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

Originally posted by LucidDreamer85
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...

You may call it "ignorant" that people don't strictly follow their religions original teachings, but I call it "human nature".

It is obvious that people have always merged their attitudes about God with that of their religion. They have done this since the beginning of religion. How does that make them ignorant -- I think it shows that they are "savvy" enough to use their own brains.

Organized religion was created by humans. Yes, it may be true that some religious scripture was ostensibly "told" to people through supernatural means, but it was still PEOPLE that ultimately wrote the scripture -- and those people used their own attitudes to form the original teachings. So why would it shock you that people still deliberately use their own attitudes to "tweak" their religions stated dogma.

Because organized religion is a human construct, it is only logical that humans continue to revise on a personal level.


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

All written texts were written by man. They are limited by language, they are a snapshot of that individual's "view" of what they have experienced. So, yes, God is in man's image. How could God (in our brains that is) not be? We have no way to understand the Universe in its entirety. We can barely figure out what to get our significant other's for Christmas much less figure out what motivates the Universe.

reply to post by LucidDreamer85


No, it won't lead to people doing all sorts of "bad" things.

There is a clear message in the bible of peace. However, it also states, "In Him, all things were created". You can't take one phrase and apply it to life, without also applying the message in it's entirety.

Blessings
A2D

I would also like to add that on behalf of Reasonable and other atheists who have seemingly been "silenced" by either having their threads closed or in the worst case scenario, being banned, that I have appealed to the Forum Staff. I would encourage anyone to do so.

I believe that if ATS is here to "deny ignorance" then no voice shall be silenced. I understand that there are Terms and Conditions which apply when joining, however, I believe there to be other courses of action. There is almost always an easier solution.

On behalf of atheists and any other individuals who have been silenced, I applaude you. I know there is not much that I can do about this matter, however, I hate to see things transpire as such.

In light of these transpiring issues, I encourage each one of you to speak your mind and appeal to the Forum Staff if you see fit. There has to be an easier solution...let's find it.

Respectfully
A2D

Originally posted by A Fortiori
All written texts were written by man. They are limited by language, they are a snapshot of that individual's "view" of what they have experienced. So, yes, God is in man's image. How could God (in our brains that is) not be? We have no way to understand the Universe in its entirety. We can barely figure out what to get our significant other's for Christmas much less figure out what motivates the Universe.

Right.

Some people confuse "religion" with "God". Religion is only a tool that humans invented in attempt to understand their idea of god.

reply to post by oliveoil

Originally posted by oliveoil
Come on people, what haven't we already learned that Bob Marley hasn't already taught us?

-We Know and understand that the mighty God is the living man, You can fool some people sometimes but you can't fool all the people all the time.So now we see the light, We gonna stand up for our rights, JAH !!

Yeah, now your talking my kind of language…

There’s is a lot of deep spiritual messages in Bob Marleys songs, of course people will say, “it’s all psychological lol”, personally, I think it’s inspired by God…

Bob Marley Exodus

Open your eyes and look within
Are you satisfied, with the life you're living?
We know where we're going,
We know where we're from.
We're leaving Babylon,
We're going to our Father land.
Exodus… movement of Jah people! Oh, yeah

- JC

reply to post by A Fortiori

We can barely figure out what to get our significant other's for Christmas much less figure out what motivates the Universe.

Ha once again bloody priceless lol lol (was going to use the laughing icon but don't want to run the risk of a posting ban)

Originally posted by moocowman
reply to post by A Fortiori

 

We can barely figure out what to get our significant other's for Christmas much less figure out what motivates the Universe.

Ha once again bloody priceless lol lol (was going to use the laughing icon but don't want to run the risk of a posting ban)

Thank you, MooCow, we try. Indeed we do try. As I was intentionally trying to be funny you may, in fact, use the laughing icon.

reply to post by Agree2Disagree

I would also like to add that on behalf of Reasonable and other atheists who have seemingly been "silenced" by either having their threads closed or in the worst case scenario, being banned, that I have appealed to the Forum Staff. I would encourage anyone to do so.

