Isn't...God just awesome?!

so was yours man, just different

peace

 

What if all those qualities, actions, and events were really attributed solely to YOU? What if YOU were the one that made the decisions to lead your own life as you saw fit, not God?

I'm not criticizing you or your religion, just giving you some food for thought

 

belive me, I have questioned that before.... when I tried to feel good about me and my life through non relilgion and other religions, I didn't get the same results.

I used to have 'psychotic' thinking patterns and clinical depression. I tried medications, I tried positive thinking, I tried wishing them away, I often thought about suicide and cut myself. Other philosophies did not help me. Thinking this is random chance did not pull me out. Neither did trying to ignore the thoughts or delving into and learning about new age spirituality like tarot and astral projection, trying to empty my mind.

I'm not saying that this is what you think, but there is a common misconception that Christians do not question their faith, that they are unintelligent or that they just blindly walk into this faith. I see much the opposite. Believe me, this was not something I wanted to believe in. I used to think all Christians were self-righteous and presumptuous. I had to stop using my common idea of Christians as an excuse to run away from God. I had to start really investigating Jesus.

Perhaps other religions have "worked" for other people, I can't argue someone's personal experience. But in my life, they didn't offer inner peace. I tried.

In my life, prayer, specifically to God/Jesus has proved to be significantly different than positive thinking or "taking control" of my life.

Thank you for your post, it was very respectful. Peace to you!

 

LOL, Wow, this thread reaches to extraordinary levels of spiritual selfish delusionment!!

Isn’t dirt just totally amazing? I don’t know what I’d be standing on if it wasn’t for dirt!! Right now I think I’d sink into the godforsaken depths of hell if it wasn’t for DIRT!! Oh, my Dirt, you are always there when I need you, you give me the support I need to stand up and face all the delusional assholes who infect this planet.

 

hey, sorry if anything I said was disrespectful to you. can't we respectfully agree to disagree?

 

That's good that you like dirt. For surely since God is in everything...God is dirt too. Jai (victory) Dirt! Jai Boumi Mata (Mother Earth!) You provide us with places to walk, stand and you lovingly support us even when we mistreat you. You are most right relaxxx we should not forget to offer our love to the dirt...for it is from where our bodies were made and where they will go.

 

You credit God for changing your life but I think it you did yourself. I bet you changed the people you hang around with too, you knew the drug heads were a bad influence and you’ve replaced them with Religious. This is a common trend for people with addictive personalities, sure changing your addiction from drugs to God has benefited you but the real benefits are the positive social environments not God. Positive social groups don’t have to be Religious groups, the religion is just a common focal point. Religious groups may seem to stand on high ethical grounds but this is not always the case. These people also can have extremely biased views or just downright racist and cultist agendas.



For some people the idea of God brings comfort and that’s fine but when I think of God, all I think about are the countless millions of corpses who have been slaughtered in the name of one God or another.



What bothers me the most is all this talking about how great and wonderful God is but all the praying you could ever do is not going to change one grain of sand in the Sahara desert! If there is a God he has ABSOLUTELY PROVIN his unwillingness to interfere in the grimiest of realities on this planet. 30 Billion people, 95% living in poverty and not one single person on this planet has any solid proof of any divine supernatural event ever happening. But what you will find evidence of are countless horror stories of genocides, women and children raped and slaughtered like animals, millions starving to death… There is no end to the sicknesses humans are afflicted with and religion is responsible for inflicting far more miseries than it comforts. And for all of this, if I did believe in God, he wouldn’t even be worth my spit!!

God is not going to fix this planet, he’s not going to stop wars, he’s the reason most exist. God is not going to clean the oceans or stop hurricanes, floods, or earthquakes from killing millions. God is not going to stop anyone from murdering anyone. God will do absolutely nothing as he watches a sick man abduct a small child and do unspeakable acts to his or her body before killing it. If I had a dollar for every time your God has done nothing while an innocent child was tortured I’d be filthy filthy filthy rich!



Just trying to bring some balance to your nice little thread!

