Author Topic: Religions have succeeded  (Read 70591 times)

The Accountant, OBE, KC

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #750 on: January 23, 2023, 09:16:20 AM »
When you encounter God you are in the presence of the Judge and there is no intellectual weighing up of God's goodness or holiness only surrender to a new relationship...or flight.
I am not sure I understand what you mean by 'encountered'.  Can't say I have the belief that I encountered God. Thinking about God and having feelings about God is as far as I get. So my experience has been an intellectual and emotional weighing up of God. I just come to different conclusions from the one I did when I was an atheist because my value system changed and now I recognise much more ambiguity and have less requirement for certainty based on having a feeling about God. If I didn't have that feeling, my value system wouldn't have changed to incorporate the ambiguity of a god.

I also didn't have your experience of surrender or flight. I have only had something that could possibly resemble that kind of emotional response once I had a belief in God. And 'flight' sounds a bit panicked. Whereas I don't feel that and don't remember feeling that when I was an atheist. When I was an atheist, a lot of the time I was just indifferent and had other things to think about that caught my attention. The concept of god just didn't have any appeal to me when I was an atheist but I can't say I felt I had to run from it.

Similar to my current bafflement about gender, I could grasp the ideas about gods and why some people believed and worshipped and why it mattered to them, but gods just didn't matter to me or add anything to my life,. I also remember sometimes feeling superior, condescending / patronising towards theists, feeling sorry for them, feeling irritated by them, thinking they were perpetuating a dangerous system, and thankful that I wasn't caught up in what I saw as a waste of time.

I feel the same way about gender currently as I did about gods when I was an atheist - I can grasp what is meant by gender and why it matters to some people but can't see how inserting this extra layer to human experience adds anything meaningful to my own life. I can see the point of biological sex but not gender. So I guess sometimes I feel superior to people caught up in this idea of gender, and somewhat condescending and patronising towards them, I sometimes feel sorry for them, I mostly would leave them to believe whatever they want but sometimes I am irritated or outraged by the ideas promoted by some extreme gender activists because I think they are promoting an idea that could be used by bad people for bad purposes, although most people would no doubt have benign intent.
I identify as a Sword because I have abstract social constructs e.g. honour and patriotism. My preferred pronouns are "kill/ maim/ dismember"

Quite handy with weapons - available for hire to defeat money laundering crooks around the world.

“Forget safety. Live where you fear to live.” Rumi

Walt Zingmatilder

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #751 on: January 23, 2023, 09:23:55 AM »
It's interesting that both you and Sriram have used the words intellectual/intellectualising pejoratively. I'm afraid you both sound as if you are saying that given you cannot provide any form of justification for your position, you'll just say justifications are bad.


It also means that you both perform a sort of bait and switch by saying judging a notional god is impossible but you know your god is fandabidozi but that's not a judgement. That you say you are not thinking rationally about is not a get out clause for being logically contradictory.
I don't use the word intellectual perjoritively it's our daily modus in the world but some situations are not solved by it or conjured into being by it. In otherwords the encounter with God is past the moral pondering stage , it is settled by God's presence.

Nearly Sane

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #752 on: January 23, 2023, 09:29:28 AM »
I don't use the word intellectual perjoritively it's our daily modus in the world but some situations are not solved by it or conjured into being by it. In otherwords the encounter with God is past the moral pondering stage , it is settled by God's presence.
And you illustrate exactly that you are using it pejoratively by describing it as ok for the quotidian but comoketely inadequate for something you see as higher. Though your 'method' for that is not a method. It's simply you saying 'I really really really believe this'.
« Last Edit: January 23, 2023, 09:44:15 AM by Nearly Sane »

Walt Zingmatilder

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #753 on: January 23, 2023, 09:36:46 AM »
I am not sure I understand what you mean by 'encountered'.  Can't say I have the belief that I encountered God. Thinking about God and having feelings about God is as far as I get. So my experience has been an intellectual and emotional weighing up of God. I just come to different conclusions from the one I did when I was an atheist because my value system changed and now I recognise much more ambiguity and have less requirement for certainty based on having a feeling about God. If I didn't have that feeling, my value system wouldn't have changed to incorporate the ambiguity of a god.