Well I nearly fell off my swivelly chair and choked on my strange chocolaty appendage, christ dude warn a man before doing things like that please.

I must say I take my hat off to you for that one and my chocolaty finger has developed a will of it's own and is hovering far to close to the friend button for comfort.

Dude if I could applaud you for having bollocks then I surely would.

I just witnessed a thread being closed for being "disruptive" how the hell can a thread be disruptive ?

I was considering putting in a complaint in myself, but it would seem that an atheist would run the risk of retaliation and I would prefer to leave ATS on my own terms.

We were recently asked by the owners to support ATS, but it would appear that the recent over the top actions by some are no less overbearing than threat by congress . Kind of ironic really.

Back on topic, although I would argue black and blue as to the reality of jesus or yahwhe, it would be pure arrogance to insist that there is and cannot be a creative force or a force of creation, however I do hold evolution as a very valid scientific theory/fact.

I fail to see why it's not possible for all that there is, to be that force in action, and for us as individuals to be but individuations of that force in action experiencing itself from all possible perspectives.

This of course would mean that that force has already experienced itself if time is purely imaginary and serves as nothing more than a tool for reference and therefore we are but one individuation experiencing an illusion in one moment.

Originally posted by reasonable
scienceblogs.com...

Posted on: November 30, 2009 3:30 PM, by Ed Yong

For many religious people, the popular question "What would Jesus do?" is essentially the same as "What would I do?" That's the message from an intriguing and controversial new study by Nicholas Epley from the University of Chicago. Through a combination of surveys, psychological manipulation and brain-scanning, he has found that when religious Americans try to infer the will of God, they mainly draw on their own personal beliefs.

I think this actually goes more like "What do I hope and imagine I would do under these circumstances?" Targeting and achieving the moral high ground are two very different things. The person is rarely in the midst of the moral crisis when posing this to another or himself. This is more of an armchair quarterback question.

I do think "Jesus" is a substitute for "me at my moral best". Just my opinion and experience here. I think most Christians strive to be like the Biblical Jesus and consider Him without sin and so a moral pinnacle. Thus if I am Christian and I am striving to behave as I think Jesus would behave, I have targeted myself at my moral best. Of course we all have different interpretations of any concept including the Biblical Jesus. And so your "Jesus" (you) might do something different from my "Jesus" (me). In general yes, I think I agree with this finding.

I've unfortunately read every post on this thread. I was going to try to stick to the topic and I may be but I'm not sure.

I was in situation where four people were put in chairs, blindfolded and restrained and told that they were going to get a bullet to the brain in ten minutes. These people were from different walks of life. Two of them were Atheists. Two of them were Christians. They were all in different rooms so that no one could see the other "participants". This was a controlled experiment where the "participants" were NOT told this was an experiment. They were truly in fear of losing their lives.

The first of the participants sat in the room awaiting their fate. This subject we'll call Alpha. The designer of the experiment proceeded to tell Alpha that it was time. The "scientist" then cocked the gun and stuck it to the head of the first subject. Alpha proceeded to beg and plead for his life. He asked God to help him. He pleaded to God to spare his life. He said that he would do anything to be allowed to live.

The exact same scenario was repeated in each room. Subjects Bravo, Charlie, and Delta exactly repeated this same scenario. Every subject begged and pleaded with God to save their lives.

What does that mean? The Atheists who didn't believe in God or any kind of higher power just ten minutes before were begging and pleading with a God they didn't believe in. I wish that someone would explain that one to me.

Not one of the Atheists would ever admit to having asked God to deliver them from death. This was recorded and presented to them afterwords and they couldn't explain why they asked a fictional, make believe, inferior, non existent being for their salvation.

Why is it when your own mortality is at stake you start suddenly believing in God?

