You're not a parent, are you?

The "because I'm the Daddy, that's why" is good, but only for a short time, and only early on. Only until the child grows and matures and develops their own independent ability to reason. I know the analogy is not completely apt, I'm not picking on you for that. A paternalistic God is a very very common illustration. But it does stand up for at least one more comparison.

Like human parents who raise human children, we strive to develop our children's ability to reason and think *so that when we're gone, they can live without our presence protecting them*. According to my religious study, we have been given intelligence, the ability to reason, indeed, free will. Our love and devotion to God is only valid if we've come to our choice on our own, not by coercion. That we've decided to "accept Him". And yet, we're called to suspend the very faculties that make such a gesture of free will even possible. This contradiction is unsurmountable for me. It is self contradictory.

Be my thinking, free willed child, He says; come to me by faith, He says. These two expressions negate each other. This is why I fail to follow those religious apologists. They don't make sense.

Calling things here like I see them, not out to rile anyone today.

Almost all of the Cellar Dwellers as well as most church goers that I've met have no spiritual experience. I mean that 95% of the people I've meet in the world, regardless of professed faith or professed no faith have had no experience with anything spiritual in nature. Quite naturally many people dismiss the idea that there is a spiritual, Godlike, nature to the world or universe based on their own experience in life. Or like most churchgoers who want this experience, they really are just doing what they are told...but they are seeking after a fashion. For myself, my ideas and faith in God are based today on my past experience. It is kind of like me telling someone I've been to a place where the sky is orange. 99.9 percent of the world would say, sorry buba, you may be delusional because I have only experienced the world with a blue sky, always has been this way and as far as I can see it will always be this way. I base my ideas, and faith today about God on my experience and I don't ever expect anyone without the experience to really understand at all. They might could empathize, but that is different.

No I'm not a parent.

co·er·cion   [koh-ur-shuhn] Show IPA
noun
1.
the act of coercing; use of force or intimidation to obtain compliance.
2.
force or the power to use force in gaining compliance, as by a government or police force.


Definition: unsurmountable
Part of Speech Definition
Adjective 1. Not capable of being surmounted or overcome.[Wordnet]
2. Incapable of being surmounted or climbed.[Wordnet]
3. Impossible to surmount or climb.[Wordnet]
4. Insurmountable.[Websters]
5. Being insurmountable, insuperable, impassable or unbridgeable. [Eve - graph theoretic]
6. Being unclimbable. [Eve - graph theoretic]
7. Being invincible, unconquerable, unbeatable or impregnable. [Eve - graph theoretic]
8. Infrequently used base adjective of the adverb unsurmountably.[Eve - graph theoretic]

You can talk about me, or not. I'm like my favorite creation, the honey badger: I don't give a shit.

that's just arrogance right there..

so what exactly do you believe.. me personally I am a firm believer that you should 'share your faith' even if that faith is small...

I believe God exists. I do.

But, on the advice of George Carlin, I've begun praying to Joe Pesci. 'Cause Joe Pesci looks like a guy who can get things done.

My prayer/answer rate has not changed.

Do you think god is not arrogant? Because I proclaim myself god, I am arrogant? Why?

Talking about God is not the problem...it's when people start opining about God that the differences begin making themselves obvious.

Klyde, maybe the people who dont like talking about god are simply really just non-believers. Maybe your Dad is one of them. And he just gave you one of the reasons why.

JBK, you curtly answered my question about you being a parent, thanks. Then you paste definitions of two words I used in my post, and you completely ignore what I've said. I welcome your comments beyond a vocabulary primer.

Perhaps some people get put off or 'offended' because they believe their beliefs are a personal matter, only open for discussion if/when they wish to discuss it. Not all breast cancer survivors want to talk about their mastecomy, not all vasectomy patients want to shout it to the world, not all believers feel Mr. Everyman and Ms. Everywoman needs to know what keeps them hopeful and (in)sane. Believers who believe their relationship with God is between God and them only may or may not want to discuss it with other people, since they have nothing to do with that relationship, even if their faith is in the same thing. If believing in Jesus Christ is all that's keeping you going, then you keep on keepin' on, but don't expect the guy next to you on the bus to want to know/care. If it turns out he does, then bonus but you can't assume.

Or some people believe in the same thing and hold the same faith but have varying ways of expressing it. It's like how some people react to a public toilet seat... person A puts down one of those liners before sitting down as a barrier to whatever yuk is on it, person B may squat over it instead and Person C, whose faith rests in the immune system, sits down regardless. They all believe the toilet seat can be gross but they all deal with it in different ways.

That's one hell of an analogy lol

Still, you have to admit each one passes on an abundance of shit.

baboomshka!