Yet Even More Religious Shorts

Of all of those Big Questions vital to philosophical principles that surround existence, the universe, and the entirety, the geographical regions of theology and religions and the nature of deities continue to fascinate. Opinions proliferate in books, articles, videos, conversations in bars and pubs, and actually everywhere and anywhere or greater people are in proximity. There’s the seasoned aspect; there’s the anti-side. There aren’t too many fence-sitters. I’m in the anti-camp, as the following fourth installment of religious short portions illustrates.

Summary show

Imagine There’s No Religion

Imagine the subsequent: Destroy every non secular textual content of any persuasion in lifestyles; cast-off every spiritual group; sack all of us involved in organized faith (or even disorganized religion); purge the name of any and each deity ever proposed, and then for appropriate measure wipe easy the recollections of everyone with admire to something and the whole lot to do with faith in any form, manner or form. Let’s flip a lot of humanity Religious into a flock of every other type, much like actual sheep who possibly have no concept of all the sorts of things religions pass on, and on, and on about.

Firstly, that could make for a much more nonviolent planet, but this is not my real factor. If the human race all of a sudden had no inkling of faith and related rituals like prayer, deities, and thou shall not, and miracles, and associated baggage – the slate wiped smooth – might we invent all of it another time and if so might it all be in the identical old form as we know it now?

All of our religions can’t probably be accurate, but all of them could be wrong. Assuming it is the case, could there be available an, in reality, bonafide god or gods – supernatural deities – with some related luggage that we haven’t any comprehension of? Say those hypothetical supernatural entities have by no means made contact with Planet Earth.

A Godly Concept

I noticed a book* some time back and looked over the dirt jacket. It became concerning the afterlife, and the jacket said something corresponding to God was One, and you were part of His oneness, and your afterlife with God became outside the world of time and area. And I idea to myself what a load of utter claptrap! God is One – One what? Who is aware of; the ebook jacket did not say it; it is now not explained for the ones considering buying the book.

If there may be a oneness, then that implies there should be a two-ness and a three-ness and a four-ness and so on down the line. If you exist in an afterlife out of doors of space and time, then whatever you are in that afterlife, you don’t have any quantity, no vicinity, no duration – you are a zero-dimensional dot point. Further, nothing can ever alternate in that afterlife, considering there may be no time to give substance or fact to trade.

God does, in truth, have one ‘All’ first-class. He’s an all-nothing. God, the supernatural deity, does not exist. One line of evidence in aid of this is that God hasn’t struck me down useless by lightning by writing and posting this! So you spot, blasphemy is a victimless ‘crime.’ And no, I don’t hate God. You can not hate something that does not exist.

*Spong, John Shelby; Eternal Life: A New Vision: Beyond Religion, Beyond Theism, Beyond Heaven and Hell; HarperOne, New York; 2009.

Arguing God from Pure Existence?

Now you suspect you could have “everlasting” lifestyles and that you could live “forever” and have “eternity” in Paradise. That sounds a lousy lot like infinity to me, an idea you significantly push aside. That apart, do not you suspect you will be pretty bored after the primary couple of million years or so of your “eternity”? Now do please enlighten me, a terrible sinful non-believer, simply what’s going to you do in Paradise to hold boredom at bay and to earn your hold? Presumably, you may not have seventy-two virgins to keep you busy, and once you’ve mastered the harp, nicely, you’ve got mastered the harp and want a brand new project.

Personally, I wouldn’t put too much stock in Biblical promises in view that the Bible is simply any other work of mythological make-accept as true with; a ‘novel’ of historical fiction. Still, I’d instead agree with your version than my model, but a little bird continues reminding me that if something seems too excellent to be true, then it in all likelihood is. Caveat emptor is the required good judgment that wishes to be adhered to right here, IMHO.

Arguing God from Religious Experience?

So you have skilled God! How quality. Untold thousands and thousands have also skilled their version of a god, and those gods’ debts can’t all be accurate as they may be frequently contradictory. Religious experiences would fill encyclopedias and show that we are psychologically susceptible to non secular reports. However, the mind seems to be hardwired for, not of necessity, monotheistic ideals or reports, for spiritual experiences in trendy, such as polytheistic ones. And further, those multi-hundreds of spiritual or religious reports have not advanced our knowledge of reality – aside from our knowledge of the neurological/psychological fact.

