christians please try to answer this one sensibly.?

Question

people anthropormorphise everything.

they give ships, cars, animals, toys names.

they give them human characteristics and talk to them as if they understand what is being said.

this is the same principle being given to the part of the mind that can experience a hightened state of awareness, delusion, dream state, meditation etc.

when something cannot be explained by natutral means, especially in the past, superstition filled in the gaps of our knowledge.

these ideas were soon followed by the exaggerated belief in one god. since god is an overstated myth and the only attributes he posseses are super-human and not supernatural, he has therefore been created by mans imagination and refferd to using human cahracteristics, such as, loving, jealous, vain, comforter, counselor, angry, etc.

this is then extended to superhuman traits including, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing, eternal, etc etc.

all of these ideas are already known and seen through the behaviour and emotions of people, nothing new has been added. god is from mans imagination and is the contrived semblence for what man strives to be.

apologies for the bad typing!

so the question is - does god come from your imagination.

well, if you want to make it a question, just put - dont you think, and isn't it true that, etc in the appropraite places.

human characteristics have been around much longer than monotheism.

Cricket - you seemed to to just mention the parts of the bible that support historical evidence, there is plenty that is contradictory including events that are proven never to have happened or did hapen but in a different time.

isn't the imagination and need for a security blanket a wondeful thing.

the evolution of belief.

ignorance
curiosity
coincidence
superstition
myth
legend
theism
monotheism

supreme ignorance

many do not seem to have process anything very much, judging by the answer they give.

Aslamo9211 -

sorry to burst your bubble, but claiming that 'holy scripture' to be devinely inspired s the word of god doesn't make sense. these are the claims of men not of god. spirituality is seperate from belief in god, yes i agree, but the mental energy used to create both these states of mind is the same, and can be demonstrated thought scientific testing.

religion an belief is mostly made up of unsubstiantaited, allegorical and anectectdoctal evidence. while this may be admissable in a court of law it isn't valid in science.

Tommy - yes it is a maistake to give human attributes to a god, but that is exactly what belief in god is.

religion is made up from many previous ideas, just put together in a new way.

Answer 1

All "god" has ever been is an imaginary construct with two purposes; to explain the unexplainable and to enforce control.

The control was historically enforced through fear...however it is now socially enforced.

Answer 2

I would say your argument for God being a development of man's imagination contains several unsupported or even untrue statements including "people anthropromorphise everything," "these ideas were soon followed by the exaggerated belief in one god" and "the only attributes he posseses are super-human and not supernatural"

Also, circular reasoning is involved where you say, "since god is [merely] an overstated myth . . . he has therefore been created by man's imagination." Granted, the parentheses and elipses are mine and maybe that is an incorrect interpretation of what you were trying to say.

Other erroneous assumptions in the argument include "possible explanation=only possible explanation," "possibility=truth" or "true in some cases=true in every case"

Oh, & to answer the question part, I don't believe the existence of a Creator to be a development of mankind's imagination, though I do agree with you that human terms have been used to describe that Creator's attributes, seeing as those terms are the only ones we have available to us. I'm sure the human terms of description fall far short of actuality because that actuality is beyond anything we can possibly imagine. Why I believe this is so would take up far too much extra space here, so I'll just say ditto Cricket, Michael & Arewethere to keep things short.

Theist (THINK)

Answer 3

I don't understand why you keep asking these questions.
What makes you assume that the Christians you are addressing have not already processed these ideas and the many others before they came to faith. There is more evidence for the existence of God and the truth of Christianity than there is against. I will assume based on your question you do a lot of research - but also I can assume from the same that you have only researched one side of the
argument because most of the statements you make have just as much researched support from the other side.
As far philosophically, existentialism (Kierkegaard and Nietzsche), rationalism and empiricism fail to answer life's questions as adequately as Christianity(IMO). Do some research on the science and philosophy from the other side. There are some brilliant scientists and philosophers on the side of Christianity. If nothing else maybe you will respect the belief more.

Answer 4

Whatever man can imagine is possible. His imagination however is limited by the ultimate reality, which is God. Hence God is a foregone possibility.

The god which most people worship is indeed an emotional figment of deception, amplified by their own belief system. It falls thus, as humans must prove consistent in themselves to sustain self image; their self image being the god many do in fact worship.

Even the creator God deals with this situation in the first commandment. That commandment states: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me;" knowing full well that no other gods exist, except by false claim.

Here, and in commandments against coveting and imagery, God recognizes the work of imagination in creating interests which function in anthesis to the fellowship with Christ Jesus; for which we were designed.

