god ??

Charlie Timm said:

Humans have always consisted of a majority of pragmatic beings i.e. the mass, whose job was to "do the job" with little to no questions asked.

I did a long team-dynamics course learning about how people actually function in groups - this was followed by a small project where we were deliberately split into small teams - and everything we had been taught proved to be amazingly accurate.     Some people are self-motivated, others need prodding to function, others need a lot of prodding.        There's a surprisingly high ratio of droids that will only do one task and then go into standby until they are given another task.     This compares with only a few self-starters.   There's a group in the middle that will follow the self-starters but need direction.

My intuition tells me that nature has a much higher order than what we are able to perceive through the current paradigms. Many strong logicians have identified with a religion as well e.g. Carl Jung and Einstein. I feel convinced the two can co-exist. 

When we talk of religion is to control the masses and a sense of security, I believe this is a self-fulfilling theory. Humans have always consisted of a majority of pragmatic beings i.e. the mass, whose job was to "do the job" with little to no questions asked. In other words, natural subjects to religious narratives be it Christianity, cultural norms, capitalism or bureaucracy. They will do what is necessary to be accepted as part of the large group i.e. large scale group thinking, which creates the sense of security. 

On the other hand, there is a much smaller group of people who questions everything - especially boundaries set by logically abstract rules i.e. Christianity, cultural norms, capitalism or bureaucracy. So naturally, if one belongs to this part of the human population, one will not see the proof of a God. 

Personally, I do not believe in a manifestation of a God. And I have no clue of what will happen once we die. Nevertheless, I have a strong sense of an order set by nature. Something is causing this order and making sure everything is in balance e.g. a mass must follow while few set the direction. 

Balance is everything and in everything. It's ying and yang. 

This force - whatever it might be - it the origin of the God image. Religion is the misuse of it. 

An excellent book!

I don't really believe in anything like god, afterlife, sin, religion etc.   

Afterlife is a comforting fantasy for poor people and those about to die - and also a great way to manipulate people via religion,.    It would be nice to meet members of my family again - but I don't think I could spend eternity with them 

God is another comforter - the whole supreme father figure looking after everyone concept.      

I have a number of male friends who have all changed dramatically as each lost their fathers in the last few years      They are 'broken'.    They are making very strange decisions and showing odd behaviours as though they are having very, very slow nervous breakdowns.       They don't seem to be able to cope with the responsibility of being 'top of the tree' or 'next in line'.     Their sudden view of their own mortality seems to have stunned them and they can't cope.

I can see people turning to religion for guidance - although what makes a bloke in a dress the expert on the universe confounds me.  

You should read “Sapiens - A Brief History of Human Kind”. It gives an explanation of how stories and myths were created by early man in order to make sense of the world and then to control growing colonies. Now obviously the church is the wealthiest organisation in the world, so why wouldn’t you carry on the story!

Yes, ants on a rock, and those ants and us on a rotating rock moving through space.

And yeah, autistics often see more than others in quite a lot of ways. 

when i was a small boy i rember turning a stone over in my grandmothers garden there were red ants invading a black ants nest now the ants had got no idea that thay were on a planet fiying through space and there were people watching them well thats a bit like us as autistics we can see more then most but we have noooo chance of compreanding every thing 

its the same as me emptying a glass of wine on the table its random

If it is a bizarre accident, what is it a bizarre accident of?

As in where did the accident come from?

The same question remains, I suppose, whether there's a god, a nothingness, or just a big question.

And many of us ask of each other, why do we each believe or think the things we do.

i find it hard to beleave that you cant except that we life and every thing is just a bizzarre exedent why not ? we are here lets make the most of it and stop looking for reasons i 

Maybe that's how things will go.

I find it a touch bizarre that anything should exist.

If existence were just blank space, that would make more sense to me.

Having atoms and stars, and gasses and elements, and plants, animals, bacteria and humans. This part makes me question the idea that the existence is a load of random flukes that happen over some space-time continuums.

To me, existence is a very peculiar thing.

ok you are born you live you die to my autistik mind i can deal with that i have no reall fear of death why would i its going to happen to every body and what ever i do will be forgotten in 1000 years think about it even hitler will be forgotten why shoud there be any thig after death ? i go to sleep 8 hours every night i can rember eney of it why is death any diffrent ?

"Religions are invented to control people" is one of the views. It's a fairly compelling view as religion has tended to be quite good at keeping people 'in line' over many centuries.

I wonder about the lack of anything after death. If there is nothing after death, then when the people that live after us die out and we get forgotten, was it all worth it?

I guess some people think so.

sorry wish i could spell better

ok very impresive but all the religins and doctrams are invented for people who agree that the emprisers new clothers are very fine !!

I like the idea of us all helping each other out as much as we realistically can.

And yes, it seems like quite a few people see the world differently. They see it as a dog eat dog world in which we must be competitive with each other for resources. Some people see 'survival of the fittest' as a mark of our human nature.

I think both these sides are valid. I have to admit that I do actively seek to kill other living creatures at times -like bacteria, weeds or greenfly. I eat meat and fish and I buy flowers that have been chopped at the stem. I've also upset and hurt plenty of people. Not so willingly in recent years and yet it still happens from time to time as a harsh word comes out.

So, even though I like to try and be helpful, my competitive 'dog-eat-dog' side still comes through in the harm I do to various living things.

Agnostic. I had an emotional experience which I attributed to "god" then watched Derren Brown take a committed atheist through a conversion experience.

"Honest to God" by AT Robinson, written in 1960, is a favourite of mine and caused quite a stir in the day. I have an old battered copy that I re-read occasionally. I've read a fair bit of theology and was in the charismatic movement for a while. Was glad to see the back of it. After a while I identified more with liberal theologians and (by traditional standards) the heretics. 

Is there a "god"? Who knows? I'm not even sure if the definition means anything, or if there was one what that encounter would look like. What I can say is that after my time in circles where god was supposed to be an everyday reality, and spending more time in prayer lines than I have in bus queues, not one in-tune-with-god-pastor/evangelist spoke about my autism. They were very good at  quoting a scripture, or giving some meaningless "prophecy" - but anyone can do that. *I* did that. 

When I found out I was on the spectrum. it was two decades later and everything made sense. More than religion ever did.  

Having said that I appreciate the power of myth, ritual, meaning-making and storytelling. Druidry appeals because of the connection to nature and the seasons - I celebrated the winter solstice online this year and found it an enriching experience. Very fond of Quakerism too, only because of it's reflective nature and commitment to "doing good" - and their fantastic silent meeting where anyone can weigh in. Less about what you believe and more about what you do. I also do Tai Chi and attend humanist conferences. 

So I'm open to mystery and wonder, how we create meaning from that, as well as facing the reality of living. In sense of a roadmap -I lean towards Ubuntu which is less about god and more about living well.

But no tradition has a monopoly on my time.

you must know we are all in the same boat we are born live die thats it and when we are here we should all work together to make life good for every one not try and get more then someone else but help every body ou doz this not make sence ?

The telescope metaphor sounds interesting, but I'd need a bit more explanation of this.

What do many people tend to miss? And what does the telescope allow some others to see?

ok i like this !! i know that the only information i n get about the outside wourld is from my sencences but that is all i have to work with ok i my be wrong but the otheists as you call them seem to miss sooooo much that is in frount of there faces becouse thay want to be like each other and thay could come to th same conclusions as me we all are in the same boat but some of us have a telascope and are not scared of using it