Forgive my misunderstanding...

Discussion in 'Religion' started by Spellbound, Nov 18, 2015.

  1. Spellbound Banned Valued Senior Member

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    But you are not "God" if you are evil, as God is the light in your darkness that illuminates you. The light which shines in darkness. The love that fills the coldest heart. The goodness that transcends all "evil:" The one who is not separate from everything and everyone.
     
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  3. AlexG Like nailing Jello to a tree Valued Senior Member

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    Reported for preaching. This is not an evangelical site.
     
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  5. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    The only proper tautology about a monotheistic godhead is to say that "God is". Anything else puts a finite barrier on what God can be.

    Which in turn leaves many wondering why so many who advocate the monotheistic godhead want it to fit in a shoebox.

    Maybe it seems easier to figure out that way, but while two plus two does in fact equal four, that is no excuse to stop counting.
     
    joepistole and sculptor like this.
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  7. timojin Valued Senior Member

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    Stop crying .
     
  8. Yazata Valued Senior Member

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    You've written that diminishing one's attachment to self is supposed to be the path forward in spirituality. But wouldn't imagining yourself as God be the antithesis of that? Isn't confusing one's self with God supposed to be one of the greatest possible sins?

    You also seem to want to argue for some kind of pantheism, where 'reality' (seemingly your favorite word) is synonymous with 'God'. So if you say that evil isn't God, then wouldn't that suggest that evil isn't real?

    That leaves you entangled in the problem of evil.

    If pain, suffering and evil seem to be real, and if God is nothing but good, aren't you suggesting that God can't be coextensive with, and hence can't be identified with reality?
     
  9. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    So the God of the Bible doesn't exist?
     
  10. Spellbound Banned Valued Senior Member

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    In actuality He does.
     
  11. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    But he can't because he killed almost everyone and everything on Earth once. That's the definition of a genocidal, evil, madman.
     
  12. Spellbound Banned Valued Senior Member

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    Yes. God is love, consciousness and good. The absence of God is man's hearts are what causes evil, therefore evil is not a thing that exists, but the absence of it.

    Yes. See: Einstein Humilates Atheist

    Absolutely not. He is nowhere absent.
     
  13. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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  14. Spellbound Banned Valued Senior Member

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    See this link for those of you who are curious: Did God command genocide in the Bible?
     
  15. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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  16. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    Mod Hat ― The obvious

    I would note that the complaining members actually have a point.

    To the other, this is, as far as we can tell, what the community wants.

    The conflict there is a question of general and particular. Everyone wants better discussion from their particular opponents about particular issues, but when it comes to general conduct at the site, honestly, the democratic forces of chaos and anarchy demand a certain amount of wallowing in guttermuck. In truth, a witless thread like this is so far down the list of priorities I can't even begin to tell you.

    Thus, a nickel's worth of advice: When a monotheist is behaving like an idiot about his or her monotheism, both the idiocy itself and the vectors by which that idiocy occurs are usually readily apparent. If we are unable to achieve this comprehension of behavior, there are many potential reasons, but within that range it seems important to observe that there is a difference between a political discussion of religion and a theological discussion. The former is the easier dispute to participate in. The latter is the more functional and useful.

    Given that people prefer the easier, it seems absurd to arbitrarily declare a limit to what political discourse about religion is acceptable. In truth, it would feel really, really stupid to take specific action against the topic post when simply attending reality would suffice.

    Because for all the arguing about God's existence, or will, or whatever, it's a political fight lacking any functional or useful attendance of the historical record. We Americans have a sports colloquialism: Can of corn.

    And honestly, sometimes it is just easier to catch the damn ball than complain about it.

    When you see a can of corn like this thread, who says you or anyone else is somehow obliged to attend? It's a really easy catch if you choose to make it.

    And it's also easier to walk away than complain.

    Nobody's going to die if you don't say, "Nuh-uh!"