Of course, tens of thousands of others have claimed to have experienced alien abductions – do you consider them? Millions have experienced ghosts – do you believe them? Lots of people claim to have skilled telepathy or been capable of interact in telekinesis. Do you claim as a way to bend spoons with your thoughts? Numerous human beings claim to have been reincarnated. Many humans believe in astrological reports based on astrology columns of their everyday newspaper or ‘professional’ horoscope forecasts. Maybe you have experienced Bigfoot too and had out-of-the-body experiences. If so, why should we accept it as true with you? Claims are a dime a dozen. Personal reviews rely on honestly nothing unless you can return up your claims with stable proof. And tremendous claims (like experiencing God) require remarkable evidence. To date, on any credibility scale, spiritual visionaries and reports rank as near 0 as makes no odds.

Is God Outside of Time?

There is one state of affairs wherein being outdoor of space and time makes ideal feel. If we ‘exist’ as digital beings in a simulated panorama, if we continue to exist and thrive as just a laptop application, as software created by using a Supreme Programmer, then as some distance as we are involved, that Supreme Programmer exists outside our digital area and our simulated time. That’s corresponding to how we are out of doors of the distance and time inhabited by using our virtual characters in our video games and related simulations.

However, the lowest line is that we nonetheless exist in a surely actual area. A really real-time, and probably, in fact of necessity, our Supreme Programmer, assuming we ‘live’ in a Simulated (Virtual Reality) Universe, could consequently exist in a few types of actual area and time that would be a space and time separate and other than our digital space and time truth. Time and area could be unique for programmers, and people programmed, but really it can by no means be of a non-existent nature for both.

God vs. Physics

“Things” have sure powers. Things have shape and substance. Things with structure and substance are physical things. Physical matters could affect other bodily things. Non-physical matters, like Wednesday, don’t have any shape and substance. The idea of Wednesday cannot have any bodily impact on, say, a billiard ball. A billiard ball can not have any effect on the idea of Wednesday. So, non-bodily matters (ideas) can’t affect bodily matters, and vice-versa. In keeping with most theists, God is a non-bodily entity (a idea without a shape and substance) that ‘exists outside of space and time, cannot affect or create or spoil bodily matters. However, non-bodily principles will affect different non-bodily principles. A God would possibly come up with the idea to be a more ethical person, but that is not imposed on you by a non-physical God; however, as a substitute comes from within.

So here we have this all-powerful entity, this Maximally Greatest Being, who is non-physical, who has existed for all eternity (however not infinitely so) and in an undying state also. Then for a few definitely unexplained purpose, this entity crossed over the Rubicon into time by growing a bodily cosmos, however now not a limitless cosmos, out of truly nothing for no apparently top motive apart from “what the heck; why not; I’m bored” (my rates). Do you, the reader, have any comprehension of the way utterly ridiculous that sounds? If you come throughout that state of affairs or concept for the very first time in a singular, you’d be proper to question the author’s sanity or drug use.

Why Assume There Is A God?

The query has been requested: “why do all and sundry expect there is a god?”

Excellent question! I sincerely don’t assume a supernatural deity typically referred to as “God” honestly exists. The hassle is we don’t know for truly certain, and hence it is thrilling, even a laugh, to mess around with the concept. Of route, if everybody assumed there wasn’t a God (or some other supernatural deity or deities), then there could be a lousy, lot less lively discussion right here on “Closer to Truth” and no doubt on hundreds of different boards throughout the Internet. Then too, if anyone assumed there had been no God, there might be loads extra peace and quietness within the international, but that is some other trouble.

However, there is something wonderful to be stated for the concept, be aware of the word idea, that God exists. That concept keeps many human beings hired and several other people, the notable unwashed, off the streets on Sunday morning! God’s idea has also inspired the acknowledged reality, a reasonable quantity of as a substitute nice song and different creative works. Finally, it would appear as if we are mentally hardwired to have the idea of a deity or deities as a part of our worldview, and for this reason, we should cope with that concept find it irresistible or not.

Defending God’s Honor

It never ceases to amaze me that there are folks that feel they want to shield God’s honor towards, in their words, blasphemers and blasphemy (in my phrases a victimless crime), frequently worrying barbaric punishments (inclusive of the death penalty) in opposition to the ones, who, once more in their phrases, ‘blaspheme.’ People love to lord over other humans; the extra the higher and if you can do it under the guise of religion, a lot the higher on account that manifestly God’s in your aspect.

