if you thought of Him as a personality with thoughts and feelings? You see, He's not some force or energy with omnipotence and omnipresence, but a PERSON with omnipotence and omnipresence. So, what do you think would change if you stopped thinking of Him as an idea and started thinking of Him as a person?
2007-03-08 03:39:42 · 10 answers · asked by girlpreacher 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
So being a Christian (having a personal relationship with the Christ) makes me mentally ill? The whole purpose of religion is to answer the questions like "Who is God?" "Where do we come from?" "What is our purpose here?" "How do we relate to God (if there is one)?" I'm not standing on some mountain in fresno speaking my secret language to him (Anne Heche). I'm just putting into practice the 6000 year old beliefs of talking to and hearing from Him.
2007-03-08 03:50:21 · update #1
To accept God as a person would be to accept the fact that he is a reality. That is the big difference.
You can apply your logic to Leprechauns in the same way. Why do people think of Leprechauns as a myth? Would your thoughts change if you thought of them as little people with feelings, and magical powers? Would your belief in Leprechauns change if you accepted that premise? Would it make them any more real? Or only real to you?
I think of God as a Philosophy for 2 reasons.
1. There is no scientific proof that he exists, only emotions and stories passed down for generations.
2. If I though of God as a person, I wouldn't have a blind belief that he was Loving, because that is what I had been told. I would look around at his creation, see all the terrible things that happen to innocent babies, and people thrust into impossible situations that cause pain and death and come to a completely different opinion about him. Millions of people die everyday year because of starvation, religious oppression, disease and malformations, these are situations that a 'person' with omnipresent and omnipotent powers could solve, and make the world a much better place for all Mankind. I would come to the undenigable conclusion that this 'person' was not a God of Love, but a God of distance at best, but most likely a God of hate.
If everyone told you that Mike Tyson was a man of love, would you believe it? Or would you look at his actions, and the way he treats those around him and make your own conclusion?
Believing that God is a philosophy is actually a nice way of saying, everything that happens in his name isn't his responsibility because he doesn't really exist, and it's just mankind being naturally nasty. The alternative is that God is real and wants all these things to happen, or at least doesn't care enough to stop them from happening.
At this point Christians will point at Satan or Sin and say its his fault, not Gods, but in reality if God created all, he is responsible for all. If I put a tiger and a bunny in the same enclosure, am I not responsible for the death of the bunny, or is the bunny exercising free will by not being able to escape the tiger?
2007-03-08 03:59:24 · answer #1 · answered by ɹɐǝɟsuɐs Blessed Cheese Maker 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If God was a personality based on the writing of the Bible... then HE is not a very nice person. He kills hordes of people, ( men women and children ) without blinking an eye although he tells us not to kill, He is Jealous although he tells humans not to be Envious nor jealous, and he plays with people's lives just for entertainment or to prove their love for him, like he did Job, Isaiah and a ton of sages and prophets. He ALWAYS wants his way.... He gives gifts but when the fancy strikes him he will take it away.....
NOW, If that personality in the bible was found among one of our friends or acquaintances.... we would either drop them fast like a burning pot or we would be wary and careful of such a volatile unstable person...
In this I prefer to think of "God" as an Energy force than a personality... it would be so scary if he was.
2007-03-08 11:54:49 · answer #2 · answered by Jampa G 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
God is mythology. All religions have the same meaning. They all serve the same purpose. If people followed this, there would be less hate in the world. However, religion is also filled with contradictions that "allow" hate towards groups of people such as jews, gays, women, shellfish, etc. There are bad apples in every group. People who disagree with organized religion such as Christianity and Islam, etc, are in my opnion, people who are the closest to the truest understanding of the idealogy of God. They are the true believers.
2007-03-08 11:46:02 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
That God is energy would frighten you, because you take it to mean God then would be impersonal to you, but what is more personal (intimately so) than making up the atoms and molecules and cells of your body..."Closer than hands and feet..."
God is energy, but that energy is love, and that love is perfect and judges only that its creation is whole, perfect, complete...God is joy, unbridled happiness, peace, all without opposite.
God is an idea, but ideas are electromagnetic realities, and God is greater than the sum of Himself as Idea, just as He is greater than the sum of His "parts".
2007-03-08 16:11:19 · answer #4 · answered by Sky in the Grass 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you think of him as a person, god's actions, according to the bible, brand him as a megalomaniacal, mass murdering, sado-masochistic, nut case.
If you think of him as non-existent, the world makes much more sense.
2007-03-08 11:48:25 · answer #5 · answered by Dave P 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
i think most people think of god as a person.... or some type of personality...
and i think in order to be a "good" god, it would need to have no feelings or emotion.
2007-03-08 11:46:06 · answer #6 · answered by Loathing 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
acting like you know god, you talk to god, and that you know what god wants of people is practically a mental illness. and more than that, telling people that YOUR concept of god is the right one, and that they should stop "viewing god" or "thinking of god" in a particular way way because their way is wrong and yours is right -- well, that is beyond juvenile and beyond egotistical to the point of being completely self-centered and self-important. almost psychotic.
people need to grow up.
cheers!
2007-03-08 11:42:35 · answer #7 · answered by jen1981everett 4 · 6⤊ 1⤋
I would see a mental hospital in my future.
Religion should be taken symbolically, not literally, if you want to stay sane.
2007-03-08 11:44:43 · answer #8 · answered by Real Friend 6 · 4⤊ 0⤋
God is spirit in all life. The anthropomorphic (human) God has long since been discounted.
2007-03-08 11:43:18 · answer #9 · answered by jmmevolve 6 · 3⤊ 2⤋
Well, that would be OK if there was at least some evidence that he were anything other than human imagination.
2007-03-08 11:45:02 · answer #10 · answered by Alex 6 · 2⤊ 1⤋