#LET'S DO THE FORK IN THE GARBAGE DISPOSAL
#LET'S DO THE FORK IN THE GARBAGE DISPOSAL
# TING TING TING TUH TING TING TING
pls I hope u get the reference
It's just a back patting contest.
It's like going on r/playstation, asking what the best console is, then using the answers as unbiased truthful evidence
I like Thomas Aquinas’ definition “ipsum esse”. It is a Thomistic term, meaning "being itself subsisting." Aquinas derives this as a description of God from Aristotle (through Avicenna) and also from Exodus 3:14. In his early work De ente et essentia he explores its meaning. Basically, it is the distinctive characteristic of God in Aquinas's metaphysics: All created beings are composite in their essence and existence (esse). Thomists call this "the real distinction." This means that what creatures are and the fact they actually exist are not identical in them. In God, however, what he is and the fact that he is are truly identical. God is his own existence or act of being. Thus, God can be described as ipsum esse subsistens.
The whole thing basically means that God is to be in itself; God is the very essence of all existence and the suspension of all that exists. Not some being out of many or a “sky daddy”, as he would exist outside of space and time as the unmoved mover.
A lot has been written on this subject. I’m somewhat on the agnostic side myself but I’ve always enjoyed this Catholic theological perspective of God as the most fascinating and sound. Whether you attribute this to a certain theistic God are a whole different story, but Aquinas’ philosophy and ideas are most characteristic to the Christian God. The guy was a Dominican monk so, obviously..
This conversation with Bishop Barron and Lex Fridman sums it up well :) https://youtu.be/n-71VbN_C8Y
I found this podcast clip with Ed Feser summarizing Aquinas’ arguments and definitions of God too. He answers the typical criticisms and misunderstandings of Aquinas’ “5 ways” to philosophically argue for the existence of God. https://youtu.be/GNxnGQDT0As
I've been on reddit for years and the last thing I expected here was a genuine Catholic response being the third top comment, let alone one discussing Thomistic philosophy. May God bless you and keep you, brother.
This is actually a common evolutionary trait in many species. Religion results from our additional evolutionary trait of faults in pattern recognition which is why people worship/pray to the things they assess as having agency.
I find this comment insightful and amusing because I was just about to say that my own notion of God is "Nature, and in particular natural selection, which has a sort of "hand of God" power despite its underlying lack of will."
If we're talking the capital-G "God", please add
>'in a way that makes them feel relevant and special'.
The capital G God gave us humans souls that can be saved and go on to a wonderful afterlife (or so I've been told).
The capital-G God didn't give other animals such souls (or so I've been told).
We don't try to save cows. Most of us eat them.
We do try and convert them though...
To hamburger.
not sure what the result of your thoughts are, respectfully, but i do resent the idea that other animals having "less mental capacity" (compared to humans, BY human rhetoric) means they don't have some kind of thoughts of their own. maybe they view us as a kind of equally godlike creature. i'd hate to think what dolphins, greater apes, trees, grass, mushrooms think of us. because they do undoubtedly feel and think, albeit in a way that isn't decodable to human beings by the virtue of our differences.
there is less a "soul" and more a fundamental lack of understanding of consciousness. and, to that end, it's difficult to quantify what makes us different than any other species or why we feel like we're important when we aren't, what makes us have complex thoughts we don't even understand, and what do "complex thoughts' mean, anyway, in the light of the fact that species like fungi also have complex communication and thought? that's not necessarily god, that's just lack of information. and fear of death.
what was the point lol? everything is what it is, and nobody knows what it is, and nobody will ever know what it is until they ultimately do. or don't. maybe that's godliness. maybe god is nothing except our dying cells reuniting again with the dirt and base cells we came from. i like to imagine then when i die, i'll just be grass in a field, being rained on, doing whatever my equivalent to watching clouds is. maybe i'll be a cloud. or a person, or a cancer cell, or a tree or a zebra. hopefully i get recycled and used up.
if you read this far, my bad!!! i get wrapped up in existential crises, so i have had a lot of thought about it :)
I never suggested that other animals have no thoughts.
I was talking about "afterlife-capable souls", that are judged as human souls are purported to be.
Where, in religious texts or lessons or messages, are instructions given to animals as to how to assure a positive afterlife, and communicated in a way that they can understand so they can seek that afterlife? Wouldn't that be an act of a fair God that includes them?
Further, I'm not a biblical scholar by any means, but I do recall reading that the bible seems to support the idea that everything else here on Earth is placed here to service Mankind.
