...A Problem With God...

[A-1 (imported)]

Quote by Allison from the Personal fantasies board...

People have also suggested that I change my avatar. I guess that they have a problem with GOD. You know, "God loves them too!

I am wondering, how many have a "beef" (nothing HINDU, mind you) with GOD that they are willing to share and discuss with the rest of us?

I will start out...

Me, my problem is this.

I feel like I have been taken out in the country or perhaps a desert in a car and then left. I mean, this world SUCKS and I didn't ask to be left here.

So tell me, how do the rest of you feel?

A-1

[Sherry (imported)]

Quote by Allison from the Personal fantasies board...

I am wondering, how many have a "beef" (nothing HINDU, mind you) with GOD that they are willing to share and discuss with the rest of us?

I will start out...

Me, my problem is this.

I feel like I have been taken out in the country or perhaps a desert in a car and then left. I mean, this world SUCKS and I didn't ask to be left here.

So tell me, how do the rest of you feel?

A-1

[/B]

For me, my real issue is not what or who God is, but what a few people insist that others believe what he or she is.

During my childhood I perceived that there was a benevolent God who mostly watched over everyone and occasionally made minor changes in our world for our happiness. I wasn't religious at all and felt that God only cared about how we treated each other rather than whether or not we had any formal religion.

But my mother, the Catholic schools, churches, and certain peers taught that I had to believe a certain way, and that this God would turn cruel if I didn't do what they claimed was his bidding. That included denying myself and what I really was during my late teens to mid 20s.

Those were my personal Dark Ages. Now I feel that I am well into my own personal Renaissance as I rediscover my real self and my potential to be all that I really am.

But now I have all kinds of feelings and memories from those dark religious days that I wish I could forget. I don't have an issue with the Christian God simply because I no longer believe in him. I find that most Christians mind their own business and keep their beliefs to themselves, but there are a few who try to shove their beliefs back in my face. Unfortunately, one of those people is my own mother. The real problem is not what religion my mom is, but what she thinks I ought to be.

I do not accept the Christian label for myself, because I don't believe in that. But that doesn't mean I should attack those who are Christians. Many of my TG/TS sisters manage to reconcile their faith with their gender, and remain Christian in their new found life. What I need is to return to the beliefs I had in my early childhood.

I strive to be indifferent to Christianity and all religion in general, becuse most Christians never bother me. People will always have varying beliefs and perceptions on God, so the real question is can people respect when others believe differently?

I don't have a problem with God, I have a problem with a few people who insist I believe what they believe.

[Paolo]

I don't have a problem with God, I have a problem with a few people who insist I believe what they believe.

Amen!

[Andrew (imported)]

So tell me, how do the rest of you feel?

I more or less became an atheist due to reading Isaac Asimov from the time I learned to read at age 5. I suppose my main problem would be people who desire to proslytize me. I also have problems every now and then at my AA meetings. Myself, I strive for LIVE AND LET LIVE.

[LonePanther88 (imported)]

What was it that Pharoah's first born son did (or any of the first born in Egypt) that deserved death? When Moses was trying to free the israelites god sent the angel of death to slay all the first born in Egypt as a "sign" to Pharaoh. Its not like they little children could have done anything to save themselves. "Uh.....mom......dad? I um......really don't want to die.....so could you please not do anything to anger god tonight.....please?

Tally up the score in the bible of how many people and animals that god or his people killed compared to how many Satan or his people killed and then tell ME who is evil?

For a kind, loving god he sure is violent and eager to kill foolish, weak little humans and animals but not once do you ever see in the bible where he kills an evil demon.........nope he just "casts" them out and thats the end of it!

How much trouble would you get into today if you went down to the zoo and killed (if you could) a lion with your bare hands? Or grabbed a jawbone of a donkey and killed a thousand people with it?

King david numbered the people.......which for some (fucked up the ass) reason was a sin. So god punishes him by killing a certain number of the people...... .........How would you like to die.....or watch your first child die because president Bush does something that god doesn't like and god decides to kill YOU to teach Bush a lesson??

What a bunch of SHIT!!!!!

which is the perfect word to describe god in MY "Opinion"........SHIT!

[n. Scott (imported)]

For me, my real issue is not what or who God is, but what a few people insist that others believe what he or she is.

Unfortunately...it almost always comes down to a child like "My imaginary friend is better than your imaginary friend"

I am quite happy and willing to accept a person's belief in anything they want..as long as it doesn't hurt anyone...but it can become a little annoying when someone goes into a hard sell.

Maybe I'm different. when I was a kid, and I discovered that a certain red-suited man wasn't real, I pretty much immediately asked my mother if God was, too. She couldn't answer that one.

[A-1 (imported)]

How much trouble would you get into today if you went down to the zoo and killed (if you could) a lion with your bare hands?

Or grabbed a jawbone of a donkey and killed a thousand people with it?

Well, The Taliban tried to kill that lion in the zoo in Kabul...

and, if you want to rip the jawbone off of an ass maybe somebody can find that binLauden guy...

...and the Al-quada...they need to see the results of Osama's jaw being flapped while it's NOT attached...

just a few thoughts...

What LonePanther88 says sounds curiously like some recent world events.

