New study proves someones "god" is nothing more than one's own image! Religion crumbles...

reply to post by seagull

But the Bible says He is a He. What God are you worshiping?

Originally posted by oliveoil
reply to post by seagull

 

But the Bible says He is a He. What God are you worshiping?

Taking into account when the Bible was first established, it makes sense why He is a He. Women didn't have much credibility back in the day.

"But let not a single witness be credited, but three, or two at the least, and those such whose testimony is confirmed by their good lives. But let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of the sex." (Antiquities of the Jews, Bk. IV. Ch. Vlll. 15)



[edit on 2-12-2009 by Agree2Disagree]

AtoD,

Originally posted by Agree2Disagree

Originally posted by oliveoil
reply to post by seagull

 

But the Bible says He is a He. What God are you worshiping?

Taking into account when the Bible was first established, it makes sense why He is a He. Women didn't have much credibility back in the day.

"But let not a single witness be credited, but three, or two at the least, and those such whose testimony is confirmed by their good lives. But let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of the sex." (Antiquities of the Jews, Bk. IV. Ch. Vlll. 15)



[edit on 2-12-2009 by Agree2Disagree]

Not to go off topic but quick question,
Do you think thats what God intended us to believe? That He is a He, Or is this what man who wrote the Bible wants us to believe?
I believe that if God made man and woman in his image, wouldn't that make God a He/She so to speak?




[edit on 2-12-2009 by oliveoil]

reply to post by reasonable


This is dumb.

ATS is living proof that personal experience is a far more valid influence on the human mind than scientific fact or popular opinion.

A person who has personally experienced a UFO sighting, for example, or a ghost doesn't care what facts science can prove because the experience was real to them.

It is the same way with God. There is no religion, philosophy or rigorous scientific study that can negate a personal experience with God in the mind of a person who has had that experience.

A brilliant scientist could study all the rules of professional football, exercise, nutrition, strategy, plays, tactics and statistics for years but until he steps out onto a field and gets his ass handed to him for the first time he will never truly know what the experience is like.

The one unchanging law of science is that it will always change. You can't explain something until you truly understand it.

Interesting.
Some concerns arise here in regards to the reasoning...

1 is that its necessary that in the human cortex any belief system is going to operate in brian structures designed for such functioning...it would be confounding if our own beliefs were in the neo-cortex, while belief in god was controled by the limbic system...so a brain scan will show similar activivty for 'believing'.
2 simply because a cortical component corresponds to some-thing, does in no way deny the existence of that thing...we remember the smell of a rose in our imagination and it activates the same brain regions as though we actualy smelled the rose...so to follow, it does not deny the existence simply because our beliefs which are self motivated share similarity with those which we claim are god motivated.
3 it is obvious that our own beliefs would model beliefs we claim are gods...we do this for anything, soldiers, politicians, students, any person surrounded by some percieved authority will mirror aspects of that source...does that negate the source! additionally to believe otherwise, that the god and you do not have similar beliefs, will lead to cognitive dissonance and a depressed state of questioning until its resolved.
4 STATISTICS CAN SAY ANYTHING YOU WANT...in statistics courses we learned that a study can be manipulated to claim anything...in a study we find that only 25% of people wash their hands after using the restroom...well actually we only counted four people using only the mens room...so this article states that they used 59 people (hardly a section of the human race) and it in no way mentions who these people are...did they find them in churches, soup kitchens...in other words what were they predisposed to think of themselves and god anyways...it may have been a totally biased study.
5 the rest is up to you.........honestly we all believe what supports our idea of reality because the mind is so predisposed to superficial fabrications when we are unconnected to our inner guidance...our heart.


LOVE

I think I can clear this up.

I just talked to God and He said that science doesn't exist!

reply to post by oliveoil


I don't worship God, in the sense I think you mean... I believe he, if you prefer, exists. Whether or not I worship him is actually from a certain point of view, meaningless.

As I've said in these matters before, but it bears stating again, I have little to almost no use for dogmatic religion...be it Catholicism, Christianity, or Islam, or any of the other plethora of beliefs around the world.

Ones search for God, or truth, however you define it, should be as one chooses to search, not as one is directed to search. While I respect the lessons to be learned from Biblical text, or Koranic, or the Torah...to my mind, they are not the be all end all of "truth". That is in the eye of the beholder.

which is, of course, where the problems begin. My truth is not, necessarily, your truth.

Goddesses have existed right along side gods for as long as Man has attempted to explain the unexplainable.

Gaea. She goes by many, many names all around the world.

[edit on 12/2/2009 by seagull]

Originally posted by oliveoil

Not to go off topic but quick question,
Do you think thats what God intended us to believe? That He is a He, Or is this what man who wrote the Bible wants us to believe?
I believe that if God made man and woman in his image, wouldn't that make God a He/She so to speak?

[edit on 2-12-2009 by oliveoil]

In short, it's reflective of the culture of the writings times. Culture is worldy and a reflection of man.