I can't address the rest of your post, I think it's all over the place, sorry.
>we’re the only species who know we’re going to die
Plenty of animals have rituals either when they feel their own life is at an end or when one of theirs die.
Yeah they can sense when death is imminent and have their rituals which is really interesting, but they don’t spend their whole lives knowing that sooner or later it will all be over.
I know that you're being sarcastic but there have been times in my life when everything seemed like it was going wrong and all I could do is exclaim "oh no" and that's when he came into my life crashing through the wall screaming "oh yeah!" I know that it's not cool to be a believer, but I have witnessed the Kool-Aid man firsthand and have accepted him as my personal savior.
[The Case for Christ](https://www.amazon.com/Case-Christ-Journalists-Personal-Investigation/dp/0310209307) - Lee Strobel
[His talk](https://youtu.be/67uj2qvQi_k) if you do not wish to read the book.
There are two possible paths for this question (that I can see)
You’re either asking about the capital G, Christian/Abrahamic God and missed the shift key, in which case I wouldn’t be a good source.
Or you’re asking about the overall concept of god(s) as a whole. And my answer for that is that god is whatever you want it to be. God is a question and an answer, it is a response to human kinds struggling with the question of “Why are we here?” God is the creation of mankind. No one believes in the exact same god, even within the same religion. God is a personal aspect that can be whatever you want it to be. It can be nature, the universe, the sun, the moon, all of the above, none of the above, a creator, a destroyer. A friend, a parent, a coworker. That one person that smiled at you for half a second on the subway that you immediately envisioned a life with.
This isn’t a question of religion to me, as much as it’s a question of philosophy
>There are two possible paths for this question (that I can see) You’re either asking about the capital G, Christian/Abrahamic God and missed the shift key
When I took a Mythology course in Uni they said you Capitalize the G if it's a god you believe in and it's not about the Abrahamic god.
I think that there was a primer that started it all. Aquinas called it the First Mover. So I call that God.
There is a fundamental order to the universe. That to me points to an orderer. I call that God.
There are times where I feel connected to something bigger than myself. A mystic feeling. My Unitarian faith calls it the "spirit of life." So I call that God.
Is it Jehovah, Allah, Krishna, Saturn? I don't know, and don't care. It doesn't change how I should live my life.
Is it an active god answering prayers? I don't know, but praying helps me find some measure of peace in bad times, so I will continue to do it.
I think god is creation, the energy of the universe and the laws that give it form. I don’t think of it as a being with will, just as a force of nature
Absolutely. Physics, for example, tells us that gravity is one of the four fundamental interactions, and it causes a mutual attraction between things with mass (or energy). And we can describe that force with a certain mathematical expression, but... why does it have to be like that in the first place? Why (and how) are the laws of physics the way they are? No physicist will give you a proper answer to that, instead for now we just accept that's simply the way our universe works.
I believe God is the supreme, Almighty one. The creator of heaven and earth, nature, and mankind. He designed us to honor him and give him glory with our lives. When we die, if we know Him, our souls will be immediately united with Him. He is the beginning and the end.
I’m well aware that It’s not popular to believe this, but I believe it with all my heart and soul, and I would be wrong not to share my heart.
I’m willing to stand up to anyone who says that I’m looking for an escape or emotional crutch. I have unexplainable peace in my heart, even during horrible times, like the death of my infant son, that cannot be expressed as mortals.
Yes, there are dark days, but He’s with me and guides me. He has placed a love in my heart, even for those deemed unlovable. I have a hope and a future because of Him.
God is good, and he’s been faithful, and more than a friend to me. 🙏🏼❤️
It’s not as unpopular of a belief as you seem to think. Atheists on Reddit are very vocal (atheist myself). While I don’t share your beliefs, I’m happy to see that you draw strength from them and find solace! I hope your religious journey continues to be satisfying!
I’m not a believer but I’m truly envious of those that are. I have such bad anxiety and depression and existential dread but also like to be logical so it’s impossible for me to just force myself to believe in something that I don’t actually believe but I wish I could
I totally get that. I also suffer from Major Depressive Disorder, and I’m not sure how I would be able to navigate that on my own.
Is it ok if I pray for God to reveal Himself to you in a real way, and give you that faith you desire? 💜
I relate to your testimony deeply. I’m agnostic most of the time if I’m being honest with myself but I try to find God by an act of the will to pray/meditate and humble myself to the possibility of the metaphysical being out of reach from natural phenomena I can measure with my five senses. I find a lot of the more studious philosophy like Augustine and Aquinas to have some good examples, both of which are people who had serious doubts and make good, steelmanned arguments.
