Remember when we had chats about God and shit. Well, I've been thinking about it a lot recently because it's such a big part of my job.

I have for quite some time considered myself 'effectively atheist' or 'agnostic atheist' and this hasn't really changed. However, I have had to look at various strands of Christianity and other faiths and it is apparent that these things are unquestionably wrong. In many ways, this doesn't bother me - it's my subjective position against another - but it also does.

This is my understanding of how God, as people understand it, does not exist. Any institutional God can be proven through our evidence and understanding of the world to not exist. Therefore, the Biblical God, the Muslim God, the Hindu God and it's various forms are just as 'real' as the gods of the Greeks and the Romans - not real at all. At the kindest, their existence is so ludicrously unlikely that worshipping them is extremely illogical.
So, this really only allows justification for a personal God - one that someone constructs their own understanding of - whether it is a God influenced by other religious conceptions or if it's merely some transcendental, spiritual energy. However, a personal God is, really, a nonsense. If you make up a God for yourself then it clearly is not a God that exists.

This is an extremely simple version of something that could be, and really should be, elaborated upon further. However, I think you get the gist.

However, I do not consider myself an anti-theist. I am not in opposition to belief in a God. However, I am in opposition to institutional relgion. I would say I am accepting of faith but hostile to religion, if that makes sense. Religion holds positions it expects others to follow through doctrinal pressure and other forms of direction (coercion might be a bit strong). A faith might be a complete nonsense but as an individual belief it should not be able to slow down the advance of human existence and understanding (expecting that particular individual). However, religions lead to opposition to science and other social advancements by attempting to spread and maintain its views in contradiction to the evidence. I have been looking a lot into evolution - largely because a huge chunk of my students are hostile to it - and the amount of disinformation, and its level of spohistication and under-handedness is infruriating.

I'll leave it there. How's everyone else doing with God and shit these days?

Militant Atheist here!

Dont believe in god, The bible is just one big farse. I Believe that religion is the oldest form of conning people out of money

However I do believe that some of the 10 commandments are a good standing to live a honest and happy life. I do accept in the more modern world that some are not possible.

i wanna be a buddhist but ya know....less gay

Lol, my stance is..

Religion: if I ignore it, hopefully it will go away!

I believe in God. He occasionally lets me down, but this Christmas he brought me a lot of joy. I know some people had their faith shaken in him when he released his Christmas album 'Winter Songs', but it made me a very happy man. I thank him and bless him forever and ever. Amen.

I don't hold a very enthusiastic stance here. If there is a God, then he's a fucking arsewipe. I'd rathe rput my faith in something that never lets you down like say, curry.

thrasherdave wrote:I don't hold a very enthusiastic stance here. If there is a God, then he's a fucking arsewipe. I'd rathe rput my faith in something that never lets you down like say, curry.

May I add

jonny_boy34 wrote:I believe in God. He occasionally lets me down, but this Christmas he brought me a lot of joy. I know some people had their faith shaken in him when he released his Christmas album 'Winter Songs', but it made me a very happy man. I thank him and bless him forever and ever. Amen.

Hahahahaha, classic!

I worship the boundless daemon-sultan Azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin, monotonous whine of accursed flutes; to which detestable pounding and piping dance slowly, awkwardly, and absurdly the gigantic ultimate gods, the blind, voiceless, tenebrous, mindless Other Gods whose soul and messenger is the crawling chaos Nyarlathotep.

I'd love to say that to a Christian one day.

Staying on the hocus-pocus topic, I've just started my MA module about 'Magic in the Middle Ages'. It's definitely going to rule, there are classes on Demon Magic, Necromancy, Astrology... my homework for next week is to come up with a definition of "magic", and also find a "magic" object in the British Museum and say whether it should be categorised that way. Sweet!

lovecraft FTW james

James wrote:I worship the boundless daemon-sultan Azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin, monotonous whine of accursed flutes; to which detestable pounding and piping dance slowly, awkwardly, and absurdly the gigantic ultimate gods, the blind, voiceless, tenebrous, mindless Other Gods whose soul and messenger is the crawling chaos Nyarlathotep.

I'd love to say that to a Christian one day.

Staying on the hocus-pocus topic, I've just started my MA module about 'Magic in the Middle Ages'. It's definitely going to rule, there are classes on Demon Magic, Necromancy, Astrology... my homework for next week is to come up with a definition of "magic", and also find a "magic" object in the British Museum and say whether it should be categorised that way. Sweet!

COOOOOOOOOOOOL!

I stand (kind of) corrected by Povey's post. Curry AND alcohol.

I'd say UK Thrash, but I get let down by this place all too often (I'm looking at you Zurab)

whenever i read about old religions and by that i mean anything before that big ones like islam and christianity and judaism, i get something from it which always points towards metaphoric meanings like sun gods= male earth god=female most have seasonal gods, which help teaching farming, most of them seem to represent some natural event, how do you explain these things to children? easiest way is to say they are god and we worship them because..ect ect. other gods sometimes represent solar cycles, math, time, planets, all have stories that can teach us about things we need to know, but they are lessons. people i think made the mistake in taking it literally, OR more likely somebody saw the value in it being literal and enforcing it by law as a tool of control. most religions were i think only meant as instruction manuals for for life, land and how to cultivate it and the world and how it works.

but to say i know would be arrogant, but then i am a beautiful and amazing man!

Organised Religions - bullshit.

Ancient Religions - (as said before) understandable in terms of an easy way of teaching or describing aspects of the world, but ultimately 100% flawed.

Belief in a higher being / God - extremely improbably (well said caps) and not useful in anyway.

Belief in "the self" as god - possible in the extent that there are subconscious or even concious forces that affect our animal interactions, or even simply our existence as beings. not to say any one person is god or that we all are god, but maybe we all have the power to unlock "godlike" qualities... But absolutely not in terms of the egoic mind/unconscious "mind" psyche. To be godlike as i would understand it, is to not be thinking with your mind, i.e. to feel alive and feel the aliveness and oneness of all things we exist with. This is hinted at in some current day religions (to varying degrees) often as the idea of "enlightenment", or even "ascension".


I would say i'm a fully fledged Atheist, belief in a higher being is ridiculous. Belief in yourself and all other forms of existence as being godlike seems to make much more sense... imagine a world where everything was as sacred as everything-else, and where you felt the feeling of truely being alive all the time... I don't like to call that being "spiritual", i think its just a realistic way of living, although obviously not in the world we live in.


I had a MASSIVE experience last night with Stu, where i took some Salvia and had a really erm... incredible experience you could say. maybe thats where this is all coming from hahaha! Last year i read "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle, although not all of it was great, there are some incredibly simple and profound ideas that really struck a chord with me, and sort of put into words ideas i had going on about such things. definitely worth a read for anybody, Athiest or not.