I really don't have a lot of anger...but...

To me God is a comedian playing to an audience who is afraid to laugh...

If people would just quit trying to be too righteous and just try to be nice to each other a lot of things would fall into place.

But NO! We all have to be manipulating, controlling, power hungry idiots. Where does it get us?

God should have cast the Earth into the Sun right after they crucified Christ. It's what we had coming, the lot of us...

A-1

[JayBee (imported)]

I haven't posted for a while, but I had to jump into this.

I am not a church-goer or a Native American, but I have found that my own beliefs closely parallel the Native American beliefs. I prefer "Great Spirit" to "God". He (she) exists. I have no doubt. I had a great deal of spiritual help in the form of visions and real physical phenomena during my hormonal crash and the ensuing illness that happened last year. I asked for help and I got it. (I'm still getting it.) All you have to do is ask (and really mean it.) The Great Spirit always give us what we need (not always what we want.) But you have to ask. "We have not because we ask not."

Yes, a lot of things in this world suck. We have been given the free will to screw things up as much as we want. But there is good in the world and good people of any religion, or of no religion at all. I think some of us need to get out and "smell the roses" once in a while.

JayBee

[Losethem (imported)]

My personal feelings on religion are that I believe in a god, but I don't follow the "scripted" organized religions in the world. They are the cause of probably 99.99% of the problems our planet faces in the way of war and conflict.

Not to mention that most of them tell me I am wrong for being who I am (gay). Why would I want to put up with that?

So until the organized religions of the world stop using their beliefs to rearrange thier prejudices and discriminatory practices, they can mind their own F***ing business. Nothing makes me angrier than a person telling me they can help make me something I have no desire or feeling I need to be.

Just my .02 worth.

[Kortpeel (imported)]

Me, my problem is this.

I feel like I have been taken out in the country or perhaps a desert in a car and then left. I mean, this world SUCKS and I didn't ask to be left here.

So tell me, how do the rest of you feel?

A-1

[/B]

**************************************************

Hi All,

A problem with God?

To understand God forget for the moment the Bible, the Koran and any other written revelation. Instead contemplate the works of God. Consider the infinity of the universe, the countless number of galaxies within it. The vast number of stars within each galaxy and attached to those stars may be planets and moons.

Then consider the laws of science that describe the behaviour of bodies in space: Newton, Kepler, Einstein plus all the other laws of chemistry and physics that describe what goes on in those bodies. Just have a shot at the math involved in all that.

At the other end of the scale we have the atom, infinitesimally small yet made up of protons, neutrons and electrons which are themselves made up of quarks which in turn are electromagnetic waves or quanta of energy.

On our own tiny, insignificant planet we have a superabundance of life to fill every ecological niche on the planet. Each form of life is a miracle of design and production far beyond our own ability to create. And on top of that heap of life we have Homo Sapiens, ourselves, with our own unique miracle: the human brain. It's an electrochemical system of such infinite genius and complexity that we can only regard it with awe and with very little understanding.

And that is just our own known physical universe. Scientists are talking of parallel universes and other wonders that are mind blowing in concept.

All that creation we attribute to God, or Allah or Jahweh. A supreme being. It makes sense to me to do so. It is possible that God simply is creation but for me, the more I think about it, there simply has to be an intelligence behind it all. And a purpose.

To get a better idea of the nature of God, take your pet cat, sit him comfortably on your lap and them imagine you could download everything that you know into the cat's brain. You want to give the cat all your language skills, all your years of education, share all your memories with him.

Stop there. You've already blown the poor cat's mind. His brain cannot deal with all that. Likewise how can we ever hope to understand the whole of creation?

It is possible that parts of the Bible contain revelations from God but we know that much of the old testament is simply Rabbinical propaganda or Jewish ancient history. We know that the new testament was written decades, if not centuries after the events it purports to describe. In any case the original manuscripts were heavily edited by the early bishops to correspond with church dogma after the church was established enough to have political influence.

In any case all religions and all churches are far more concerned with controlling people's behaviour and promoting their own self-interest than they are with understanding God. Therefore all churches that have permanent full time priests or clerics should be regarded with suspicion.

Now we come right down to ourselves and our own tiny part in the great scheme of creation. For me the only way to make sense of it all is to see our own lifetimes in our physical bodies as some kind of test or period of growth for the soul. That would explain all the horrible things that can and do happen to people.

What is the test for? Maybe it is Nirvanah or oneness with God. That we don't know. Probably if we did know it would blow our minds.

Having finished the test I don't think for one moment that we sit on our angelic butts and play the harp for all eternity. Neither do we burn in hell either. More likely we go on to another test or another growth experience.

Just an anecdote to finish. A brilliant mathematician of my acquaintance was doing a Master's Degree in Cosmology. He told me that it was fine all the time you stuck to the math and the equations but from time to time he would try to get his mind around what the whole thing really meant. He felt he was getting close to an understanding when suddenly he really understood everything in the field of cosmology he was working on. It was so awesome that he had to immediately back off from it. He told me that it was as if, for the briefest instant, he had gazed upon the face of God. That guy quit his degree and now lives in a cottage in a forest in Africa.

Does any of this make any sense?

Regards

Kortpeel