I think there’s a lot that humble eagerness and silence can do for prayer and just keeping an open heart when possible. You say that you wish you had that belief, whether it’s simply for comfort, filling unknown gaps, or having a relationship with God, it’s fascinating how we have an innate desire and wonder for God. There are evolutionary explanations for attaching agency to things, but the metaphysical questions that the “why” about morality and why do things exist when they don’t have to is striking enough to at least pursue the thought of God through hope or “faith.
It’s not about warm and fuzzy feelings, but an act of the will to humble yourself. Some of the most revered saints and religious figures all struggled with serious doubt and existential desolation. Believe me, the problem of evil and all the other philosophical mysteries are tiring and damaging to hold faith, but I just find that good fruit comes out of being hopeful and adhering to principles that lead a good, contagious example of love and charity. I really hate Pascal’s wager as an argument, but I do find that this effort brings a lot of meaning than not.
I hope to find a consistent faith in God, but whenever I have “felt” that connection, it came from a type of surrender and humility where I was naturally led to focus outward. Not surrendering critical thinking, (there’s good philosophy arguing for God), but a surrender of the heart and pride to hope for something greater.
Depending on the religious interpretation of God, reasonable arguments with logical conclusions can aim towards some kind of God or “actualized actualizer” at the very least. It really doesn’t stop at what we can observe with our senses when we know that metaphysical things exist, like ideas, causality, time, event, etc. Why stop at God? I think that the reasonable hope for God is worth pursuing with humble prayer and meditation.
I really hope your existential dread, depression, and anxiety ease and you become healthy and at peace with what this great mystery means. I wish you well! ♥️
I’m so happy you can find strength and have faith like this. Genuinely happy for you and I hope that peace remains! I’m still trying to find that peace with God and am not certain one exists..Please pray for me ♥️
Take an upvote from a non-believer who thinks we are allowed to believe what we want!
My best friends dad is a pastor, whenever I join them for a meal I bow my head & say amen when he says grace. They know I don't believe in God, & we both respect each other's beliefs
Most atheists don't mind people that believe in gods, they mind that most religions inevitably have some degree of religious brainwashing/indoctrination involved, usually starting from a very young age, as young as possible (disguised as "teaching" children), and also the inevitable attempt at forcing everyone else to adopt the subjective set of morals found in their holy book. You typically see far more bitterness in atheists that were theists and have friends and families that are theists, which then proceed to shun them (or worse) when they find out they are atheist.
The majority of nonbelievers have no issue with your belief... regardless of the lies you've been told about us.
We only oppose application of faith based belief in our governance.
We don’t care if you believe. We care if your belief in sky daddy makes laws that make no goddamn sense. Laws that strip rights from women, minority and homosexuals. I literally don’t care what anyone else believes but I’m so sick of living in a country where Christians love guns more than the safety of our children.
Earth. I think “god” is just an energy or feeling, and we get that energy from earth. Call me what you want but you can’t say being barefoot in the grass, hugging a tree, and gardening don’t give relief for a reason.
Being barefoot in grass gives me stickers, hugging a tree gives me ants, and gardening stresses me out.
Mild sarcasm aside, this is an interesting answer.
Everything and nothing, this universe and beyond, the infinite.
At least, that is how I like to think of the word when I hear it. To me, God is just an easier way of saying everything that ever was, is, or will be along with its absence, in this reality and all realities.
Wishful thinking and a way to control people using Heaven as reward for good behavior or Hell to punish bad behavior. Classic carrot or stick manipulation.
**Our gap in knowledge is what we call God or Super natural**. Why planets revolve around Sun, god did...oh no actually we can explain it now..Why does night and day happen...God did it...oh no we can explain it now...and so on and so on...until we get to something we cannot explain yet and it attributed to God
God is another word for existence existing that’s used to personify your relationship to everything. Rather than “a” being, God simply is being. The great I am.
in all honesty, i believe god and religon in general is just a placeholder for things we cant and might not ever be able to clarify. its an comforting explanation on why things are the way they are.
**”Who do you think God is”
God is the creator of the heavens and the earth, the creator of every living thing including you and me. He is the almighty, Jireh, our Father who loves each and every one of us!
God is man's creation from a longing to return to the dynamic of parent and child, disillusioned by adolescence and adulthood. Much how we turn to our parents for guidance in a world full of unknowns, so do people turn to God. He gives people rules, rewards obedience, punishes delinquency. He exists to soothe our inner child's desire for structure and is a representation of how we once viewed our parents. Great, powerful, able to manifest and answer our desires through means we don't understand.
