Who is God the Father? Zeus, Jupiter, Thor, the great “I AM”, or the man in the moon

Aleeda, I have a few thoughts but no answers to your question.

When I contemplate the variety and complexities of life on this planet I surmise that the creative force responsible must love diversity. I don't wonder that different people and different cultures respond to the idea of a spiritual dimension in different ways. The common theme IMO is a search for meaning and we find meaning when something within us responds with faith to some thing outside of ourselves.

I'm not expressing myself very clearly. I am not a theologian but I think I am talking about the spirit of God being within us and outside us. The spirit outside is responded to by the spirit inside. Whatever happens, I don't think many of us respond intellectually. We respond to a call, a note as it were that we hear in our heart. It is a resonance that is different and unique to each of us.

Does this help? I'm sorry that I don't have better words.
 

I’d like to clarify that I am NOT here seeking ‘THE’ TRUTH since and I don’t believe there is only ONE TRUTH. That would make us all clones and we aren’t. I’m here more out of curiosity. I already know MY own truth and feel everyone has their own truth. What I was missing was that I wasn’t in touch with with that inner truth and wasn’t putting my faith of what I knew and understood into practice. Lately I’ve had an inner tugging which I’ve ignored in favour of entertaining myself.
Someone here that knows me better than I realized told me to go with what I know and for me , that’s an inner journey.

The conversation on this discussion board is an interesting read though. I appreciate all the diverse opinions. That’s what makes life interesting.
 
Lara said:
Personally, I believe in God, the creator of all things. If by some bizarre chance I'm wrong then I've lost nothing. In fact I've gained because at least it made me a happier person on many levels. On the flip side, if a non-believer is wrong then they lose everything. They lose any future beyond this world and apart from God. I would never ever ever want to chance that.

It's not out of fear that I believe though. I believe because of the joy and peace God has given me. And because of the things God has taken me though. I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for my faith in God.
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Freedom means living our lives as we please, so long as it does not infringe upon the beliefs of others. Because believing, for some bizarre reason, that you could
be wrong; indicates your strong belief in a God. People are just as happy as all others, when they strongly believe in themselves for whatever reason(s).

You say it's not out of fear that you believe, but if a non-believer (in religion) happened to be wrong then in your opinion they would lose everything; and of course you would
never ever ever want to chance that. Okay, but that is still a form of fear in which all of us deal with in different ways ;)
 
Aneeda72 said:
So my question, for everyone would be, is there some genetic, spiritual, unknown pull that draws us to certain deities, religions, and the earth itself in terms of our belief systems?
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Our evolutionary path has favored brains over extras like fur and claws. When mortality salience kicked in for humanity, we had more questions than answers. We needed a primate smart enough to answer the questions we were smart enough to ask. We eventually answer our own questions. However, knowing that our death is coming up shortly, we'd like life to work sooner rather than later.


Our earliest religion was Animism. We saw intelligent life hiding in everything. Perhaps we had a hunch that since everything is decaying, everything produces energy. Also, other animals have the ability to communicate and discuss the process of being alive. They naturally share this with humans they find receptive.


We like to listen to what we want to hear instead of each other. Media figured this out a while back and probably hooked someone into that religion. We have an insecurity being so aware, caring, and vulnerable. We have to put on fur and claws. We are aware of the petty social chain developed by powerful con artists, yet we succumb to the Stockholm syndrome, because we need the company. Who else would take a broken primate?


Humanity is both compassionate and cold. We've developed the compassion that other mammals feel. We've even learned how to celebrate warmth and keep the light on. However, we also have the ability to diminish that feeling. That is the devil. It is what we do to ourselves in the midst of honest insanity to separate us from each other. We have the ability to con ourselves into becoming con artists. Society even encourages it.
 
Manny, I agree with your post as far as everyone's freedom of choice. Yes, God created us all with a choice, otherwise we'd have all been robots. You'll notice, upfront, I clarified my own belief by saying, "I personally believe". I didn't ask anyone else to believe that way.