This was only four test subjects but this same scenario has played out in uncontrolled conditions all over the world countless times.

reply to post by moocowman


MooCow and Other Disgruntled Atheists,

please go back and reread the original posts, cross reference to the T&C and then ask yourself if Reasonable's "I'm totally popular" boast when asked to return to topic was really in his own best interest.

We have been asked several times to return to topic and you discussing what happened to another poster in this thread is a violation of T&C. I would hate to see anyone else go out the door. We all checked the box and said "I Accept".

There are plenty of anti-religion topics that are "live" and even some posters with awfully pointed taglines like....I don't hate Christians, I just hate what they do...that are still posting on ATS.

Imagine my putting: I don't hate people who live in the ghetto, I just hate what they do in my tag. I'd be handed my walking papers.

This site is very lenient. Very. Other popular posters have been banned that were not atheists. Why? Because they violated T&C.

I ask that you refrain from discussing this here as it will end up with mod intervention as it is not the place for it.

AND....so my own post is not also in violation, let me wind this back to the OP.

You see what you want to see. You are seeing this entire incident through your own lens of experience. You have created this conflict from your own psyche. You feel as though you are impressed upon and infringed upon and therefore the conflict and outcome could only be because of this "boogeyman". In otherwords, you have made the conflict in your own image.

If this was an intelligent debate, if these threads were intelligently debated there would be no issue. When the level of dialog breaks down into banality and immaturity then no one is elevated by the discourse, instead we are dragged down together into the gutter of unintelligible depravity.

To make my point let me, once more, leave you all with my favorite post ever. Take it away Mr Dudles.

Originally posted by MrDudle
Maybe he doesn't do miracles because you touch yourself at night. On a serious note, god doesn't exist, nor is there any intrinsic value in anything. And if you are telling us that by saying god doesn't exist that means we are polluting your thread then you are just closed minded!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RAWR I R MAD!!!!!!!!!!! Nah...basically dude/dudette you asked for thoughts. We give thoughts. If you don't like our thoughts then I suggest leaving?

I've unfortunately read every post on this thread. I was going to try to stick to the topic and I may be but I'm not sure.

I was in situation where four people were put in chairs, blindfolded and restrained and told that they were going to get a bullet to the brain in ten minutes. These people were from different walks of life. Two of them were Atheists. Two of them were Christians. They were all in different rooms so that no one could see the other "participants". This was a controlled experiment where the "participants" were NOT told this was an experiment. They were truly in fear of losing their lives.

The first of the participants sat in the room awaiting their fate. This subject we'll call Alpha. The designer of the experiment proceeded to tell Alpha that it was time. The "scientist" then cocked the gun and stuck it to the head of the first subject. Alpha proceeded to beg and plead for his life. He asked God to help him. He pleaded to God to spare his life. He said that he would do anything to be allowed to live.

The exact same scenario was repeated in each room. Subjects Bravo, Charlie, and Delta exactly repeated this same scenario. Every subject begged and pleaded with God to save their lives.

What does that mean? The Atheists who didn't believe in God or any kind of higher power just ten minutes before were begging and pleading with a God they didn't believe in. I wish that someone would explain that one to me.

Not one of the Atheists would ever admit to having asked God to deliver them from death. This was recorded and presented to them afterwords and they couldn't explain why they asked a fictional, make believe, inferior, non existent being for their salvation.

Why is it when your own mortality is at stake you start suddenly believing in God?

This was only four test subjects but this same scenario has played out in uncontrolled conditions all over the world countless times.

reply to post by A Fortiori


I completely agree that discussing what has transpired here is not called for. That is why I suggested taking it into closed doors with the Forum Staff.

On to the OP - I don't completely understand how one could distinguish whether God is the projection of one's own image or the other way around ie we are a projection of God.

How do they determine this? If, say, a buddhist monk was questioned on the personality and behavioural mannerisms of Buddha, what would be the outcome? Would it suggest that Buddha was just a projection of said-buddhist monks own image?

reply to post by Agree2Disagree


Congratulations mate - I've removed you from my foe list. I mis-judged your character, in assessing your religious outlook.

