Vengeance is mine saith the LORD, and I shall pay back in full...

[Spud]

Spud
Are you bloody serious???
Jealousy is a very human failing & not one to be admired IN humans much less some ridiculous deity ?!?!!?!? 

Jealousy can be the right response. Like if you come home to find your wife having a candle-lit dinner with the postman. You wouldn't say, "sorry to interrupt, do carry on. I'll come back a bit later"

[trippymonkey]

Spud
We're talking about GOD here not some silly human !?!!?
Am I mistaken in thinking God is beyond all this bollox or is all this religious bull a complete waste of time cos we're just bowing to ourselves ??

[Owlswing]

Needy type, by the sound of it.

. . . and pathetic . . . and insecure . . . among other failings, very very human failings - is this further evidence that he is a human construct?

[Brownie]

Man attributing human emotions to God, a bit like anthropomorphism.

[Gordon]

Sometimes things are not what they seem, Gordon. God is not expecting people to behave like robots, just to acknowledge him, like by saying grace, for example.

So your god wants us to be compliant on a regular basis, such as before every meal - that sounds very much like an expectation of us being routinely robotic.

[floo]

Sometimes things are not what they seem, Gordon. God is not expecting people to behave like robots, just to acknowledge him, like by saying grace, for example.

And you know that for a fact do you?

[Shaker]

Man attributing human emotions to God, a bit like anthropomorphism.

That's theism for you.

[Rhiannon]

That's theism for you.

Well, yeah. Unless nice emotions belong to God and rubbish ones are human. In which case there's another thing for theists to feel crap about. (Been there, done that).

[Brownie]

Spud said:  God is not expecting people to behave like robots, just to acknowledge him, like by saying grace, for example.
(Emphasis mine)

Religious observance can become robotic when it should be flexible;  doing particular things at specified times have little to do with living faith.  Some structure is helpful but we must never be slaves to it.

[Rhiannon]

I find it very odd to talk of what God does and doesn't expect, as though that is knowable.

[trippymonkey]

God seems to make very little contact with His Creation these days. ?!!?!?!?

[Owlswing]

God seems to make very little contact with His Creation these days. ?!!?!?!?

Making the presumption that human life-span, to the Christian deity, is but a second to him, maybe he has become bored with his creation and is looking at other froms of entertainment, like a kid looking for a new game for his/her X-box? 

[trippymonkey]

WELLLL Why not as it seems God has all the qualities of a spiteful child, eh ?!!?!?

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Needy type, by the sound of it.

He doesn't need us. But there is no philosophical or objective methodological way of establishing that we don't need him.

[Brownie]

No ippy, it's us projecting our own feelings onto God.

[floo]

No ippy, it's us projecting our own feelings onto God.

Which isn't surprising as there is no convincing evidence it exists, therefore humans have created its nature to suit their own way of thinking.

[Owlswing]

Man attributing human emotions to God, a bit like anthropomorphism.

In te words of Sir Terry Pratchett's Death - an anthropomorphic personification. Exactly. As, in all probability, are the deities of my own pantheon.

[ippy]

No ippy, it's us projecting our own feelings onto God.

Hi there Brownie, I'm not quite sure what it is you're referring to, the Mysterons perhaps?

I would have thought we might have about as much luck projecting our own feelings onto a unicorn as projecting our own feelings onto a god, both equally as credible as each other, unless you've got any of the elusive missing evidence to the contrary?

ippy 

[Dicky Underpants]

He doesn't need us. But there is no philosophical or objective methodological way of establishing that we don't need him.

None is necessary. Subjectivity rules here. For years I thought I did need him: I even thought I'd experienced him on occasion. But when he refused to bequeath the tiniest smidgin of his presence when I most needed him, I realised I had to get on without being concerned whether Old Nobodaddy was there or not. Such an attitude to life seems far more enlightened, and I sometimes wonder why I was so concerned in the past. The whole thing is a wild goose chase. When the chips are down and humans are put through the mangle, it does seem part of human nature to ask if all the sufferings of life are part of some greater plan.
I'm quite content now to concede that such things do not have "ultimate meaning". Shit happens.

[Owlswing]

None is necessary. Subjectivity rules here. For years I thought I did need him: I even thought I'd experienced him on occasion. But when he refused to bequeath the tiniest smidgin of his presence when I most needed him, I realised I had to get on without being concerned whether Old Nobodaddy was there or not. Such an attitude to life seems far more enlightened, and I sometimes wonder why I was so concerned in the past. The whole thing is a wild goose chase. When the chips are down and humans are put through the mangle, it does seem part of human nature to ask if all the sufferings of life are part of some greater plan.
I'm quite content now to concede that such things do not have "ultimate meaning". Shit happens.

Shit happens, in huge buckets full, probably IS the ultimate meaning of life, the universe and everything, rather, of course, than 42.

[trippymonkey]

Yes to the last 2 comments ! Good idea to feel like this, I think. 

How do we know we've not agreed on all this 'Leave us alone & let's see how we get on' BEFORE we came to earth? Does that make sense? Recall there's something akin to this IN The Bible. 

Nick

[Stranger]

He doesn't need us. But there is no philosophical or objective methodological way of establishing that we don't need him.

For the question even to arise, you first need to establish that 'he' exists at all. Something nobody seems able to manage in anything approaching an objective and rational way.

[Gordon]

Moderator:

This thread was removed for review and is now being returned having been rolled back in order to remove a series of recent posts involving unacceptable personal comments, and also earlier derails.

N.B. This thread wasn't posted to for nearly 3 weeks, hence the posts immediately prior to this one date to late June.