Regarding fear, I have no fear because I'm comfortable with my choice of eternal life. There is another type of fear mentioned in the Bible and that is a fear that is much like a child has for their father as far as obedience and respect goes.
 
Religion like politics is a touchy topic.


To question Adam & Eve as the beginning of mankind, a popular story leaves out how the variety of cultures happened. Or how prehistoric creatures existed then didn't. Were Adam & Eve the basis for all mankind. If so then what explains this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denisovan.


Not questioning the story of Noah and the fury of a benevolent God always interested me. Killing all of mankind & leaving one family alive to repopulate the earth doesn't make sense to me. If God was all knowing then surely birth defects by inbreeding would not be something an all knowing God would do.


The time line of the beginning has the explanation of one day in God's time could be millions of years. The earth & universe over 3 1/2 billion years and God still exists. How?


Those examples are only a few of what I question.
 
God is a white Caucasian male. Six feet four inches tall and weighing in at a lean muscular 190 lbs. He has semi long white hair and a long white flowing beard. He always dresses in a long white robe with leather sandals. If God were to play Jesus Christ in Tennis God would win in straights sets, 6-2, 6-0, 6-1.

Jesus Christ is also a white Caucasian male who stands six feet tall and weighs in at a lean muscular 170 lbs. He has dark shoulder length hair and is clean shaven. He dresses in a white linen loincloth and leather sandals. If Jesus Christ were to play Roger Federer in Tennis Jesus would win 6-0, 6-2, 6-1.

If God were to play Roger Federer in Tennis God would prevail 6-0, 6-0, 6-0.
 
Nihil said:
Our evolutionary path has favored brains over extras like fur and claws. When mortality salience kicked in for humanity, we had more questions than answers. We needed a primate smart enough to answer the questions we were smart enough to ask. We eventually answer our own questions. However, knowing that our death is coming up shortly, we'd like life to work sooner rather than later.


Our earliest religion was Animism. We saw intelligent life hiding in everything. Perhaps we had a hunch that since everything is decaying, everything produces energy. Also, other animals have the ability to communicate and discuss the process of being alive. They naturally share this with humans they find receptive.


We like to listen to what we want to hear instead of each other. Media figured this out a while back and probably hooked someone into that religion. We have an insecurity being so aware, caring, and vulnerable. We have to put on fur and claws. We are aware of the petty social chain developed by powerful con artists, yet we succumb to the Stockholm syndrome, because we need the company. Who else would take a broken primate?


Humanity is both compassionate and cold. We've developed the compassion that other mammals feel. We've even learned how to celebrate warmth and keep the light on. However, we also have the ability to diminish that feeling. That is the devil. It is what we do to ourselves in the midst of honest insanity to separate us from each other. We have the ability to con ourselves into becoming con artists. Society even encourages it.
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This is truly a brilliant post. Very interesting , informative and well written.
Why humanity needed religion to begin with I find fascinating. Where did it start? Why did it start? How did it branch off and why?

The other day my husband was talking about religion he studied as well as history . On Easter Sunday as we ate our Chinese food and Dairy Queen ice cream cake he explained about the history and evolution of religion in factual context that made perfect sense and was totally interesting. He says society wouldn’t be the way it is without religion and there are even private groups such as the Masonaries who will accept any religion except the Catholics. They have their own group but I forget what it’s called.

For me I think I find the historical facts about religion far more interesting than discussing whether or not there is a God however religion is about discussing God and the way God is discussed clashes so much with common knowledge about our world and evolution that I can’t rationalize it or make sense of it. Many organized religions have the same types of hypocritical inconsistencies.

Thats not meant to dissuade anyone whatsoever from the conversation. I very much enjoy people sharing their beliefs and how they came to believe them as well as the posters who don’t believe and why they don’t.
It makes interesting reading.
 
In college I wrote a thesis Man's Concept of Divinity as Represented in Art. I had to. It was part of the course and I followed it from prehistoric man to Christianity. Neanderthals drew pictures on the walls of caves depicting things like shooting stars, something that could have been angels, etc. As man became more sophisticated, so did his concept of divinity. Basically, people find power and the inexplicable impressive. And their art would revolve around these things until Christianity when the collective conscious shifted to a more humane interpretation. Every culture views what is God differently, and is, I believe, a reflection of what attributes they value most.
 