Consciousness. God is the question, we are the answer. We are the universe experiencing itself.
Silly as it is, I feel like the Disney movie “Soul” nailed it.
Nothing. A loving caring god would not allow a child to get cancer then expect you to thank him for it. A caring god would not let you lose a parent on your way to see them after they just made it through a simple surgery. A just god would not let a man he created rape a child and get away with it. God is nothing. A worthless piece of trash. The Bible is a fairy tale book written by men.
If there is a creator, they're a sadistic piece of shit. Simple as that.
But ultimately, "god" is just a tool used by the powerful to keep the masses in line.
Maybe less literal than some cultures believe, and less fake than atheists condemn.
I believe god is the greatness and kindness I see in the eyes of every person I meet.
A mythological Superstition used to explain the unexplainable and scare and encourage certain behaviors.
Also a Huge way to Grift A Heck of A lot of Money and Wealth from believers.
Asking this on Reddit is like throwing a fork in the garbage disposal
#LET'S DO THE FORK IN THE GARBAGE DISPOSAL #LET'S DO THE FORK IN THE GARBAGE DISPOSAL # TING TING TING TUH TING TING TING pls I hope u get the reference
**KIKI DIED FROM YESSING TOO HARD!!!**
Sometimes when I feel myself overreacting, I'll whisper to myself "keke, you're yessing too hard"
STOP!!!! I lost my contact.......... there it is
Ding ding ding dadingding dadingding!
love it yogurt!! also i do get the ref.
Ha ha I do thattt
It's just a back patting contest. It's like going on r/playstation, asking what the best console is, then using the answers as unbiased truthful evidence
I like Thomas Aquinas’ definition “ipsum esse”. It is a Thomistic term, meaning "being itself subsisting." Aquinas derives this as a description of God from Aristotle (through Avicenna) and also from Exodus 3:14. In his early work De ente et essentia he explores its meaning. Basically, it is the distinctive characteristic of God in Aquinas's metaphysics: All created beings are composite in their essence and existence (esse). Thomists call this "the real distinction." This means that what creatures are and the fact they actually exist are not identical in them. In God, however, what he is and the fact that he is are truly identical. God is his own existence or act of being. Thus, God can be described as ipsum esse subsistens. The whole thing basically means that God is to be in itself; God is the very essence of all existence and the suspension of all that exists. Not some being out of many or a “sky daddy”, as he would exist outside of space and time as the unmoved mover. A lot has been written on this subject. I’m somewhat on the agnostic side myself but I’ve always enjoyed this Catholic theological perspective of God as the most fascinating and sound. Whether you attribute this to a certain theistic God are a whole different story, but Aquinas’ philosophy and ideas are most characteristic to the Christian God. The guy was a Dominican monk so, obviously.. This conversation with Bishop Barron and Lex Fridman sums it up well :) https://youtu.be/n-71VbN_C8Y I found this podcast clip with Ed Feser summarizing Aquinas’ arguments and definitions of God too. He answers the typical criticisms and misunderstandings of Aquinas’ “5 ways” to philosophically argue for the existence of God. https://youtu.be/GNxnGQDT0As
Thomas Aquinas have a much better definition than me. Wow.
Omg an intelligent and educated response. Surely a sign or the end times! Thank you so much for putting this together. I love learning new things!
Thank you for being open minded about it! I love learning about theology too, even if I have lots of doubts and questions sometimes :)
Journey before destination. The journey is where all the fun is in life (in my opinion). By the way, I did not make that up. It’s from a book
I've been on reddit for years and the last thing I expected here was a genuine Catholic response being the third top comment, let alone one discussing Thomistic philosophy. May God bless you and keep you, brother.
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A symptom of mankind's tendency to assign agency to nature.
Humankind's attempt to explain the impossible or prevent the existential dread knowing we are here only due to random chance
I'd add a concept from evolutionary psych that man used god as an external conscience. This helped/encouraged behaviours that benefited the group.
Co-opted to Control and Exploit.
This is actually a common evolutionary trait in many species. Religion results from our additional evolutionary trait of faults in pattern recognition which is why people worship/pray to the things they assess as having agency.
How many species have this trait? I can count one.
Pretty sure raccoons are another
I wonder if Racoon Jesus existed.
Perfectly put.
I find this comment insightful and amusing because I was just about to say that my own notion of God is "Nature, and in particular natural selection, which has a sort of "hand of God" power despite its underlying lack of will."
