The Phenomenon of God

[zer0]

I would like to begin a discussion on a subject that I am beginning to refer to as the phenomenon of God. I don't want to talk about a single god in particular be it the God of Abraham or Zeus or Shiva but rather I want to mesh all of the gods of history together and ask one simple question: What has caused them? It started a month ago when I considered more deeply a question I would ask people when they would shockingly ask "Why are you not a Christian???". The question I would render to them was around the lines of "What makes Christianity exclusive? What is the defining line?"

If I ask a Christian why they are a Christian they say that God has changed their life. If I ask a Muslim why he is a Muslim he says Allah has changed his life if I ask a Hindu why he is a Hindu he says because Brahma has changed my life. Well now I'm asking a new question. What is it that is changing these peoples lives? Christians (and I'm not picking on Christians I only have more experience in dealing with them because of my particular geographical location) would normally say that these changes are the work of the devil but frankly I don't think I even need to get into why that is a crock of B.S. but I will say that Muslims say the same things and so do Jews. So I wanted to get a few other peoples views on this subject.

What do you think this phenomenon is? What is causing it? Do you believe it is a phenomenon? Do you believe it is a single God acting under the guise of many? Answer any or all of these if you wish and say anything else you deem necessary. All comments are welcome =)

 

[Sikh]

I would like to begin a discussion on a subject that I am beginning to refer to as the phenomenon of God. I don't want to talk about a single god in particular be it the God of Abraham or Zeus or Shiva but rather I want to mesh all of the gods of history together and ask one simple question: What has caused them? It started a month ago when I considered more deeply a question I would ask people when they would shockingly ask "Why are you not a Christian???". The question I would render to them was around the lines of "What makes Christianity exclusive? What is the defining line?"

If I ask a Christian why they are a Christian they say that God has changed their life. If I ask a Muslim why he is a Muslim he says Allah has changed his life if I ask a Hindu why he is a Hindu he says because Brahma has changed my life. Well now I'm asking a new question. What is it that is changing these peoples lives? Christians (and I'm not picking on Christians I only have more experience in dealing with them because of my particular geographical location) would normally say that these changes are the work of the devil but frankly I don't think I even need to get into why that is a crock of B.S. but I will say that Muslims say the same things and so do Jews. So I wanted to get a few other peoples views on this subject.

What do you think this phenomenon is? What is causing it? Do you believe it is a phenomenon? Do you believe it is a single God acting under the guise of many? Answer any or all of these if you wish and say anything else you deem necessary. All comments are welcome =)

Three people on the edge of a cliff. One says, be careful, you could fall off, man wasn't meant to fly. Another one says, forget about the cliff, look at the beautiful sky. The third one says nothing so the other two look towards him. The third one is crouched down looking at edge intently , what do you see ask the other two? The third one replies that ants are climbing down the cliff.

Much later the three find themselves at the bottom of the cliff facing an ocean, one
says, be careful, you could drown...

 

[zer0]

A doctor who specializes in skin diseases will dream he has fallen asleep in front of the television. Later, he will wake up in front of the television but not remember his dream.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

I would like to begin a discussion on a subject that I am beginning to refer to as the phenomenon of God. I don't want to talk about a single god in particular be it the God of Abraham or Zeus or Shiva but rather I want to mesh all of the gods of history together and ask one simple question: What has caused them? It started a month ago when I considered more deeply a question I would ask people when they would shockingly ask "Why are you not a Christian???". The question I would render to them was around the lines of "What makes Christianity exclusive? What is the defining line?"

If I ask a Christian why they are a Christian they say that God has changed their life. If I ask a Muslim why he is a Muslim he says Allah has changed his life if I ask a Hindu why he is a Hindu he says because Brahma has changed my life. Well now I'm asking a new question. What is it that is changing these peoples lives? Christians (and I'm not picking on Christians I only have more experience in dealing with them because of my particular geographical location) would normally say that these changes are the work of the devil but frankly I don't think I even need to get into why that is a crock of B.S. but I will say that Muslims say the same things and so do Jews. So I wanted to get a few other peoples views on this subject.

What do you think this phenomenon is? What is causing it? Do you believe it is a phenomenon? Do you believe it is a single God acting under the guise of many? Answer any or all of these if you wish and say anything else you deem necessary. All comments are welcome =)

I believe that some piece or many pieces of nature influenced a deity, but that was not at all the original cause.

The feeling of sadness, and lack of modern science to explain things. People just guessed at things and the Sun made the greatest influence for that. I bet it was the Sun that influenced the idea of God because God is the brightest light of all "of course the sun is not the brightest but it was to their knowledge for they never seen anything brighter" God will return again "night passes and the sun comes" he will return through the sky "obviously" he died for three days (according to many myths, not just Christ. Horus) "sun dies for three days in dec. 23-25" etc.