Sunny,

Any forum about any topic is not in the “real world”. No one from the forum is going to come to your house, knock on your door, and shove a green bean or anything else down your throat or anyone’s throat. It’s like the option to turn off the TV or the option to not answer your door. Or the option to answer your door and shut it.

It amazes me that people respond to this thread and then state they are not interested in the thread. It’s like someone who hates green beans, buys green beans, cooks green beans; and then packs them up and returns them to the store. Because they want the store, and the world, to know that they hate green beans. Lol. Why waste the time?

I am fine, as I have said repeatedly, with any thing any one wants to say. Sigh. Your take on god, IMO, spot on for the god of the Old Testament. As for why isn’t God blamed for the bad in the world? Satan is blamed. Fallen angels are blamed. Evil is blamed. Mother Nature is blamed. I think, the saving god, the good god, is perceived as JC.

After all, he died for us. It’s polite to thank him.

To change the subject. As far as the flood, Noah, different races, and all that, I did say the thread was about the gods. If you accept the story of Adam and Eve, and read it closely, which I haven’t done in a while, another race of humans outside the Garden is mentioned. Yup, another race of man. Someone more interested in the Bible might comment on this.

Could we actually have several genetic variations of human beings created by several different gods, who throughout the ages, grew more similar? Until there are now few differences? People with Down’s syndrome (and I have a son with Down’s syndrome) are genetically different. Food for thought.

Keesha,

I have no clue what you mean by you know your truth, or how you didn’t want your truth to be changed by someone. I also don’t understand how these statements relate to this thread. You can PM me and explain if you want. I am a tad slow, lol.
 
Warrigal,

I always have felt a connection to the earth. I never liked to play in dirt or be dirty. I always wanted to plant things and raise things. So, yes, I felt calling. I just don’t know why. The calling I felt to join the army was understood. I can trace our families’ service to our country back to the revolutionary war. Maybe we were all just farmers/soldiers, lol.
 
Keesha said:
I’d like to clarify that I am NOT here seeking ‘THE’ TRUTH since and I don’t believe there is only ONE TRUTH. That would make us all clones and we aren’t. I’m here more out of curiosity. I already know MY own truth and feel everyone has their own truth. What I was missing was that I wasn’t in touch with with that inner truth and wasn’t putting my faith of what I knew and understood into practice. Lately I’ve had an inner tugging which I’ve ignored in favour of entertaining myself.
Someone here that knows me better than I realized told me to go with what I know and for me , that’s an inner journey.

The conversation on this discussion board is an interesting read though. I appreciate all the diverse opinions. That’s what makes life interesting.
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Aneeda72 said:
Keesha,

I have no clue what you mean by you know your truth, or how you didn’t want your truth to be changed by someone. I also don’t understand how these statements relate to this thread. You can PM me and explain if you want. I am a tad slow, lol.
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Hi Aneeda,
That isn’t actually what I said. Nowhere did I state that I didn’t want my truth to be changed by anyone.
The reason why I stated that I already know my own truth is because a poster mentioned that we are all here in search of ‘the truth’ like there was only one. That’s all. I have a way of turning a simple sentence into a complicated paragraph. :laugh:
No worries. I’m slow too. ;)
 
chic said:
In college I wrote a thesis Man's Concept of Divinity as Represented in Art. I had to. It was part of the course and I followed it from prehistoric man to Christianity. Neanderthals drew pictures on the walls of caves depicting things like shooting stars, something that could have been angels, etc. As man became more sophisticated, so did his concept of divinity. Basically, people find power and the inexplicable impressive. And their art would revolve around these things until Christianity when the collective conscious shifted to a more humane interpretation. Every culture views what is God differently, and is, I believe, a reflection of what attributes they value most.
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My education also included some of this but unfortunately I forget much of it. Oddly enough studying religion and history I avoided until much later. I wish I had studied these two subjects more. Every culture does view God differently which is most interesting. Clearly your study was Art.
 
