Which is Greater for a Theist?

[Fool]

Their god(s), or their religion?

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Their god(s), or their religion?

Depends on the theist.

 

[Terese]

I find myself putting greater emphasis on my God than my religion, though the two are very much intertwined

 

[DennisTate]

Their god(s), or their religion?

I am of the belief that the most ancient Intelligence is also the most emotional.... and the most artistic.

Investing infinite time in the past to plan and set in motion an essentially infinite number of Big Bang events tends to make One deeply emotionally attached to the creation, especially living sentient others.

Mellen-Thomas Benedict's Near-Death Experience

I was in pre creation, before the Big Bang. I had crossed over the beginning of time / the First Word/the First vibration. I was in the Eye of Creation. I felt as if I was touching the Face of God. It was not a religious feeling. Simply I was at one with Absolute Life and Consciousness. When I say that I could see or perceive forever, I mean that I could experience all of creation generating itself. It was without beginning and without end. That’s a mind-expanding thought, isn’t it? Scientists perceive the Big Bang as a single event that created the Universe. I saw during my life after death experience that the Big Bang is only one of an infinite number of Big Bangs creating Universes endlessly and simultaneously. The only images that even come close in human terms would be those created by super computers using fractal geometry equations.

The ancients knew of this. They said God had periodically created new Universes by breathing out, and recreated other Universes by breathing in. These epochs were called Yugas. Modern science called this the Big Bang. I was in absolute, pure consciousness. I could see or perceive all the Big Bangs or Yugas creating and recreating themselves. Instantly I entered into them all simultaneously. I saw that each and every little piece of creation has the power to create. It is very difficult to try to explain this. I am still speechless about this.

It took me years after I returned from my near-death experience to assimilate any words at all for the Void experience. I can tell you this now: the Void is less than nothing, yet more than everything that is! The Void is absolute zero; chaos forming all possibilities. It is Absolute Consciousness; much more than even Universal Intelligence. The Void is the vacuum or nothingness between all physical manifestations. The SPACE between atoms and their components. Modern science has begun to study this space between everything. They call it Zero point. Whenever they try to measure it, their instruments go off the scale, or to infinity, so to speak. They have no way, as of yet, to measure infinity accurately. There is more of the zero space in your own body and the Universe than anything else!

A relatively young other intelligence..... specifically a Covering Cherub.......
would have the tendency to be less emotionally attached to the creation.....
and would be more likely to:

Jesus paused again.
"My book tells of the time when Lucifer's rebellion in heaven changed some things. He sought to usurp my Father's throne, assume his position as the most high God, and to rule the universe. For that blasphemy Lucifer was cast from heaven to Earth; in fact, I saw him fall as a bolt of lightning! In a tantrum of hate and rage over being deposed so fast he and his fallen angels disfigured our perfect Earth. It became void and uninhabitable. For punishment befitting his enemy of God, Lucifer was given a new name, Satan, since he was the self-appointed "adversary' of the Almighty. Anything that God had made, Satan would attempt to destroy from then on. As Lucifer he had been created the highest angel about the throne, one of his assignments and talents being the chief musician in charge of worship and music. In his rebellious anger he set about destroying harmony on and in the Earth from then on. That is why the Earth where he operates now is out of harmony with God's other creations. In my book we call this disharmony "sin', because it defies God's will that even the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament show his handiwork.

"But be of good cheer, my son. The Father has permitted me to overcome Satan's world system of sin, and to destroy the works of Satan, and to re-establish righteousness in the hearts of my friends. Eventually in his chosen time he will restore all creation as it once was, in him!" (Dr. Richard Eby, near-death.com)

 

[Twilight Hue]

I was told by Christians that if they never read the Bible they would never known about God. That's pretty telling.

I would have pretty much said the same thing long ago. It seems literature is more important for a God to even be considered to which a person identifies with.

 

[Jeremiah Ames]

Religions are very clever inventions of power hungry people with evil minds.
That’s why there are so many of them.
Some people just like controlling others.
Yet most people inside a religion cannot see that they have been deceived, so their religion becomes greater simply because it has total control over them.
And thus the God they think they have found is actually lost.

 

[Rational Agnostic]

Their god(s), or their religion?

Generally you can't have one without the other. Every religion has a different god/god(s).

 

[gnostic]

Religions are very clever inventions of power hungry people with evil minds.
That’s why there are so many of them.
Some people just like controlling others.

That’s probably true for some of the cases.

Some started corrupted at the very beginning.

But when Martin Luther started his Protestant movement, the Lutheran, he started because of the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church. Likewise some of the other Protestant movements.

But once they gain some political and military powers, some years or generations later, their own movements became corrupted.

It gone around full circle, when the new churches have become what they were fighting against in the first place.

I don’t think any side or any church were good in the Thirty-Year War, and it was too blurry to pick which of these were the lesser evil.

 

[Logos11]

Define religion and define God first...

 

[Kelly of the Phoenix]

Their god(s), or their religion?

I would say neither: the results of following either are the most important.

 

[Aldrnari]

Generally you can't have one without the other. Every religion has a different god/god(s).

Not always. Bhuddism comes to mind as an atheistic religion (though I remember reading that there are some denominations/sects that venerate god(s)).

 

[Jeremiah Ames]

That’s probably true for some of the cases.

Some started corrupted at the very beginning.

But when Martin Luther started his Protestant movement, the Lutheran, he started because of the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church. Likewise some of the other Protestant movements.

But once they gain some political and military powers, some years or generations later, their own movements became corrupted.

It gone around full circle, when the new churches have become what they were fighting against in the first place.

I don’t think any side or any church were good in the Thirty-Year War, and it was too blurry to pick which of these were the lesser evil.

You state it so well.