Are There Multiple Paths To God?

I always liked the scene in the life of pi (the book, I haven't seen the movie) when pi and his parents bump into his various religious leaders and they all demand to know why he is practicing multiple religions, and he replies very simply that he is just trying to love God.

 

My problem is that I don't think you even have a working definition of "God" on which to know anything. I think you say the word, and write the word, but it doesn't actually point at anything; it's a just a finger, with no moon behind it. You are getting lost on your finger and not realizing that if it's not pointing at anything then you might as well drop the whole finger thing and move on, there is nothing to discuss or ponder which will yield any fruit beyond the curiosities of imagination (better employed in other endeavors than wishful fabrication of qualities to an undefined entity).

I do not consider it a sign of intelligence, or good will, or anything of that sort, to be discussing this. I am not annoyed, baffled is a better word. You say you praise "what you call the creator", yet you say he doesn't want praise, and you're not sure he's there, and if he's there you're not sure he's the creator, and you're not sure in fact that there can even be a "creator" for all this, and so on, and so on, and it leaves one wondering "well then what's he going on about after all?" Why all this huffle about showing something you're not sure is there, something which you're not sure it would care about, if it could even "care", if it even cared about what you put effort into showing it?

TLDR: To what end, all this commotion?

 

I am sorry you have that problem, Writer. I am just sharing my thoughts on the matter. I do not pretent to know things with certainty. Which seems the sensible approach when conversing about God.
And I am certainly not sharing my thoughts on the matter with a differernt motive other than just expressing my thoughts in a thread somebody else started. I am a very reactionary poster. Someone starts a thread, I happen to have a thought. Why NOT share it?
About the praising, I explained that the most sincere praise to me seems the praise that is given freely and not because it is wanted or asked for. It is just praising and feeling thankful for my existence. I don't see how this is baffling to any open person.

Sounds like a great book! I only heard of the title and some things in the movie.

 

a path is mystical , walk with god . paths do not cross , though you might meet a friend
who appears suddenly .

 

Asmo, I am not chiding you for sharing your thoughts. I appreciate you sharing your thoughts, truly. Especially in this venue, a forum for sharing thoughts, and a thread about god, it's perfectly proper and I extend you an even warmer welcome than I would a stranger because I recognize you especially from more recent discussions in the LSD forum. So please don't confuse what I'm saying as me being offended or annoyed that you dare to express your opinion about god. That would be hypocritical of me, for I too am expressing my opinion through my posts.

What I am getting at is not the validity of your posts here, but the validity of the ideas expressed within your posts. I am getting at the meat of the issue, which is, when you say "I praise god because it is good to praise the creator" (paraphrasing), I ask you, to what is this noun "God" pointing? Where is it? Where can I see it? In what way can I measure this or experience it?

Pretend I am an alien, or somebody who has been raised with wolves, or lived in a cave his entire life, and only recently emerged and learned the english language and how to eat with utensils. I see all this funny bowing and these odd buildings where people go inside and fold their hands together and look quite serious while mumbling.

I think thinking in this way about ANY matter is a really good way to deconstruct just exactly what it is you are doing.

----

My own thoughts: I believe you are talking to yourself; there is no "other" out there receiving your praises and admiration and belief. You are the process which, billions of years ago (the observational data strongly suggests), was "big banging" and spewing out first hadrons and then stars and galaxies and one day the earth was produced and from the earth after a long process suddenly you are here, looking around, saying 'who's responsible for all this? I want to thank him!'

But all the while, this is all you. There's no one else to take the blame or the praise. You are, in this moment, the culmination of all of time and space and energy.

There's no one behind the scenes; this is it. We look to metaphors from our own life, such as "the watchmaker", the one who "made" the universe, or "the first cause", the one who caused everything in the first place, but these are sophisticated projections of purely human state of affairs onto processes which are unimaginably alien and beyond cognition. It would be like trying to explain quantum chromodynamics through analogies of dance, or hide and seek. It would be like trying to explain cellular mechanics through analogies of tug of war. We would arrive at absurd facts and fall quite short of the truth indeed, even if what we arrived at was comforting, we would be wise to suspect it deeply of being empty.

I'm not interested in empty! I was fullness.

