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James Lee View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 15 2005 at 15:32
^ I used to get the same feeling on acid. Was I closer to the truth or further from it?
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 15 2005 at 15:28
what baffles me a little is that some people seem to think the belief in God and the "belief" in science are in any way contradictory. Friede and I are by no means people who live in the 19th century. we are avid readers of the Scientific American and always game to debate the latest discoveries and advancements of science. yet the more science discovers the more we feel that the world makes "sense" in a more than just a scientific way. people who believe in God are by no means necessarily reactionary blockheads


A shot of me as High Priestess of Gaia during our fall festival. Ceterum censeo principiis obsta
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 15 2005 at 15:11
Originally posted by goose goose wrote:

Originally posted by tangerine62 tangerine62 wrote:

Look mate god does not exist
for me now or ever, so don't bull me with take a walk in a forest.......This
universe was created after the big bang and not in 7 days that the
numpties would have you believe. I don't like god nor have any wish too,
wake up and smell the sh*te your your preaching.

So you have an absolutely unshakeable belief? What's the difference
between your belief and belief in a God?

(off-topic)

This is just my appreciation for your formidable socrateic attitude that
you have discreetly shown ever since I began reading the forums, and
still keep doing so. I'm sure there're many more who praise your sceptical
stand.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable - George Bernhard Shaw
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 15 2005 at 14:53
people really seem to need religion, don't they? As soon as one belief system goes out of vogue, another rises to capture the recently liberated minds. As soon as one is shown to be full of ridiculous inconsistencies and stilted, evasive language...another comes along- even more patently silly, without even the former's benefits of tradition and achivement in culture. Why can't we just abandon religion like we abandoned alchemy and astrology (whoops, some people do still believe in that, sorry) and devote our mental and spiritual energy to create something inclusive, reasonable and beneficial for once?

Oh, and as long as we're linking:

http://www.satanism101.com/essentials.html

http://www.subgenius.com/


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 15 2005 at 14:50
Originally posted by Eetu Pellonpää Eetu Pellonpää wrote:

But what I regard as a fact is, that all three things stated before are observed. They can be, and are measured scientifically. Senses never give an accurate picture of the world, but the scientific instruments can drill down deeper. I think today quantium physics indicate the level, where we cannot anymore do exact measuring? So nothing at least from to say about those theories.
 
Ah but we still need our senses to read the measurements, and that's assuming that a God isn't manipulating every scientific device to make it appear as though he doesn't exist.
 
Today we  are brought up to "believe" science and it seems perfectly logical, but equally a century ago we were brought up to believe in the Christian (or other, depending on location) God (for what it's worth, I'd lean more towards science than religion), and that seemed perfectly logical too.
 
The main problem (for me, certainly) in coming to any conclusions about the creation of the universe, or a higher power, a divine purpose &c. is a complete inability to comprehend it. Really, what does 11 billion years mean? Compared to 10 billion years, or even 1 billion, or even a million? Even if you lived a hundred years you're only a ten-millionth of a way to a billion, let alone eleven billion.
 
And what does 156 billion light years mean compared to one light year? Even if you travelled round the earth you'd only be going a little under 8,000 miles.
 
Obviously I can express these things mathematically, but they don't hold any meaning to me because they're so absurdly large. To try and apply logical thought to something I can't even visualise or comprehend seems pretty pointless.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 15 2005 at 12:50

Originally posted by BaldJean BaldJean wrote:

your point of view shows a trap of thinking both science and the church fell into for several hundred years, when science developed.

I feel the whole world is a trap.  It seems like a complex formation of dominobricks crashing towards infinity, without any human reason.

Ah...

But feel sorry for you as you are being abused because of your faith. That phenomenon is one of billions disqusting aspects of our pathetic bastard race, which will probaply very soon disappear in smoke of nuclear explosion clouds.

Time to get the evening medics...



Edited by Eetu Pellonpää
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 15 2005 at 12:29

no, God IS the creation, ever changing, ever evolving, ever alive!

 

Great sermon!


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 15 2005 at 12:15
Originally posted by Eetu Pellonpää Eetu Pellonpää wrote:

Originally posted by goose goose wrote:

That the satellites actually are orbiting earth, that a higher power isn't making them do so, that the satellites aren't a figment of everyone's imagination, that the earth isn't a figment of everyone's imagination. It may sound silly but the last three can't possibly be proven either way (and hence nor can the first). Nobody can know for certain that their senses are giving them an accurate portrayal of the world and universe around them. I'm not saying they don't, by any means, as I expect they do, but as long as it isn't proven any observations rely on assumptions
 
Ok, if people want or need to think so, I´ll accept their choices, as long these viewpoints do not affect any critical areas of my own life.
 