I also didn't have your experience of surrender or flight. I have only had something that could possibly resemble that kind of emotional response once I had a belief in God. And 'flight' sounds a bit panicked. Whereas I don't feel that and don't remember feeling that when I was an atheist. When I was an atheist, a lot of the time I was just indifferent and had other things to think about that caught my attention. The concept of god just didn't have any appeal to me when I was an atheist but I can't say I felt I had to run from it.

Similar to my current bafflement about gender, I could grasp the ideas about gods and why some people believed and worshipped and why it mattered to them, but gods just didn't matter to me or add anything to my life,. I also remember sometimes feeling superior, condescending / patronising towards theists, feeling sorry for them, feeling irritated by them, thinking they were perpetuating a dangerous system, and thankful that I wasn't caught up in what I saw as a waste of time.

I feel the same way about gender currently as I did about gods when I was an atheist - I can grasp what is meant by gender and why it matters to some people but can't see how inserting this extra layer to human experience adds anything meaningful to my own life. I can see the point of biological sex but not gender. So I guess sometimes I feel superior to people caught up in this idea of gender, and somewhat condescending and patronising towards them, I sometimes feel sorry for them, I mostly would leave them to believe whatever they want but sometimes I am irritated or outraged by the ideas promoted by some extreme gender activists because I think they are promoting an idea that could be used by bad people for bad purposes, although most people would no doubt have benign intent.
You don't use the word emotional in the perjoritive I notice. What would you say elicited and elicits your emotions around your religion? Are you influenced at all by Sufism?

The Accountant, OBE, KC

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #754 on: January 23, 2023, 09:44:03 AM »

I agree with you.

God as a concept is one thing and God as an experience is another thing. When we philosophize, we describe God as omnipresent, omnipotent, universal etc. This is our attempt to understand 'God' intellectually.

But when we experience him it is more as a subtle inner presence. This is the personal God that some people experience. Describing this presence becomes difficult and therefore most people take recourse to religious imagery and traditional deities. Here the language becomes more emotional and a socially accepted one.
Yes - the only bit I am not sure I understand is what you mean by 'experiencing' God. I understand the point that people can  believe they experienced God, and build their life and value system and social interaction based on that belief. I don't think that is  different to building your life around other abstract moral beliefs that have value to you but mean nothing to someone else. But presumably no one would ever know if they did actually experience God or if what they experienced was a feeling produced by their ideas about God?

A concept that is similar for me is 'honour'. For example, I could have ideas about 'honour' and emotions and feelings that affect my behaviour based on the abstract concept and my thoughts about it. I could articulate what I mean by honour and the emotions/ feelings this concept induces in me and also say I feel the need to do something as a matter of personal honour but not be able to demonstrate to someone else that I have any honour. Other people may well think or say that I have no honour, based on their understanding and use of the term, but if I experienced the feeling and I identified it as related to my beliefs about 'honour', other people's opinions would not cause me to abandon my belief in my honour. 
I identify as a Sword because I have abstract social constructs e.g. honour and patriotism. My preferred pronouns are "kill/ maim/ dismember"

Quite handy with weapons - available for hire to defeat money laundering crooks around the world.

“Forget safety. Live where you fear to live.” Rumi

Walt Zingmatilder

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #755 on: January 23, 2023, 09:49:34 AM »
And you illustrate exactly that you are using it pejoratively by describing it as ok for the quotidian but comoketely inadequate for something you see as higher. Though your 'method' for that is not a method. It's simoly you saying 'I really really really believe this'.
You seem to be eliminating all possibility of an encounter with God and dismiss my account of the nature of the response whilst limiting your own response to intellectual judgment.
I suppose you are upset because you consider intellectual pondering to be the crowning experience or would intellectual evaluation be a suitable substitute?