The bottom line: Everybody worships a god; either the god of this world, themselves as god, or the God of heaven. It is interesting to see a sinless avatar, something characteristic only of God.

God is the creator. As such, all physical creation manifests and reflects the spiritual. While we can relate the physical to the spiritual in many ways; it is a mistake to assume human conditions in a divine nature. For example, we can say that God doesn't love anybody very much! and be quite correct in one sense; because love is not what God does, but what God is. To miss this point, and many others you mention, is to go to far.

Answer 5

Well, I disagreed with you on the first thought, people do not anthropormorphise everything, I certainly do not, and neither does anyone I know. Do you really name your car? I name my dog for sure, but that's so he'll know when I'm speaking to him.

I don't talk to my car, it is a machine. I talk to my dog, but I understand that he doesn't have a clue what I'm saying. Asking my dog if he'd like the last couple of hotdogs on the plate has absolutely nothing to do with "experienc(ing) a hightened state of awareness, delusion, dream state" ... it has more to do with the practicality of whether to waste the hotdog by tossing it in the trash or offer it to the slobbery pooch wagging his tail at my side.

Perhaps in the past superstition "filled in the gaps", but how do you explain the modern Christian, who has science to explain the unknown? I've no fear of black cats, I merely prefer the Siamese that's all; I don't walk under ladders because someone just might dump paint on my head if I jostle the ladder accidentally.

So, God cannot be explained away by anthropormorphism or superstition. Now you say that He is an "overstated myth" and possesses "super-human" attributes. Again, I disagree. God is not like us, except for one thing, our souls are in His image. Our ability to love is indeed "supernatural" because it can extend far beyond that of a natural animal.

An example .... firemen. If I go back into a burning house to rescue my children, that would be a natural, biological response to my DNA to preserve the species. No heroism involved, just a mom doing what she can to keep her babies safe. But a fireman does not have that instinct, these are not his/her kids, some people they've saved probably wouldn't give them the time of day on the street a week earlier.

So why do they do it? Love.

See, it's hard to explain love biologically. I don't mean love of spouse, love of children, love of parent, etc. those are all biological and not necessarily even love. I mean love for people you have no reason to love in the "natural".

Anyway, sorry for the long answer, I'm too tired to keep going, other than to say that I've experienced God, He does exist, and I'm sorry that you have yet to experience Him, I hope He shows Himself to you real soon :)

Answer 6

Um, so what's your question? I've studied mythology, and all most of it is is personification of natural entities (the sun, moon, seasons, stars), or deification of actual humans (emperors, pharoahs, et cetera).

It's true that ancient peoples sought to explain natural phenomena in any way they could think of. The problem is, that the only book of so-called "mythology" that was written soon after certain events occurred, that names specific historic persons, places, and events, is the Bible. Even the Iliad and the Odyssey, though based upon actual historic events, was written FAR after the events happened, about a thousand years, actually.

So, the question is, does God exist? I believe He does. And I believe that my "faith" is not unfounded. While God exists beyond the physical (therefore cannot be proven or disproven by science), His fingerprints are all over history and even scientific discovery. For example, events described in the Bible (such as the battle of Jericho) actually DID happen the way it was described. This is known from archaeological discoveries, such as the fact that the walls of Jericho fell OUT instead of IN, there was one section of the wall that was still intact (large enough for a small house)(does the story of Rahab ring a bell?), and jars of grain were left (the Jews were commanded to not take grain, which was extremely valuable in ancient times. It was pretty much worth its weight in gold, and was sometimes used as currency.). While this doesn't "prove" the existence of God, it does prove that they THOUGHT they had been told what to do by God. That's the historical aspect.

As for science, there's the cosmological constant (not talking about Einstein's blunder), and the fact that even scientists, though they loathe the word, have called the origin of life "nothing short of miraculous."

It cannot be denied that there are things in this world that are inexplicable. Perhaps it's "wrong" to credit these things to a deity or deities, but I don't think so. I'VE seen too much to not believe in God.

So no, God did not come from my imagination.

Edit: That was only one example. There are others. Which events have been proven to not have happened, exactly?

And of COURSE I only named one example! My answer was long enough with just ONE!

Answer 7

You hv mixed so many ideas? seems to be confused!
Simply say that you don't believe in God...(Scientifically)!

There is much difference between Spiritual religion and Myths.

Existing three major religions; Islam, Christianity & Judaism are based on spiritual teachings hence can be categorized as Spiritual Religions.

Spiritual religions bear witness of prophets duly supported with miracles and historical events which cannot be denied by you / non-believers.