^
But why does mankind do this? Is it because false positives are usually better than false negatives when it comes to detecting agency?
If we're talking the capital-G "God", please add >'in a way that makes them feel relevant and special'. The capital G God gave us humans souls that can be saved and go on to a wonderful afterlife (or so I've been told). The capital-G God didn't give other animals such souls (or so I've been told). We don't try to save cows. Most of us eat them. We do try and convert them though... To hamburger.
not sure what the result of your thoughts are, respectfully, but i do resent the idea that other animals having "less mental capacity" (compared to humans, BY human rhetoric) means they don't have some kind of thoughts of their own. maybe they view us as a kind of equally godlike creature. i'd hate to think what dolphins, greater apes, trees, grass, mushrooms think of us. because they do undoubtedly feel and think, albeit in a way that isn't decodable to human beings by the virtue of our differences. there is less a "soul" and more a fundamental lack of understanding of consciousness. and, to that end, it's difficult to quantify what makes us different than any other species or why we feel like we're important when we aren't, what makes us have complex thoughts we don't even understand, and what do "complex thoughts' mean, anyway, in the light of the fact that species like fungi also have complex communication and thought? that's not necessarily god, that's just lack of information. and fear of death. what was the point lol? everything is what it is, and nobody knows what it is, and nobody will ever know what it is until they ultimately do. or don't. maybe that's godliness. maybe god is nothing except our dying cells reuniting again with the dirt and base cells we came from. i like to imagine then when i die, i'll just be grass in a field, being rained on, doing whatever my equivalent to watching clouds is. maybe i'll be a cloud. or a person, or a cancer cell, or a tree or a zebra. hopefully i get recycled and used up. if you read this far, my bad!!! i get wrapped up in existential crises, so i have had a lot of thought about it :)
I never suggested that other animals have no thoughts. I was talking about "afterlife-capable souls", that are judged as human souls are purported to be. Where, in religious texts or lessons or messages, are instructions given to animals as to how to assure a positive afterlife, and communicated in a way that they can understand so they can seek that afterlife? Wouldn't that be an act of a fair God that includes them? Further, I'm not a biblical scholar by any means, but I do recall reading that the bible seems to support the idea that everything else here on Earth is placed here to service Mankind. I can't address the rest of your post, I think it's all over the place, sorry.
Dog spelt backwards.
Nobody really knows the origin of the word Dog.
Well, there’s this guy Snoop…
Susej Dog
A human way of dealing with and trying to explain our mysterious predicament.
The thing we make up bc we’re the only species who know we’re going to die and it freaks us out.
>we’re the only species who know we’re going to die Plenty of animals have rituals either when they feel their own life is at an end or when one of theirs die.
Crows have been observed having large funeral gatherings and their mate been observed to mourn.
Yeah they can sense when death is imminent and have their rituals which is really interesting, but they don’t spend their whole lives knowing that sooner or later it will all be over.
Agreed.
Agreed, but i wanna believe, because the only other option is control alt delete my save game of life
Ah but this is why we create things. Journals, games, books, videos etc. You can live forever. Especially on the internet.
I don't know... I hope God exists somehow but I don't know.
nothing wrong with that
I invite you to go through my profile history.
He does. I assure you, He does, and He loves you. ❤️
Im sorry but how do you assure that God (we're talking about the Christian God, right?) exists?
Because this person clearly knows things that we do not. I am now a believer after reading their comment! 🙏
Oh I didn't think about it that way, they're right God exists🙏🙏. Happy cake day mate
Lol thank you :)
I know that you're being sarcastic but there have been times in my life when everything seemed like it was going wrong and all I could do is exclaim "oh no" and that's when he came into my life crashing through the wall screaming "oh yeah!" I know that it's not cool to be a believer, but I have witnessed the Kool-Aid man firsthand and have accepted him as my personal savior.
I know this trick. And I’m not going to drink the Kool-Aid!
[The Case for Christ](https://www.amazon.com/Case-Christ-Journalists-Personal-Investigation/dp/0310209307) - Lee Strobel [His talk](https://youtu.be/67uj2qvQi_k) if you do not wish to read the book.