« Last Edit: January 23, 2023, 09:53:20 AM by Walt Zingmatilder »

Nearly Sane

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #756 on: January 23, 2023, 09:50:38 AM »
Yes - the only bit I am not sure I understand is what you mean by 'experiencing' God. I understand the point that people can  believe they experienced God, and build their life and value system and social interaction based on that belief. I don't think that is  different to building your life around other abstract moral beliefs that have value to you but mean nothing to someone else. But presumably no one would ever know if they did actually experience God or if what they experienced was a feeling produced by their ideas about God?

A concept that is similar for me is 'honour'. For example, I could have ideas about 'honour' and emotions and feelings that affect my behaviour based on the abstract concept and my thoughts about it. I could articulate what I mean by honour and the emotions/ feelings this concept induces in me and also say I feel the need to do something as a matter of personal honour but not be able to demonstrate to someone else that I have any honour. Other people may well think or say that I have no honour, based on their understanding and use of the term, but if I experienced the feeling and I identified it as related to my beliefs about 'honour', other people's opinions would not cause me to abandon my belief in my honour.
If you act in a way that someone thinks is not with honour, and they say that to you, surely it's reasonable to use how you describe honour to illustrate where your actions might not be be in line with?


The issue I have with the use of the omnis is they are an attempt to justify worship but if you use them to point out logical issues with the position, you are suddenly told that people don't mean the words.

Nearly Sane

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #757 on: January 23, 2023, 09:57:23 AM »
You seem to be eliminating all possibility of an encounter with God and dismiss my account of the nature of the response whilst limiting your own response to intellectual judgment.
I suppose you are upset because you consider intellectual pondering to be the crowning experience.
As so often what you suppose is incorrect. I've often written that Hume was right that no decision is made intellectually but factual claims like you make can inly be investigated on  a rational basis.

I am not dimissing the possibility of you having an experience. I am not dismissing the possibility that it might be true. (Note those 2 statements are different). But in the absence of you being able to demonstrate the second there is no reason for me to think your statement is about reality. In addition if you use terms to describe your experience which when challenged on you say you don't actually mean in any logically consistent sense, then I'm not even being given anything coherent from you as a description.

ekim

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #758 on: January 23, 2023, 10:24:34 AM »
I agree the abstract concepts of the omnis could be taken as relinquishing of ideas of what God could be. But in practice, whether gods exist or not, once a theist starts communicating ideas about their god that go beyond describing the omnis and saying god is unknowable, they give the impression that it is their mindset they are communicating. Religions seem to be a human attempt at articulating gods and morals in the languages and tools of communication available to people.

Given language is limited, as words can be interpreted in different ways by the speaker and listener based on their nature and nurture, language/ dialects change over time and location etc, context alters the meaning, and people don't communicate all the thoughts buzzing around their brains and in their sub-conscious that might give more nuance to their words, I think the intended meanings at the time of communication from one person to another could easily get lost in translation. As we don't have any other tools other than language the resulting ambiguity is part of the package. I think ambiguity is an unavoidable part of human communication when we talk about complex abstract concepts such as gods and morals.

........ probably why apophatic theology has a presence in many religions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophatic_theology

The Accountant, OBE, KC

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #759 on: January 23, 2023, 10:26:22 AM »
You don't use the word emotional in the perjoritive I notice. What would you say elicited and elicits your emotions around your religion? Are you influenced at all by Sufism?
I understand the caution about relying on emotion, whether it is about gods or moral values. As I got older I guess I just trusted myself more to utilise them in a way that was beneficial as I came to appreciate the benefits of emotional connections, and alternative value systems from the ones I previously employed.

I just don't think I can choose to feel an emotion about God. My experience was that I didn't believe and I opened the Quran because i was bored and wanted to get some enjoyment out of pointing out to my Muslim boyfriend (now husband) how silly it all was as he had introduced the topic. And I read a couple of lines and felt an emotional connection that I hadn't felt before based on the words in the book. I felt the emotion and that later prompted my inclination to explore the ideas further, both intellectually and emotionally. By intellectually, I don't mean by conducting repeatable, testable experiments, though I have no objection to people employing that approach in their lives and only selecting moral values based on their conclusions about objective, repeatable, testable data. By 'intellectual' I just mean by thinking about how applying the idea of God could have a qualitative effect on my behaviour and the outcomes of that behaviour.

