If you were God

[Banana Co]

Yes. That's known as a Godhead. And the fellowship of a Godhead is known as a religion. Ergo, athiests would be religious too.

[worm]

Now come on you could call someone God as a way of describing him as a leader without being religious.

[feral chile]

Now come on you could call someone God as a way of describing him as a leader without being religious. Atheists aren't this group of people who can't mention god at all, they just don't believe in him.

[worm]

I wouldn't worship God even if he were real.

[worm]

Actually, that's why I'm neither a believer nor non-believer. If he were evident and tangible, then I'd have something to disbelieve in. There's no point in believing if he's there, just as there's no point disbelieving if he's not.

I remember first saying this when I was at junior school.

[Banana Co]

And you don't need to follow a heavenly leader to be religious.

[Guest musiclove123]

death anxiety is absolutely horrendous. i first suffered from it after my first child was born, it was linked to feeling ultra protective, and the awful realisation that I couldn't protect her from the inevitable.

I was an only child, and I had a bit of a God complex till then. It was the first time I truly realised I wasn't omnipotent. And some things were outside my control.

The way I dealt with it was by telling myself over and over that it was a healthy response, an overdeveloped survival instinct.

And to distract myself with trivia, like most of us do.

Like I've said before, to keep mentally healthy, it doesn't do to dwell on reality too much.

[feral chile]

Anxiety is obviously useful in some circumstances but its when we worry too much it becomes unhealthy. I would therefore ask God (if he were real which I don't believe he is it's an evolution thing) to stop the ability to worry so much about the uncontrollable and to be more in the moment, to truely cherish every moment of this short life we have

[worm]

Good one.

I'd also like the ability to go back through life and pick different options, just to see how they would have played out.

[worm]

Anxiety is obviously useful in some circumstances but its when we worry too much it becomes unhealthy. I would therefore ask God (if he were real which I don't believe he is it's an evolution thing) to stop the ability to worry so much about the uncontrollable and to be more in the moment, to truely cherish every moment of this short life we have

[feral chile]

I love Nietzsche's notion of eternal return. Essentially, life reoccurs eternally, which means that every single choice you make is important for all eternity. That's where meaning and morality comes from.

This was the basis for existentialism and was an answer to the paradox of fate and free will, because it means that we are entirely free to choose, but that it is repeated for all eternity. If there was an alternative to the options we take, then choices would be meaningless and so there wouldn't be any.

[feral chile]

Actually, that's why I'm neither a believer nor non-believer. If he were evident and tangible, then I'd have something to disbelieve in. There's no point in believing if he's there, just as there's no point disbelieving if he's not.

I remember first saying this when I was at junior school.

Edited April 30, 2011 by feral chile

[Kyelo]

That's the rationsl stance. By definition, God can never be proven or disproven. i think the whole reltionship with God hangs on your relationship to power.

Edited April 29, 2011 by BenchBuddah

[big joe]

I would remove all resistance to the power and majesty of The Mighty Oasis. That would be lovely, though i do enjoy the challenge of persuading the poor sceptic.

As for this God can neither be proved nor disproved thing - what poppycock. I would direct you to Richard Dawkins' retelling of 'the theory of the orbiting teapot'. Explains the fence sitting of Agnosticism rather well.

The Oasis thing was more important though people.

[worm]

As for this God can neither be proved nor disproved thing - what poppycock. I would direct you to Richard Dawkins' retelling of 'the theory of the orbiting teapot'. Explains the fence sitting of Agnosticism rather well.

Edited April 29, 2011 by worm

[worm]

That's the rationsl stance. By definition, God can never be proven or disproven. i think the whole relationship with God hangs on your relationship to power.

[feral chile]

Well, taking my observation into adulthood, as I have, it's not about whether he exists, but what impact he has in the world.

The majority of it is confined to history now, though you have religion now as a consumable life-style; a choice. But the role that God played is absolutely crucial in, say, literature and language as it gives us an account and explains our relationship with the world. It tells us a great deal about our relationship with nature and the way we denoted it through language.

For example, it used to be that we believed that the world of objects contained intrinsic meaning - that's a massive cultural difference. You can see how and why people felt themselves validated and had comparatively little in the way of mental illness when compared to the modern age. If there is a true meaning to the world, then we are no longer obliged to have doubt or have opinions. Our language used to accord to this meaning and was thought to represent eternal truth. The purer the language, the closer we were to the word of God. The Word of God was the originary text from which all languages have been splintered. Our current language is too fractured to understand the word of God now, so it cannot grasp the true meaning of the world nor recognise his truth in it. It's the meaning of the world part that I'm interested in.

[feral chile]

humans would have no gender.. and we'd all be some kind of hermaphrodite

[Kyelo]

humans would have no gender.. and we'd all be some kind of hermaphrodite

[feral chile]

Away and take a jump with that, life without lust for your preferred sex would be horrible!

[rexclark]

If I was god I'd make everyday a paid for, sunny, Bank Holiday.

[Kyelo]

Yes, but if we had both sex and reproductive organs, we'd have double the choice.

I'm all for maximising choice, me!

[sifi]

humans would have no gender.. and we'd all be some kind of hermaphrodite

[Jackmypie]

World peace and junk food didn't make you gain weight .. also to have a 5some.

[Jackmypie]

world peace makes you fat...!?!?