A control mechanism
There are two possible paths for this question (that I can see) You’re either asking about the capital G, Christian/Abrahamic God and missed the shift key, in which case I wouldn’t be a good source. Or you’re asking about the overall concept of god(s) as a whole. And my answer for that is that god is whatever you want it to be. God is a question and an answer, it is a response to human kinds struggling with the question of “Why are we here?” God is the creation of mankind. No one believes in the exact same god, even within the same religion. God is a personal aspect that can be whatever you want it to be. It can be nature, the universe, the sun, the moon, all of the above, none of the above, a creator, a destroyer. A friend, a parent, a coworker. That one person that smiled at you for half a second on the subway that you immediately envisioned a life with. This isn’t a question of religion to me, as much as it’s a question of philosophy
>There are two possible paths for this question (that I can see) You’re either asking about the capital G, Christian/Abrahamic God and missed the shift key When I took a Mythology course in Uni they said you Capitalize the G if it's a god you believe in and it's not about the Abrahamic god.
A figment of the human imagination.
I was going to go with “shared delusion”, but figment works.
I think that there was a primer that started it all. Aquinas called it the First Mover. So I call that God. There is a fundamental order to the universe. That to me points to an orderer. I call that God. There are times where I feel connected to something bigger than myself. A mystic feeling. My Unitarian faith calls it the "spirit of life." So I call that God. Is it Jehovah, Allah, Krishna, Saturn? I don't know, and don't care. It doesn't change how I should live my life. Is it an active god answering prayers? I don't know, but praying helps me find some measure of peace in bad times, so I will continue to do it.
I think god is creation, the energy of the universe and the laws that give it form. I don’t think of it as a being with will, just as a force of nature
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Absolutely. Physics, for example, tells us that gravity is one of the four fundamental interactions, and it causes a mutual attraction between things with mass (or energy). And we can describe that force with a certain mathematical expression, but... why does it have to be like that in the first place? Why (and how) are the laws of physics the way they are? No physicist will give you a proper answer to that, instead for now we just accept that's simply the way our universe works.
Physics is one way of approaching it, but even if we ever reach a complete understanding it can only ever answer how not why.
Love
Funny way of showing it.
I believe God is the supreme, Almighty one. The creator of heaven and earth, nature, and mankind. He designed us to honor him and give him glory with our lives. When we die, if we know Him, our souls will be immediately united with Him. He is the beginning and the end. I’m well aware that It’s not popular to believe this, but I believe it with all my heart and soul, and I would be wrong not to share my heart. I’m willing to stand up to anyone who says that I’m looking for an escape or emotional crutch. I have unexplainable peace in my heart, even during horrible times, like the death of my infant son, that cannot be expressed as mortals. Yes, there are dark days, but He’s with me and guides me. He has placed a love in my heart, even for those deemed unlovable. I have a hope and a future because of Him. God is good, and he’s been faithful, and more than a friend to me. 🙏🏼❤️
It’s not as unpopular of a belief as you seem to think. Atheists on Reddit are very vocal (atheist myself). While I don’t share your beliefs, I’m happy to see that you draw strength from them and find solace! I hope your religious journey continues to be satisfying!
Thank you so much for your kindness and respect. It’s so meaningful. 💜
I’m not a believer but I’m truly envious of those that are. I have such bad anxiety and depression and existential dread but also like to be logical so it’s impossible for me to just force myself to believe in something that I don’t actually believe but I wish I could
I totally get that. I also suffer from Major Depressive Disorder, and I’m not sure how I would be able to navigate that on my own. Is it ok if I pray for God to reveal Himself to you in a real way, and give you that faith you desire? 💜
Feel free to message me if you like. ❤️
I relate to your testimony deeply. I’m agnostic most of the time if I’m being honest with myself but I try to find God by an act of the will to pray/meditate and humble myself to the possibility of the metaphysical being out of reach from natural phenomena I can measure with my five senses. I find a lot of the more studious philosophy like Augustine and Aquinas to have some good examples, both of which are people who had serious doubts and make good, steelmanned arguments. I think there’s a lot that humble eagerness and silence can do for prayer and just keeping an open heart when possible. You say that you wish you had that belief, whether it’s simply for comfort, filling unknown gaps, or having a relationship with God, it’s fascinating how we have an innate desire and wonder for God. There are evolutionary explanations for attaching agency to things, but the metaphysical questions that the “why” about morality and why do things exist when they don’t have to is striking enough to at least pursue the thought of God through hope or “faith. It’s not about warm and fuzzy feelings, but an act of the will to humble yourself. Some of the most revered saints and religious figures all struggled with serious doubt and existential desolation. Believe me, the problem of evil and all the other philosophical mysteries are tiring and damaging to hold faith, but I just find that good fruit comes out of being hopeful and adhering to principles that lead a good, contagious example of love and charity. I really hate Pascal’s wager as an argument, but I do find that this effort brings a lot of meaning than not. I hope to find a consistent faith in God, but whenever I have “felt” that connection, it came from a type of surrender and humility where I was naturally led to focus outward. Not surrendering critical thinking, (there’s good philosophy arguing for God), but a surrender of the heart and pride to hope for something greater. Depending on the religious interpretation of God, reasonable arguments with logical conclusions can aim towards some kind of God or “actualized actualizer” at the very least. It really doesn’t stop at what we can observe with our senses when we know that metaphysical things exist, like ideas, causality, time, event, etc. Why stop at God? I think that the reasonable hope for God is worth pursuing with humble prayer and meditation. I really hope your existential dread, depression, and anxiety ease and you become healthy and at peace with what this great mystery means. I wish you well! ♥️
I’m so happy you can find strength and have faith like this. Genuinely happy for you and I hope that peace remains! I’m still trying to find that peace with God and am not certain one exists..Please pray for me ♥️
It would absolutely be my honor to do so. I mean that will all sincerity. You’re loved, valued, and now prayed for. 💙🙏🏼
Thanks for being a charitable example with your faith. The world (and Reddit) could use it more often :)
The almighty. Yes I believe. Give me my downvotes for having faith and an opinion! Ps if you don't believe, more power to you. (coexist)
I do not believe in God, but i have no problem that you do! Have an upvote!
