Anyone Here Believe in Noah's Ark?

[Fe 26]

That drives me crazy. Messing around with words like that. 'God is love!' No, actually we already have a word for what you're trying to describe and it's 'love'. Throwing the God label on it only screws up communication and actually becomes completely meaningless.

Love is possible without God. And calling a feeling or sensation 'God' takes all of the 'God' out of it. It's silly.

It is pretty clear that you don't understand the concept of spirituality. People who believe that God is love actually believe that God is like some sort of energy much like spirit energy in video games or the Force. They think love and God are two names for that energy. I guess you could say they are mixing western and eastern concepts of spirituality.

Its kind of silly, but you also silly for not knowing what they're talking about.

[Giga Power]

no, at some point it still requires faith. You have faith that there is not more information past what you've already have perceived in coming to your conclusion. And you have faith in yourself that you are not wrong or made no mistake in your judgment.

That's going back to an argument from absolute knowledge. There's no such thing. It's pointless to think about anything in terms of 'well, I dunno it could be!' That logic could apply to anything. Dragons. Goblins. Anything. It's more about looking at what has been demonstrated in reality versus OMG POSSIBILITIES.

Is there anything else in your life beside God you'd use that type of thinking on? It's silly.

[Giga Power]

Ugh, this stupid debate drives me almost as nuts as dumb Christians, especially since everybody I know IRL already knows the difference. Atheism doesn't come from sticking a- on the front of theism, it comes from sticking -ism on the end of atheos ("no god"). So yes, it means an assertive believe that there is nothing beyond the physical, not just passive non-belief.

No. Atheos was originally used to describe Christians and pagans by the Greeks. The modern word is directly 'non-theism' In the time of the Greeks everyone believed in something because science and critical thought didn't provide alternative explanations to man's questions. So when the Christians came about and only had one god, the Greeks used the term to suggest that they believed in false gods.

When the sky lit up, it was Zeus. A true atheistic view of the universe is fairly recent.

[Frogacuda]

It is pretty clear that you don't understand the concept of spirituality. People who believe that God is love actually believe that God is like some sort of energy much like spirit energy in video games or the Force. They think love and God are two names for that energy. I guess you could say they are mixing western and eastern concepts of spirituality.

Its kind of silly, but you also silly for not knowing what they're talking about.

But he's just saying that when you say "God is love" or "God is the laws of physics" or "God is something inside us" or all this shit, you lose any meaning for the word at all. If you want that to be the core of your belief system you're allowed to call it something else. If there's no common thread between what we call "God" then what does that name even mean?

[Fe 26]

Is there anything else in your life beside God you'd use that type of thinking on? It's silly.

You may think it is silly, but different things DO require different approaches and thinking. Static mechanics can be done with a different mathematical approach than dynamic mechanics. Passive circuits can be calculated with basic math while Active circuits require things like polar notation, imaginary numbers and calculus. Digital logic is done differently than Analog logic.

God, for most religions, has often been defined as something very different from anything we currently know. So, it isn't illogical to assume that understanding God's nature would require something different from the way we approach modern day life.

So it isn't silly. Just a problem that comes with what religion claims God is.

[Frogacuda]

It's like saying "I believe in Santa Claus" and then your parents say they made him up and you go "Well maybe my dog Scruffy is Santa Claus." Words have meanings, and God is the only word that seems to have no shared meaning now.

[Giga Power]

So it isn't silly. Just a problem that comes with what religion claims God is.

Which is a huge problem. If you can't define your God you're pissing on your feet.

[Fe 26]

But he's just saying that when you say "God is love" or "God is the laws of physics" or "God is something inside us" or all this shit, you lose any meaning for the word at all. If you want that to be the core of your belief system you're allowed to call it something else. If there's no common thread between what we call "God" then what does that name even mean?

Truth be told, it probably just means something like "what I worship" "what I live for" "what gives me security" "What makes me feel part of something greater."

And this is a bit bigger than this thread. You could write several books on how people's minds and mental health impact their definition of God and vice versa. I'm pretty sure Jung and Joseph Campbell already wrote a lot about this, about how religion is little more than the dreams of a society.

And its interesting that because of the individuality and freedom of the US, religion has come closer and closer to being the dreams of the individual.


And you're right, the word God has lost a lot of its meaning. When a word means all things, it means nothing.

It's like saying "I believe in Santa Claus" and then your parents say they made him up and you go "Well maybe my dog Scruffy is Santa Claus." Words have meanings, and God is the only word that seems to have no shared meaning now.

That isn't a very good example. We are running into this problem now because we don't really have authorities on this sort of stuff any more. Well no authorities that sane rational people respect. With santa, your parents are the authority. With God, the original writers are Dead and you have a few million people putting their own spin on it.

EDIT: and this isn't just a problem for the christian God. I've seen writings by various religious leaders around the wolrd wanting to put a stop to being all inclusive because of a fear of losing the cultural identity of the past.

[Giga Power]

When he says it, you get it. When I said it you accuse me of not understanding spirituality. I was talking in terms of words and communication that entire time.

[Fe 26]

Which is a huge problem. If you can't define your God you're pissing on your feet.

That problem comes with the questions God is used to answer. Like what was there before us? Why are we here? Why do we feel and think the way we do? What is our purpose? What is after death?

Those are mostly things beyond the testable or concrete. Therefor, it will also be hard to make God testable or concrete.

When he says it, you get it. When I said it you accuse me of not understanding spirituality. I was talking in terms of words and communication that entire time.

talk like frog then.