    Or if you don't complain about preaching. And let me please make this point explicitly: The complaints are technically valid, the same way a cop has the duty to write you a ticket for speeding when you're driving slower than the posted limit. There may well come a time when we absolutely need that manner of enforcement power, but I do not feel I am going out on any sort of risky limb in suggesting that the community at large would prefer we don't use it until then.
     
  17. Yazata Valued Senior Member

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    Do absences exist? If they do (and the holes in donuts certainly seem to be real) then absences would seem to be included in the scope of 'reality' and hence your 'God'. If absences don't exist, and if evil is an absence, then you would seem to be saying that evil doesn't exist, that there's no such thing as evil.

    So what happened to your idea that God can be absent from man's hearts?
     
    Last edited: Nov 19, 2015
  18. C C Consular Corps - "the backbone of diplomacy" Valued Senior Member

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    And I can either guess or invent the Houdini trick (alternative metaphor) they would choose for getting out of the corner: God's goodness is a like a particular radio broadcast or signal pervading the whole universe. But if an individual is not receptive to that frequency or is "tuning God out", then that absence or lack of recognizing slash processing God's transmission equates to "evil".

    Also, there's the Greek legend approach to being "receptive" while still avoiding assimilation by the Borg [er, drowning courtesy of the Sirens]:

    "Ulysses wanted to hear the Sirens' song although he knew that doing so would render him incapable of rational thought. He put wax in his men's ears so that they could not hear, and had them tie him to the mast so that he could not jump into the sea. He ordered them not to change course under any circumstances, and to keep their swords upon him and to attack him if he should break free of his bonds. Upon hearing the Sirens' song, Ulysses was driven temporarily insane and struggled with all of his might to break free so that he might join the Sirens, which would have meant his death."
     
    Last edited: Nov 19, 2015
  19. Bowser Namaste Valued Senior Member

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    Who cares what he's saying. Just leave the thread if it bothers you. I stopped in for a look, now I'm leaving. Wasted maybe four minutes of my time.
     
  20. Spellbound Banned Valued Senior Member

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    Evil is a delusion and thus malleable to destruction. An absence from reality. God is the non-absence.

    Still holds. However as God is nowhere absent, He REVEALS evil in itself to itself.
     
  21. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

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    The same could be said of all the other spam we get here.
    If people don't report what annoys them then there is zero chance of change. If they do report then at least mods become aware and might, just might, make a change that suits the person who made the report.
    But you can't win if you don't play.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  22. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

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    If your previous assertion still holds that God can be absent from man's heart, yet "God is nowhere absent" then either God is a logical impossibility (and thus does not exist) or you are simply wrong in one, other or both of your assertions.
     
  23. Yazata Valued Senior Member

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    That reply might be an arguable (but not entirely persuasive) theistic response to some versions of the problem of evil, but I think that Spellbound's pantheism puts him into a tighter box that he will have more difficulty extracting himself from.

    One can certainly imagine God's goodness like radio waves, bathing the entire universe. (The Christian Neoplatonists thought in that way, except that their analogy was light, hence 'divine light' and 'divine illumination'.) And one can imagine evil people as analogous to broken radio receivers, unable to tune into the universe's single emitter of goodness. That way one could argue that God never created evil and his goodness is present everywhere, like radio-waves, even in the worst evils. And one could argue that the responsibility for evil is on us, the receivers unable (or unwilling) to tune in the divine broadcast. Of course, an obvious difficulty with this account is that it doesn't really address natural evils like disasters and disease.

    But Spellbound is doing something stronger, he's trying to equate God with existence itself. So do broken radio receivers exist? Does the inability to receive and respond to a broadcast exist? Does a will hardened against God exist? If they do exist, then on Spellbound's pantheistic principles they must themselves be manifestations of God. If those kind of things don't exist, then evil as Spellbound imagines it can't exist either.
     
    Last edited: Nov 19, 2015

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