I believe that the sun may have been only part of the influence for one god out of many, and other nature pieces have influenced other pieces of religions or other gods. There is evidence for old bear cults and people originally thought those people were werewolves because our science only found these ancient people practicing and now we know they are not werewolves, just bear cult worshipers, but the myth of werewolves go around still today. So the bears influenced the bear cult which influenced werewolves, etc.


But what is causing it is just people misinterpreting things to make it make sense with modern science so it can fill up the gaps. People will NOT lose their god, they will fight to defend their faith... look at the dark ages.


Just an opinion...

 

[zer0]

I believe that some piece or many pieces of nature influenced a deity, but that was not at all the original cause.

The feeling of sadness, and lack of modern science to explain things. People just guessed at things and the Sun made the greatest influence for that. I bet it was the Sun that influenced the idea of God because God is the brightest light of all "of course the sun is not the brightest but it was to their knowledge for they never seen anything brighter" God will return again "night passes and the sun comes" he will return through the sky "obviously" he died for three days (according to many myths, not just Christ. Horus) "sun dies for three days in dec. 23-25" etc.

I believe that the sun may have been only part of the influence for one god out of many, and other nature pieces have influenced other pieces of religions or other gods. There is evidence for old bear cults and people originally thought those people were werewolves because our science only found these ancient people practicing and now we know they are not werewolves, just bear cult worshipers, but the myth of werewolves go around still today. So the bears influenced the bear cult which influenced werewolves, etc.


But what is causing it is just people misinterpreting things to make it make sense with modern science so it can fill up the gaps. People will NOT lose their god, they will fight to defend their faith... look at the dark ages.


Just an opinion...

You've only presented those things which I am questioning. Why is it that people will fight to defend their faith? Also I believe you may have misunderstood me. I don't mean why did people start to talk about the spirits and such I mean why did people BELIEVE it. Whether it was the sun the moon the stars a burning bush it doesn't matter. What compelled them to BELIEVE it and yet more what compels people to CONTINUE to believe it. It cannot be that it is simply a misconception. Too many people in this world believe in a form of god in something spiritual. It is too common place to be a farce. I'm questioning what is causing this. For instance is there a psychological aspect, a mechanical aspect, a universal aspect. There has to be some reason for the fact that we have so many religions and adherents to all those religion who are utterly assured that their religion is the TRUTH and there is NOTHING, NOTHING that can sway their belief. What IS that. What is causing that. I'm asking if there in fact IS something there. BUT not exclusive to any single religion. Is there truth to the idea of God but not boxed inside a religion.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

You've only presented those things which I am questioning. Why is it that people will fight to defend their faith? Also I believe you may have misunderstood me. I don't mean why did people start to talk about the spirits and such I mean why did people BELIEVE it. Whether it was the sun the moon the stars a burning bush it doesn't matter. What compelled them to BELIEVE it and yet more what compels people to CONTINUE to believe it. It cannot be that it is simply a misconception. Too many people in this world believe in a form of god in something spiritual. It is too common place to be a farce. I'm questioning what is causing this. For instance is there a psychological aspect, a mechanical aspect, a universal aspect. There has to be some reason for the fact that we have so many religions and adherents to all those religion who are utterly assured that their religion is the TRUTH and there is NOTHING, NOTHING that can sway their belief. What IS that. What is causing that. I'm asking if there in fact IS something there. BUT not exclusive to any single religion. Is there truth to the idea of God but not boxed inside a religion.

Not just talk about, the ancients were not as smart as we were, they actually believed these things were higher power.

To continue to believe is probably the influences evolving. When science began to become advanced, people wanted to keep looking up to something so they kept their beliefs sacred and kept changing along just to keep up with modern times.

Although, there is no proof for what I'm saying, though it is really logical to believe that is what originated religion and beliefs but historians admit nobody knows, though a lot of historians agree with what I've said if that was what you were to ask them.

There is the Ancient Astronaut Theory, and there are things that kinda prove that, but the proof can be interpreted in many ways, I'd recommend you to watch the show Ancient Aliens, it talks about that and it actually did influence me to believe that, but then again, I believe in many things that could have started it, nobody knows, nor do I, at least yet.

Maybe there is a god that showed itself, or maybe many gods that showed themselves and that one god said "believe in me because this is the only time you will see me until you die" and when time carried on, the interpretation was messed up. Just like stories, if you retell a story for many generations, without it being written down, the story will change a lot.

Maybe the many gods showed themselves off one by one and the polytheists added all the gods that showed themselves up up to many gods and monotheists only seen one.



I'd like you look at this quote; "God is like seeing a bird with four friends, one friend sees it from the bottom angle, another sees it from right side, you see it from the back side, and your other friend doesn't see it at all."

 

[zer0]

Not just talk about, the ancients were not as smart as we were, they actually believed these things were higher power.

