God is a Philosophical Concept and NOT and Extraterrestrial Power
After spending over 35 years as a true believer in the Bible and Christianity, plus listening to all the philosophical arguments from every kind of philosopher (both medieval and modern) along with reading tons of theological apologetics, I am convinced that God and the metaphysical word of religion (Christianity) exist only in and is given life strictly by the living and creative brains of humans. Man, that's enough to make a deacon shout! Amen?
A reply might be: Yes, but Christianity has a god who is the source of “absolute truth” from which we have a standard to base our morals and ethics on. To which I would respond: Are Disney cartoons such as the Little Mermaid true? It certainly has moral and ethical battles between good and evil…the Little Mermaid and Sebastian the crab vs. the evil Sea Witch. So if truth needs to be based on morals and ethics, then the Little Mermaid is true. Certainly we know humans drew and wrote the Disney cartoons, but then modern scholars (other than fundamentalist) would say that the Bible too was written and created by humans just as any other ancient text was.
Thus, if the secular world wants a reference for kids teaching both ethical and moral truths, the cartoon world is full of ethical and moral characters going back from Betty Boop to Tooter Turtle to the present computer created semi-real Teletubbies. I would bet anyone coffee and a donut that kids today learn more from the Cartoon Network then twelve years spent in most churches services and Sunday Schools. Plus, they have fun learning without the fear of revenge from a wrathful God who only offers a carrot (Heaven) and stick (Hell) mentality.
Other than a symbolic book used in court rooms and swearing in ceremonies, the Bible remains a mostly unread iconoclastic book by the majority of Christians. Most believers I’ve talked to are almost totally illiterate on Biblical knowledge (as Hector Avalos notes in his book: The End of Biblical Studies). I asked a Southern Baptist Sunday School teacher of 12 years where the book of Tobit was located. She said that sounds like an Old Testament book. She was close, but wrong.
In the end, present debates by Christian apologists keep God alive are his philosophical life support system. With no physical proof of any vital signs of life for a so-called "living God" today, he is indeed simply a philosophical concept and NOT and extraterrestrial power. God's home is not in Heaven, but just a the Bible says, he lives only in the hearts (mind) of those who love him.
4 comments:
The Bible is like an elderly senile citizen who is usually incoherent and out of touch with reality. But, because of the love of her children (the believers) and through denial of reality along with some creative ingenuity, she (the Bible) is lovingly taken by the arm and theologically helped to shuffle along.
But then when you read things such as related in the following links, it makes you wonder if everything we experience is really just in our heads. Maybe hot and cold are really just an elderly senile woman...maybe all "reality" is just an interpretation.
http://www.feralchildren.com/en/index.php
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3236118.stm
Makes you wonder...
Jennifer:
All reality could be an interpretation. Including things like hot and cold in my model of the world helps me achieve positive perceptions and avoid negative perceptions. Adding "god" to the model does not.
Tobit is an Old Testament book, in some Bibles. Perhaps the woman was from a backgroudn that featured this.
Also, saying that Cartoons will provide more morals than Churches is just pedantic.
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