On the subject of religion and/or a Supreme Being

[Wayne]

Someone yesterday rather took me to task over the idea of, and my ideas surrounding religion and or the existence of God...

As I sit and watch my first grandchild being indoctrinated, I'm both upset, but restrained from expressing my opinions -- as I am with so many facets of my life -- out loud, so here I am, pouring my proverbial soul out to the world in the most anonymous form possible...

I was raised by loving parents, neither of whom ever embraced, nor shunned any given religion. We never really talked about it, nor was I ever coerced into practicing any sort of dogma when I was growing up as so many children of every religion are...

As such, my thoughts on the matter are this;

A Supreme Being, aka God may or may not exist. I have no idea. I'm not in the know on that one. I'd like to think, but I can't seem to force myself to "believe" that God exists in some form or another and I would wholly welcome them if they do, but I'm woefully dumb on that part as a simple human being, one of a trillion or so that has existed on this Earth since recorded time began...

That being said, I can only address what I do know from both personal experience and historical fact...

1. People -- in general -- suck. Not everyone. Not even anyone in specific, including Joe Biden... (He does his best for a dementia-ridden puppet)..
   
   Modern-day society, particularly American society anyway, seems to have had several generations of devolution to the point where the current generation believes "Reality TV" is real, and that in order to get ahead, you have to be "insta-famous" and act like they do on TV... I don't, in point of fact, know anyone between the ages of 15 and 30 who don't think that way..
   
   
2. The "Word of God" doesn't exist, at least it hasn't been available to we mere mortals for some 1500+ years. What we do have, whether the Bible, the Koran, or any other text, has been bent, twisted, rewritten, and so poorly translated (repeatedly) over the years that it's wholly unrecognizable. In the case of Christianity, entire texts have been removed and forgotten simply because they didn't support the narrative of the reigning regime at the time. (Think King James version, or the New King James Version).
   
   The rest of the Dead Sea Scrolls (which might not be the only texts to have existed, but may be the only ones to survive) have been squirreled away by the Vatican for over a thousand years, and there's now -- quite literally -- not a single person on the planet who can fully translate them from the original texts without inserting their own beliefs... If you pay attention, there's still vacuous debate amongst even Biblical scholars over what amounts to punctuation and inflection to support ideals.
   
3. Indeed, the whole concept of Religion in itself seems to be a man-made premise. One that has been used and perverted through the millennia to control the population...

That brings me full circle to Position 1 above.

Now.. God. If you're reading this amongst a bajillion other things you have to keep up with every second of every day, I apologize. You know that in my heart, I don't want to offend or anything, so please don't smite me as I get on the airplane today for my business trip, but before I go, I just have to get all of this out of my head, write or wrong, and put it down on proverbial paper...

If there were, in fact, Djinn, and I rubbed a proverbial bottle for three wishes, I can only think of one, and that would be to be all-knowing so that at least I could put this subject to rest in my own heart.

It worries me at the very core sometimes.

 

[Robert]

I was raised by loving parents, neither of whom ever embraced, nor shunned any given religion. We never really talked about it, nor was I ever coerced into practicing any sort of dogma when I was growing up as so many children of every religion are...

I was the same. Parents were nominally Protestant Christian but Dad was effectively atheist, whilst Mum wanted to be Catholic on account of the pomp and circumstance, rather than any belief in God. I was never baptised into any religion and they never pushed any on me, but the supposedly "non-denominational" primary school I went to wasn't really non-denominational. It was effectively a Protestant bigot factory, where we had to say prayers every day and the local minister had an unhealthy level of influence. The local Catholic primary school was considerably worse on both counts. There were regular childish battles between the "caffies and proddies" and I suppose this was almost inevitable in a city which is no stranger to sectarian violence. Still, I managed to come through 3 non-denominational (*proddy) schools, never really believing in any of it.

A Supreme Being, aka God may or may not exist. I have no idea. I'm not in the know on that one. I'd like to think, but I can't seem to force myself to "believe" that God exists in some form or another and I would wholly welcome them if they do,

I'm not sure how much I'd welcome an actual God. I imagine I'd have some questions for it first.

the whole concept of Religion in itself seems to be a man-made premise. One that has been used and perverted through the millennia to control the population...

I think you're being too generous with "seems to be". I'd swap that out for "is".

 

[Pyromania]

Wayne you will have to ask God for guidance on this one. Or donate to your local clergyman which knows no more than you do. They will gladly take your donation though and give you that gold coin to put under your tongue that will insure your admittance to the golden gates. Hopefully they give you some wine and a chocolate coin as well so you get a snack at least.

 

[FluffyMcDeath]

Raised by a non practicing Lutheran mum and am non practicing Church of England dad whose dad was "Church of Christ, Scientist" - but attended Unitarian chapel in Tenderden for special occasions (a chapel when Benjamin Franklin had preached one time) - this place, actually:

Our Heritage — Tenterden Unitarians

www.tenterdenunitarians.org

Mostly "atheist" myself but more fairly "anti-religion" for my younger years. Mellowed now. Bearded giant in the clouds? Absolutely not. The bible as a collection of fairy tales is an interesting work. As a collection of history, still remarkable but untrustworthy. As a true history of the universe - nope.

My "god" is more of a hermetic conception - that the universe is the self creating and ever unfolding god and we are sparks of the divine consciousness by which the god may know itself.

On the positive side, the hermetic god is a contemplative foundation for a sense of awe, and it provides a perspective beyond one's self bestows some consideration and duty of care to others as participants of the shared divinity.

On the negative side, it doesn't give certainty and unquestioning conviction concerning life purpose or surety of action.

 

[cecilia]

My family was catholic. They treated me with great love and respect. I couldn't have had a better more loving childhood. In my opinion my mother was what a real religious person should be:
Generous, always thinking of others, helpful, caring, dedicated, and not a bully.

When I started Catholic Grammar school I discovered that many of the nuns did NOT behave like my family. They were bullies, they were unpleasant, had no patience, had no love for anyone (including themselves). They were just miserable people. I have theories why that was the case and I don't think many nuns today have similar issues, but the point is that at THAT time all I saw was hypocrisy. I became an atheist even though at that age I didn't even know the word.


Decades later I see no reason to change my mind about this. My mother was a good person, inside and out. She would have been a good person even if she had been born into a Jewish, Muslim, buddhist, etc family. It was her nature. I don't know if a "god" exists or not but he sure would know how to reveal himself to me. I have never seen any evidence. SO, I basically don't care. This "god" has to make the first move because I don't believe things without evidence. If "god" made me rational I can't just suddenly become irrational to "believe" in him.