Is God really just an invisible friend for grownups?

Andyman_1970 · Mar 29, 2005

It depends on who you ask.

Obviously I vote no................LOL

LordOpie · Mar 29, 2005

great, Andy's here. Well, there goes my witty and hellbound response out of respect for him. Him being Andy. Not HIM. Oh wait, there it is.

jaydee · Mar 29, 2005

Maybe if he gave up his invisibility and held a press conference to tell people what he really thinks, we'd finally get rid of all these people who put words in his mouth and then use them to promote absurd agendas. There'd be a whole whack of fundamentalists of all persuasions running for cover, that's for sure. And I wonder what he'd look like in "person"?

freightGOD · Mar 29, 2005

that's about what it would take for me.

sanjuro · Mar 30, 2005

N8 said:
I heard this line in a movie I was watching on HBO high def tonite called The Big Bounce... I considered it as a signature line...

But, yeah... I think a LOT of peeps treat god as nothing more than an invisible friend... or even less than that.

Penn Jillette says it all the time...

Andyman_1970 · Mar 30, 2005

LordOpie said:
great, Andy's here. Well, there goes my witty and hellbound response out of respect for him. Him being Andy. Not HIM. Oh wait, there it is.

Thanks for being sensitive and all, but feel free and make your witty response, don't censor yourself on my account.

:thumb:

Andyman_1970 · Mar 30, 2005

N8 said:
But, yeah... I think a LOT of peeps treat god as nothing more than an invisible friend... or even less than that.

I think you're right, or they treat Him like a cosmic vending machine <cough> Charismaic Word of Faith'ers <cough>

fluff · Mar 30, 2005

Inivisible friend? Invisible adversary in some cases....

Andyman_1970 · Mar 30, 2005

fluff said:
Inivisible friend? Invisible adversary in some cases....

He's not a beared dude sitting on a cloud with a hand full of lightning bolts waiting to "zap" people - I don't believe in that god either..............

fluff · Mar 30, 2005

Andyman_1970 said:
He's not a beared dude sitting on a cloud with a hand full of lightning bolts waiting to "zap" people - I don't believe in that God either..............

How many gods do you not believe in? I have a list that probably runs into three figures.

Andyman_1970 · Mar 30, 2005

fluff said:
I have a list that probably runs into three figures.

So does my list of gods I don't believe in..............

LordOpie · Mar 30, 2005

There is only one Lord.

Andyman_1970 · Mar 30, 2005

LordOpie said:
There is only one Lord.

And His Name (His Shem) is spelled Y-H-W-H.............

fluff · Mar 30, 2005

LordOpie said:
There is only one Lord.

I bet you say that in the bedroom as often as you can eh?

$tinkle · Mar 30, 2005

we can't agree on a definition of god, but we could come close to agreeing on what invisible is. once we do that, we can take baby-steps to defining a grown-up.

and have faith like a child...

fluff · Mar 30, 2005

Invisible: Cannot be seen with the naked eye (in the commonly accepted range of frequencies)?

$tinkle · Mar 30, 2005

fluff said:
Invisible: Cannot be seen with the naked eye (in the commonly accepted range of frequencies)?

i think the nekid part is the "genesis" of man's fallenness, no?

gen 3:7

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked

Jr_Bullit · Mar 30, 2005

I talk to myself. That's as close to admitting his my buddy as I can get

considering I don't think it's a thinking conscious being in the same sense you or I am.

fluff · Mar 30, 2005

$tinkle said:
i think the nekid part is the "genesis" of man's fallenness, no?

gen 3:7

I guess the tree of knowledge included a dictionary branch because suddenly they needed some new terms for all the new knowledge.

$tinkle · Mar 30, 2005

relevant to this thread: (from cns news)

Atheist Activists Look to Future During Easter Convention

The future of atheism was particularly on the minds of two speakers who addressed the gathering of "First Amendment activists" on Saturday.

The first of these was Larry Beinhart, who is best known as the author of the novel "Wag the Dog," which was made into the movie of the same name.

Beinhart started his speech by stating that "the idea of a God is kind of ridiculous," a notion that led him to ask such questions as "If we're so smart, why aren't we rich?" and "If we're so right, why doesn't anybody agree with us?"

He added that he considers religion "psychotic" and called it "the search for meaning gone mad" in a vast, indifferent universe, though he acknowledged people spend most of their lives "figuring out how the world works."

Beinhart said he agreed with Karl Marx that "religion is the opiate of the masses," though he observed that for most people, its effect is "between opium and prozac, and for a lucky few, it's LSD."

However, the author noted that because religious persons have a world view that makes sense to them, they "live longer, they're healthier, and everything else works better. So even if it's delusional, even if it's wrong, it's functional. And ultimately, we have to think about that and respect that." (unless you're changleen)

Beinhart then stated he believes atheists have become trapped in an argument from the last century. "Saying there is no God is a dead end," he added. "The concept of God is offering people something they want. Why do they want it, and what can we offer in its place?"

The writer added that he believes religion can't be repressed or stamped out. "Just look how many people are in here," he said to the audience in the room, "and how many people are out there."

