RE: Life as a Deist
February 28, 2013 at 12:19 pm
(This post was last modified: February 28, 2013 at 12:37 pm by EGross.)
Thanks for the book recommendation!
Awww, no kindle version from there.
But I did find a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaB-zq864-c
By the way, a slide-back is not that hard. After nearly 60 years of indoctrination, it's hard for me NOT to say a blessing unconsciously before drinking a glass of water, or when I hear thunder, or when I taste a new piece of fruit for the year. It's been drilled into me and it just sort of comes out. The acknowledgement of God is so ingrained that it's going to take a bit of deprogramming for me to clear my head.
It is so egocentric for me to believe that the Creator of the universe (a) gives a damn that a tiny speck is thanking him for the water (b) even hears the blessing or © is even there. God was created by man, not the other way around. Because if a God did create the Universe, do you really think that he or she has selected Earthers as His special people any more than selecting the Jews of all of the people? Why not some other life form? Or better yet, He plays no favorites.
And the believers, they tell you that God is everywhere. He just stopped talking about 2000 years ago, stopped whispering to prophets, stopped stopped interfering in nature (stopping the sun, splitting the sea, bursting the sky with a gread sound and light show, opening the earth to swalloy bad people). And if all of those stories are false, then believing in God is like wanting to keep that wisdom tooth - it serves no purpose and will just be a pain down the road.
And that is IF there is a God. But the problem with this whole God business is to echo Chas, that "he has no beginning nor end" so how did he get here?
For Athena, we got her popping out of her dad's forehead, like a big zit. And most of the older gods have a creation story (I like Uranos who came from Chaos, which causes one to ask where did Chaos come from, or the Titans from which Athena came?). Even Jesus has a father and a 90-year old step dad.
But what about the absolute source? That is easy to slip to. To be non-dogmatic about atheism, I keep it in the "Well, it could possible but I want evidence". But for myself, I have yet to see it. I hold Atheism as a theory - it is true until it is disproven. And so far, like the theory of gravity, it's working out fine.
Awww, no kindle version from there.
But I did find a video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaB-zq864-c
By the way, a slide-back is not that hard. After nearly 60 years of indoctrination, it's hard for me NOT to say a blessing unconsciously before drinking a glass of water, or when I hear thunder, or when I taste a new piece of fruit for the year. It's been drilled into me and it just sort of comes out. The acknowledgement of God is so ingrained that it's going to take a bit of deprogramming for me to clear my head.
It is so egocentric for me to believe that the Creator of the universe (a) gives a damn that a tiny speck is thanking him for the water (b) even hears the blessing or © is even there. God was created by man, not the other way around. Because if a God did create the Universe, do you really think that he or she has selected Earthers as His special people any more than selecting the Jews of all of the people? Why not some other life form? Or better yet, He plays no favorites.
And the believers, they tell you that God is everywhere. He just stopped talking about 2000 years ago, stopped whispering to prophets, stopped stopped interfering in nature (stopping the sun, splitting the sea, bursting the sky with a gread sound and light show, opening the earth to swalloy bad people). And if all of those stories are false, then believing in God is like wanting to keep that wisdom tooth - it serves no purpose and will just be a pain down the road.
And that is IF there is a God. But the problem with this whole God business is to echo Chas, that "he has no beginning nor end" so how did he get here?
For Athena, we got her popping out of her dad's forehead, like a big zit. And most of the older gods have a creation story (I like Uranos who came from Chaos, which causes one to ask where did Chaos come from, or the Titans from which Athena came?). Even Jesus has a father and a 90-year old step dad.
But what about the absolute source? That is easy to slip to. To be non-dogmatic about atheism, I keep it in the "Well, it could possible but I want evidence". But for myself, I have yet to see it. I hold Atheism as a theory - it is true until it is disproven. And so far, like the theory of gravity, it's working out fine.
“I've done everything the Bible says — even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff!"— Ned Flanders
