What (Or Who) Is God (God)?

[Mark_Alan]

Why do humans have a pathological need to believe in a Supreme Being who controls and justifies all actions (past, present & future)?

[1ozzy]

Only if you say "Hail Mary" enough.
;-)

[Marshwarble]

"A book written in the dark ages."

Most of the phraseology of the Bible seems to have come from the 17th Century, which is post-medieval or modern. The people, places, etc are all ancient (or meant to be)-coming from pre 500 AD (ie The Dark Ages).

[mibn2cweus]

For some, believing what they feel is preferred to the effort and courage required to know what is real. Some find it easier to manipulate their own mind than to acquire the necessary understanding of reality required to improve their relationship to it.

There are no limitations imposed on what one can choose to believe if one is willing to subjugate reason to their belief. God is presented as a father figure to those who wish to return to a childhood they never outgrew rather than acknowledge the responsibility of becoming an adult. God is a manifestation of an imagination that refuses to acknowledge the limitations imposed by reality on that which can possibly be.

The consequences of arbitrary beliefs is a reality that appears arbitrary. God is one in whom, as a consequence of believing, belief becomes necessarily . . . if not inescapable. Belief in a divine overseer of reality who has our best interest at heart in this technological age overrun with religiously inspired barbarism is a luxury we can no longer afford.

[Mark_Alan]

Wow! I learn something new and useless every day. i.e. Healthy Upmas for Breakfast. That must be something that British/Indians know more about that ignorant Yanks. (:-)

[1ozzy]

And ignorant Aussies Mark_Alan.
I'd never heard of it either.
But I like learning useless stuff.
Don't know why though ;-)

[Mark_Alan]

"It is natural for the mind to believe and for the will to love; so that, for want of true objects, they must attach themselves to false." Pensees (#81) by Blaise Pascal
So the question is: How does one determine with the highest degree of certainty what objects are worthy of true belief?
In a study of American soldiers from the Korean War, it was found that they didn't fight and risk their lives for God or the USA or family or military orders. No, they did it most of all for their buddies in the foxhole next to them. And as someone once said, "There are no athiests in a foxhole." I guess that means God is the buddy of last resort.

[keyplus90]

OK. As someone believes here that you are looking for an answer. Having said that my experience here tells me that people usually are not looking for an answer but trying to tell people that this is what I believe and I want you to confirm that what I believe in is right.

Back to the question then, Mark, can I ask you a question before I could answer your question? There are so many examples I can give but let’s mention something we all know and deal with. Why do we need traffic police, speed cameras, law and punishment (points etc) when we have been told that we should stay within the speed limit?

[atalanta]

Believing in a god allows you to stop having to think for yourself, and let others ( priests, scripture-writers, dogmatists) do your thinking for you. Thinking is often quite hard to do, and it is easier not to do it.
If your god comes with an afterlife, you have the consolation of believing that you will see your dead loved-ones again, and that death is not the end. If you have suffered and you know an evil person who has prospered, you believe that justice will be done in the next world. That makes the suffering a bit easier.
Also, gods of the modern world are male, which means that maleness implies superiority, so men can give themselves power over women and make women do the ( unpleasant, badly paid) work that they ( the men) don't want to do.

[RATTER15]

Keyplus //Why do we need traffic police, speed cameras, law and punishment (points etc) when we have been told that we should stay within the speed limit?// You got a blinking nerve to come up with that tripe when you support the worlds largest death cult "Islam"!!

[mikey4444]

Mark-Ann....Only a few do feel the need, but I think its all to to with education. The better educated people are, the less the tendency is for them to believe in mumbo jumbo. All religions are invented after all, and they are invented by man, not gods.

[keyplus90]

Ratter - Islamophobia. Nothing else. Otherwise still to this date there are more Muslims being killed due to the wrong policies of the others than there are Non-Muslims being killed by people who we believe are Muslims. Anyone can grow a beard and anyone can shout Allah hu Akbar. However this question is not about your hate for Islam or me clarifying. Please post another thread mentioning my name and then be prepared to answer my few questions too. The only person I would response here is the person who posted this question and not timewaster with fixed mentality like you.

[nailit]

//What (Or Who) Is God (God)?//

After next weeks budget, the jobless, the sick and disabled and those on low incomes will find that George Osbourne is God. (And He's not a happy God with those who are committing the sin of trying to scrape bye on 'handouts'....off with our heads)

[Mosaic]

Loving this thread. Like being really drunk, but for free and no hangover.

[vetuste_ennemi]

I don't think the need (in most cases) is pathological Mark Alan. The majority of people believe in such a god because they were brought up to (and for no other reason), rather than that their powers of reasoning or their moral senses have been damaged in some way. It's part of their culture, and they will usually explain moral values and concepts in the symbolic terms of their own particular form of religion (e.g. they'll use phrses like "Christian" behaviour). Religions like Taoism don't have any such concept of a divine Big Brother, so the pathology, even if it does exist, is certainly not universal.

[RATTER15]

Keyplus, A phobia is an "irrational" fear! my fear is very rational indeed, I am afraid of the likes of you and your religion taking over more areas of our country, creating more no go areas for whites, more child rape gangs, more bombs and killing of innocent people. Your faith disgusts me!!

[Mark_Alan]

I'm glad that the current pope has taken his name from the spurious author of the following:

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred let me sow love,
Where there is injury let me sow pardon,
Where there is doubt let me sow faith,
Where there is despair let me give hope,
Where there is darkness let me give light,
Where there is sadness let me give joy.

  O Divine Master, grant that
I may not try to be comforted but to comfort,
Not try to be understood but to understand,
Not try to be loved but to love.
Because it is in giving that we receive,
It is in forgiving that we are forgiven,
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
 
St. Francis "Peace Prayer"