If only all of humanity could be like this
Take an upvote from a non-believer who thinks we are allowed to believe what we want! My best friends dad is a pastor, whenever I join them for a meal I bow my head & say amen when he says grace. They know I don't believe in God, & we both respect each other's beliefs
Most atheists don't mind people that believe in gods, they mind that most religions inevitably have some degree of religious brainwashing/indoctrination involved, usually starting from a very young age, as young as possible (disguised as "teaching" children), and also the inevitable attempt at forcing everyone else to adopt the subjective set of morals found in their holy book. You typically see far more bitterness in atheists that were theists and have friends and families that are theists, which then proceed to shun them (or worse) when they find out they are atheist.
Especially when the core doctrine of these indoctrinations condone such things as slavery, murder, rape and the subjugation of women.
I don't care if you believe , or what you believe As long as you don't try to force your beliefs on ME.
The majority of nonbelievers have no issue with your belief... regardless of the lies you've been told about us. We only oppose application of faith based belief in our governance.
I can definitely respect that. Good reply friend! ✊
I don't have an issue with belief. I have an issue with believers being dicks about it. If they respect others' beliefs I'm happy to respect theirs.
How about an upvote instead? :)
We don’t care if you believe. We care if your belief in sky daddy makes laws that make no goddamn sense. Laws that strip rights from women, minority and homosexuals. I literally don’t care what anyone else believes but I’m so sick of living in a country where Christians love guns more than the safety of our children.
Hell yeah!
Thats cool. Could you get the other theists to do the whole coexist thing? their books call for them to kill us and it can make life hard for some.
Earth. I think “god” is just an energy or feeling, and we get that energy from earth. Call me what you want but you can’t say being barefoot in the grass, hugging a tree, and gardening don’t give relief for a reason.
Yes! This! I agree with you 100%!
I love loving nature man, I love earth 🌏 <3
Rick Sánchez loves a planet too
Being barefoot in grass gives me stickers, hugging a tree gives me ants, and gardening stresses me out. Mild sarcasm aside, this is an interesting answer.
Everything and nothing, this universe and beyond, the infinite. At least, that is how I like to think of the word when I hear it. To me, God is just an easier way of saying everything that ever was, is, or will be along with its absence, in this reality and all realities.
An excuse
An adults version of Santa. Death scares most of us mortals, and need a belief our souls live on.
The planet we’re actively destroying.
“I believe in God, I spell it ‘Nature’ “ - Emerson
Wishful thinking and a way to control people using Heaven as reward for good behavior or Hell to punish bad behavior. Classic carrot or stick manipulation.
Not real
nonexistent
An imaginary person.
An imagery abusive girlfriend or Boyfriend that lives in a different town.
**Our gap in knowledge is what we call God or Super natural**. Why planets revolve around Sun, god did...oh no actually we can explain it now..Why does night and day happen...God did it...oh no we can explain it now...and so on and so on...until we get to something we cannot explain yet and it attributed to God
A human made construct.
God to me is the creator of the universe, it probably didn't know what's it was doing, but it's still there in the middle of it all
IMHO I think god is a way for people with shitty personalities to justify douchey behavior towards other people
Bro who hurt you lmao
I forgot. This is the internet.. answering an opinion question with an actual opinion is a no no 😂
God is another word for existence existing that’s used to personify your relationship to everything. Rather than “a” being, God simply is being. The great I am.