I can't say my belief was strengthened based on Sufi practice but I like some of the Sufi ideas and philosophy. 

I find a lot of the ideas and ideals of other people have strengthened my belief e.g. the ideas and explanations by scholars of Quranic Arabic and people who have studied the language, religion, the traditional stories about the life and character of Prophet Muhammad and his followers and the Caliphs who came after Prophet Muhammad, and the ideas of family and friends based on what they have read, understood, experienced, and practised.
I identify as a Sword because I have abstract social constructs e.g. honour and patriotism. My preferred pronouns are "kill/ maim/ dismember"

Quite handy with weapons - available for hire to defeat money laundering crooks around the world.

“Forget safety. Live where you fear to live.” Rumi

Nearly Sane

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #760 on: January 23, 2023, 10:47:58 AM »
........ probably why apophatic theology has a presence in many religions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophatic_theology
I remember having conversations with Wigginhall, erstwhile of this parish and much missed, about the drive people have to justify their belief in a god with rational reasons. On this I am reminded of Alan/Alien and his 5 reasons for believing in god, all of which seemed like rationalisations and nothing to do with his belief.

There's something similar going on when people use terms that when challenged on, they deny really apply. The problem is that if you don't try and f the ineffable, there really is nothing to say about it. 

bluehillside Retd.

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #761 on: January 23, 2023, 10:53:06 AM »
Sriram,

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You people are over intellectualizing the point.

How can you “over intellectualise” an argument? If further and more supportable reasoning is available, why stop before that point for your position?

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When we say that God is omniscient and omnipotent...we are relinquishing all ideas of what God could be. It  automatically means that we are removing all our limitations from God. It means that he is much more than what we can imagine or comprehend.

No it doesn’t. Omniscience and omnipotence are themselves “limitations” – they limit this supposed god from partial knowledge and from partial power for example, but in any case these are features some ascribe to god while at the same time claiming that god to be “beyond human comprehension” or some such. A god beyond human comprehension is a god about whom nothing can reasonably be said, yet at the same time you’re trying to say something about that god (ie, that he has the omnis as features). These are contradictory position to take.     

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Once this characterization of God is assumed....it doesn't make sense to impose our limited ideas of morality on to him and to judge him on that basis.

How can you “assume” characteristics of a god that’s also "beyond human understanding"?

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Saying that we humans are forming such ideas of God and thereby we are imposing our ideas and mindsets on him, doesn't make sense.  All ideas and philosophies are thought out or imagined by humans only. That is obvious....  But by stating that God is beyond our comprehension we are removing this restriction.....

Still no. You can have all the “ideas and philosophies” you like, but if you also want to assert a “God…beyond our comprehension” then ipso facto none of them can apply to that god.   

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My personal ideas of God could be different which is besides the point.

And entirely irrelevant – as are anyone else’s “personal ideas of God” when in the same breath that want to claim a god beyond understanding.
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bluehillside Retd.

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #762 on: January 23, 2023, 11:00:03 AM »
Vlad,

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When you encounter God you are in the presence of the Judge and there is no intellectual weighing up of God's goodness or holiness only surrender to a new relationship...or flight.


So few words, so many unqualified assertions…

If you want the claim of having “encountered God” to be taken seriously then you have a mountain of work ahead of you to establish A). “God” and B). that you “encountered” (rather than just imagined) it, and in any case deciding that this supposed god is a “Judge”, “holy”, “good” etc are features you’re ascribing to this god. How could you possible claim to know such things about a god that’s also unknowable?       
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Udayana

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #763 on: January 23, 2023, 11:06:25 AM »
I remember having conversations with Wigginhall, erstwhile of this parish and much missed, about the drive people have to justify their belief in a god with rational reasons. On this I am reminded of Alan/Alien and his 5 reasons for believing in god, all of which seemed like rationalisations and nothing to do with his belief.

There's something similar going on when people use terms that when challenged on, they deny really apply. The problem is that if you don't try and f the ineffable, there really is nothing to say about it.

