God isn't dead he just doesn't give a fuck!!!

[Tradere]

Known to some as "The Ballad of Lost Souls," this novel is a supernatural psychoanalytic journey into the mind of a confused psychiatrist. When the doctor suspects something may be very wrong with his new patient, he is forced to take an introspective look at his own life. After several sadistic sessions, he starts questioning his own sanity. Now he is running from the fearful present, away from the truth and into this strange and morbid tale that explores the meaning of life and the existence of god.

Free Preview

Plague of the Invigilare

THE DOCTOR

The world is full of tortured souls. I know, because I am one of them. We don’t sleep, we never dream. We’re full of pain, but not in any physical sense. The agony we suffer is far more intense than any of those minor scrapes or backaches, even beyond all that emotional anguish you feel of losing someone you love. The pain I make reference to is our birth, our existence, our life. Life on this brutal planet will often strip you of every reason there is to live, without any rationale or logic. We’ve all felt it.

I did not always feel this way, I used to believe in a crucified savior or some kind of deity that rewards you for doing good by sending you to paradise, but now, I know it’s not worth it. Good, what is that anyway? As if it were a definable term that actually meant something. As if you could measure it on a scale and it were not based on a wide range of human relativity. Goodness, a connotation brought to you by the same preachers who claim you‘ll be dropped into a fiery pit and barbequed, like your dinner last night. Believe in it. Don’t believe in it. Believe in yourself, or whatever gets you through the day. If you believe in Jesus, does he exist? I think so.

Understand I don’t have all of the answers and if you’re looking for hope, you’ll find none of that here. The only thing I have to offer you is the truth, which is more than you’ll get from some ravenous minister, or your significant other, who sneaks things past you when your eyes are shut. For I know things...

...I met this scraggly fellow once in this Club Amnesia, in New York City, who swore on my life that he was Jesus Christ incarnate. The savior of millions hanging out in a dance club at three o’clock in the morning, getting hammered out of his mind. I asked the lord, "If you’re Jesus Christ, what are you doing in this bar getting shit-faced, shouldn’t you be out helping people?" He stared into my eyes with an iconoclastic smile, at a loss for words. Finally the former incarnate shrugged, as he had nothing witty to reply, which shocked me, the ignorance of it all. Most people don’t even know the history of their religion. If he were an educated man, he might have known that Jesus immersed himself around sin. He was constantly hanging around taverns and drunks, preaching. That’s how he met the apostles; they were drunks...

...Not knowing...that’s what plagues us, confuses us, drives us to a dark place. Your heart, my soul, and the illusions, which cover us from seeing what most cannot tolerate. That is where we reside: living, dying, thinking there is a purpose to it, thinking you will rise out of the darkness into the light. For all of you that believe this, there is sad news.

There is no light, but if there were one, I would hold the lantern...

...The idea that I’m an alcoholic, a hypocrite, mentally unstable, and an alienist, does change the truth: Hell, Jesus was three out of four of those and millions of people follow him everyday, two thousands years later. I’m not asking you to follow me, or anything remotely crazy like that...

...And I would never ask you to think for yourself, because god willing, we’d all be atheists, stranded in purgatory, searching for the meaning of life...

...While enjoying cocktails in Venice Beach, California, I had the pleasure of bumping into a man who insisted he had been Jim Morrison in a former life. Not quite as historically important as the Christ, but Jim had indisputable physical evidence to support his theory. First there was the uncanny resemblance between him and the Lizard King, especially in the eyes.

"Eyes are the windows to the soul," Jim explained.

There was also the fact he had been born the day after his former incarnation had past away: July 4, 1971. He showed me the birth date on his driver’s license. He also predicted he would be famous and die young; I guess some reccurring souls never learn...

http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/ItemDetail.aspx?q3=Pclfy2QWWo4%253d

[Mui]

no, god is dead.
like i said
i killed him with my head

[Scholar_Warrior]

Is there a God?


Define "God."

