Is God a Useful Concept?

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a reply to: Astrocyte

Direct answer to your subject line: Certainly!

Concepts of any kind of a god figure, good, bad or mediocre is conducive toward the eventual contact between humans and advanced civilizations. That situation has occurred many times in the history of the world between local inhabitants, but the real shocker to the psyches will come when we must accept the usual attributes of a god with the actual existence of such beings.

God is.
God is not a concept.

originally posted by: 5StarOracle
a reply to: gottaknow

If God was a man made concept we would have a fuller understanding of him...
Also wishes do exist...
That does not mean they all come to pass...
Not many wishes are fulfilled without effort...
Those fulfilled without effort are best known as miracles...
Im also rather pleased to further rain on your parade by informing you that the wish you just made will never be fulfilled...
It was rather odd of you to claim wishes do not exist then immediately make one... lol

You're not raining on my parade. The fact that I stated "IF" should make it clear there's no parade of mine to rain upon.
I'm quite aware this naive and gullible species will be forever tainted with religion and beliefs and can only dream of a world without it.

Sorry you feel that way. No. Really, I'm sorry you feel it necessary to buy into lies and made up concepts.
I prefer to go through life with actual knowledge(hence my username) and I no matter how it happens, I will die knowing unto myself that I'm a man free from such ridiculous notions unlike so many others out there. I will have lived my life as I see fit, knowing nothing comes afterwards and making the most I can out of the time I have. I'm sorry so many others will never know that kind of freedom.

Depends on how articulated or constructive the concept of God is wouldn't it? It would be more or less guidelines done with words or art, to paint a picture sort of speak and teach.

Thing is alot of Gods aren't done this way, or maybe being able to do something that would have different points or dot end up being connected, and it subconsciously hits you like a Soul-Gnawing Demon over your shoulder, but that would be a lot more difficult to do. Like "Hephaestus" the smith of the Gods, where he is more or less revered as mythical/superman blacksmith, yet none of his forging techniques aren't really taught. Or Odin being a clever tactician and warrior, isn't teaching the vikings how to read the field or seek worthy opponents to test their skills or right of passage, and the superstition behind it only fuels blood lust of a Berserker.

Then you got Gods that are little more down to earth, like Jesus for example, taught that forsaking material pleasures and helping one another would bring fulfillment in ones own heart and that one should fear no man but he.

Or the Buddha, who tossed away the plagues of the mind and superstitions. Like his victory of Mara, and his daughter where he asked the Earth if he touched himself to those delusions. Buddhsim developed techniques for quieting the mind, while having parables or metaphorical literature like the Toa to make one think about the cosmos, much like Hinduism using their vast amount of literature with Morales or example of such.

As for Mythical Beasts of Legend...Well they are around. Thing is, there moral of the story is, don't piss it off.

useful? certainly. helpful? only as helpful as we are. even the most helpful devices become weapons and abominations when bad people use them. its a matter of perspective and application.

originally posted by: Revolution9

originally posted by: eXia7
Just look at the world around you, all the pain and suffering, death and famine.. then ask yourself if god is real. If this is the best "god" can do, I'm not impressed.

It is not God doing it, it is you. Every time you drive your car you are destroying the earth a little bit. Check out all YOUR actions and see that it is you combined with all the other "Jacob worms" (7 + billion of them) that is your own plague.

God is perfect. Don't blame God. We decided we would do this thing without Him and we must suffer the consequences of our actions. He will step in at the last minute to stop us destroying His painting. At that time our lives will not be worth living and our haughtiness will turn to humility as we become fully conscious of our inability to discern good from evil. That is the whole point, we think we know and we do not.

Blame God if you like, but you are just projecting your own failings onto Mr Perfect.

God bless.

How long does it take you to walk to your destination?

God is a abstraction that people created because of the uncertainty of life and our ability to see that more than any other life form on earth.

The concept is very useful. Just look at how dirtbags like Bush, Putin and Trump and control millions of people with it.

originally posted by: gottaknow
God is very much a man-made concept. All the way back to sun/moon worship.

If wishes existed and I had just one of them, it would be to erase religion completely and all beliefs in god/s from everything, everywhere.

God is not man made, he has been there since the beginning, but it has been our fault to dismiss him and never believe in him because we are idiots thinking differently and creating our own fantasies believing that all of this is a coincidence as if coincidences really exist, if you just think about our life, why is it so short? why haven't we evolved to live longer?

just think of it, its just a period of time that we were offered to live with certain rules given to us by the creator but most of us refused it and wanted to chose their own way of life, now who is to be blamed ?

just think of it

a reply to: Astrocyte


Apparently the idea that realty is constrained to the standard model and the common senses, is something that you feel comfortable with. You seem confused with the difference between an archetype and the feasibility of consciousness factoring into creation. You mentioned the Fibonacci Sequence as an abstraction when in fact that order is represented is also an abstraction, especially in relation to the construct of a random event causing human existence.

