boo boo

Suffering gives us the inspiration to overcome obstacles, create great works of art and come up with groundbreaking ideas.

If there was no pain or errors in the world, it would be a very boring and useless place.

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http://www.last.fm/user/kingboobs

SATCHMO

What is stopping us from embracing our own divinity other than a handful of outmoded beliefs? The attributes that we ascribe to God are a transference of our own human qualities both good and bad. We say that God is vengeful because we are vengeful. We say God is compassionate because we have the capacity for compassion.
I'm speaking from a Judeo-Christian perspective simply because, as big3 previously reminded us most of our cultural upbringing has been in the "anglosphere" where our religious conditioning, theist or atheist, has been largely of the Christian paradigm.
If we truly believe God to be perfect and holy then we cannot ascribe qualities to "him" that we have already been lead to believe are "sin" such as wrath. we are culturally conditioned to believe in a God that has negative qualities that aren't inherently "his", but rather qualities we've ascribed to "him". If you at any point in time see yourself as a slave to God, then you are really a slave to a religion's influence on your perception of God.

Inuzuka Skysword

That is what I am trying to say. In the past, religion told us that the god was our master and we were the slave. I am not saying I necessarily believe this. What I am asking is what is the best perception of god for an individualist if there is even a perception that benefits him. What kind of perception would benefit that individual? Monotheism or polytheism? A deist god or one who wants to intervene? A god of judgment or a god of tolerance? I think that by default the god must be equal to man or less than man, but if he is less than men then he cannot be truly considered a god. He would simply be divine.

TheBig3

If God became our slave, why isn't he a cow, or an insect, and why would we care?

I'm just not seeing your point in why we would create a fantasy world where we were the masters. Either buy a subscription for an MMO or get into bondage.

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SATCHMO

The whole entire point of religion when viewed from the proper perspective is for humans to see just how much control they do have over their own lives. If all our actions and attitudes were completely inconsequential then there wouldn't be much point to following any set of "rules". Getting in touch with God is akin to getting in touch with the intuitive aspect of our own consciousness that understands the significance of our own life and how our subsequent actions and attitudes affect us. We've grown too attached to the concept of god as a discrete deity who is constantly making a list, checking it twice and is respectively smiting/blessing who he finds to be naughty or nice. There is karmic law, but karmic law is a hell of a lot more scientifically grounded than one may think. Learning to work within that, and other laws that could be filed under spiritual physics does hold some benefit toward achieving happiness and balance within a lifetime.

Neapolitan

I think that is all mixed up, it should be: It is inspiration that helps us overcome the obstacle of suffering.

Astronomer

This.

We learn from our mistakes, and overcoming pain and suffering makes us who we are today, and as boo said, out of great pain comes great works of art and groundbreaking ideas.

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TheBig3

yeah but I've grown attached because without God there is no God complex, and I would have to work harder to justify the bio-chemical materials I released under the premise of "plagues."

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SATCHMO

Fair enough. I love the smell of anthrax in the morning.

TheBig3

the thai people sure as hell didn't.

Edit:

So back on topic, I wish I could remember the name of it but theres a theory out there, with science behind it that says God is all knowing and all present because when the universe collapses on itself, all the thought in the universe, which has the same general capacity as energy (neither created nor destroyed) will be brought together and energized with the friction and heat from the universe collapsing on itself.

From this, I always operate as if God is a collective of those who've come before.

You'll really need to explore the theory though because its predicated on humans being able to take their concious mind into the mechanical body. Aagin, thoughts are the safe as software, blah blah blah.

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