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  • This is "no stupid questions," but asking rational questions about religion is a waste of time. In most religions, the answer ultimately "you are too stupid to understand the great plan of god."

    You can debate interpretation of religious texts, or how best to follow the laws religions set down; but questioning articles of faith is fruitless.

    Christianity is especially full of self-contradictions and paradoxes: can God create a rock so big he can't lift it? You can spend a lifetime poking holes in The Bible, and you will never get a rational, satisfactory answer that isn't based on a version of "you are too stupid/not meant to know."

    Many religions are less paradoxical, but the monotheistic ones are mostly just an unbelievable shit-show, unless you're especially susceptible to self-delusion.

    No apologies to Christians: your religion is a fucking mess. You have to be particularly dumb to read the old and new testaments and come away thinking those are the same God. That the loving, caring one who sacrificed his son for people is the same one who allowed Satan to torture his most faithful worshipper on a bet.

    Buddhism and most pagan religions make more sense. Buddhism in particular lacks most of the dependency on mysticism and unprovable articles of faith, and is almost more a philosophy than a religion. Buddhists, I can respect. But Christianity is all sorts of dumb.

    Actually, taken by itself, the new testament is mostly OK; if you follow only Christ's teachings, and ignore the peyote trips of post-crucifixion books, like, Revelations, it's a solid basis for a society of decent people. But Christ was a liberal socialist, which is why most organized Christianity leans so heavily on the old testament and ignores Christ's teachings of acceptance, communism, and forgiveness.

  • Going down the God rabbit hole is frustrating and ultimately unsatisfying. Every answer boils down to faith, which is basically belief without proof.

    To paraphrase someone: If God is all-good, then God can’t be all-powerful. If God is all-powerful, then God can’t be all-good.

    I probably sound like I’m being dismissive of people who believe in God. That’s not my intent. Faith can be a healthy source of strength in difficult times, and when dealing with our chaotic world. I only have an issue when blind faith is allowed to override common sense, like not getting your kids vaccinated, or drinking raw milk.

  • I asked a Christian friend of mine how an all knowing god could be jealous or angry if they were all knowing and the actions of the people they were angry/jealous at were part of his plan.

    I never got an answer other than 'mysterious ways'

  • The answer differs depending on which religion/sect/philosophy you adhere to, but God is usually attributed some sort of emotion, or at least a will, because without it the belief in God can't serve a societal use.

    Say you assume a God without emotions. From this it results that nothing we may do or fail to do would impact them, so there are no sins, no divine laws, prayers and rites are useless... So your belief can't be a religion; nor can it be used to control people. There's no physical use to preaching belief in God, and not much of a metaphysical need either since God doesn't care whether you believe in them. "God" becomes a concept like the laws of physics, there's not even much meaning in considering it as a being. There's little difference between an emotionless God and no God at all. So all religions will personify God to some extent.

    • From this it results that nothing we may do or fail to do would impact them, so there are no sins, no divine laws, prayers and rites are useless…

      That's not entirely true. You're describing what is effectively Calvinism (also, Hinduism/Buddhism) wherein you are born into a particular state of grace (or absence of it) and you just have to play the hand you're dealt because its "part of the plan". If you are aware of God, that's a kind of blessing in its own right. But its like being aware of a political head of state or a famous historical figure. Knowing they exist can give you insight into how to live your life, but they don't fundamentally know or care that you exist and you don't impact their grandeur in any meaningful way.

      There’s little difference between an emotionless God and no God at all.

      There's a huge difference, in the same way there's a difference between a Law of Physics and No Law.

      Understanding physics allows me to live relatively safely compared to someone who is totally unfamiliar with how conductivity or gravity or momentum works. Understanding spirituality will (presumably) serve the same effect. Spiritual enlightenment affords you a way of avoiding certain hazards, like not holding a big metal rod above you in a storm or leaping into the ocean without a buoy. Ritual and prayer becomes like a car's safety belt and air bags, cushioning you from the psychic trauma of daily life and protecting you from malicious spiritual entities.