That's it really. If Sriram, Walt/Vlad, ... have experience of god, and it is something beyond words and logic - why spend hours, months, or years trying to (incorrectly) justify it as a rational entity based on rational arguments and philosophy.

Would be more credible if the effort was spent on improving the world directly or generating art, music or poetry.
   
Ah, but I was so much older then ... I'm younger than that now

Sriram

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #764 on: January 23, 2023, 11:11:24 AM »
Sriram,

How can you “over intellectualise” an argument? If further and more supportable reasoning is available, why stop before that point for your position?

No it doesn’t. Omniscience and omnipotence are themselves “limitations” – they limit this supposed god from partial knowledge and from partial power for example, but in any case these are features some ascribe to god while at the same time claiming that god to be “beyond human comprehension” or some such. A god beyond human comprehension is a god about whom nothing can reasonably be said, yet at the same time you’re trying to say something about that god (ie, that he has the omnis as features). These are contradictory position to take.     

How can you “assume” characteristics of a god that’s also "beyond human understanding"?

Still no. You can have all the “ideas and philosophies” you like, but if you also want to assert a “God…beyond our comprehension” then ipso facto none of them can apply to that god.   

And entirely irrelevant – as are anyone else’s “personal ideas of God” when in the same breath that want to claim a god beyond understanding.


Goodness...! You are tying yourself in knots over this....  That is what I mean by over intellectualizing.

The Accountant, OBE, KC

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #765 on: January 23, 2023, 11:13:06 AM »
If you act in a way that someone thinks is not with honour, and they say that to you, surely it's reasonable to use how you describe honour to illustrate where your actions might not be be in line with?
My experience of people is that it is not clear cut. What they prioritise is not what I prioritise and it is often difficult to convince someone else that what you prioritise is what they should also prioritise, and vice versa.  This may be partly due to the limitations of language in conveying your thoughts and the limitations of brain comprehension of what is being felt or said. But I think a large part of this disconnect is due to the differences in people's experiences and how they interpret those experiences and how they incorporate those interpretations into their lives.

For example, sometimes I see examples of parental love and sacrifice, and my emotional reaction is to hope I never feel that depth of emotion that would lead me to react or behave that way, while others feel humbled by it and aspire to behave in a similar way. I can't understand why anyone would celebrate those feelings. Whereas other people can't understand why I don't want to aspire to or celebrate those feelings. All we can do is acknowledge our beliefs and aspirations are different because of our different life experiences and interpretations and try to be tolerant of the other person's emotional and intellectual reaction.

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The issue I have with the use of the omnis is they are an attempt to justify worship but if you use them to point out logical issues with the position, you are suddenly told that people don't mean the words.
I suppose it depends on the theist. I'm not sure why you would expect a uniform response since people would all have different experiences, reactions, interpretations and understanding of words they hear or read.

But yes I agree that if someone is attributing omnibenevolence to their god and says it means god loves you and that the meaning of god's love is that nothing bad will ever happen to you, then that is clearly illogical based on experience, and in conjunction with the other onmis.

If an onmi is used to indicate nothing greater is possible and the attribute of benevolence is used to mean beneficial to mankind's spiritual development, not their physical well-being, then it alters the logic. It also depends on how you define beneficial. I would say what is beneficial is not necessarily free from pain or sadness. I remember a psychologist on TV saying that indulging people and trying to ensure they never feel sad was a form of abuse. I think he was talking about parents and children. So essentially his point was that the outcomes he had observed from parents trying to ensure their children never feel sad, harmed the children's emotional development to the extent that it was to him a form of abuse.  So words can be used in very different ways by different people. 

Of course this idea of justice and judgement is based on the belief that there is an ultimate entity to assess and pass judgement on our spiritual development and the idea also depends on the definition of spiritual. But I would say that this belief in judgement in religions is articulated for our benefit. Some theists articulate spiritual in terms of a soul and seem to regard it as a distinct separate entity, some just talk about a judgment of our morals, emotions, thoughts and intentions linked to our sense of self.

If theists are saying we don't even know how to define the onmis because it's unknowable, but here's our best guess of how that might work given our limited understanding and given we want to communicate some sort of idea, isn't that religions incorporating the omnis because the idea of the omnis appeal to humans?

