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abandonment, art, atheism, christianity, god, humanism, humor, life, nature, oprhan, parenting, religion
So, he’s done some good work. So what??
I am a dependent animal. I was born helpless. I need to be held. I don’t care how many mountains and oceans He’s made — I’ve never received so much as a fist bump let alone a hug.
Remember when he did this shit to Adam!? Messed UP! I mean … Adam was a douche … but, can you blame him with a dad like that!? Those kiss-ass angels didn’t need his love! We did!
Being abandoned makes human beings prone to …
Higher cortisol levels — which causes learning disabilities (faith).
Lower self-worth (faith).
Distrust towards others human beings (faith?).
Faith my ASS! I’m taking my BRAIN BACK!
So, God is this Great, Famous artist — GOOD FOR HIM.
Wow..don’t hold back! I’m not quite sure if you’re venting or if this is a tongue-in-cheek piece!
Both.
Makes sense now..great pictures!
John: it is part of the rules of logic that the definition in question is provided by the party who presents the argument, otherwise the whole picture comes down to mere wishful thinking. Which is fine by me. I don’t proselytize, I merely expressed my opinion – that’s what this post is for, as Chris pointed it out, too
Chris: Thanks a lot for your reply. As I mentioned above I think it would be fair if you would define the concept of God against the existence of which (or whom) you argue.
This post is meant to be connected with on an emotional level … if one person can feel less alone by viewing it — then it’s done its job.
For me … it’s time to move on … to turn faith from god towards humanity. I don’t need an argument to do that … just as people don’t need an argument to have faith in god.
Faith is natural. It becomes unnatural when we point it at something invisible instead of each other.
I agree that’s what Chris was shooting for, and i respect your post, but i have to say when arguing from a position that simply asserts “god exists” i think it necessary for the believer to be able to define that god. If there’s certainty then there should be an equally certain definition. If there is no definition then no one can honestly take a persons words seriously. So, if you agree its nothing but wishful thinking then you should perhaps dial back a little on the “god exists” statements.
Thanks, John.
I think we are at a point where/when we should stop wondering whether or not there is a god and start taking responsibility for this planet and our fellow residents.
Has there ever been such a polarizing subject in the history of our species? That’s what I think we need to think about. Not whether or not god exists … it doesn’t matter … let’s behave as though there is a god without monopolizing our mind space on something that could be debated for eternity.
You’re going to be sorry you said those things about God. He not only made the mountains you so admire, He made you very soul and your mouth. The words that come out of your mouth is going to get your soul into some real and lasting trouble. Connie
http://kingjesusblog.wordpress.com/
Are you threatening hell? That’s not very nice….
I cannot send you to Hell or threaten Hell, I’m just saying be careful. You will have to give an account for every word you speak someday.
I also have to live with the things that I don’t say.
It’s your choice to believe that. But, I believe you are mistaken.
You are taking your soul for granted. You do have a soul, right? It’s the most precious thing you have. Don’t take it for granted. There is more to you than meets the eye. God sees souls, and you do have one. Don’t take it for granted.
I don’t have the type of soul which you are referring to. My soul is a collection of neurons and inspires faith in human beings. Born innocent. Born to take care of each other. Not born to fight and distrust each other.
Sad.
Jesus came and died on the cross to saves souls, even your soul. He died, He was buried, and He was raised on the third day to save your soul and mine. But, since you say you don’t have a soul…
I do remember being forced to believe that in my earliest memories of Catholic grammar school and all boys Catholic High School. Also, that I would burn in eternal damnation if I did not. It didn’t exactly instill me with faith in myself or my species.
What you say is “sad” … instills me with hope.
Errrr, you’re not threatening hell but you’re saying he’ll be sorry. Sure sounds like a threat to me. Here’s something you should see:
http://thesuperstitiousnakedape.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/oh-youre-so-going-to-hell/
I’m done with this conversation.
You weren’t having a conversation… you were preaching.
Good point.
Thanks. Needed to be said.
Haha. I enjoyed this muchly. I also enjoyed the hell-speak in the comments. Somehow, words that threaten hell seem to me a little wasted here.
Next threat: Santa’s not coming. No presents for lil Timmy this Christmas. Sorry guys.
