tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post4271547875247960577..comments2024-03-27T12:58:00.592-07:00Comments on Snowbrush: Three ways of thinking about GodSnowbrushhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00436087215476479042noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-62828977725263473582012-12-30T10:43:19.717-08:002012-12-30T10:43:19.717-08:00"a lot of our politicians are not religious, ..."a lot of our politicians are not religious, and quite a number are out there atheists."<br /><br />The last time openly atheistic elected officials were counted in the US, only five were found, and three of them were local officials, so when I hear about how different it is in Australia, I sure do envy Australians, because you know that the only reason for denying atheists public office is bigotry. Surely, they couldn't do any worse than is already being done with "God's guidance."Snowbrushhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00436087215476479042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-32958267066636039972012-12-30T02:42:32.591-08:002012-12-30T02:42:32.591-08:00You are right - our climate change deniers are als...You are right - our climate change deniers are also god botherers. I hadn't made the connection. Fortunately, a lot of our politicians are not religious, and quite a number are out there atheists. Elephant's Childhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06650565833097914052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-40474682454304322022012-12-28T18:04:43.340-08:002012-12-28T18:04:43.340-08:00I am ecstatic to see two of my blogging friends he...I am ecstatic to see two of my blogging friends here: Klahanie and Stephen. Great minds think alike and great minds find their way to you, Snow.<br /><br />My sister once asked her minister how she could possibly be happy in heaven if some of her family members weren't there.<br /><br />His precise and knowledgeable answer was: "Because in heaven, God erases all memory you have of your family members who are in hell."<br /><br />Gee. God is not only kind enough to wipe out our memories of our loved ones writhing in the lake of fire, but he seems to allow a lot of earthly bound ministers to know EXACTLY what the afterlife is.lotta joyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12742978845913126675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-71879993638945150622012-12-28T15:32:54.660-08:002012-12-28T15:32:54.660-08:00Hey Snowbrush,
Personally, I relate to the third ...Hey Snowbrush,<br /><br />Personally, I relate to the third version. Religion is a convenient crutch and people have been known to use their religious views to justify hypocritical actions towards others.<br /><br />Perhaps, mankind invented religion because he could not get his head around the concept that there wasn't actually an all seeing, all knowing entity to watch over and apparently would protect us. I think religion is based on fear. And cynically, based on a money making scheme to target those who need to believe. Yes indeed, a ticket to heaven for only a thousand US dollars. <br /><br />Having expressed that, I think there maybe a possibility that all things are a formation of a god aura. All things, whether it be a chair, a dog, a cat, or even a human, has a form of awareness.<br /><br />Before I ramble on any further, I shall now travel to another dimension. <br /><br />As per usual, your articles are emotive. I'm sorry if my reply makes little sense. My last two brain cells are having a heck of a struggle....<br /><br />Garyklahaniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08613505424843475639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-54143625993229350902012-12-28T11:31:10.674-08:002012-12-28T11:31:10.674-08:00Me: "The religious right and the religious ri...Me: "The religious right and the religious right speak as one."<br /><br />Rhymes: "Say what?"<br /><br />It's true, you must admit, although I meant one of those rights to be the political right.<br />Snowbrushhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00436087215476479042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-34712678704955797902012-12-28T05:07:28.263-08:002012-12-28T05:07:28.263-08:00"The religious right and the religious right ..."The religious right and the religious right speak as one."<br /><br />Say what?rhymeswithplaguehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10870439618129001633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-91603345690880350842012-12-27T20:44:59.824-08:002012-12-27T20:44:59.824-08:00Middle Child: "If you are searching and looki...Middle Child: "If you are searching and looking for meaning....read/study the Bible, asking God for wisdom and understanding."<br /><br />Me: "Oh, will that do it, do you think?"<br /><br />That was tactless, and I apologize. When I hear people praise the Bible, I'm confounded as to what it is that they like about it. I can see some good in the Bible, what with its often interesting stories, it's ancient and often unusual ways of looking at the world, and the occasional uplifting sentiment. However, the actions that are attributed to God in the Bible are often appallingly evil, and I can even find a great deal about Jesus that troubles me. So, as for viewing the Bible as a source of wisdom, beauty, comfort, inspiration, I believe that its failures far outweigh its virtues.Snowbrushhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00436087215476479042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-28772262159331833412012-12-27T17:17:13.999-08:002012-12-27T17:17:13.999-08:00"it's made me happy to think of God as lo..."it's made me happy to think of God as loving instead of punishing or vindictive."<br /><br />I like the way you put that.<br /><br />'"You know I'd really rather be in hell with the sinners, the bunch up in heaven sound really boring."<br /><br />When you grow up with that version of God, you tend to want really bad, not so much to get to heaven (which really doesn't sound like fun), but to avoid hell (which most definitely sounds miserable even to a small child). Any church that sends its smallest members home so terrified that they hide under the bed is, in effect, a child abuse co-operative, and that's what I grew up in. <br /><br />"Some of our politicians are perfectly able to deny global warming."