I identify as a Sword because I have abstract social constructs e.g. honour and patriotism. My preferred pronouns are "kill/ maim/ dismember"

Quite handy with weapons - available for hire to defeat money laundering crooks around the world.

“Forget safety. Live where you fear to live.” Rumi

bluehillside Retd.

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #766 on: January 23, 2023, 11:13:18 AM »
Sriram,

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I agree with you.

God as a concept is one thing and God as an experience is another thing.

What makes you think there’s such a thing as “God as an experience” rather than just a belief in experiencing god(s)?

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When we philosophize, we describe God as omnipresent, omnipotent, universal etc. This is our attempt to understand 'God' intellectually.

An attempt to understand a god we’re also told is beyond understanding”? Hmmm…

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But when we experience him…

Whoa there Sparky. You’re reifying there. What makes you think anyone has “experienced” any of the countless gods in which they variously believe(d)?

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…it is more as a subtle inner presence.

And you would justify that remarkable claim how?

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This is the personal God that some people experience. Describing this presence becomes difficult and therefore most people take recourse to religious imagery and traditional deities. Here the language becomes more emotional and a socially accepted one.

No – if you want to claim that “some people experience” their gods rather than just reach for the most proximate religious beliefs to explain their experiences then you have all you work ahead of you to justify that. You might want to consider especially the “proximate” part of that too – Amazonian tribespeople have an “experience” and ascribe it to an animal spirit, Vlad has an “experience” and ascribes it to the Christian god, you have an “experience” and ascribe it to whichever god is culturally closest to you. None of you though have “experiences” and reach for your explanations to gods from each others’ cultures. 

What do you think this implies?     
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bluehillside Retd.

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #767 on: January 23, 2023, 11:15:28 AM »
Sriram,

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Goodness...! You are tying yourself in knots over this....  That is what I mean by over intellectualizing.

Then you're still wrong about that for the reasons I set out. Which part of the argument is too difficult for you? 
"Don't make me come down there."

God

bluehillside Retd.

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #768 on: January 23, 2023, 11:17:50 AM »
Vlad,

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I don't use the word intellectual perjoritively it's our daily modus in the world but some situations are not solved by it or conjured into being by it. In otherwords the encounter with God is past the moral pondering stage , it is settled by God's presence.

Some textbook circular reasoning there.
"Don't make me come down there."

God

Enki

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #769 on: January 23, 2023, 11:18:57 AM »
Hi Enki

I'm just expressing my thoughts rather than making a definite argument. Human offspring need care for a relatively long period until they mature sufficiently to look after themselves. So developing the ability to care for others seems to have been selected for. If there were no problems in the world would we really need the large brains we have? And if we didn't have large brains, we wouldn't need the level of care we currently need and we also we wouldn't be able to articulate abstract concepts including the supernatural.

You could certainly argue that a god could have created a world where we did not require care because there was nothing bad in that world to harm us. In theory we could have only feelings of love for other people. Not really sure how choosing family units, spouses, preferences for any individuals works in such a world where everyone is equally amenable and pleasant? My feeling is that in order to have the ability to appreciate the good stuff in life you have to have the bad - such a world makes sense to me. Whereas a world where bad things don't happen because no one has the freedom to do anything bad or there are no natural disasters to care about seems a bit like agreeing to becoming a post-lobotomy McMurphy (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) before he is euthanised by Chief Bromden, as an act of what Bromden believes is benevolence for the good of McMurphy. Yes such a world is a form of living and many people might choose it but many people might not. And the dynamics, interaction and outcomes of such a world would be different from a world where bad things are allowed to happen.

I am not sure that any god I believe in includes the promise of no individual pain as part of benevolence. My understanding was that the benevolence was in relation to human benefit collectively, rather than to individuals not feeling any pain. 