Or rather: Santa is coming. Hide yo kids. Hide yo wife. You don’t even know what he’s loaded into his stocking. It aint presents; this can be guaranteed.
Probably something stricken by whiskey.
Constance you are being very silly.
wow it’s so loaded. Feels like I am entering uncharted waters.
But know how you feel: the ambivalence and awkwardness given our space-time bound existence. Keep your thought provoking, eye-brow raising piece coming.
Thanks for the encouragement. I’m expecting a little resistance as well.
Why the hell am I capitalizing his pronouns for? Enough. What!? I’m sorry
As spoken on a street corner somewhere.
I call BS on the “great designer” part. This is all a pretty crappy design
Well, perhaps … I’m more into surrealism, anyway … but, I will lose my breath from a mountain now and again (even if it is only the high altitude)
Besides I said “artist” — not designer
Ok, meet you in the middle: a bad artist would make a crisis-response immune system, a good designer would never create disease in the first place.
If God took a dump on the Hollywood 101 … traffic would be the least of our problems … we’d have to decide … do we leave it there, let it harden, worship it? Do we dispense it in small jars as facial exfoliator …? If we are going to clean it up … what type of cleaning products are allowed …?
God has bowels?
Uhm … yes. Sure. Of course. If not, we wouldn’t have that phrase “Good things come to those who waste.”
Aren’t all human beings born of waste? Aren’t we like spatter on the rim which grew into something?
LOL!
It’s not exactly a completely inappropriate simile is it …?
I’m pretty guarded with my LOL’s, you can take that one to the bank.
With the invention of original sin came the incentive to demonize every aspect of natural human behaviour. Power comes by way of creating artificial problems with artificial solutions, unfortunately, it works Found this quote when researching a post, it rings true with me.
I would have to agree.
I’m sure I did a follow, not follow, follow on you. Need a new mouse, god doesn’t deliver; you appear to, good stuff. I don’t think I will ever disagree with you much. I can’t figure out women, so a goddess may confuse me enough to make me doubtful.
Much appreciated. From the bottom of my heartless stomach.
Great pictures
Excellent post – I feel like writing words about it.
If there is such thing as objective truth, it is possible only if God exists.
If there is no objective truth then everyone has his/her own truth, which implies that God exists only for those who believe in (H)him. Actually this is a nutshell version of what the authors of the Bible are saying.
To add some more words to the former ones : )
This topic, as we know, opens up a major can of worms. I see your points and truly share and empathise with the immense hurt behind your words. Yet there is more to this topic than our emotions and our less than imperfect moral judgements of someone whose existence we don’t even believe in. (?)
There is another contradiction underlying the idea of our criticising God’s moral character. If we assume we are infallible in our moral judgements then the assumed being who created us upon his image is necessarily infallible too. If we are fallible then we are simply not in the position to judge that being. Furthermore, to approach this question we would need to define “God” in the first place and that alone is a giant topic to wrestle with. Finally, we can’t discard the notion of God merely with reference to our brains, and without explaining the basis of such claim. That would be a false dichotomy in the first place, just like the forced choice between God and science. Moreover, the very existence of our brain would be part of proof for God rather than against, just like the existence of life as such, with special regard to the very existence of our consciousness and self-consciousness.
I have thought this through, through several directions and disciplines, and from all perspectives I found God’s existence proven. Above all, the very principles of logical reasoning lead to such proof as well. It is enough just to consider the Kalam cosmological argument – and that is but one of the several. To acknowledge the validity of logic in approaching this question is crucial. If we don’t agree that the principles of logic are binding as our ultimate device for deriving truthful statements, then we don’t have any tool for any communication, let alone complex philosophical topics like the existence of God.
In addition, my observation has been that those humans who don’t assume a “sky-daddy” up there are just as unreliable as those who do. As far as the lack of hugs and other forms of crimes are concerned, I put the blame where it belongs: on the respective bad humans, daddies, mommies, sisters, brothers, neighbours, ..
I am looking forward to your and everyone’s thoughts on these points and to the one I made in my former comment.
My goal is to connect others in existential crisis to those who are better at articulating arguments than yours truly. So with that in mind … I am hoping someone else will step in and reply.
“we would need to define “God” in the first place and that alone is a giant topic to wrestle with”
As you seem so sure of your god i believe you should be able to define it… If you can’t then all your points are mute; borne of conjecture and wishful thinking.