 

Yes, dirt IS worth my spit! It's real and it actually serves a useful purpose! God on the other hand is a figment of mans imagination and a built in reality protection mechanism only useful in keeping mankind a counterproductive slave in primitive societies and to his own selfish greed and religious war engines. God is a wonderful excuse to do nothing about the state of this planet because “It’s all God’s plan”. God’s a great excuse to go and kill those of other religions because their God is a false God and they are doomed to hell and fighting for my God will ensure my place in heaven.

 

Well then I'm glad everything worked out for you! Life is life, best to live it as you will!

Peace to you as well!

 

mmmm now who ever said I stood for Christianity alone? Though raised Catholic ... I dwell on the Hinduism forum mostly...but labels matter not. I do think that God has a "plan", however I think all those things that you mentioned is because people are in ignorance and they are selfish and they have not learned how to love one another and love God in one another... its no use in blaming God for it... we've only to blame ourselves. It is we who start these wars, we who fight for "my God" against "your God" ...when we never realized that its "our God" and we are all His children...though we see God different in different way w/ different names and faces...He is Still one and we are still brothers and sisters...but we will forever fight and condemn eachother to the "hells" of our ignorance... until we learn to love one another and respect each other and eachother's views.

So, yes... why shouldn't I say God is amazing? He/She/It is beyond both Good and Bad... Those are things created in the minds of men. God is absolute Joy and Bliss... and EVERYWHERE...and in the hearts of all people regardless of who they are or how deluded by ignorance (and we all are to some degree or another) and we shouldn't neglect eachother or the Mother Earth or anything... for I pray you my friends... tell me somewhere where God isn't......? When you can do that and show me something greater than the Bliss of That LOVE that comes from just living... just being... and increase it by devotion and calling out to God in all beings... then I can say that perhaps this is all wrong. But I think the great sages know something that we don't...why else would they tell us about loving one another... ? Why else would Lord Jesus give us the Beatitudes telling us to be meek and humble ? Giving us the Law of Love telling us to love each other and God?

Relaxxx I don't know of God as you speak of Him...I know that is how he is taught of sometimes in Christianity...but I can't imagine Him being anything but Pure Love...perhaps the rest is speculation... but I tell you only what my heart hears from the great sages who know/knew Him...and what I only dream of from thinking about His Lotus feet....

I'm not saying you are wrong at all. You do not have to believe in anything... but please don't put down others who find Joy in His beautiful smile...and Bliss in his gentle guiding hand.

 

thank you relaxxx for you response...many people will believe that I made the changes but that is not what I believe -- a big part of that being because for a long time I tried and didn't try. I went back and forth between religion and nonreligion.

I understand the thought process that the unfair and painful events of the world seem to not be reconcilable with a just and loving God. A question I have heard regarding that statement is "How can a mere finite human be sure that infinite wisdom would not tolerate certain short-range evils in order for more long-range goods that we couldn't foresee?"
For example, my cat probably hates me when I take him to the vet and they stick him with things and he's in strange place. But he doesn't understand that I'm allowing that pain to happen for his good in the long run.


Relaxxx wrote:

That is absolutely true. Which is why I base my faith on Jesus and not the actions of other people in my religion or others. If I practiced my religion because of other people, I know I would be sorely let down. Say someone practiced their religion because of me -- they would get hurt -- because in no way am I perfect - I'm not exempt from messing things up.
For me, the fact that we could even use good to judge evil points to the reality that their is some kind of supreme good, which I would call God.

Relaxxx wrote:

It is very true that Chrisitanity among other types of spirituality have completely misused the name of God in declaring war and completely killing off people. Honestly that is a struggle for me. But when I look in the New Testament, I see that people who have done this in recent history were cultural Christians, not authentic Christians. Christianity as an institution is different than Christianity as a life of following Jesus.

In the book of Matthew, ch 7, this is described.....

Thank you for bringing in your thoughts to this thread, you have some great points, that cannot be ignored. My answers were not meant to gloss over the things you said, just some of my thoughts. I'm definetly thinking about some of the issues you brought up.

Silverwolf_87--thanks man!