[Zion]

Castles made of sand slips into to the sea iventually" Jimi Hendrix
This is said ionr reference to the inevitible conitience of Gods system. The sun, death, Life, hope, Self-suffering.

[Sera Michele]

God is dead
And no one cares
If there is a hell
I'll see you there

gotta love Trent Reznor

[zeppelinhippie89]

There never was a god, and there will never be one

[joker]

If there is a god. Can he/she have an orgasm?

[Occam]

You've all heard the old one...?

Can god make a stone he cannot lift?

The answer is yes...
He makes it in space..
theres nothing to 'lift' it off.
Thus he cannot lift it.

Occam ;)

[nitemarehippygirl]

There never was a god, and there will never be one
but wouldn't it be interesting if:
"there never was a god, but one day will be one."?


No God, then,
*BAM!*
God exists.

[Occam]

There never was a god, and there will never be one
Zepplin.

How do you know this?
You little flesh bag that thinks it knows what goes on in a universe 30 billion lightyears from side to side.

There may not be a 'god of religion'..for their stories are but for kiddies.
And like winnie the pooh they may not be real.

But there MAY BE DIRECTION.

Occam.

[Kilgore Trout]

I've been doing a lot of gardening lately...and I can't get the idea out of my head that plants are intelligent.
If this were true, I don't think it would be too great a leap to assume that there is some sort of "higher intelligence" out there -- whatever it might be.

[nitemarehippygirl]

kilgore,
so maybe plants are 'intelligent' - i assume you mean thinking, self aware? - and maybe they are not. i don't think it's a necessary prerequisite for the possibility of a higher intelligence. :D

i have a feeling i'm going to be looking at my broccoli a little suspiciously at tonight's dinner table.


ha ha

sophia

[Kharakov]

so maybe plants are 'intelligent' - i assume you mean thinking, self aware? - and maybe they are not. i don't think it's a necessary prerequisite for the possibility of a higher intelligence. :D I like some gooey female plants. mmmmhhh... gooey female....

[Bassist]

I don't believe there is a "god". I believe there is an indifferent force that created us, and left us to evolve. Furthermore, I feel this force has no intentions or apprehension.

[Kilgore Trout]

kilgore,
so maybe plants are 'intelligent' - i assume you mean thinking, self aware? - and maybe they are not. i don't think it's a necessary prerequisite for the possibility of a higher intelligence. :D

i have a feeling i'm going to be looking at my broccoli a little suspiciously at tonight's dinner table.


ha ha

sophia
I just hope it doesn't look back at you. :)


I'm down with Darwin. His theory certainly makes perfect sense. But sometimes nature seems too perfect to be random. I was thinking about trees that make little balls of sap to attract ants, which in turn move in and protect the tree from other predators. it just seems like such a smart thing for the tree to do. It's hard to imagine why it would happen randomly.

[seamonster66]

I don't believe that anyone knows the truth, but that it is impossible that there is no force of some kind behind all of this. I agree that the force may very well be indifferent.

There is clearly something that we do not understand behind the scenes of the universe.

[Occam]

There is clearly something that we do not understand behind the scenes of the universe.
SEAMonster66

You have just described the agnostic position.
Well done

Occam

[Libertine]

No God.

At least no "omnipotent, omnipresent, omnibenevolent, omniscient" GOD. :)

[Occam]

No God.

At least no "omnipotent, omnipresent, omnibenevolent, omniscient" GOD. :) Libertine

True.
But a god/race that has powers we ignorant clods call godlike.

Certainly must exist ..if evolution does.
For how do WE SAY WE ARE THE PINACLE OF EVOLUTION.
Are we so arrogant? yes.

Are we so stupid that the theory we call reallity is dominated by US.
YES.
WE are that stupid.
For humans are mostly ego.with a patina of reason overlaid.

Very few have ANY IDEA of how overwhelmingly BIG is reality.
AND HOW SMALL WE ARE.

Humanity is selfprotected in its fragile ego state.
By IGNORANCE.

