Belief in God, the devil falls to new low: Gallup
Belief in God, the devil falls to new low: Gallup
Americans’ belief in God, the devil and other spiritual entities has fallen to a new low, according to a Gallup poll released on Thursday. Seventy-four percent of Americans said they believe in God…
Americans’ belief in God, the devil and other spiritual entities has fallen to a new low, according to a Gallup poll released on Thursday. Seventy-four percent of Americans said they believe in God…
You're viewing part of a thread.
Ok, I can see you're limited by your materialist mindset. I don't need to convince you. I will only tell you that understanding that there are angelic and demonic ideas that can possess and control our lives allows you to develop a tactic to counter or utilize their effects. Everything that's known about resisting and defeating demons is reflective of the necessary tactics one needs to resist and defeat demonic ideas. The Temptations of Christ are parables designed to teach the reader how to avoid the temptations of ignorance and malice. Everything known about invoking angels and Gods is reflective of what needs to be done to utilize those ideas in your life.
Ok, I can see you’re limited by your materialist mindset. I don’t need to convince you. I will only tell you that understanding that there are angelic and demonic ideas that can possess and control our lives allows you to develop a tactic to counter or utilize their effects. Everything that’s known about resisting and defeating demons is reflective of the necessary tactics one needs to resist and defeat demonic ideas. The Temptations of Christ are parables designed to teach the reader how to avoid the temptations of ignorance and malice. Everything known about invoking angels and Gods is reflective of what needs to be done to utilize those ideas in your life.
Hoo boy, sorry to discover you have a propensity for magical thinking. Yes, I am proudly a materialist, and my beliefs are founded in physical evidence. Since beliefs that are not founded in evidence are seldom dispelled by it I'm going to wish you a good day and stop wasting my time here.
When man invented machines, he began believing God was a machine. Now that man is creating computers, we believe the universe is a simulation. Invariably when people say there is no God, they're completely unable to satisfactorily define God.
when people say there is no God, they’re completely unable to satisfactorily define God
Because there isn't one. So there's no way to define something that doesn't exist.
So what you're saying is that something that doesn't exist doesn't exist. I agree with that. You haven't said anything about God though.
I'm loving this thread, thanks to all the contributors.
People are meme/idea factories, creating new ones or refining existing ones. I think that it's difficult (impossible?) To find this in any other instance of nature or even in man made AI.
Some ideas are bad/demonic in that they stifle the creation or refinement of new/existing ideas.
Some are "angelic" in that they open new threads and avenues for thinking.
What's a fictional God got to do with any of that?
God is just a word. The word points to an understanding. The universe as far as we can tell is infinite, expanding, subject to entropy and the laws of physics. What is it expanding into? Why is there something rather than nothing? Why does it share features across immeasurable distances? Why did it start? What is time? What is conscious experience? All of these questions point to a higher order of organization than could be comprehended with infinite accumulated lifetimes of research. God is just shorthand for the fundament, the reason there's something rather than nothing.
Matter isn't the basis of our universe, it's energy. We're in the God-field. Information cannot be created or destroyed, only occulted and translated. Your entire life exists as a 4D worm traveling through a 5D minkowski space of probability. Your perspective is bound to a single point in 4 dimensions you know as the present. Your whole life and every possible choice you could make is nothing more than a series of coordinates in an infinite fractal field. You are simply a memory or an idea of God. You're a dream. The eye of God is consciousness and the light that shines through this matrix creates a shadow play that you see as your material life. All those ancient stories you deny carried this information, but the translations are nonsense because you don't have the perspective of a civilian from 4-6 thousand years ago.
Super hot takes, genuinely. I agree with a lot of what you're saying but would point out two corrections
All those ancient stories you deny carried this information, but the translations are nonsense because you don’t have the perspective of a civilian from 4-6 thousand years ago.
It's presumptive to assume that I don't understand the stories from thousands of years ago. Knowledge evolves just like we do. We possess that same knowledge in a condensed and efficient format. Just as massive dinosaurs evolved in to chickens or whatever other analogy you like, a 15 minute story in the bible can be condensed in to "help others in need" or "don't steal"
Is information lost in these condensations? Absolutely, evolution comes at a cost, chickens are missing some things that dinosaurs had. The great part about ideas though is that they can always be picked back up and reassessed. If there is some old story that contains a grain of wisdom that society has missed, by all means pick it up and share. But to address your specifically quoted piece, you would be directly contradicting yourself if you are saying that knowledge has been lost. It's laid out and available for anyone to pick apart.