      There's also a host of spiritual intermediaries in the more esoteric faiths. Catholicism has its saints and angels, while Islam and Judaism has the prophets. Animist religions have spirits of the land and the animals. Pagan faiths have their pantheons and demigods. And they've all got their terrestrial spiritual adversaries - demons, heretics, the acolytes of rival deities, etc.

      Why am I praying to ward off evil spirits if there are none? Why am I wearing these vestments and holy symbols to insulate me against "evil" radiation or bad juju? Why am I going on these crusades if I don't think capturing the Holy Land has any benefit for my nation or clan?

      You don't have to believe in a "Personal Jesus" to believe in the consequences of a God or a Godly World. Sometimes its just Metaphysical Capture the Flag.

  • The following are my personal views regarding the divine. In order to better address my views, I'm going to use verbs such as "to be" (is/isn't, are/aren't) and "to have" (has/hasn't, have/haven't). However, it doesn't mean factual statements, so it shouldn't be taken as absolute truth. It's just what I believe, so I may be wrong.

    For context, my belief is the result of a syncretic approach that encompasses several religions and belief systems, with some borrowing from scientific concepts. I tend towards Luciferianism, but I'm neither restricted to a specific belief system nor I'm religious nor initiated.

    Also, it's very complex and multifaceted. It's very complex and multifaceted to put into simpler words. Throughout this comment, I needed to try and simplify a lot of concepts, should it be much longer in order to fully grasp the complexity of the cosmic and divine principles.

    I see the divine as two complementing poles, akin to Yin and Yang: there is a Goddess and a God. Many ancient religions used to believe and worship a dual divine, from Ancient Egypt (e.g. Isis and Osiris), Hebrews (Asherah and Yahweh), indigenous people such as Tupi-Guarani (Jaci and TupΓ£), among others.

    They're both opposite and complementary aspects within the divine. Complemented in balance, they make the Divine, similar to Baphomet: the androgynous, hermaphrodite, fully perfect Divine, the convergence of Lucifer and Lilith, whom are archetypes of the Divine.

    Opposing, they get into a kind of a cosmic tug-war yet they seek balance, not exactly a "fight"/"war", as It's complicated to put into words, but it's just the nature of opposites: they attract each other, but they are still opposites trying to be the frame of reference to the other (it's like they're eternally arguing: "Light came from my Darkness!", "no, Darkness came from my Light!"; it's just a matter of each one's perspective, both are right).

    This is mirrored within the creation of the cosmos (as per Hermetic Principle of Correspondence "As above, so below"): matter and energy, antimatter and ordinary matter, black-holes and stars/planets/asteroids/nebulae), etc. Fundamentally, it's darkness and light, absence and presence, non-existence and existence. By darkness, it doesn't imply "evil" or "bad": what we see as "good" and "evil" are oversimplifications of a much complex cosmic tapestry. Neither She is necessarily evil nor He is necessarily good. They are both capable of both good and evil (just like there's Yang within the Yin, and there's Yin within the Yang).

    However, what we see as "human emotions" are different kinds of energetic signatures. Scientifically, we could point out how neurotransmitters are composed by different chemicals, which are composed by different atoms, which are composed by a different sum of charges (different count of electrons and nuclei). This "energetic signature" could be seen as resonating with equivalent energetic signatures (so a happy song resonates better with a person currently in a happy mood, for example; a grayed sky, devoid of chromatic diversity, resonates better with a person currently in a sad mood, which is experiencing a "lower energy state").

    The distinct poles within the Divine resonate with different energetic signatures (with Goddess, imbued with what we'd call as feminine energy, resonating with a much larger spectrum of emotions than God, imbued with what we'd call as masculine energy), which in turn resonate with different "emotions". We, humans, interpret this as "Divine with emotions", but it's just a cosmic principle. As we experiment "emotions", we're experimenting the same cosmic principle, so we are just the micro mirroring the macro, "as above, so below".

    Again, it's just my current belief, it's just my way of seeing the Divine. I may be wrong, I don't know.

  • Because main evolved advantageous uses for emotion. We cry, and no longer have to communicate with words that something is wrong. It is advantageous to us to be able to communicate with emotions in more than a vocal manner. Things make more sense when we consider the real reasons they came into being. "We" have probably had these emotions for far longer than we could be considered humans.

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