Is there a God?

[Lost Memories]

If God inspires someone to paint a picture, that is the result of an interaction between God and reality, by using an human as intermediary.
That painted picture is very real and material, that's "material evidence", something did change from the interaction of God.

That's how usually the interaction of God with reality is understood. God interacts mainly by using humans as intermediary.

But that’s no different than feeling inspired by one’s idea of God.

Here the philosophical part, where do ideas come from?

What is the evidence of the existence of ideas?

This is tangential to the talk on God in christianity, though. Still useful as parallel.
Some ideas can be divinely inspired, according to christianity.

[Nobel Hobos 2]

But that’s no different than feeling inspired by one’s idea of God.

Here the philosophical part, where do ideas come from?

What is the evidence of the existence of ideas?

This is tangential to the talk on God in christianity, though. Still useful as parallel.

Define idea.
Define exist.
Subtract idea from exist.
Now you have no idea.

[Asle Leopolka]

But that’s no different than feeling inspired by one’s idea of God.

Here the philosophical part, where do ideas come from?

What is the evidence of the existence of ideas?

This is tangential to the talk on God in christianity, though. Still useful as parallel.
Some ideas can be divinely inspired, according to christianity.

Ideas come from the brain; here's one example of the research that backs it up: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5796649/

It's not "tangential to the talk on God," you just want it to be

[Lost Memories]

I listed some points under the prayer text, did you find anything odd in those points?

They are certainly points. Bulleted an all, but I'm not sure how this homework assignment has any relevance to my initial question.

What initial question?
I was the one to ask you this:

so I like to think I have some basic understanding of what christians believe in.

Besides, since you claimed to have been a catholic, did you ever heard of the prayer of the Angel of God before?
How many of the points expressed in that prayer you do recognize as "basic understanding of what christians believe in" ?

No actually

And now that you have read it, how many of the points expressed in that prayer do you recognize as part of christian belief?

To which you didn't answer yet.
Should i assume then you didn't recognize any of those points?

[Godular]

But that’s no different than feeling inspired by one’s idea of God.

Here the philosophical part, where do ideas come from?

What is the evidence of the existence of ideas?

This is tangential to the talk on God in christianity, though. Still useful as parallel.
Some ideas can be divinely inspired, according to christianity.

One’s head.
People scribbling about things that popped up in their heads.

Or, in religious iconography, people scribbling about things that popped up in a priest’s head... and the ‘divine inspiration’ is just their already extant faith.

[Nobel Hobos 2]

There is no god.
There is no allah.
There is no devil.
You're just afraid of the unknown and made up a superstition to ease your fears.
This superstition has been warped and manipulated to become a means of control through promises of salvation from your miserable lives or as a mechanism of fear to force obedience, shame, and a desire to beg for forgiveness.

Humans created God, OK?
Humans prefer to destroy than create, OK?
Humans must have had a reason to create God ...
God reifies obedience, shame, and regret ...
Humans created God to reify bad feelings
Humans don't like feeling the bad feelings
Humans created God to take the blame.

[Godular]

Here the philosophical part, where do ideas come from?

What is the evidence of the existence of ideas?

This is tangential to the talk on God in christianity, though. Still useful as parallel.

Define idea.
Define exist.
Subtract idea from exist.
Now you have no idea.

I’m not sure if this makes me want to laugh, or try and figure if I read it wrong.

[Alvecia]

They are certainly points. Bulleted an all, but I'm not sure how this homework assignment has any relevance to my initial question.

What initial question?
I was the one to ask you this:

so I like to think I have some basic understanding of what christians believe in.

Besides, since you claimed to have been a catholic, did you ever heard of the prayer of the Angel of God before?
How many of the points expressed in that prayer you do recognize as "basic understanding of what christians believe in" ?

No actually

And now that you have read it, how many of the points expressed in that prayer do you recognize as part of christian belief?

To which you didn't answer yet.
Should i assume then you didn't recognize any of those points?

The one immediately preceding your post about the prayer, which you included in the quote I might add.

My question about worth was more directed in the sense of "what makes a religious belief any different from any other strong held belief", beyond perhaps popularity. The dragon in my garage as an example.