John makes a good point.
If you go into an experiment wishing to prove a hypothesis correct as opposed to false … then, as human beings, we are clever at finding ways to justify beliefs.
If I want to convince myself that a girlfriend who throws things at me and cheats on me … really loves me … or that I do not deserve better, and the LOVE is real and bigger than me … I can. But odds are my clever justifications are born from fear of being alone.
We have allowed our leaders to create cognitive dissonance … which separates us from our instinctive need to hug and be hugged.
Of course we look for an “Answer” for all of this. It doesn’t make any sense. It can’t. It was all built around the needs of a few.
One of the great things about our brains is that we think in metaphors & images. We are not geared to be so good at math. This is both fortunate & fortunate. Fortunate, because we can have brilliant, divergent thoughts. Unfortunate, because we can “make sense” of things which do not make sense mathematically. We can truly get lost in words & images … and miss everything.
“through several directions and disciplines, and from all perspectives I found God’s existence proven. Above all, the very principles of logical reasoning lead to such proof as well. It is enough just to consider the Kalam cosmological argument – and that is but one of the several.”
)
The problem with Kalam type arguments is that they pose a possibility for something beyond what we know. Many of us are quite willing to embrace the mystery. or at the very least…make allowances for it.
How so many leap from the mystery to a personal loving god…eludes me.
(note to guywiththeeye: I edited after realizing i too still capitalize what was driven in me to capitalize..
Excellent! I know … enough with the Him, He, too … I still do it all the time …
This post should be mandatory reading for any and all considering embarking on a William Lane Craig life skills course.
Excellent take.
“…butt plug from a grenade…” – classic. You want a hug? Ok. So imagine as much of the universe as you can, and then imagine looking outside of that, now imagine opening your arms and looking up at the giant space man and seeking a hug just like you are a toddler…you feel it?! Do you feel tha powa? Yes?! That’s the endorphins kicking in; your subconscious just gave you a big hug. Feeling better?
Ehh … it burns. Does that mean it’s working?
Yes! Yes! That’s it! Now let yourself be consumed by the heavenly fire! Open up your soul and be overwhelmed by the euphoria! Get down on your knees, damn you! BTW, you did remember to bring folding money for the tithe didn’t you?
Good points.
I enjoyed this, but I enjoyed the threat of damnation in the comments even more. I am also a bit jealous that I don’t get any in my blog. What does a guy have to do to get some good-old “you will burn in hell” around here?
Also, this piece seemed a little less detached and more concrete than your usual stuff. Or maybe it’s just me.
Less detached? How dare you
Well, my absurd style of expression is a product of my abandonment issues. Just getting to the heart of it here, I guess.
Just do a post titled …
God: Nice Prick?
And then spend the post explaining that … While he’s nice at times … He’s mostly a prick.
That’s a great idea! I’ll get to it right now.
Can’t wait to enjoy the damnation.
Really?? I hope you do. I would be grateful.
Yes. But, would you happen to have some ibuprofen, good sir?
An artist does not have to be driven by utility to be great. God just makes shit and let’s us figure out how to make sense of it.
I agree when it comes to people like Healing Wanderer. He’s not evangelical. The problem exists with the anti-science, anti-reality fundamentalists. They stand in the way of human progress. They retard development. As long as they exist they’ll have to be met head on.
I agree with that.
And, I know it seems like I’m merely trying to shut the discussion down. Not so … just trying to relate to the people who relate to the word “bullshit” as well as a detailed explanation. I think we should have televised, public debates where the speakers have to be concerned with whether or not this word is going to be yelled or even chanted.
The concern I think is that if we don’t insist that an audience be quiet … that we risk breaking out into an angry mob … it is my opinion that this does not happen if you take “god” out of the equation.
It is my opinion that “god” turns comedy into tragedy.
More often than not, yes
We are a laughing bunch until an Alpha gets a hold of our minds … aren’t we? Well we worship an invisible prick like he’s the Alpha AND the Omega … and he’s SO insecure … that he’s gonna roast my soul in hell for acknowledging that he’s not around.
As a christian, I have to say I oddly related to this post. Ha, I quite enjoyed it actually. Thanks for sharing this.