<br /><br />Are any of them not openly religious? I ask this because I believe that the guys who say that global warming isn't happening are invariably the evolution-deniers, the school prayer supporters, the warlovers, and etc. The religious right and the religious right speak as one.<br /><br />"...I don't think that a fondness for 'snuff movies' or by extension for viewing decapitation as entertainment is limited to the religious."<br /><br />Me either, but I was referring to the death penalty as it is given for religious sins, and to the devoutly religious nations that consider the witnessing of such events to constitute religious instruction. Religion--at its worse--can rise to the level of pathology that will always and everywhere exist among individuals, and it will enshrine that pathology as the Word of God. When that happens the whole nation is just screwed, and I think that defines much of the Middle East, and when I hear our own Christian fundamentalist, evangelical, and Catholic candidates and clergymen talk, they sound like they want to take America down a similar road based upon their unfathomable assumption that a theocracy will work out just fine in America because, gosh-darn, we're all Christians instead of heathens. I think that, at bottom, they simply want to hold their boots atop people's throats.Snowbrushhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00436087215476479042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-13025334137643089732012-12-27T15:09:52.220-08:002012-12-27T15:09:52.220-08:00You know I'd really rather be in hell with the...You know I'd really rather be in hell with the sinners, the bunch up in heaven sound really boring. angelahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06367100990792829157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-30203561227712624072012-12-27T13:52:32.900-08:002012-12-27T13:52:32.900-08:00I think Middle Child said it perfectly. I think Middle Child said it perfectly. The Bipolar Divahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05449793830455116918noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-39076988385895700722012-12-27T13:51:54.033-08:002012-12-27T13:51:54.033-08:00respondedrespondedThe Bipolar Divahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05449793830455116918noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-83256053323683253532012-12-27T12:59:09.434-08:002012-12-27T12:59:09.434-08:00Some of our politicians are perfectly able to deny...Some of our politicians are perfectly able to deny global warming. Sadly, I don't think that a fondness for 'snuff movies' or by extension for viewing decapitation as entertainment is limited to the religious. Despite those small quibbles, I still fall firmly into Camp Number Three. It may be that because I was brought up without religion I have escaped the ambivalence that many people seem to struggle with.Elephant's Childhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06650565833097914052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-3346939637624131632012-12-27T12:49:31.923-08:002012-12-27T12:49:31.923-08:00I definitely subscribe to the second version of ho...I definitely subscribe to the second version of how to think about God. God is simply the expression of good in ours and others lives (is my opinion), and it's made me happy to think of God as loving instead of punishing or vindictive. <br /><br />Wishing you the happiest of holidays, Snow. Phoenixhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07477498671080132176noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-10327449744880548632012-12-27T10:13:00.705-08:002012-12-27T10:13:00.705-08:00"If you are searching and looking for meaning..."If you are searching and looking for meaning....read/study the Bible, asking God for wisdom and understanding."<br /><br />Oh, will that do it, do you think? It was reading the Bible that annihilated my belief, at least in the God of the Bible, in the first place, and I was only eleven. I must say that, as to following the Biblical God, whether in spirit or in letter, the fundamentalists and the Catholics with their hard-assed, mean-spirited viciousness, do it best. Christ gave some glimmer of relief from that vision of God, yet he still spoke of dividing the sheep from goats, he had no patience with anyone who didn't believe everything he said three minutes after they met him, and believed that everyone was either for him or against him (as did George W Bush, come to think of it). In other words, what Christ stood for was continued sectarianism of the sort that leads to oppression and war, and that is just what Christianity has given us.<br /><br />Thank you, Strayer. <br /><br />Charles, why are you reading Spong, and what do you think of him? I think he's pretty sharp until he gets to the god that he himself believes in, and then the waters become so murky that I find it hard to make heads or tails out of the man.Snowbrushhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00436087215476479042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-52129596657829116572012-12-27T06:33:37.410-08:002012-12-27T06:33:37.410-08:00I've been reading some of Spong's stuff re...I've been reading some of Spong's stuff recently.Charles Gramlichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02052592247572253641noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-11267785531801412812012-12-27T06:26:31.381-08:002012-12-27T06:26:31.381-08:00You laid it out clearly. Thank you.You laid it out clearly. Thank you.Strayerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08124298302997708537noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23830899.post-45936634757956911892012-12-26T22:26:14.011-08:002012-12-26T22:26:14.011-08:00Snow, don't know what to say. That's 3 cr...Snow, don't know what to say. That's 3 crazy-ass definitions of Christ. Each one contains a small portion of truth. But if that's what you have been told or have learned....I can see your confusion. Don't let others shove their beliefs down your throat. Try to empty your mind from your upbringing. Put away your anger. If you are searching and looking for meaning....read/study the Bible, asking God for wisdom and understanding. Peace.middle childhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09805863175279915034noreply@blogger.com