I disagree with your religious leanings, but I support your above comments on the moderators tackling of this subject area. Good luck to you sir.

If you ever decide to join the dark side (atheism), your positive outlook will be welcomed by all concerned I can assure you.

The Para.

Dieties are truly figments of the believer's imagination. It is a relationship they have with their own selves.

Back a few years ago when I was living in LA I had a neighbor who would visit almost every weekend. We'd chat about all the usual topics but she would always manipulate the conversation to turn to the subject of her special relationship with Jesus - how he loves us so and is always with us and deeply interested in our lives. So one Sunday I decided to manipulate her back. While she was going on about her imaginary friend I listened very intently as if I were hanging on every word she spoke, all the while emulating her general posture and breathing patterns. After 15 minutes or so I interrupted to ask if she'd like some fresh fruit juice. She said she would and I invited her to the kitchen to help.

As we prepared the fruit she continued on and on about Jesus and I remained silent. Once the juice was done I asked her to have a seat and I proceeded to pour three glasses of juice and set them on a serving tray. She immediately asked why three and I replied "One for me, one for you and one for Jesus." She let out half a chuckle and asked "Are you serious?" to which I answered "Yes, would you hand it to him please?" Her expression instantly transformed from her typical feigned joy to one of complete dismay. She was speechless. After a few seconds during which one could have heard a pin drop I added "I'll bet he's thirsty." The few seconds which followed must have seemed like an eternity to her. Finally she rolled her eyes upward to her right and conveniently "remembered" a previous engagement she had to attend to. She apologized, took a few sips of juice and excused herself. That was the last of our weekend chats. Disillusionment hurts after all.

reply to post by reasonable


Hardly.

Studies show that voters, likewise, attribute personal traits to politicians they like. They even attribute belief systems to many of these 'leaders' that they've never met and cannot be confirmed (or are often flat out wrong) based on the evidence.

The fact that people see a bit of themselves in their God, their Leaders, their pupils, etc, no more disproves the existence of God then it does the existence of Obama.

reply to post by Lilitu


What a rude, nasty and preachy thing to do. No wonder you were probably never invited back.

Originally posted by snusfanatic
reply to post by reasonable

 

Hardly.

Studies show that voters, likewise, attribute personal traits to politicians they like. They even attribute belief systems to many of these 'leaders' that they've never met and cannot be confirmed (or are often flat out wrong) based on the evidence.

The fact that people see a bit of themselves in their God, their Leaders, their pupils, etc, no more disproves the existence of God then it does the existence of Obama.

You bring up a point I was referencing earlier. Someone has a Liam Gallagher avatar and said something about the world being better without god or some such thing...anyway, I got to thinking about the deification of human personalities. We tend to place attributes we like or hate on "personalities" based on how we inwardly feel.

We also rank our likes and dislikes. Like MooCow (I'm picking on you, friend) doesn't like Christians and has this campaign about not labeling kids with parents religions and not passing your religion off on your children--as though it is that easy. Because he has a bias (MooCow, we all do) he sees this one attribute as worse than the next. Do we not also as a society show children "heterosexuality" and say: this is how you need to be...would not a heterosexual couple influence children to be heterosexual? Would a homosexual couple do the same to their child? Well, the point is moot because if we remember being a teenager we tend to make our own decisions regardless of our parents. But my point is...we find the stuff that we don't like and hyperfocus on it.

Have you ever been looking for a new car, and then suddenly you see that car on the road everywhere? People didn't just all of a sudden by the brand. Your eyes are now open to see it. The converse is true, when you hate something you see it everywhere.

Originally posted by snusfanatic
reply to post by Lilitu

 

What a rude, nasty and preachy thing to do. No wonder you were probably never invited back.

Ah so much for reading comprehension. I don't need an invitation in my own home. And how was it rude to offer Jesus a drink? He's really real right? He's with us always right?

Preachy?