Tit for tat, as they say.

[Lost Memories]

Yeah, your belief in materialism is already plenty clear. Repeating isn't going to change much. What is known is known.

It's your understanding of religion that is under scrutiny here.
You can start from here

Or here
Or also here
For those who just jumped in.

[Geneviev]

There is no god.
There is no allah.
There is no devil.
You're just afraid of the unknown and made up a superstition to ease your fears.
This superstition has been warped and manipulated to become a means of control through promises of salvation from your miserable lives or as a mechanism of fear to force obedience, shame, and a desire to beg for forgiveness.
(Image)

That's a bit of a generalization. I would say that most people who believe in a religion aren't afraid of the unknown or have miserable lives.

[Asle Leopolka]

There is no god.
There is no allah.
There is no devil.
You're just afraid of the unknown and made up a superstition to ease your fears.
This superstition has been warped and manipulated to become a means of control through promises of salvation from your miserable lives or as a mechanism of fear to force obedience, shame, and a desire to beg for forgiveness.
(Image)

That's a bit of a generalization. I would say that most people who believe in a religion aren't afraid of the unknown or have miserable lives.

Today? Not likely. Decades ago? Different story.

[Lost Memories]

@Alvecia
Didn't i already answer you? There isn't anything i'm going to add to that.
Reworded maybe, inspiration, faith, those are the reasons for why someone joins a religion, what else did you expect? There is nothing else.

The dragon in your garage is probably worthless, religiously speaking, that's why no one believes in it.


So, your turn now.
Just take 3 points at random, if you are too lazy to read them all.
And comment them on how much you agree those are part of catholicism.
(which bears reminding, 1,3 billion people, 50% of all christianity, with an internally united belief, quite representative of all christianity)

You didn't comment even one single point yet. (while i actually did answer you, even if it wasn't the answer you expected)

[Godular]

Yeah, your belief in materialism is already plenty clear. Repeating isn't going to change much. What is known is known.

It's your understanding of religion that is under scrutiny here.
You can start from here

Or here
Or also here
For those who just jumped in.

Y’know, a while back I’d had an idea about how light and gravity might be anti-particles of each other (HEAVILY summarized), but one of the first complaints about it was ‘Sure, that’s a spiffy idea, but it doesn’t really change anything!’

Being inspired by god —as opposed to simply being inspired by the idea of god— is all well and good... but it doesn’t really change anything.

[State of Turelisa]

There is no god.
There is no allah.
There is no devil.
You're just afraid of the unknown and made up a superstition to ease your fears.
This superstition has been warped and manipulated to become a means of control through promises of salvation from your miserable lives or as a mechanism of fear to force obedience, shame, and a desire to beg for forgiveness.
(Image)

Are you an atheistic Satanist? Your flag has made me curious.

[Lost Memories]

That's a bit of a generalization. I would say that most people who believe in a religion aren't afraid of the unknown or have miserable lives.

It is a generalization.

Arguably, people who aren't capable of viewing the point of view of others, and hold a discussion of mutual enrichment, are quite miserable.
Same as people too proud of their intelligence to ever admit to be ignorant.
Materialism itself is quite miserable as view of life.

[State of Turelisa]

That's a bit of a generalization. I would say that most people who believe in a religion aren't afraid of the unknown or have miserable lives.

It is a generalization.

Arguably, people who aren't capable of viewing the point of view of others, and hold a discussion of mutual enrichment, are quite miserable.
Same as people too proud of their intelligence to ever admit to be ignorant.
Materialism itself is quite miserable as view of life.

The natural and the supernatural, matter and spirit, coexist. They're not to be conceived as mutually exclusive.

[Insaanistan]

There is no god.
There is no allah.
There is no devil.
You're just afraid of the unknown and made up a superstition to ease your fears.
This superstition has been warped and manipulated to become a means of control through promises of salvation from your miserable lives or as a mechanism of fear to force obedience, shame, and a desire to beg for forgiveness.
(Image)

“La kum deenu kum wa liya deen.” (You have your beliefs and I will have mine) -Chapter of the Non-Muslims, the Holy Qur’ân

[Alvecia]

@Alvecia
Didn't i already answer you? There isn't anything i'm going to add to that.
Reworded maybe, inspiration, faith, those are the reasons for why someone joins a religion, what else did you expect? There is nothing else.