But what I regard as a fact is, that all three things stated before are observed. They can be, and are measured scientifically. Senses never give an accurate picture of the world, but the scientific instruments can drill down deeper. I think today quantium physics indicate the level, where we cannot anymore do exact measuring? So nothing at least from to say about those theories.
 
From a subjective viewpoint, one can believe anything he wants. From objective viewpoint, when some measured phenomenons form an intact wholeness, without any provable leaks, I call it a fact. This is a semi-free world, so anybody can always state, that anything might be just a mass-hallucination of whole mankind. Mankind may have mass-hallucinations regarding abstract, non-physical phenomenons (what would be the most provocative thing I might put here as an example?), but the masses never catch such hallucinations concidering physical subjects. Some sorry fools from time to time may for example get the idea that they can fly, but after they have collected corpses of these jumpers from the streets, nobody follows them. Why? Common sense. Logic. The ability to understand what is real and what not within the range of your abilities.
 
Mike Oldfield stated at the late seventies, that he believes everybody is part of his own imagination. There was a picture if him looking the reader with a statement "Buy my newest record, or I'll quit thinking of you and you disappear". I went straight to second hand music store and sold all of his records I got. But I'm still here, sorry Mike.  If Mike gets a beating, does he think he had subconscious masochistic shock, which made him to imagine an evil villain beating him? I so, he has lost touch of reality. Very badly.
 
My deepest appologies, if my writing annoyed anybody. I hesitated long before writing anything, 'cause these conversations usually make the biggest fights.
 
Corrected typing errors...

your point of view shows a trap of thinking both science and the church fell into for several hundred years, when science developed. it is in fact quite nicely summed up in an anecdote about Laplace, who, when he showed his theory of the evolution of the solar system to Napoleon, was asked why God did not appear in his explanation and proudly answered: "I didn't need this hypothesis, Sire!" it is the idea that God only exists in the unexplainable. the more science could explain, the smaller the territory for God became over the centuries. the idea of God behind this kind of thinking is a rather weak one, in my opinion. what a poor God that would be who has to lend a helping hand to his creation all the time, for example for the forming of the planetary system!
God is neither a rather detached being that somewhere hovers in space and watches the creation. no, God IS the creation, ever changing, ever evolving, ever alive!


A shot of me as High Priestess of Gaia during our fall festival. Ceterum censeo principiis obsta
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 15 2005 at 09:31
Don't worry Eetu- blame Maani, he wanted discussion! Makes good reading, but I think that may degenerate in the near future if the thread keeps going.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 15 2005 at 09:17
Originally posted by goose goose wrote:

That the satellites actually are orbiting earth, that a higher power isn't making them do so, that the satellites aren't a figment of everyone's imagination, that the earth isn't a figment of everyone's imagination. It may sound silly but the last three can't possibly be proven either way (and hence nor can the first). Nobody can know for certain that their senses are giving them an accurate portrayal of the world and universe around them. I'm not saying they don't, by any means, as I expect they do, but as long as it isn't proven any observations rely on assumptions
 
Ok, if people want or need to think so, I´ll accept their choices, as long these viewpoints do not affect any critical areas of my own life.
 
But what I regard as a fact is, that all three things stated before are observed. They can be, and are measured scientifically. Senses never give an accurate picture of the world, but the scientific instruments can drill down deeper. I think today quantium physics indicate the level, where we cannot anymore do exact measuring? So nothing at least from to say about those theories.
 
From a subjective viewpoint, one can believe anything he wants. From objective viewpoint, when some measured phenomenons form an intact wholeness, without any provable leaks, I call it a fact. This is a semi-free world, so anybody can always state, that anything might be just a mass-hallucination of whole mankind. Mankind may have mass-hallucinations regarding abstract, non-physical phenomenons (what would be the most provocative thing I might put here as an example?), but the masses never catch such hallucinations concidering physical subjects. Some sorry fools from time to time may for example get the idea that they can fly, but after they have collected corpses of these jumpers from the streets, nobody follows them. Why? Common sense. Logic. The ability to understand what is real and what not within the range of your abilities.
 