I do not for a second believe that is what God intended us to believe. In the OT there are many instances where women play an important part in God’s plan. We see tales of Miriam - the prophetess(Exodus 15:20), Deborah - another prophetess(Judges 4:4; 5:7), Huldah - another prophetess(2 Kings 22:14-20), Jael - a noted woman of respect(Judges 4:9); and it was Abigail (1 Samuel 25), who, persuaded David not to kill Nabal. The Ten Commandments themselves also imply equality between man and woman with "honor thy father and thy MOTHER" (Exod. 20:12).

I believe the main misconception of the degradation of women stems from inaccurate interpretations that confuse cultural history and the Bible's good news.

God is beyond gender, IMO. I don't know how one can even begin to gender-ise the Creator of All. God is both Mother and Father of everything.

"In order to find his equal, an Irish man is forced to talk to God,"

If you talk to God you're religious. If God talks to you, you're psychotic.?

Originally posted by oliveoil
reply to post by seagull

 

But the Bible says He is a He. What God are you worshiping?

A person has the free will to worship God what form that God may take -- whether God be a "He", "She", "It"...whatever. God is what each person thinks God is. In reality, if God exists, God is probably incomprehensible and neither male nor female.

Isn't that the original subject of this thread -- People use their own attitudes when forming the image of God in their minds. So it's little wonder that God is a man to most people in a male-oriented world (which was even more male-oriented when the Bible was written and translated).

The Old Testament of the Bible may be important to Christians, Jews, and Muslims, but they are not the only religions out there. There are people who believe in a supreme creator, but that creator is neither a man nor a woman.

And the fact that the Bible says God is a man may only be figurative and therefore irrelevant in the big picture. God never did anything in the bible that was "exclusively male".


[edit on 12/2/2009 by Soylent Green Is People]

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


Right. If God was a male and Jesus was the Son of God and also male...where did he learn to feed 2000 people with a loaf of bread? Only a mother knows that trick!

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


It is indeed...

...and may I say it? It took this long for it to start. Well done to all of you.

God is who we choose to believe he/she is. If it helps you to call her him, or him her; I'm fairly certain God won't mind either way. Now some of his believers might have an opinion on the matter, but that's a whole 'nother topic.

We all place God, or our beliefs in him, in a comfortable niche. My version resembles my mom in many ways, with aspects of my dad thrown in liberally... Not too surprising if you think about it. Who does he resemble to your mind's eye? You might be surprised.

So in a certain respect, the OP was right. He is in our own images... Yet all too wrong when thinking this spells the doom of belief. Not hardly.

reply to post by Agree2Disagree


.

That's a good line, I'll have to remember it... Humour. God's way of saying, don't take yourself too seriously.

That, and the platypus.

God is personal to everyone, everyone has their own God, created in their own image.

Example?

Most folks spew some biblical rhetoric, profess to believe in the God of the bible, but don't realize there is more than ONE God specified in the bible because of the translation in the King James Version, which THE LORD is usually the Elohim (plural, as in more than one). And GOD is usually the singular God Yahweh (Tetragrammaton), it could be vice versa though. Anyways, the point is, a lot of people don't know that. So they go spewing someone else's God as their God, and shadow it with their subjective belief in who and what God means to them.

So everyone's God/s/ess/s' ARE subjective, and personal, just like their life experience. Your God is not my God, even if we claim the same God.

I say have a nice day, in reply you say "God bless you."
Would I be rude in retorting? "Which God bless me? Your God?"
And you'd either just say "You know, 'God'" with no clue, or you'll be dumbstruck thinking.

reply to post by PontiacWarrior


Correct me if I'm wrong here...(as I'm sure you will).

You make this sound like a bad thing. It's neither good, nor bad, IMHO. It simply is human nature. Putting a human face, so far as it goes, on a thing beyond our understanding.

We do it all the time in every day life... Anthropomorphizing, I believe they call it.

reply to post by seagull


It's not a bad thing. Sometimes I'll play devil's advocate on forums. I don't do it to get anyone heated, at least no intentionally, it's just a way of asking questions that might not otherwise get asked. And I learn from them too. As for me, I often feel or want to believe something greater than me, exists out there, like that awe ya get from looking up at the expansive heavens with all the stars shining, it's hard not too, among other things. But I will not try to make it tangible, label it, put my ideas on it. I like it like that, unknown. It would certainly lose meaning if I knew all the answers.

reply to post by PontiacWarrior


I thought that's what you meant. But I like to be sure.

Oh ok,
For a minute there I thought that the owner of this thread was speaking about my God. thats a relief. I was gonna give him a peace of my mind.

Originally posted by Agree2Disagree
reply to post by reasonable

 

I don't find it devastating at all. I don't even find it intriguing. We were made in His image and hence share similar qualities. Of course when thinking about God we normally reference our own opinions and point of view. What else are we going to do?

This doesn't effectively prove anything...

your way of thinking could lead people to do stuff in the name of god because they think god would do the same and be accepting of it, when really it is just an excuse to be able to do what they want to do and get away with it......

they misuse god for their own purposes....


Most of the people i see doing this are the church going people......no matter what religion....


This study has merit, but i'm not about to say that it totally proves it....


Religion itself proves that many people are ignorant because they don't even follow in the original teachings of their religions creators.......and if they do it's most likely something horrible and un-accepting in today's society...