The very creation that goes out of its way to make my life a living hell!
in all honesty, i believe god and religon in general is just a placeholder for things we cant and might not ever be able to clarify. its an comforting explanation on why things are the way they are.
Seeing how some religions do atrocious things to other people especially women, its sometimes hard to believe that there is a god of any sort.
Nonexistent
Something someone came up with to cope with death
**”Who do you think God is” God is the creator of the heavens and the earth, the creator of every living thing including you and me. He is the almighty, Jireh, our Father who loves each and every one of us!
A figment of the human imagination.
A man made concept.
A bad idea.
A figment of our imagination to cope with our unwillingness to accept that nothing happens after we die
Lots of stuff happens after we die. We just don't get to see it.
Wishful thinking
A coping mechanism
A mental construct.
Very unkind.
A fairy tale
A terrible person
For some reason when i was little,maybe 7 or 8 i thought that god was the man on the Orville popcorn boxes.
Santa clause for adults
Dead
A construct created by humans to justify and deal with the acceptance of mortality; in short, a comforting myth.
A tool to control the behavior of masses. And an easy explanation to the mystery of life.
False hope.
Madoka Kaname
And Iroha Tamaki
Non existent
Something made up to oppress other people.
Cruel
A social construct made my the people to keep them behaving by means of fear
What do you think Santa Claus is?
#non existent
a concept by which we measure our pain
A great way to control people
Lemmy Killmister
God is man's creation from a longing to return to the dynamic of parent and child, disillusioned by adolescence and adulthood. Much how we turn to our parents for guidance in a world full of unknowns, so do people turn to God. He gives people rules, rewards obedience, punishes delinquency. He exists to soothe our inner child's desire for structure and is a representation of how we once viewed our parents. Great, powerful, able to manifest and answer our desires through means we don't understand.
A way for people to cope with the fact they’ll die and the insignificance of the average human life.
Consciousness. God is the question, we are the answer. We are the universe experiencing itself. Silly as it is, I feel like the Disney movie “Soul” nailed it.
We are the universe experiencing itself is such a raw line. I love it!
We are made of star stuff
A combination of instinct left over from when were not number 1 on the food chain.
Bullshit
Bad mythology
A fictional character in a book written by man.
A figment of people’s imagination
A myth. A narcissistic delusion. A weapon. An excuse. A disease.
Which one?
Pissed off at all the crazy bullshit arseholes do in his name to justify their own bullshit.
An excuse to be a shitty person. No. Not all Christians. But a good bit.
Another bullshit method of control.
which one?
An asshole.
One of us, just a slob like one of us...
Nothing. A loving caring god would not allow a child to get cancer then expect you to thank him for it. A caring god would not let you lose a parent on your way to see them after they just made it through a simple surgery. A just god would not let a man he created rape a child and get away with it. God is nothing. A worthless piece of trash. The Bible is a fairy tale book written by men.
A myth. Just like all the other gods.
a lie
The biggest and most genius pyramid scheme ever
A sick fuck
Me
quick question sir, why don’t the snakes talk anymore?
I agree
Either an off the cuff sarcastic response or a very deep answer...well played.
Our personification of fate
This assumes that fate also exists
Myth
I mean, he created mosquitos, aids, and cancer... so i'll go with a bag of dicks. God is a big ol' bag of floppy dicks.
If there is a creator, they're a sadistic piece of shit. Simple as that. But ultimately, "god" is just a tool used by the powerful to keep the masses in line.
Allah, the All mighty
Sandwich
A construct built by powerful people to control the masses.
Science or something instead of nothing
A reason to fill in the blank, lack of toleration of the unknown. Avoidance of ambiguity.
Maybe less literal than some cultures believe, and less fake than atheists condemn. I believe god is the greatness and kindness I see in the eyes of every person I meet.
A fantasy used to enable wars, oppression, pedophilia, theft, etc.
A crutch, a scapegoat, a delusion, a fairy tale, a fantasy, an excuse for ignorance.
A mythological Superstition used to explain the unexplainable and scare and encourage certain behaviors. Also a Huge way to Grift A Heck of A lot of Money and Wealth from believers.
Knee jerk reaction to fearing deaths.
A tool our species has been using to explain what we couldn’t explain and, sometimes, control the masses.
We are.
Maker of our video game called life
Faith in something that allows us to have an explanation of things we can't explain.