Aneeda, the history of mankind is jam-packed with people who not only knock on doors selling their religion, but who have slaughtered, tortured, and imprisoned people in the millions who did not accept their opinion that
green beans are the best vegetable. Many pretended to like green beans, just in order to survive. (I never said the people on this forum are doing the proselytizing. But good heavens, are you that unaware of the amount of green bean shoving that has gone on in the two millenia since JC?) So, if people have been behaving badly in such numbers, because they believe their religion calls upon them to do so (and this happens in the name of many religions, BTW), and other people on a forum bring up the subject of green beans, they have to expect some kind of answers, both from those who agree with them and those who don't.

OK, I personally have had enough of green beans. To answer your change of subject to Adam and Eve, I don't know what you mean by "if you accept the story of Adam and Eve." What does accept mean? I accept the fact that someone wrote a fascinating myth, symbolically explaining why there is good and evil in the world. But if it means accept as literal truth, come on, now!

Although you may have a point about another race, or another group of humans outside the Garden. When Cain killed his brother Abel (supposedly wiping out 25% of the earth's population, which was 4), God punished him by telling him that from then on, his crops would fail. Cain protested that now he would have to become a wanderer, and whoever found him would kill him. (Whoever?) So God put a mark on Cain to protect him from harm. And Cain ended up in the land of Nod, where he married and begat sons, who also found wives who mysteriously turned up, and the multiplying began. Whole groups of people suddenly appeared.

Sorry, but the Bible clearly states that Adam and Eve were the first man and woman on earth. So, the only conclusion I can come to is that this book needed a good editor.
 
Yes, sunny, you make my point. There was another race, of people, outside the garden. Lots of people accept the Bible as it is. What I was/am saying is read this section closer. Whatever deity anyone attributes to the making of Adam and Eve should realize that Adam and Eve were not alone in the world. They were just alone in the Garden.

Where did the others come from? Who made them? And, as sunny stated, Cain married and begat children, human children. The Bible is the story of JC. It concentrates on his life and his message. A lot of people take the Bible as literal truth. I do not. I repeatedly refer to the books in the Bible as stories. The stories, of these other people, are missing.

I read it as the Bible clearly states that Adam and Eve were the first man and woman on the earth made by this god. There have been lots of gods over the history of humankind and I, suspect, lots of other types of humans. But, I don’t know. Can anyone explain the other people?
 
Knight said:
...Adam & Eve as the beginning of mankind, a popular story leaves out how the variety of cultures happened...
...Killing all of mankind & leaving one family alive to repopulate the earth doesn't make sense to me.
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[SUB]Believers acknowledge that God is the almighty, all powerful, creator of heaven and earth so anything is possible with God at any time in history and He can make alterations to his original creation without compromising the base. The Bible doesn't give the origins of the different races or skin color from one couple. But there's only one race and that's the Human Race.

God confused languages at the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) causing humanity to segregate linguistically. It's possible God made genetic changes so humanity could adapt and survive in their different environments thus creating racial differences depending on where they settled.

But, like I said, the Bible doesn't say there was a link between the confusion of language and racial diversity. It makes sense though that specific groups split due to same language so that the gene pool then shrank and closer inbreeding occurred causing certain features to change. These changes were all in their genetic code already. As the gene pool got smaller over generations then one language family all had similar features.[/SUB]

It's also possible that Adam & Eve had the genes to produce various skin colors, just like mixed race colors produce children of various colors. Obviously God wanted humanity to be diverse. So, we are all the same race, the human race, created by God, for the same purpose...to believe in him, love him, trust him, and obey him and to love one another.
 
I am not so sure. He gave us free will, so the obey thing is iffy. Plus please clarify-are you talking about the god of the Old Testament or JC? Either way, we have free will. Any god throughout time wanted people to obey and believe. When they stop, well, it seems that god ceases to be a god.

Trust is the key, IMO. Trust that the deity you believe in is the One that will see you through this life and the next. It has worked so far for me.
 
Isn’t free will the very reason humanity does less than humane things like killing?
Even bad choices is still our choice of practising free will.
 

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