God and the Imagination

[Freedom]

I had a chat with some Christians about prayer. I told them that prayer makes me wonder if I am creating God and the whole dialogue in my imagination. I asked them if they ever thought that maybe they are creating God in their imaginations.

They really don't believe they are doing that!

It's difficult to distinguish between one's imagination and the objectivity of a deity.

What do you think?

[ThomM]

I had a chat with some Christians about prayer. I told them that prayer makes me wonder if I am creating God and the whole dialogue in my imagination. I asked them if they ever thought that maybe they are creating God in their imaginations.

They really don't believe they are doing that!

It's difficult to distinguish between one's imagination and the objectivity of a deity.

What do you think?

In reality - Prayer has turned out to be something of NO real use. THERE has never been a real scientific study of prayer - using a large enough sample to be of statistical significance - that even suggests that prayer has any effect beyond that of chance. Prayer is nothing more than what a theist says he will do for you - when he will not even raise a finger to help you otherwise.

Think about it - if YOU were an almighty god - and wanted to be worshipped by EVERYONE - would you want to hear the same prayer DRONED by your people - unthinking - over and over and over again ad infinitum? A logical person would go nuts quickly hearing that !

[Godscreated]

I had a chat with some Christians about prayer. I told them that prayer makes me wonder if I am creating God and the whole dialogue in my imagination. I asked them if they ever thought that maybe they are creating God in their imaginations.

They really don't believe they are doing that!

It's difficult to distinguish between one's imagination and the objectivity of a deity.

What do you think?

A delusion about the same God with the many different thoughts about Him seems highly unlikely and then for those who see God through those many different eyes to believe in one way to salvation, well delusion gives way to reality.
As for me I've stated many time I know with no doubts that God is real and He is who He says He is, and I've seen prayer in my own life answered many times, for myself I have proof positive. You I'm sure will justify away what I'm certain of, so be it, death does hold the truth.

[Cato]

A delusion about the same God with the many different thoughts about Him seems highly unlikely....

Except when you consider the fact that there are over 40,000 denominations of Christianity.

Tell you what, why don't you and your ilk take the next 2000 years, leave the rest of us be, get your story straight, and get back to us.

[Praetorian]

They really don't believe they are doing that!

It's difficult to distinguish between one's imagination and the objectivity of a deity.

What do you think?

I know when I was a believer, this was a constant worry. It was stated differently, as in, "Don't let your own thoughts get in the way of what God is telling you." People had varying degrees of certainty as to what they were hearing, of course. A famous example is a southern preacher, can't recall his name, who had the idea of hell weighing heavily on his conscience. So he prayed, and he's now utterly certain that God told him hell doesn't exist. Convenient, yes?

Prayer is nothing but deep self reflection, no matter what @Godschild says about his personal experience. There is certainly no interaction with the supernatural, and the answers you can get from it are the simple result of asking yourself a question. Ask and you shall receive - from yourself.

Isn't it profound that, as a Christian, when you pray and hear nothing, Christian doctrine tells you that you're just, "not ready for the answer yet?" It's silly, and obvious to anyone who spends even a moment as an outsider.

[Ryantology]

A delusion about the same God with the many different thoughts about Him seems highly unlikely and then for those who see God through those many different eyes to believe in one way to salvation, well delusion gives way to reality.

It helps that 100% of these delusions are derivative of a worldwide cultural virus. Has there ever, in human history, been an independently verified case of someone spontaneously having a vision of Jesus Christ without any foreknowledge or prior experience with Christianity? I think it's damned convenient that visions of Christ only ever occur to people already exposed to the religion.

As for me I've stated many time I know with no doubts that God is real and He is who He says He is, and I've seen prayer in my own life answered many times, for myself I have proof positive. You I'm sure will justify away what I'm certain of, so be it, death does hold the truth.

And, as I've stated many times, you're an arrogant, delusional moron who can't tell the difference between fact and fantasy. Since you know we know you're full of shit, maybe you can stop repeating it like a defective robot.

[Mystical]

Godschild, what do you consider highly unlikely with regards to this subject? Do you find it unlikely that humans all over the world no matter where they are, have sex in the same positions? No? We're all biologically similar, after all. What you consider unlikely, I consider highly likely for the mere fact that humans are similar in their basic biological, sociological, and psychological needs for there to be a god. The fact that your particular gods' doctrine has been multiplied over the world (BY FORCE in many cases), merely proves my point.

Tell ya what, I'll ask myself a question about my life, and see if I get an overwhelmingly intuitive answer that I would've attributed to god replying to me. Bet you I get an answer, minus the dopamine release that you get.

[Godscreated]

I know when I was a believer, this was a constant worry. It was stated differently, as in, "Don't let your own thoughts get in the way of what God is telling you." People had varying degrees of certainty as to what they were hearing, of course. A famous example is a southern preacher, can't recall his name, who had the idea of hell weighing heavily on his conscience. So he prayed, and he's now utterly certain that God told him hell doesn't exist. Convenient, yes?

Can that story be verified, could it be you misunderstood what was said by the supposed preacher.

Prayer is nothing but deep self reflection, no matter what @Godschild says about his personal experience. There is certainly no interaction with the supernatural, and the answers you can get from it are the simple result of asking yourself a question. Ask and you shall receive - from yourself.

You need to disprove my experiences before you dismiss them, that is if you want to be honest with yourself. How is it you are certain, your word not mine, there is no interaction with God. Exactly how was it I gave an answer to myself, especially when the answer was something I could not have imagined.

Isn't it profound that, as a Christian, when you pray and hear nothing, Christian doctrine tells you that you're just, "not ready for the answer yet?" It's silly, and obvious to anyone who spends even a moment as an outsider.

That's not Christian doctrine, who told you that, that's a fact of life in many different arenas. So you must believe all facets of life are silly, just because a person is not ready for some type of knowledge.

[paulpablo]

I had a chat with some Christians about prayer. I told them that prayer makes me wonder if I am creating God and the whole dialogue in my imagination. I asked them if they ever thought that maybe they are creating God in their imaginations.

They really don't believe they are doing that!

It's difficult to distinguish between one's imagination and the objectivity of a deity.

What do you think?

You have a pretty good point I think.
I've always found it strange that a religious people are aware that there were people in the past and people on earth now who don't worship the same god as them, they would consider them to be worshiping the wrong god, therefore they must be aware that humans do have the tendency to imagine gods, gods of all sorts. That's the way I see it anyway and that's just one of the things I'm aware that causes me to not believe.

[Sal]

I had a chat with some Christians about prayer. I told them that prayer makes me wonder if I am creating God and the whole dialogue in my imagination. I asked them if they ever thought that maybe they are creating God in their imaginations.

They really don't believe they are doing that!

It's difficult to distinguish between one's imagination and the objectivity of a deity.

What do you think?

I think they're deluding themselves - I know, I'm an apostate of Christianity, and that's what I did. I didn't distinguish between my own thoughts and what can only be described as delusion. So, sometimes I would have a thought, and I'd often have the question if it was god telling me something. Now take that idea plus conditioning of thought processes and the result is cognitive dissonance in the thinking process; you basically impair your ability to distinguish between real thoughts and god-thought in your own fucking mind, because the god-thought is your own fucking thoughts to begin with.

I've come across a cult that were experts in this, called the Tulpae Movement which exemplifies what I mean by cognitive dissonance in thought.