Furthermore there is the issue of subjective logic....

Subjective logic is a type of probabilistic logic that explicitly takes uncertainty and belief ownership into account. In general, subjective logic is suitable for modeling and analyzing situations involving uncertainty and incomplete knowledge.

en.wikipedia.org...

In respect to your argument.

To put it another way you seem to be trying to apply logic to objectify a conclusion that in context could only be concluded from the sense of a subjective evaluation.

That is fundamentally a Religion.


and you should not fee bad about that as any evaluation of an objective experience requires an evaluation of all possible constructs that identifies the phenomenon all together.

Elephant and the four blind men in parable seems applicable.

Any thoughts?

a reply to: Revolution9

If one accepts the concpt of god as perfect then all we can do becomes imperfect towards all others not god... or the children falling in and out of the pit of life and death in ignorance until we come to know better.

Judging others? Then who tries to sit on that throne they claim has the authority over them... are they the mouth, the hands, the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue? Walk it live it breath it when the talk is done, the concept pops that one is above or below another in the form grip of reality... the concept that one is higher or lower than another is yet another concept wrought often in poor judgment.

Belief? Good when one is weak... full of doubt struggle and pain, but using it as a crutch then makes that which helped your slave in ego once the doubt, struggle, and pain has gone... eventually, all doubt, pain and struggle will cease and that suffering ends... as a reality.

Then what good is belief? Cast it aside. Make it truth, carry that truth in body speech and mind, and leave the judgment to those still carrying such heavy burdens they load themselves with; unless asked, in freewill there is a choice to help and a choice not to help.

Freely given means no intent of any return... if a so called christ gave of himself freely, then why expect a return? Babies are born free, and we rob them of that freedom with concept after concept belief after belief, when it is better to always guide than judge... wisdom turns the pan handle inwards on the stovetop so those lacking it, do not get a lesson in the hate of cooking.

The emtpy mind will associate pain not from their reaching, but from all of the objects involved in that moment, the pan, the stove, and scarred will essentially leave a death in that kitchen; what died? Innocence, what was gained wisdom, what was lost? The curiosity of what it contained, as now it is only associated with pain. Subconsciously buried; such a self is no longer free to be curious of that association.

Not guiding others properly to avoid pain self caused, we cause others pain from poor judgment... like the child growing up telling all of their peers cooking is bad but don't know it was the lacking of wisdom in that grasping that was bad. So how many does this child impress in his/her peer group that cooking is something to be avoided? Discouraged?

How many other things are out there lingering as a child of ignorance pointing at all else not cooking? As many that have grasped in ignorance and as many mouths that open and spread such things of course.

a reply to: gottaknow


The creative force of the universe. It deserves respect.

Sick men go overboard with insecurity and control issues, and opportunism arises. Concepts are ruined. It happens to your favorite snack, tv show, and even theism.

I think it was easy since pagans, the "nature worshippers" of the relative era were total posers. The original millenial hipster.

a reply to: ChelseaHubble

The creativity men, women, and children have used... life itself... think about it. The entire of all would balance itself out, but there is intent the intent can be for oneself or others... is the intent out of greed, hate, in this group or self attached to things seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or touched? They become that way due to attachment guided by those there and those ripples yet to arrive when consciousness splashed in contact with the subject of it's observation.

Is the rock judging the water or the water judging the rock, not bothering to ask who threw it? Ask all pervasive space when you see all of these things swirling in order and disorder as a mirror to the same thing... then judge it... how can you when it is the exact same thing?

A good friend of mine took me to a place where it was possible to meet God.

I met him.

Now he shows up in places I don't expect him to be. I think it has everything to do with the introduction. I'm sure some of you reading these words have met God and not realized that the event took place, as I am sure I met him before I came to 'know'.

Is this important? No. Not at all. But, it is comforting, to a certain degree, to 'know' that God is here with us.

I can't tell you that Religion is real. That religious scripture is a guide left by God ... or anyone who truly knew what God is all about. I wasn't taught. I only had doubt and skepticism stripped away.

a reply to: Snarl

Then why be a dog sniffing under all tales? Because whatever smells best under there is how they follow each other home. Denying the goddess is only getting one side of the story... trying to make oneself in the image one has seen? Denies what one was already in the first formation of conception... many names and forms in the experience of life as a concept after you were concieved... do you attach to the world or oneself, in the light and darkness of all things who separates you from you?

Not I.

a reply to: Snarl

lots of people have met lots of beings they call gods. and all of these gods are different and contradict each other and reality itself. there is no foundation for the monument we call god, no formula or blueprint or even a picture. only a name with a thousand faces and personalities that cant get along. who knows what you met.

a reply to: TzarChasm

You might be right.

I met another 'distinct' one another time. That one wanted me to Get The Hell Away from where I was. The message was, "You don't belong here." and it was at a Shinto Shrine.