But you’d suppose an all-understanding and all-powerful God, assuming there actually is a God of direction, which IMHO is fairly doubtful, ought to look after and defend Himself and smite those who gave Him the verbal, written, or in any other case Big Finger. It almost seems as if God’s defenders do not genuinely agree with God can or ought to or would defend Himself, and therefore, this suggests that perhaps they do not simply trust a wrathful or vengeful God exists at all.

If I call Superman a poof, well, it’s libel and slander and blasphemes. But Superman can defend himself and punch my lighting fixtures out (he doesn’t want your assistance) or can document a criminal grievance and initiate legal redress. If a person else files the grievance, that person and the prosecution will want to prove no longer best that Superman clearly exists but become in reality indignant.

There can be most effective one indignant birthday celebration, and this is the recipient of the blaspheming. If that party isn’t indignant or takes no movement, then no person else can act on that character’s (or deity’s) behalf, nor has the right to without the angry party’s permission. Blaspheme legal guidelines are just an excuse for humans to exert electricity over other human beings—the end of the story.

The Improbable Origin of Moses: Exodus 2: 1-10

As a little one, Superman was placed right into a rocket to store him from positive celestial doom (Krypton is going grow) and sent to every other world (Earth) in which he was found and raised via a average American family. Moses as a toddler, changed into positioned right into a more primitive comfort to escape the doom of a distinct type in which he becomes later determined and raised. Still, he raised not via Mr. And Mrs. Average Egyptian, however with the aid of pharaoh’s daughter, no much less. Now, what are the chances of that taking place? Baby Moses most of the bulrushes, or simply deep in the B.S.? Superman is fiction, all of us realize that. Want to vicinity a guess on Moses’ starting place being similarly fictional?

Further to the difficulty, right here’s a thrilling paradox. In Exodus 2: 1, we have a wedding. In Exodus 2: 2, marriage produces a son who will become recognized as Moses. The narrative then proceeds with the well-known tale of putting the baby into a ship fabricated from bulrushes floated down the Nile to be observed via Pharaoh’s daughter and many others. Therefore, it’s far reasonable to think that Moses became the firstborn of the earlier than-cited marriage. But almost right away in Exodus 2: 4, there is a passage that the toddler Moses had a sister who was looking all of this narrative. Like in which did she come from all of a sudden and out of the blue? So become Moses the eldest infant or now not?

Moses’s sister changed into the handiest diagnosed through a call for the first time as Miriam in Exodus 15: 20, after which most effectively-identified as Aaron’s sister. Still, Aaron turned into Moses’s brother (identified as such in Exodus 4: 14). All up, there’s something screwy someplace with the foundation of Moses. By the manner, that starting place tale of a infant being put in a basket and floated downstream is another example of an immediate scouse borrow; natural plagiarism within the Bible. Take, for instance, the beginning story behind King Sargon of Assyria. An actual origins replica, but Sargon got here first chronologically.

J.C. Vs. “The Donald”

Here’s a notion test. Substitute “The Donald” for Jesus. Now “The Donald” (i.E. – Trump, Sr.) has taken personal credit for a mess of factors that he had in reality not anything to do with, and “The Donald” has claimed that he’s the great and the brightest with admire to such a lot of matters that it would take manner too long and take in way too much space to list them all. We’ve all visible clips on T.V. Or the Internet in which “The Donald” says, “Nobody knows extra about (fill in the blank) than me.” So “The Donald” has the Midas Touch, and “The Donald” is therefore usually praising himself in addition to having all around him reward him.

Apart from that, “The Donald” has a devoted hardcore of fans – disciples – for which “The Donald” can do no wrong. Now, the interesting factor is if “The Donald’s” hardcore of True Believers or to place it bluntly, disciples*, had been to be the most effective ones to write down up the records, the life and times, the achievements of “The Donald” and those were regarded 2000 years from now, properly you’d have to mention that such texts would be fake ancient news and alternative historic ‘statistics.’ So, what about those Gospels particularly and the New Testament in popular? Fake information? Alternative information?

*It’s now not going to a way out of bounds to say that there are fans of “The Donald” who literally worship him.

Science librarian; retired.