God is just shorthand for the fundament, the reason there’s something rather than nothing.
I think this misconception comes from our perspective on time. You and I were born so our consciousness began "somewhere" so it is easy to fall in to the trap that all things are conceived. While all actions have a cause and an effect, you can "see" the effect 10 seconds in the future, just as you could have seen the cause 10 seconds in the past. There doesn't need to be a beginning of time, things always were. A rock floating through space at x speed in y direction can be predicted to be at another point days, years, infinity in to the future, just as it could be done in reverse.
Long way to say that there need be no fundament, just varying states of the universe. It always was and always will be.
The information is there, but it's occulted by spectacle and authority. You can seek it out, but you also have to seek out the supporting context, weed out bad information, and fill in gaps. It's important to realize that the maps are not the territory as well. You don't need any of that historical information. Meditation can reveal these secrets because the mind is part of the holographic fractal of high order reality. I believe that the technological singularity will be the moment all gnosis is restored. Until that point in our future history, the theme of our civilization will be a balance between the community building of the awakened (woke) and the violence of ignorant authoritarians (not-sees).
I agree that there is no beginning or end. I was just suggesting otherwise because of the popular notion of the big bang. I don't think of a fundament as the beginning, but rather the substrate.
Agree with you brother, I find the idea that the big bang was "the beginning" as being far too narrow minded. It wasn't the first and it won't be the last.
While I find value in what you're saying, I'd encourage you to take the time to explain your positions. When you say
I understand not believing in God, but if you don’t believe in demons, you’re likely being victimized by one.
you must realize that you're speaking to an audience that is familiar with christianity, the Exorcist movies, or played diablo 2 at some point. Not only does language matter, but context of the time does too, as you said. If no other word will suffice, you should take the time to better explain what you mean.
I say should because the world isn't binary. There are people who want to hear your perspective but will absolutely dismiss you as a right-wing troll because of that one word - because there is only so much time in the day to dedicate to talking and thinking about things to risk wasting it on a one-liner with no further context.
If a person can't get passed their own prejudices in order to reach understanding, I would rather leave them to their ignorance than waste time trying to drag them out of it.
The word points to an understanding.
The word points to a MISunderstanding. Fear of the world, nature, and the universe is where it originates. Drug-fueled pseudo-scientific woo woo doesn't change that it is an outdated concept.
My post was far too elegant and intellectual for a dipshit response like that.
Hey, your imagination exists so, thus, the god you think exists does. He's stuck in your skull, thankfully.
Once again, you're talking about your fantasy, nothing else.
to teach the reader how to avoid the temptations of ignorance
I think you failed that one. We passed it though.
If Yahweh doesn't speak to you he doesn't listen to you either. The first thing would be just as easy as the 2nd thing.
I wasn't talking about Yahweh. That name is a religious invention. I'm not religious.
I’m not religious.
Then I don't know why you use words like "God" when it is a completely meaningless word except as a character in ancient fictional stories.
Well there's a lot of things you don't know, but that doesn't stop you from acting like a dickhead. Religion is a function of authority. It's a hierarchy enforced by violence. Spirituality has nothing to do with the ignorance of religion.
but that doesn’t stop you from acting like a dickhead.
You're the only person who used words like dickhead. You came on a rational group, spouted superstition and ignorance and even contradicting yourself, and then starting throwing insults like a child. You've added no value here.
You: I believe in God and Demons
Also You: I am not religious.
These are contradictory, so one of you is a casual and habitual liar. Why would people listen to a liar? A liar has nothing to teach anyone.
Lol, if you look at the responses I've been getting it's a serious stretch to call any of you rational. You never once tried to understand my perspective, you just applied your preconceived notions of the words and religions and assumed I agreed with your strawman arguments. For one, religion is not spirituality or philosophy. Religion is a hierarchy of violence and ignorance. Religion serves Mammon. Spirituality is the study of one's place within the universe, i.e. one's relation to God as a phenomenon, not a myth. Second, you need only look through my replies to see you're so off base about your fantasies, that you're completely delusional. You're arguing with your "rational" self about your own ignorance.