So, it seems valid to me to believe/ worship a god that allows the moral complexity of bad things happening, but given the moral complexity of such a world it also seems valid to not believe such a god exists, leaving you with just moral complexity.
My view in such a story is that a God of the omnis can make a place like Eden, but having decided that the point of humans is to give them the freedom to choose from right and wrong,  I'm not really seeing it as going against the logic of such a story or against omnibenevolence if humans choose bad sometimes and therefore occupy a habitat that reflects that same complexity of good and bad as their freedom of choice gives them.

I appreciate that you are simply expressing your thoughts, as I am. I know that the debate seems to have moved on to a discussion of natural evils(e.g. tsunamis, cancers) and I leave others to deal with this. My position, which I quite accept is different to yours, is that part of my moral framework is that, ideally, everyone should be responsible for their actions, and if there were a god who has moral standing, then that should also apply to him/her. As I see it, God is supposed to have created us. He was the one who decided to give us free will. He was the one who created the potential within us to do bad things as well as good things. Therefore He has ultimate responsibility for setting things up in this way. Unfortunately, in Christianity, it always seems that humanity gets the ultimate blame and God gets a free ride. The point about omnibenovolence is that Eden is supposed to have originally existed as a perfectly good place and that heaven, for those who make it there, is also a place of perfection. So, for me, the question remains, why did a so called omnibenovolent God see fit to make an imperfect earth and an imperfect set of humans in the first place, and why does He/She not take responsibility for His/Her actions?
Sometimes I wish my first word was 'quote,' so that on my death bed, my last words could be 'end quote.'
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Sriram

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #770 on: January 23, 2023, 11:19:22 AM »
Yes - the only bit I am not sure I understand is what you mean by 'experiencing' God. I understand the point that people can  believe they experienced God, and build their life and value system and social interaction based on that belief. I don't think that is  different to building your life around other abstract moral beliefs that have value to you but mean nothing to someone else. But presumably no one would ever know if they did actually experience God or if what they experienced was a feeling produced by their ideas about God?

A concept that is similar for me is 'honour'. For example, I could have ideas about 'honour' and emotions and feelings that affect my behaviour based on the abstract concept and my thoughts about it. I could articulate what I mean by honour and the emotions/ feelings this concept induces in me and also say I feel the need to do something as a matter of personal honour but not be able to demonstrate to someone else that I have any honour. Other people may well think or say that I have no honour, based on their understanding and use of the term, but if I experienced the feeling and I identified it as related to my beliefs about 'honour', other people's opinions would not cause me to abandon my belief in my honour.


The experience has nothing to do with ones concepts or ideas or even beliefs. It is just an inner energy that neutralizes all of ones anxieties and even thoughts. 

If you really want to know more about it you could go through this link. Try at least the first two chapters...

https://sriramraot.wordpress.com/

Please message me separately if you want to discuss it.

Nearly Sane

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #771 on: January 23, 2023, 11:19:50 AM »
My experience of people is that it is not clear cut. What they prioritise is not what I prioritise and it is often difficult to convince someone else that what you prioritise is what they should also prioritise, and vice versa.  This may be partly due to the limitations of language in conveying your thoughts and the limitations of brain comprehension of what is being felt or said. But I think a large part of this disconnect is due to the differences in people's experiences and how they interpret those experiences and how they incorporate those interpretations into their lives.

For example, sometimes I see examples of parental love and sacrifice, and my emotional reaction is to hope I never feel that depth of emotion that would lead me to react or behave that way, while others feel humbled by it and aspire to behave in a similar way. I can't understand why anyone would celebrate those feelings. Whereas other people can't understand why I don't want to aspire to or celebrate those feelings. All we can do is acknowledge our beliefs and aspirations are different because of our different life experiences and interpretations and try to be tolerant of the other person's emotional and intellectual reaction.
I suppose it depends on the theist. I'm not sure why you would expect a uniform response since people would all have different experiences, reactions, interpretations and understanding of words they hear or read.
That seens to be an answer to a completely different question to the one I asked. If soneone wants to make an argument that you are not behaving in a manner that you would think is honourable, surely they will have more impact if they use your definitions of what that means?
Quote

But yes I agree that if someone is attributing omnibenevolence to their god and says it means god loves you and that the meaning of god's love is that nothing bad will ever happen to you, then that is clearly illogical based on experience, and in conjunction with the other onmis.