The dragon in your garage is probably worthless, religiously speaking, that's why no one believes in it.

Woah there mate, no need to go around insulting other peoples beliefs like that.
You shouldn't make those claims when you clearly don't have the basic understanding of my beliefs.

So, your turn now.
Just take 3 points at random, if you are too lazy to read them all.
And comment them on how much you agree those are part of catholicism.
(which bears reminding, 1,3 billion people, 50% of all christianity, with an internally united belief, quite representative of all christianity)

You didn't comment even one single point yet. (while i actually did answer you, even if it wasn't the answer you expected)

They all generally look like things that a christian/catholic might believe in, depending on the person.
Is this going somewhere?

[Sycar]

I don't know if there is, and I don't know if there isn't. I believe that humans aren't capable of knowing the answer, and I'm content with that. I used to go to church but as I grew up and started thinking critically about what I was being taught I realized that there's no way we can know for sure so what's the point of trying?

[Lost Memories]

“La kum deenu kum wa liya deen.” (You have your beliefs and I will have mine) -Chapter of the Non-Muslims, the Holy Qur’ân

Just out of curiosity.
Do you have some short and simple prayer from islam? Are there even prayers in islam? Or just verses?
Could you find the time to post and comment on what it means?

I think prayers do contain many concepts which compose the belief from which they were generated.
Which makes prayers very simple and easy ways to explain what a religion believes in.
Which "what religions believe" should be the starting point for any talk about god. Otherwise it's just ignorants whapping their mouths.

[Asle Leopolka]

There is no god.
There is no allah.
There is no devil.
You're just afraid of the unknown and made up a superstition to ease your fears.
This superstition has been warped and manipulated to become a means of control through promises of salvation from your miserable lives or as a mechanism of fear to force obedience, shame, and a desire to beg for forgiveness.
(Image)

Are you an atheistic Satanist? Your flag has made me curious.

Just atheist. It’s a gargoyle, btw (and yes I am aware of the irony)

[Geneviev]

That's a bit of a generalization. I would say that most people who believe in a religion aren't afraid of the unknown or have miserable lives.

Today? Not likely. Decades ago? Different story.

There hasn't been that much of a change within the last decades for any religion that I know of.

[Asle Leopolka]

Today? Not likely. Decades ago? Different story.

There hasn't been that much of a change within the last decades for any religion that I know of.

I meant people.

[Lost Memories]

So, your turn now.
Just take 3 points at random, if you are too lazy to read them all.
And comment them on how much you agree those are part of catholicism.
(which bears reminding, 1,3 billion people, 50% of all christianity, with an internally united belief, quite representative of all christianity)

You didn't comment even one single point yet. (while i actually did answer you, even if it wasn't the answer you expected)

They all generally look like things that a christian/catholic might believe in, depending on the person.
Is this going somewhere?

Meh, it's a lost cause.

I'm just going to assume you didn't find anything in opposition to what you already knew. (there, 3 points at random)

-Every person is precious and important to God, so much to instruct an angel as guardian for everyone
-Prayers of Intercession: prayers of intercession don't aim directly at god, but at some other being, spiritual or human, to ask them to put in a good word for us in front of god, to ask them to pray god for us
-like with conscience, the guardian angel always talks and gives good suggestions, but to listen or not, is up to the person

Ok, at least you agree on something regarding christian belief.

[Lost Memories]

It is a generalization.

Arguably, people who aren't capable of viewing the point of view of others, and hold a discussion of mutual enrichment, are quite miserable.
Same as people too proud of their intelligence to ever admit to be ignorant.
Materialism itself is quite miserable as view of life.

The natural and the supernatural, matter and spirit, coexist. They're not to be conceived as mutually exclusive.

It's not that they exclude each other. But explaining God without anything spiritual is to say God isn't spiritual, or not above materiality. Which is false, or just not christian.


Then again, which denomination are part of, specifically? Pentecostal?