That is amazingly wonderful. Thank you for saying that. We’ve all got to laugh at the ridiculousness of our situation.
This isn’t my day. I was painting the garage and for the first time in years Jehovah’s Witnesses turned up and I was too covered in paint (that Sistine Chapel guy had nothing on me, I tell you) to do them justice. Had to let ‘em go, dammit.
Normally I invite them in (do the same with Morons, bring them in for coffee)(I hate myself sometimes). Had one bunch of Morms gather up their props and run from the house once. I may post on it sometime. Anyway, I get JWs and YOU get Constance…
I also like the ‘made in God’s image’ bit alluded to in the comments. Made me wonder, if we are mini-God-clones and ‘cos HE made us then we’re the perfect replica … then He too must have reproductive kit, right? So there has to be a Mrs God, surely? Otherwise why have—?
I once posted on that (humorous satire) but won’t advertise the link on your site without your permission (Mrs God making a house call) (on me).
Oh, please … advertise away.
Thanks you. Shall do … when I remember what and where I left it (old guy—it’s one of God’s little jokes on we humans)
Found it. Link below … sod it, link here too:
http://panoramia.wordpress.com/
How ’bout a bit of a different take on the whole subject… I have some thoughts at http://www.scribd.com/doc/122419706/Unreasonable-Faith-Study-Edition that might offer an alternative to the dogmatic crapile you grew up under…. or at least might stimulate you to new moments of creative writing. (At which, by the way, you are very skilled.)
Thanks for the compliment.
However, unless you’re recycling bibles into toilet paper, I’m probably not going to be interested.
Ehhh … post comment … post comment …
Will check it out, though.
Post comment …
I seriously do applaud your creative efforts.
Your writings make me laugh and cry.. .:)
You have such a creative way of hitting upon the tough things…
It made me think of this quote from Contact…
“You’re an interesting species. An interesting mix. You’re capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you’re not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we’ve found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other. ”
so just in case ya need one…
((hugs))
Exactly!! Thank you.
Thanks for the permit, here ’tis—
http://panoramia.wordpress.com/
—and it’s the one further down labelled “FEMINIST GENESISTs” (and I now have some editing to do in the first one‚ on that page, I forgot to insert the ‘more’ break).
Sticking my snout in here … I use as a de facto definition the ‘Three qualities of God’ often quoted (3 omnis):
“God is—
* Omni-present (everywhere, in time and space)
* Omniscient (knows absolutely everything)
* Omnipowerful (so just watch it, Dude~!)
You can have a lot of fun with the contradictions these basic three throw up. I do.
I respect your views and outlooks and understand why you feel the way you feel to a degree. of course I can’t say completely because I don’t know you nor am I you. But I can say it’s never too late to find CHrist in your heart. Threatening you or trying to scare you into believing isn’t my thing. I just stopped by to say God Loves you even if you don’t believe or love him back. and I know what it’s like to be angry and upset with God. If you ever find yourself in a place where you do want to except him and love him by all means find me and we can talk. If not carry on and enjoy life. A true Christian expects all and loves all just as God does. Thanks for writing your blog, opinions are always fun to read even when they are different than mine. Excepting one another others is key. Have a great day
Thank you for taking the time to stop by, and thank you for being a caring human being.
I can say that for me it is too late to turn back. If one day there may be proof of some creator, which I am neither hoping for nor expecting, I would never intentionally let any supernatural being disconnect me from this one life, my environment and my fellow creatures. No threat of hell nor promise of heaven could change that. If dogs and fish and plants and Non-believers aren’t invited, then I’m not going anywhere on my own will.
“If dogs and fish and plants and Non-believers aren’t invited, then I’m not going anywhere on my own will.”
That has to be one of the greatest humanist sentences ever written! Please turn that into a meme.
‘Our father who are in heaven hallowed be thy name…’
Hey dad, thanks for the book of instructions. How about some child support? Deadbeat.
Total narcissist.
Yes, when a guy starts with something like ‘you shall have no other gods before me’ you kind of have to wonder where his heart is.
Cryptic book of instructions
I blame man for not reading their owner’s manual, but never God. We are supposed to be the hands and feet of God, supposed to represent, but most fail miserably, due to their fathers failed and thier fathers before them and so on…I learned to treat others as I wish to be treated. You just have to bob and weave alot. Good post.