If an onmi is used to indicate nothing greater is possible and the attribute of benevolence is used to mean beneficial to mankind's spiritual development, not their physical well-being, then it alters the logic. It also depends on how you define beneficial. I would say what is beneficial is not necessarily free from pain or sadness. I remember a psychologist on TV saying that indulging people and trying to ensure they never feel sad was a form of abuse. I think he was talking about parents and children. So essentially his point was that the outcomes he had observed from parents trying to ensure their children never feel sad, harmed the children's emotional development to the extent that it was to him a form of abuse.  So words can be used in very different ways by different people. 

Of course this idea of justice and judgement is based on the belief that there is an ultimate entity to assess and pass judgement on our spiritual development and the idea also depends on the definition of spiritual. But I would say that this belief in judgement in religions is articulated for our benefit. Some theists articulate spiritual in terms of a soul and seem to regard it as a distinct separate entity, some just talk about a judgment of our morals, emotions, thoughts and intentions linked to our sense of self.

If theists are saying we don't even know how to define the onmis because it's unknowable, but here's our best guess of how that might work given our limited understanding and given we want to communicate some sort of idea, isn't that religions incorporating the omnis because the idea of the omnis appeal to humans?
Words can be used differently but if the person wjo uses the words  then takes a position that they cannot explain what they mean by those words then those words become meaningless in any dialogue.

The Accountant, OBE, KC

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #772 on: January 23, 2023, 11:27:25 AM »
That seens to be an answer to a completely different question to the one I asked. If soneone wants to make an argument that you are not behaving in a manner that you would think is honourable, surely they will have more impact if they use your definitions of what that means?
Oh ok - yes agreed.
Quote
Words can be used differently but if the person wjo uses the words  then takes a position that they cannot explain what they mean by those words then those words become meaningless in any dialogue.
Yes agreed.
I identify as a Sword because I have abstract social constructs e.g. honour and patriotism. My preferred pronouns are "kill/ maim/ dismember"

Quite handy with weapons - available for hire to defeat money laundering crooks around the world.

“Forget safety. Live where you fear to live.” Rumi

bluehillside Retd.

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #773 on: January 23, 2023, 11:29:23 AM »
Vlad,

Quote
You seem to be eliminating all possibility of an encounter with God…

No-one has done that. You’re straw manning again.

Quote
…and dismiss my account of the nature of the response whilst limiting your own response to intellectual judgment.

No, you can describe your “response” all you like, but the moment you want to essay an explanatory narrative for it then you must expect an “intellectual” response to test the claim. And that’s when the claim falls part as unjustified.   

Quote
I suppose you are upset…

What makes you think anyone is upset?

Quote
…because you consider intellectual pondering to be the crowning experience or would intellectual evaluation be a suitable substitute?

“Intellectual pondering/evaluation” is neither a “crowning experience” nor a “suitable substitute”. It’s a means of enquiry used to test the claims of those who would reach (typically) for the most proximate religious narratives to explain the experiences. With the exception of the religious faith that’s most appealing to you you do it too – if I claimed to have “experienced” leprechauns would you just take my word for it, or would you “intellectually” ask some questions to test the likely veracity of my claim?

Would I then be entitled to say you did this "...because you consider intellectual pondering to be the crowning experience or would intellectual evaluation be a suitable substitute"?     
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God

bluehillside Retd.

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Re: Religions have succeeded
« Reply #774 on: January 23, 2023, 11:34:29 AM »
Sriram,

Quote
The experience has nothing to do with ones concepts or ideas or even beliefs. It is just an inner energy that neutralizes all of ones anxieties and even thoughts.

If you really want to know more about it you could go through this link. Try at least the first two chapters...

https://sriramraot.wordpress.com/

Please message me separately if you want to discuss it.


The “experience” might have “nothing to do with ones concepts or ideas or even beliefs” but the moment the person who had the experience reaches for an explanation for it that involves a god then that has everything to do with “ones concepts or ideas or even beliefs”.

Your conflating here an “experience” with the explanation for it. 
"Don't make me come down there."

God