Religions based on Mythology bear no evidences. Myths and their stories are often forgotten - gone with the wind - as soon as the society & cultures are vanished....!

Consequently there are only two categories:
1- Spriritual religions (Based on Holy Scriptures)
2- Mythological religions (Based on oral stories).

Spirituality cannot be merged with Myths!

Moreover, scientifically you cannot prove the existance of God because Science is still in its infancy. Basic atomic code is not yet final???

Mankind could not wait the maturity of science and needs spiritual guidance to know the realities of creation in their own times!!

If you read Muslim Holy Scripture - The Quran, you will find that out of 6000 verses 1000 deal with scientific facts & realities. It means 1/6th of Quran speaks about science??.

The creation of universe with "Big Bang" was told 1400 years ago when no one knew this fact. Modern science proved it to be true in 1930s??

Quran explained the stages of human birth which modern science has accepted recently!!

According to a study : "Quran in the light of science" its 80% of verdicts have been found 100% correct. I am confident that rest 20% based on spiritual subjects would be true scientifically!

Let the science be matured to recognise the Almighty God ( Allah )!

Peace & Blessings!

Answer 8

From what I can see, Michael B is the only sensible answer you are likely to get. Like you, I do not believe in a God and suppose that most peoples belief structure is based on their personal psychology but I cannot claim to understand psychology with any more certainty that I can claim to understand God.
Michael B has a very firm grasp on what his God does for him and that deserves respect. I equally respect your and my right to have no personal connection with God. I don't think that any of us act in this matter based on informed choice so much as our own individual psychological quirks. Who's are right and who's wrong is not really important since they do work for us as individuals.

Answer 9

Christians believe that the Prophets of old or even today can see spiritual vision. It is because in human sense, they have a third eye so to speak which is actually their sense of wonder. And they see wonderful creations all around them like the light, the planets, the sun and the universe. And the micro world say men living in the billionth- billionth- billionth of a second, yet we do not perceive this time occurring:before our very eyes or a billion, billlion of years which we dont have the opportunity of experience and perceive them as well. And these are only examples of the servants of GOD seeing them with their third eye or their sense of wonder. Thus, at this point in man's history, we have a book of wonder called the Bible and the christianity that it espouses. Additionally, Christianity is a belief of life beyond the grave; a life even unto eternity or eternal life. And THE LORD JESUS CHRIST is the WORD OF GOD about these divine plan for mankind. The LORD JESUS CHRIST is the MESSIAH who have redeemed mankind from eternal death or damnation. HE is mankind's savior. For witnesses other than Christians, the Prophet Mohammad in a vision was brought by Archangel Gabriel to heaven and saw THE LORD JESUS CHRIST standing in the right hand of GOD; while Mohammad remained with the audience in a heavenly assembly among the Prophets. St John the baptist was also a witness of THE LORD JESUS CHRIST when he declared HIM as THE LAMB OF GOD who takes away the sins of mankind. And another witness is the Prophet Isaiah 9:6 that states that the one who will be born of a virgin woman will be called MIGHTY GOD, WONDERFUL, COUNSELOR (HOLY SPIRIT), EVERLASTING FATHER and PRINCE OF PEACE. These are one of the many reasons that one should believe the Bible and Christianity as well. THANKS GOD; FEAR GOD; PRAISE GOD; GLORIFY GOD; HONOR GOD; LOVE GOD AND WORSHIP GOD.

Answer 10

Very thoughtful question and it flows nicely.

The thing that does not persuade me is that you talk of God as if the only reason we believe in Him is because someone primitive long ago thought Him up to explain things. This gives no creedance to the fact that we don't just believe in Him, becasue someone passed Him down to us. At least I don't.

You would have to find a way to convince people that they don't know what's happening in their own minds and hearts. We're not going to believe we're all hallucinating or delusional or overly-superstitious when we can see, feel and experience what God does in our lives and the lives of others.

To me, God is very real and personal. No, I can't touch Him and no, I don't "hear" him in the usual sense. But I'm an intelligent, educated, sane person. And I am absolutely certain He is there in my life and has always been. I can feel Him at times. For me to deny God would be to slap God in the face. And I can't do that when He has done so much in my life.

Answer 11

We know what we know about God because of what He has revealed about Himself to us. The Bible uses accommodating language so that our human minds can get some comprehension of who He is.

Traits like all-powerful and all knowing and eternal are givens because God created everything in this universe and He exists outside of the dimension of time which is one aspect of his creation.

Logically nothing should exist because something cannot come from "nothing" and saying that the matter that exists has just "always been here" is equivalent to saying "I don't know how the universe got here. I guess it's just always been here or something like that".