RE: Can Atheists Worship/love the Divine? Yes.
February 17, 2012 at 2:53 am
(This post was last modified: February 17, 2012 at 2:58 am by Welsh cake.)
(February 15, 2012 at 7:35 pm)MysticKnight Wrote: So if you can honor Socrates whether you know he exists or not, then you can honor God whether you know he exists or not.How can you (a mere creation) honour a singular deity? You can't. How can our dreams and fantasies honour us? They can't. A sole god has no peers. It cannot obtain a perceived notion of "worthiness" or "respectability" within a social standing because there are no other gods. There are no real beings besides itself, all of reality being something imaginative, something it made up. Its all alone in the void.
(February 15, 2012 at 8:41 pm)MysticKnight Wrote: So the conclusion is Atheists can not believe in God but still Worship Him.Your train of logic got derailed somewhere. You cannot logically, rationally or sensibly worship someone you don't believe is even real.
(February 16, 2012 at 6:19 pm)brotherlylove Wrote: I do not think they can imagine a maximally great being...Get off. I can 'out-imagine' you any day of the week brotherly. I can imagine the Mother of God spanking her unruly, tantrum-throwing son [God] on his supernatural backside whenever he abuses his own creation. His current 'absence' is because his hypernatural mum sent him to his room as punishment for being cruel and tyrannical to mortals.
See, I can imagine up virtually anything. Do I think any of it, including what you believe, is real? No.
Quote:because their spiritual eyes are clouded by preconceived notions about deity.What the hell does "spiritual eyes" mean?
Quote:It think it is difficult for them to conceive of a being that is truly worthy of praise, and worship, because they reject the notion that there is anything higher than themselves, except perhaps for some vague notion of the grandness and majesty they see in creation.I can conceive of situations where people worship a being whose very existence cannot be demonstrated. Do I think such a being is worthy of worship? No.
Quote:They just can't trust God or admit that the designer of the Universe knows better than they do about what is best for them.What kind of half-arsed appeal to intelligent design was that? At least make an argument that can be refuted as opposed to being ignored as a rant. There is no evidence of a designer or creator in nature. Anywhere. And God knows what's best for me? By sending me to eternal torment and suffering in Hell? Just because I couldn't believe in this life? What an almighty bastard you believe in!
Quote:No one else is worthy of worship but God.The catch-22 here is if a sentient being is *worthy* of worship they wouldn't want to worshipped in the first instance. A flawless rationally-minded deity wouldn't require other lower creatures to debase themselves idolizing or holding them in such reverence and high-esteem to the point where people stop being themselves. If God's perfect, and not an ego-manic, then he would find your religious ceremonies disgusting or at the very least, unnecessary. He'd find your acts of worship embarrassing and opening him to shame in front of an angelic audience and wouldn't want or need your worship.
Conversely, if God demands worship from mere mortals, he's not perfect and therefore, not worthy of worship.
(February 17, 2012 at 1:27 am)brotherlylove Wrote: He gives us absolute free will to obey or disobey Him, and we are also free to experience the consequences of our choices.Except the consequences are eternal which makes your god an asshat for giving us that choice. That's akin to a parent giving his child the freewill to point a loaded gun up his own nose. God is either monstrously abusive, or wholly irresponsible and incompetent as a 'parental figure'.
Quote:In my case, no one sold me Christianity.Yeah right. Look up indoctrination sometime and learn something about yourself.
Quote:I had received signs that God did actually exist, and on that basis I decided to give my life to the Lord.Such as?
Quote:I am an adopted son of God and co-heir to Christ.At least you don't subscribe to Christianity for personal gain. Heaven forbid!
Quote:He is looking for sons and daughters to follow the righteous example of His Son and be transformed.A creator-god concept is a being that is all alone in an infinite void/singularity without any other like him to comfort him. He can imagine up a world (universe), fantasize a family (humans), but unlike him, none of it is real and deep down he knows it.
Quote:I am grateful for all that God has done for me.Such as?
Quote:If someone took you off the street and fed you, and clothed you, set you up with a car and a house, gave you friendship and connections, and sent you monthly checks until the day you died, you would probably be pretty grateful to that person, wouldn't you?Such a person has about as much in common as your personal god in this thought experiment. They don't exist.
Quote:He died for meA god can't die. Do you even know what the concept of a deity is?
Quote:gave me eternal life.Life is a process, death is its inevitable outcome.
Quote:My mistakes are entirely my own.Yeah, its the painting's fault the artist sucks so hard.
Quote:My life isn't about what I have done, it is about what God has done, is still doing.If its all about god, then you are nothing, O adopted son and co-heir of magic man.