people say I come off as smug and pretentious. I can see why. My style of writing is oddly formal, perhaps because I try so hard (most times) to be very precise. Your fervor could easily be misconstrued as cocky. But the way a person writes doesn't necessarily reflect their off-line everyday personality. i try to remind myself of that when reading, particularly when it's with someone whose style seems truly hostile.

[CleanShavenJesus]

Bertrand Russell was a womanizer you know. How much do you think a womanizer will understand God. Not surprise he is an atheist. How does getting laid help you understand God, if nearly every religious tradition has had cautionary views of sexuality? Don't you think that would bias you towards atheism, if your assent had to be strong enough to overcome your ingrained habits of sexual behavior?

Seriously? You're against sex?

Literally the only thing humans are supposed to do is fuck. We're here because our parents fucked, and now we're gonna fuck and make more humans, that will also fuck. That's the reason we're here, man. Reproduction. We're useless otherwise.

You don't want anybody to do the one thing we're supposed to do? Sex is great, man. You should try it more often.

[jstrodel]

if I am cocky, but I don't think I am cocky. I have had many people tell me that I am humble.

That's probably just an affectation of your writing style. Some people say I come off as smug and pretentious. I can see why. My style of writing is oddly formal, perhaps because I try so hard (most times) to be very precise. Your fervor could easily be misconstrued as cocky. But the way a person writes doesn't necessarily reflect their off-line everyday personality. i try to remind myself of that when reading, particularly when it's with someone whose style seems truly hostile.

Appreciate the encouragement. When I was a younger believer, I used to have a lot of issues with pride. I feel like God delivered me from that years ago. I suppose it is something that everyone has to deal with.

[Ryantology]

How much do you think a womanizer will understand God.

Allow me to rephrase this question for clarity's sake:

How much do you think a man who treats women like objects will understand a God who personally endorsed the idea that women were objects, to be owned, bought, sold or traded, by their husbands and fathers?

[Angrboda]

If you think incorrectly, thinking more or longer will not address the problem.

[jstrodel]

How much do you think a womanizer will understand God.

Allow me to rephrase this question for clarity's sake:

How much do you think a man who treats women like objects will understand a God who personally endorsed the idea that women were objects, to be owned, bought, sold or traded, by their husbands and fathers?

God doesn't endorse any of that. Read Proverbs 31 or the epistles about submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

You are condensing a very complicated and somewhat contradictory serious of teachings that span from war to peace and different historical periods into a single statement.

God is always for women, not everything that God permits is necessarily agreeable to modern culture, that does not give people an accuse to not try to understand it in the cultural context it is in (e.g. if God did not permit the taking of concubines, the women would have just been killed).

[Ryantology]

God doesn't endorse any of that. Read Proverbs 31 or the epistles about submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

I must have imagined Deuteronomy 22:28.

You are condensing a very complicated and somewhat contradictory serious of teachings that span from war to peace and different historical periods into a single statement.

"Let me tell you how it doesn't actually mean that God thinks of women as men's property when he tells them the going rate for virginal rape victims in the marriage slavery trade."

God is always for women, not everything that God permits is necessarily agreeable to modern culture, that does not give people an accuse to not try to understand it in the cultural context it is in (e.g. if God did not permit the taking of concubines, the women would have just been killed).

No, I take cultural context into careful consideration, especially since this depicts a (fictional) moment which came to define Jewish culture: it was a culture which looked down upon women as property and had no moral qualms with rape. Of course, for the most part, that is not a problem of cultural context. Elements of modern Christianity does not have a much more advanced attitude towards women, for which conservative politics paid dearly in America last year.