Back in junior/primary school i used to Play with Pokemon card's (Ironically this was a church of England school) I used to watch as the playground was filled with crazed kids swapping and battling to gain some sort of popularity in this ongoing game which revolved around pictures and writing printed on paper and card, To those primary school kids this was A Religion. However it was also a trend that passed, Just as religion has done for centuries.

If i made up a perfect image of a father/God like figure in my mind today and made him my deity then wrote a book about him and became so engrossed in my belief that the said figure could be my one salvation from eternal damnation people would look at me funny, they would laugh and tell me I'm a nut-job but in reality how is this any different from belief in any other established religion?
If my belief was so strong in this figure i had just made up in my mind one day was so strong that id be willing to do practically anything in his name how would that be any different to any other established religion?

Nobody's idea of God is the same, God is an entirely unique perspective based on your own individual personality, What you really believe in is yourself.
"God" is everything good in you, a lighthouse in the darkness and a light to guide you.
People have many different names for this Light and some who live in darkness don't see it all.
It just seems logical to me that people attach their own belief in themselves to some form of deity in order to reach for something already located within themselves.
However belief can be misguided, If belief is given a set of rules those rules can be bent depending on the individual even distorted to justify ones actions, This is when people get hurt...

Sorry all i was just putting down some of my thoughts on the subject, However you shouldn't take any of ramblings literally because they and my mind are open to elaboration, Just thought it would be nice to bounce some of my thoughts off ATS

Yours Always

Ted

So you grew up and stop believing in Fairy Tales too? Doesn't it suck? Now you are in control of your own life-that feels great!

Hmmm are you Father Ted by any chance? lol...

On-topic Yeah I think you could be right. I did get sucked in for a while by a religious organization. I won't say which one as it's unimportant. I wouldn't say I was looking to fill a void at the time it just sort of came about and it definitely struck me as having some truth to it. But eventually the more I learned the more inconsistencies struck me and it made me question.

For instance the religion in question taught me that satan was an angel and he questioned god basically and he wanted to share some of the praise (seems reasonable to me) but god said no! The praise was all for him! Seemed kind of selfish! Not really a god like quality!

Then there are all the massacres within the bible, some containing women and children, but hey it's okay because they would be resurrected! Didn't sit well with me.

Also they didn't exactly follow what the bible taught regarding feeding your brother and clothing your brother and offering shelter and all the rest of it. But you can't blame the bible for that I suppose.

One thing I will say though is that the bible does contain SOME wisdom. Just not enough that I would want to run my life by it! And what if it was a load of non-sense? I wasted my life for nothing? Nah think I'll just enjoy what I have now...

Sky Daddy give me peace of mind,

Be good Be loving Love him Goto HeavenLive Forever

Sound good to me.

Me like believing in Jeduss (as my kids call Him)

(Me very simple, just like all Christian,
we just like fairy tale
we simple folk)

I think it was Jonny Cash that pit this as part of a song and I reckon it sums things up pretty much "I swear there ain't no heaven and I pray there ain't no hell" Yep, I know, double negatives all ove the place but heck, it's from America (no offence to all of my USA mates) and they can't even pronounce aluminium correctly (or Aussie, every time I hear a yank say Ossie is makes my skin cawl)

Originally posted by TedHodgson

Nobody's idea of God is the same, God is an entirely unique perspective based on your own individual personality, What you really believe in is yourself.

Just the opposite. Anyone who believes in themselves is failing themselves and lying to themselves.

"God" is everything good in you, a lighthouse in the darkness and a light to guide you.

God is everything good. Period. Having a lighthouse in the darkness doesn't come from your own doing. It comes from God.

It just seems logical to me that people attach their own belief in themselves to some form of deity in order to reach for something already located within themselves.

People believe in God because of personal experiences in which they knew they had ABSOLUTELY NO CONTROL. Otherwise, we'd all just read self help books and attend self help seminars year round.

Anyone who thinks that you can obtain God by focusing on yourself, doesn't know who God is. Only after you take attention and focus away from yourself will you find Him.

Religion comes from the other side of the pond. In the new world we dumped Asherah/Ishtar the Queen of Heaven for the real God, Yeshua which is why "they" branded us renegades and heretics. Well most of us dumped that bitch, some here follow her still.

The way to handle the Christians is to tell them you believe in mother nature, and their endless run around book isn't worth the time to read it.

Life is much more intelligent without the Christian's nonsense. The world would be vastly different without Constantine's formula for making miracles out of sheep herder's imaginations.

Originally posted by MagnumOpus
The way to handle the Christians is to tell them you believe in mother nature, and their endless run around book isn't worth the time to read it.

Life is much more intelligent without the Christian's nonsense. The world would be vastly different without Constantine's formula for making miracles out of sheep herder's imaginations.

That doesn't hurt our feelings. Worship whatever you want to, it's a free country.