 

Or that it deserves worship?

Also consider: desiring worship would be a very good counter-indication of a being actually deserving worship.

 

A very good point.

It's like the idea that those who seek political power are the least suited to hold it.

 

I think that feeling glad to be alive is an experience most of us have had at some time. But I don't see why you should attribute such feelings to the presence of god.At the same instant someone has that feeling, many other people are enmeshed in one form or another of intense suffering.

Catholics go to shrines hoping that the divine will intervene in their lives and heal them. But everyday the same god (hypothetically speaking here) allows children to starve to death and thousands of other unpleasant things.
The idea that god will look after the first group because they have some dogmas stuck in their heads seems to me absurd,partisan, and if it were true, a monstrous injustice.

 

One day a fish asked where he might find the ocean. Another fish replied, "you're in it". The fish replied back, "no, this is just water".

 

all religions are paths to the same god. which is to say the same non-physical thing.

 

" I see you have your god'ee with you " , says the dead woman . She is looking up and just beyond
and over my right shoulder . Yes , I may think there's something there also - but to the reality at hand ...
I need not investigate that godly spirit . I am walking among the dead and with a willful and bold certainty
am just passing through .

 

Gizoogled it for the folks, tik'

" I peep you have yo' god'ee wit you " , say tha dead biatch . Right back up in yo muthafuckin ass. Biatch is lookin up n' just beyond

and over mah right shoulder . Yes yes y'all, , I may be thinkin there be a suttin' there also - but ta tha realitizzle at hand ...

I need not rewind dat godly spirit . I be struttin among tha dead n' wit a willful n' bold certainty

am just passin all up in .

:mickey:

 

holy moly !

that which i wrote was a dream transcription , and the dream was preceded with reading
the play Man and Superman by G. Bernard Shaw - thus the dramatic form of it I suppose .
well , i gave up on that play midst of Act 1 , then this morning had a look at his comments
on religion , c.1915 . he seems to have been a nice man . not much is ever presented in
this forum he hadn't made observation of 100 years ago . be nice , carry on .

 

All depends where you chose to spend (give) your money. They ALL have the right path to take. Just ask 'em.

Every time they pass THE PLATE---take some out. That path will lead right out the fuckin' door.

 

It's too awful a surprise when a passing street bum quick steals a five from ... not the plate - THE CUP .

 

How does it ALL depend on that? There are other right paths to walk. Not everyone needs an organisation for that. And not everyone who joins an organized religious group has to pay them. I know, because in the church I went to as a kid every monetary gift was voluntarily. There were no charges to sit in or join the church.
But personally I think a path to find or connect with God (whatever that might entail) always has a personal aspect. So it never actually depends on what you pay or give some group that you affiliate yourself with on a religious level. I know I know, you were probably being sarcastic

 

Yeah. I'm fond of sarcasm. I really don't concern myself with any of it too much. I know that people find solace in their beliefs and they have a right to do so. (exception-homicidal maniacs). I just can't help myself from referring to the huckster side of it--and the "occasional" hypocrites for whom religiosity is BIG biz.

 

There is a universal curriculum called life that comes in many forms. There are many ideas about and of god. What we share in common in all forms is that we invoke those forms. This is an element of the issue that cannot be avoided even for the atheist when he talks about his ideas on god, the lack of or any other attribute assigned to the phenomena of how god appears in man. If you are going to have an idea about anything, let it be one that serves you in the best light in every circumstance. One that frees you from contention.

 

That's ok I can relate, I can't often help myself from pointing out the generalizing approach people almost always take when pointing out the 'occasional' hypocrites. And of course that the hypocrisy is hardly merely a religious matter/origin, as it is primarily a human trait, and not less present in the (shall we say 'occasional' ) areligious hyporcites.

 

People chose a path they feel leads to God, so they can restrict who they feel follows. They want to own their so called foes. I think of my Grandparents a lot and how conservative they speak all the time. They found something that works for them, and I am ok with that but it doesn't work for me. I haven't found God and I know they haven't either. They think in their limited capacity that the bible is God. I believe I can find God within me, perhaps with drugs (specific ones) and making wise choices to live. Haven't always made good choices, but they were good with what I was given at the time.