To continue to believe is probably the influences evolving. When science began to become advanced, people wanted to keep looking up to something so they kept their beliefs sacred and kept changing along just to keep up with modern times.

Although, there is no proof for what I'm saying, though it is really logical to believe that is what originated religion and beliefs but historians admit nobody knows, though a lot of historians agree with what I've said if that was what you were to ask them.

There is the Ancient Astronaut Theory, and there are things that kinda prove that, but the proof can be interpreted in many ways, I'd recommend you to watch the show Ancient Aliens, it talks about that and it actually did influence me to believe that, but then again, I believe in many things that could have started it, nobody knows, nor do I, at least yet.

Seen it. They really go the wrong way with all that stuff... They have such good evidence and such good proof for the phenomenon and they just totally go the wrong way. The phenomenon which I'm looking at is actually one which is often linked to Alien abductions.

Maybe there is a god that showed itself, or maybe many gods that showed themselves and that one god said "believe in me because this is the only time you will see me until you die" and when time carried on, the interpretation was messed up. Just like stories, if you retell a story for many generations, without it being written down, the story will change a lot.

You're still misunderstanding what I am getting at. Or maybe I am improperly conveying it. I don't like to beat around the bush but to just tell people what I am talking about without them coming to the conclusion themselves really sort curtails the whole thing for it seems to result in a denial, there's some delusional concept in this phenomenon and it is really quite fascinating (I mean no offence to anyone this is just what I am finding, I find that people I just blatantly inform of this theory without laying it on them one piece at a time exhibit traits of classic denial, it's just an observation).

Essentially what I am saying is get rid of EVERYTHING you know about God, whether it be from our Western view or from the Eastern view. Get rid of it all. I don't give a crap about it. It's useless. It's not to be considered in this discussion. Get rid of the compassionate man in the sky get rid of the devil in the hells. Get rid of those complexes. Now look at all of the religions there are. And ask yourself, what the HECK is causing these people to believe this??? They all believe in this thing, they've never seen, they have no proof of it, and it can be disproved through many of the sacred texts and is seen to be contradictory and one can sit down with these people and show them contradiction after contradiction and fact after fact and they deny and deny and deny.

Yet people will KILL for this. People that would not kill to save a child would kill for this thing they've never seen, touched, met, talked to or even listened to. Now I'm going to ask you another question because you seem to be one to entertain the theory of evolution. What mechanism of the mind can be observed to cause this in any given wild animal? What will 100% of the time cause a lion to kill another lion? Cause a wolf to kill another wolf? What mechanism of evolution results in that? I hope you see what I am getting at before you read it. The self. The only thing that will make an animal 100% of the time kill another animal of it's own species is the protection of himself and the survival of himself. Is it possible that religion and God in particular is the exhibition of these traits in human psychology???

Maybe the many gods showed themselves off one by one and the polytheists added all the gods that showed themselves up up to many gods and monotheists only seen one.



I'd like you look at this quote; "God is like seeing a bird with four friends, one friend sees it from the bottom angle, another sees it from right side, you see it from the back side, and your other friend doesn't see it at all."

Sounds strikingly similar to something that Manson put in the first person referring to him... I will have to read it again in the morning though for my brain is shutting down on me.

I have a lot to talk about on this subject, and it is a whole lot more than the self part of the theory which I just mentioned.

 

[Sikh]

You've only presented those things which I am questioning. Why is it that people will fight to defend their faith? Also I believe you may have misunderstood me. I don't mean why did people start to talk about the spirits and such I mean why did people BELIEVE it. Whether it was the sun the moon the stars a burning bush it doesn't matter. What compelled them to BELIEVE it and yet more what compels people to CONTINUE to believe it. It cannot be that it is simply a misconception. Too many people in this world believe in a form of god in something spiritual. It is too common place to be a farce. I'm questioning what is causing this. For instance is there a psychological aspect, a mechanical aspect, a universal aspect. There has to be some reason for the fact that we have so many religions and adherents to all those religion who are utterly assured that their religion is the TRUTH and there is NOTHING, NOTHING that can sway their belief. What IS that. What is causing that. I'm asking if there in fact IS something there. BUT not exclusive to any single religion. Is there truth to the idea of God but not boxed inside a religion.

Tribal identity, and economics. A shared belief is like a shared identity and is on a fundamental level how we get societies. No Beliefs/rituals means no groups only individuals, this is tied to warfare and the motivation of warfare--the world isn't how it is supposed to be. There is also an aspect of Parent/children relationship to it. Children wish to honor their parents, that would be hard if one rejected what ones parents used to identify themselves with. The last part is most likely tied to the idea of creation, a infinitely expanded form of ones parents giving and nurturing ones life. So its about love.

The skin doctor got cancer from sitting too close to the tv. But only in a movie about a dream. :yes: