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Post by mechtaur on Dec 7, 2011 21:57:23 GMT -5
So, I was looking around and found This, which is from a survey back in 2005 about how people viewed the nature of "God". It actually made a lot of sense to me in that: 1. People view God as hating sins, but being more lenient towards theirs specifically. 2. God tends to be more involved, in people's minds, if they can't imagine how something works otherwise (Tsunamis just being a force of nature, rather than a punishment). Which leads to... 3. People tend to push onto God what their own impotence brings. The whole "God only gives you what you can handle" schtick. I was surprised at a couple things, like how more people are undecided about God's possible gender. Of course, I wasn't surprised at how people tended to white-wash things with it, like the whole wrathful aspect. Edit: The survey can be found here.
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Post by lighthorseman on Dec 8, 2011 0:08:20 GMT -5
Believe me... have a non-lethal, debilitating stroke sometime, and you will get philosophical as shit about the nature of God, and his attitude towards sin in general and yours in particular.
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Post by Wykked Wytch on Dec 8, 2011 0:09:58 GMT -5
If I remember correctly, in Judaism God doesn't have a gender. The reason people think God is "male" is because the grammatical gender of some of his titles or names was male.
"Hate the sin, not the sinner" = "I don't hate you, I just hate your actions and everything you stand for as a human being."
A lot of people seem to think that God is working miracles all up in this bitch. My grandmother is convinced that symbols of certain saints have saved her life in car accidents.
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Post by Old Viking on Dec 8, 2011 16:27:10 GMT -5
@lhm: I am truly distressed by your stroke, but I can assure that if I were afflicted in the same manner it would not make me "philosophical as shit" about a non-existent entity and its attitude toward sin.
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Post by Admiral Lithp on Dec 8, 2011 19:19:06 GMT -5
SURVEY! Y U NO LOAD?!
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Post by lighthorseman on Dec 8, 2011 20:21:24 GMT -5
@lhm: I am truly distressed by your stroke, but I can assure that if I were afflicted in the same manner it would not make me "philosophical as shit" about a non-existent entity and its attitude toward sin. Well, I can only relate my own experience, of course, but when it was happening, two things occured; a. I prayed, very much in earnest, not for myself, but that my daughter would be ok if I died, b. How I couldn't wait to get back to these forums and relate how I responded religiously to a near death experience. Yes, fstdt forums could well have been among my last thoughts.
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Post by mechtaur on Dec 9, 2011 1:07:02 GMT -5
Its still working for me. @lhm: If it's any consolation, I'm happy for you.
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Post by lighthorseman on Dec 9, 2011 1:29:34 GMT -5
Its still working for me. @lhm: If it's any consolation, I'm happy for you. That fstdt could have been my last thought? OK thanks
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Post by mechtaur on Dec 9, 2011 1:35:10 GMT -5
Its still working for me. @lhm: If it's any consolation, I'm happy for you. That fstdt could have been my last thought? OK thanks You damn well know what I meant by that. :/
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Post by lighthorseman on Dec 9, 2011 1:44:29 GMT -5
That fstdt could have been my last thought? OK thanks You damn well know what I meant by that. :/ Was trying to be funny.
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Post by mechtaur on Dec 9, 2011 1:47:40 GMT -5
You damn well know what I meant by that. :/ Was trying to be funny. And ruining that funny moment was fun for me. Life is good.
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Post by sylvana on Dec 9, 2011 1:53:39 GMT -5
Well, I can only relate my own experience, of course, but when it was happening, two things occured; a. I prayed, very much in earnest, not for myself, but that my daughter would be ok if I died I consider myself to be an atheist, but there are plenty of times when I find myself singing hymns and basically acting like a religious person. Whenever I find myself doing things like that, I recognize it as the standard religious upbringing brainwashing rearing its ugly head again. When seriously stressed, I find myself praying in my head. Regardless of ones beliefs its really easy to slip back into habits that were created and reinforced when one was a child. I don't know your circumstances, but that would be my guess of what happened in your case. (Feel free to correct me if I am wrong) I know that is basically how it is with me, I was brought up pretty religious. As for peoples opinions on god, the simplest answer is that god is a scapegoat for themselves. God believes what they want him to believe and is as wrathful or as forgiving as they feel at the time. Which explains the whole god hates sins, but is forgiving of your sins. Also it is kind of sad how people dis-empower themselves and take credit away from the work of others when they claim that god was what allowed them to pull through something difficult. Of course that is probably a part of the scapegoat, they need god to be more powerful than they are, so they make themselves weaker to elevate the relative position of their god.
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Post by Admiral Lithp on Dec 9, 2011 2:48:12 GMT -5
I thought Lighthorseman was already a Christian.
It still won't work for me. Which sucks, because I want to see what kinds of things people said, & how many of them agree with me.
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Post by The_L on Dec 9, 2011 17:16:48 GMT -5
"Hate the sin, not the sinner" = "I don't hate you, I just hate your actions and everything you stand for as a human being." *cringes* Shit like that is why it took me so long to realize I was bi.
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Post by lisamariefan on Dec 9, 2011 17:41:04 GMT -5
Well no shit. This is part of the reason I'm a non-believer. People just make shit up in their head and pretend like it's god's will. It's no better than the idea of intuition, except that it's being re-enforced by a person's belief in an inerrant being.
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