Mike Oldfield stated at the late seventies, that he believes everybody is part of his own imagination. There was a picture if him looking the reader with a statement "Buy my newest record, or I'll quit thinking of you and you disappear". I went straight to second hand music store and sold all of his records I got. But I'm still here, sorry Mike.  If Mike gets a beating, does he think he had subconscious masochistic shock, which made him to imagine an evil villain beating him? I so, he has lost touch of reality. Very badly.
 
My deepest appologies, if my writing annoyed anybody. I hesitated long before writing anything, 'cause these conversations usually make the biggest fights.
 
Corrected typing errors...


Edited by Eetu Pellonpää
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 15 2005 at 08:43
Originally posted by goose goose wrote:

Originally posted by goose goose wrote:

Nobody can know for certain that their senses are giving them an accurate portrayal of the world and universe around them.
I'd just like to point out for clarity that I started following this line of thought when I was thirteen or fourteen, long, long before I took any hallucinogens

How can I know that I have read and replied to this posting?

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 15 2005 at 08:22
Gaia....what a lot of rot!
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 15 2005 at 08:16
Originally posted by goose goose wrote:

Nobody can know for certain that their senses are giving them an accurate portrayal of the world and universe around them.
I'd just like to point out for clarity that I started following this line of thought when I was thirteen or fourteen, long, long before I took any hallucinogens
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 15 2005 at 08:12
well said, Friede! you have a better way with words than I.


A shot of me as High Priestess of Gaia during our fall festival. Ceterum censeo principiis obsta
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 15 2005 at 07:52
The main difference between an atheist and a "believer" (I dislike this word; it gives a wrong impression) is that for the "believer" the world makes sense, for the atheist it doesn't. As Jean pointed out, "to believe" does not mean "to think there is an entity somewhere that judges our deeds". It merely means there is a consciousness behind it all, which in my opinion is a perfectly logical conclusion. Nature has a tendency to create ever more complex structures, and the more complex they get the more consciousness they have. An amoeba has a higher consciousness than a stone, and an insect has a higher consciousness than an amoeba. Due to the very complex structure of our brains we humans have a highly complex consciousness. The most complex structure in the universe is the universe itself though, so it makes perfect sense to me to assume it has a consciousness. And this consciousness I call "God". This can be neither proven nor disproven, but I rather prefer the world to make sense.

Mark that by saying this I introduce the concept of an "evolving God", which is quite different to the omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent entity in Christian religion. Nevertheless it could be said of the "God" of my conception that these attributes are true in a way. "It" (I dislike the usage of the personal pronoun "he" for God) certainly is omnipresent, since the whole universe is part of it. It is in a way omnipotent too, because everything in the world is done by it, or rather one of its parts. And it is omnisicent, because just as a human being is aware of its own body, so would it be aware of its body, and perhaps even more so. While human beings are not aware of the cells of their body, a consciousness of this magnitude might very well be aware of its own parts.
I am quite certain dyed-in-the-wool atheists will still reject my concept of God. Not because they disagree with me, but because they reject any idea of God in principle, no matter what that idea is.

My being a High Priestess of a religion that worships Gaia, the Great Mother Earth, is no contradiction, by the way. On the contrary, Gaia is a perfect metaphor of my believe. We just stick to Earth and don't extend the deity to the universe in that religion because we can't reach the stars anyway yet. But Gaia embodies the same principle of a higher consciousness.


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 15 2005 at 07:17
Oh God, if there be a God, please save my immortal soul, if I have an immortal soul! (Prayer of an agnostic on his deathbed).


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 15 2005 at 07:16

It was by Diego Rivera and is a massive mural. It features Lenin & Trotsky.

It was in-famous as it was originally meant for one of the large skyscrapers in New York (Rockerfeller maybe?), but the owner didn't like the communist references and scrapped it.

Now somewhere in Mexico.

 

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 15 2005 at 07:11
who painted it?  is that Lenin in the background?
"...misty halos made visible by the spectral illumination of moonshine."
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 15 2005 at 07:06
Originally posted by NutterAlert NutterAlert wrote:

Originally posted by Snow Dog Snow Dog wrote:

^ What you trying to say Nutter?

One of my fav paintings, and highly controversial at the time. 'Man controller of the Universe' its called. My reading of it being that man-is-man-made, we control what happens to us and there is no higher being. 

Hey.....thats just about what I've been saying! We need a hand shaking Smiley here!

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 15 2005 at 07:03

Originally posted by Snow Dog Snow Dog wrote:

^ What you trying to say Nutter?

One of my fav paintings, and highly controversial at the time. 'Man controller of the Universe' its called. My reading of it being that man-is-man-made, we control what happens to us and there is no higher being. 

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