You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out tha

[Blaise (imported)]

You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do." (Traveling Mercies) Anne Lamott

[Bagoas (imported)]

Well-put and VERY true ! Especially when he tells you to slay them all, sparing neither women nor children. Vicious men create vicious gods.

[Riverwind (imported)]

Very good

River

[DeaconBlues (imported)]

That is one GREAT quote Blaise, thankyou!

Seems that a lot of religious demigogues seem to create "God" in their own minds to suit themselves. Some religious "leaders" say that "God" had sent hurricanes to destroy Orlando, Florida. (That "God" hated all the homosexuals there). Many years ago, I remember LOTS of people, not just the hyper-religious zealots, said that "God sent AIDS to kill all the homosexuals..." Really a sick misunderstanding of a so called "all loving, merciful God..." that all the holy rollers are always talking about.

[Kangan (imported)]

The Bible has it backwards. Man created God is Man's own image.

Most of the strife in the world is due to religious teachings. If there is only one God, why is Allah different from Jehovah, and Yahweh?

If there was no God, then mankind would create one in order to justify their bad behavior.

[Francis (imported)]

Well, they are all the same God. All of the religions recognising these so called entities spring from a common source deep in the middle east several thousand years ago. However antiquity and longevity do not make veracity. There are two foundations for religion on which most religions stand.

First is to provide an explanation for the then inexplicable adversities they encountered that were not self caused, blaming them on some circumstance in their own behaviour (sins). It seemed to work. When some disaster happened, if they immediately threw some virgin into a volcano or a fiery furnace, the problem, as with most sporadic problems, did not then recur, and they claimed the gods were appeased, hence the sacrifice was successful and their religious beliefs totally justified. In fact it was the operation of the fickle finger of fate

Second, they recognised that, for their societies to work, there were certain behaviours that benefited the community and certain ones that damaged it. Ultomately they recognised the need to codify laws to regulate these behaviours. What better way of doing that than to embed them into their religious beliefs e.g. the Muslim beliefs in circumcision of men for health reasons, the circumcision of women (to improve their behaviour and make them less likely to stray), banning the eating of pork, wiping your ass with your left hand and eating with your right etc. Excepting the circumcision of women, these were all good hygeine issues in their time but no longer necessarily relevant. Now they are foundations of religious behaviour.

Personally I do not believe in any of it. If any life after death occurs it is likely that the Bhuddists have the more reasonable view of the possibilities and virtues associated with that. The Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions all coming from the same source with their improbable views of heaven and hell and the delights and terrors of each are so illogical as to beggar belief. They are all figments of primitive imaginations in my view. Hence my scepticism re any of them and my generally agnostic view of the world

[A-1 (imported)]

Ah yes!

...But you cannot put the Genie back into the bottle, and neither can God go back into the HOOKAH...



OUCH!



...may I have another? Crusade, Inquisition, Jihad, it makes little difference...