Noting that something in religion "makes sense either for the people doing it or for their relationship to the world or both," Beinhart insisted: "We've got to figure out what that is and separate it from the delusional parts. We've got to get past this God stuff."

Andyman_1970 · Mar 30, 2005

However, the author noted that because religious persons have a world view that makes sense to them, they "live longer, they're healthier, and everything else works better. So even if it's delusional, even if it's wrong, it's functional. And ultimately, we have to think about that and respect that." (unless you're changleen)

Nice addition...........LOL

Interestingly he's not given me too many problems since I shared my story several months ago.......I'm not complaining, but it's interesting.

Zark · Mar 30, 2005

Andyman_1970 said:
And His Name (His Shemp )

I'm a three Stooges fan too!
But I think Moe is more likely the deity out of the three

Changleen · Mar 30, 2005

$tinkle said:
However, the author noted that because religious persons have a world view that makes sense to them, they "live longer, they're healthier, and everything else works better. So even if it's delusional, even if it's wrong, it's functional. And ultimately, we have to think about that and respect that." (unless you're changleen)

My world view makes perfect sense to me thanks. I have low blood pressure, low cholesterol and am very happy and healthy. And you know what I think about your concept of 'god'.

Jr_Bullit · Mar 30, 2005

fluff said:
Invisible: Cannot be seen with the naked eye (in the commonly accepted range of frequencies)?

A dog can't see a rainbow, does a dog know they are there?

We can't see time - but we know it passes...
We can't see gravity, but they're studying to see if it "is" a particle that can be detected and we can feel it's effects
We can't see that thing that we feel is there, that we "need" to believe in, so we attach human level names to it and build organizations around it to exploit people's naked desire to understand...

fluff · Mar 30, 2005

Jr_Bullit said:
A dog can't see a rainbow, does a dog know they are there?

We can't see time - but we know it passes...
We can't see gravity, but they're studying to see if it "is" a particle that can be detected and we can feel it's effects
We can't see that thing that we feel is there, that we "need" to believe in, so we attach human level names to it and build organizations around it to exploit people's naked desire to understand...

Some people may say that they know God exists, they see his effect, etc.

How do you know that dogs can't see rainbows? Do they never look up?

LordOpie · Mar 30, 2005

fluff said:
How do you know that dogs can't see rainbows? Do they never look up?

Would you bother looking up if you could lick your balls?

Changleen · Mar 30, 2005

Dogs can see rainbows, just not like we see them. We have three types of cones in our eyes to see the three primary colours. Dogs have less. Interestingly some birds have seven types of cones. They can probably see all kinds of funky **** - maybe IR and UV, or magnetic and EM fields. Cool.

Jr_Bullit · Mar 31, 2005

fluff said:
Some people may say that they know God exists, they see his effect, etc.

How do you know that dogs can't see rainbows? Do they never look up?

I didn't say that a dog doesn't know rainbows exist. I do know dogs can't see color in the way humans do. My point was, there is no way to know if a dog can't sense a rainbow. There is no way to know if man really senses "god" or if we suffer from mass delusion throughout the world at the fear that we really are all alone and no different from any other organism made of the flesh of the earth.

smedford · Mar 31, 2005

"I think you're right, or they treat Him like a cosmic vending machine "

Heh Heh. Alone or not, in the end it really makes no differance.

fluff · Mar 31, 2005

LordOpie said:
Would you bother looking up if you could lick your balls?

Mna, why do yuo thnik my tpying is so bda?

Andyman_1970 · Mar 31, 2005

Another God thread that totally went down the tubes............

fluff · Mar 31, 2005

Andyman_1970 said:
Another God thread that totally went down the tubes............

I guess he just doesn't want them to thrive...

$tinkle · Mar 31, 2005

Andyman_1970 said:
Another God thread that totally went down the tubes............

does the feeding tube going down the pope's nose come close?

Andyman_1970 · Mar 31, 2005

$tinkle said:
does the feeding tube going down the pope's nose come close?

Hold on let me check my rule book.............

NO.............LOL

Jr_Bullit · Mar 31, 2005

Andyman - why must every post about god be serious? Why does this one qualify as "going down the tubes"?
Because it's not a ripe breeding ground for long theological posts?

$tinkle · Mar 31, 2005

Jr_Bullit said:
Andyman - why must every post about god be serious? Why does this one qualify as "going down the tubes"?
Because it's not a ripe breeding ground for long theological posts?

to the untrained eye, this looks like your first attempt at trolling.

but i know you're just trying to help a brother out.

Jr_Bullit · Mar 31, 2005

$tinkle said:
to the untrained eye, this looks like your first attempt at trolling.

but i know you're just trying to help a brother out.

Considering I don't generally "troll" as you put it, and that I have no idea what you mean by "helping a frother out", I guess you might have to settle for the explanation that I was, actually, curious.

fluff · Mar 31, 2005

Jr_Bullit said:
Considering I don't generally "troll" as you put it, and that I have no idea what you mean by "helping a frother out", I guess you might have to settle for the explanation that I was, actually, curious.

Looks like a 'b' to me...

Is God really just an invisible friend for grownups?

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