My views on God and religion

[ShinyCrystals]

[brewer]

TL/DR, maybe later.

[LinuxGal]

It is as if God desires power over others. I know this sounds crazy, given how God is all loving and all that

Not crazy at all. That is exactly how the Bible describes God:

REV.3:9 - Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

Evolution and survival of the fittest aside, what is the point of having a being that does not change in any way when everything else, including humans, do change?

What do you mean God does not change?  At first he was a tribal deity of the Hebrews, and demanded that his people have no other god before him.  Then later he said, naw, there never was any other God.  And even later Christians came along and said God was like Three-In-One Oil.

[h4ym4n]

Three in one oil  

[ShinyCrystals]

It is as if God desires power over others. I know this sounds crazy, given how God is all loving and all that

Not crazy at all. That is exactly how the Bible describes God:

REV.3:9 - Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

Evolution and survival of the fittest aside, what is the point of having a being that does not change in any way when everything else, including humans, do change?

What do you mean God does not change?  At first he was a tribal deity of the Hebrews, and demanded that his people have no other god before him.  Then later he said, naw, there never was any other God.  And even later Christians came along and said God was like Three-In-One Oil.

Well, I could be wrong on this as well, but if God was perfect, wouldn’t that mean he would have to stay that way? Because from my understanding, a slight change could ruin perfection, does it not?

If I am wrong on anything, I do understand.

[GrandizerII]

What is better? A world in which you could freely enjoy learning all sorts of things in life without so much undesired suffering? Or a similar world yet with so much undesired suffering?

I would say the former. My opinion is whatever I might actually learn from suffering in this world could alternatively have been learned in some other way that does not require suffering on my part.

[GrandizerII]

Not crazy at all. That is exactly how the Bible describes God:

REV.3:9 - Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.


What do you mean God does not change?  At first he was a tribal deity of the Hebrews, and demanded that his people have no other god before him.  Then later he said, naw, there never was any other God.  And even later Christians came along and said God was like Three-In-One Oil.

Well, I could be wrong on this as well, but if God was perfect, wouldn’t that mean he would have to stay that way? Because from my understanding, a slight change could ruin perfection, does it not?

If I am wrong on anything, I do understand.

LG is talking about the evolution of beliefs about god/gods, which is separate from the object of the God-belief changing.

[ShinyCrystals]

Well, I could be wrong on this as well, but if God was perfect, wouldn’t that mean he would have to stay that way? Because from my understanding, a slight change could ruin perfection, does it not?

If I am wrong on anything, I do understand.

LG is talking about the evolution of beliefs about god/gods, which is separate from the object of the God-belief changing.

Oh, I see.

While it is true that beliefs about god/gods do change, I do not think I was talking about that. In fact, I am sure I was not talking about that. I may have missed something in what I said, but I was trying to talk about God himself rather than beliefs in God, if I am not mistaken. If I am, I might have made a typo.

[FrustratedFool]

Do you think it likely an omnipotent personal being exists?

If so, why?

[ShinyCrystals]

Do you think it likely an omnipotent personal being exists?

If so, why?

Not really. By "there's a god in all of us", I mean we are in control of our lives, and we don't necessarily need anyone, especially god/gods to do things for us, nor do we need to rely on god/gods to make something of ourselves. It was more of a metaphor than something literal.

That said, omnipotence is pretty much a paradox, and thus is something that cannot exist. I mean, being everything at once as well as nothing is paradoxical, is it not? There could be other things I am missing, but as far as I know, limits exist for a reason. I don't think anything can be omnipotent. I'd be wrong if I meant that there is a "god inside all of us", we'd be omnipotent. Even then, we are only human, and being omnipotent would make everything too easy for us, and with that, we probably would not really be human.