Occam

[soaringeagle]

god was a sick turtle that puked up the universe, rolled over & went into a coma
he exists but sdoesn even know we do

[Occam]

god was a sick turtle that puked up the universe, rolled over & went into a coma
he exists but sdoesn even know we do
Occam will not answer your poll
It means nothing.

Occam

[John221]

I voted "no," though the question was rather equivocal; if I am a Buddhist who doesn't believe in a creator God, does belief in Nirvana still count as belief in a God-like being?

[Occam]

You can say yes you believe.
Or no, you do not.

But by the standards that you and us all define what is real.
We are real.
trees are real.
the sky, the moon the earth beneath us.
IS real.
That the earth draws us ...gravity.
That there is light and near light,, radio, all seeing light ,, Xrays.
The ultimate light. neutrinos.

that others exist. is real..we love them or dont know them..
some hate ,, some fear them..

All this is real BY WHAT STANDARD?

Think of that.. Then think of the description of god that human religion has proposed.
Occam sees NOTHING that is real, by the same sandards that Yourself or your life is real, that matches that description.

Occam

[BlackGuardXIII]

God has not shown his/her/it self to me. I like the term Spirit more than God, cuz it is more generic. I am not an atheist, and am impartial to religions, feeling deeply that if Spirit exists, ones faith, or lack of faith, is irrelevent. No particular faith is the 'right' one. If that turns out to be dead wrong, I am eager to learn so, and if my eternal damnation to hell is the price of my firm position that Christianity and Wicca are no closer to Spirit than Atheism or Animism are, that is the way it goes. I sure hope not...
I would never consider allowing my sins to be paid for by anyone but me, and if some Deity wants me to dump the burden of their payment onto their shoulders, I highly doubt I would do so... the reason that would make me shirk my responsibility to take the lumps for my choices by letting another take the fall in my place would have to be really good to change my mind. I can't see it happening.
What is real? Only I know that... for me.
For you, I have no clue, never will, and only you know that, for you.
Nobody knows whats real for anyone else... That is my firm belief.
I respect others' beliefs and accept them as being as real as my own.
Reality, imho, is not temporary, but infinite, so to me, trees, mountains, galaxies, my left eye, and electrons, are all illusions. The only true reality, in my view, at present, is spirit. By spirit I mean the quality I believe we all have at our core, that is being contained for a while within this fragile vessel called a body. The reason why...... beats the heck out of me. To learn, maybe? To have fun? To carry out some particular role in a giant cosmic process beyond human comprehension? That sounds good, and when we have done that task, our reward is that we get to die. And until it is done, we cannot die. We are all equal players, free, and good, needed and connected, to Spirit, and each other. All one, and it will all work out, we just can't see that from our limited viewpoint, but I am hoping that after I croak, I will get to learn a bit more about what the heck is going on. If not, and I am just as ignorant as now, oh well, no biggie, its all good.
I don't know much, but I sure do know a huge number of questions that I still have not got a definitive answer for. So, if Spirit exists, and hears prayers, I pray that I do not leave this life and planet without my presence here having made a positive impact. The campers creed, leave the site better than you found it. If I manage do that, I will be content.

[SpiritualExcess]

lol I'm so high. When I first read the title of the thread I thought it read "God's not dead, he's just stopped returning your calls"

anyway, yah lol i believe in God

[SpiritualExcess]

I voted "no," though the question was rather equivocal; if I am a Buddhist who doesn't believe in a creator God, does belief in Nirvana still count as belief in a God-like being?


Dude, I think it depends on what school of Buddhism you are. If you're anything but Theravada I'd say yah it counts. Though even in the Pali Canon Buddha never says there are no Gods, just that they can't help you in your search for enlightenment.

[synaptic aether]

i really don't understand why everyone must constantly insist on believeing in any "god" entity at all.

it seems like it's taking sooo fucking long for people to get out of it.

however, i am only agnostic about it all cuz how can we really tell, of course... and totally believeing one way or another registers as absured or paranoid and afraid, to me.

[Hyperstar]

however, i am only agnostic about it all cuz how can we really tell, of course... and totally believeing one way or another registers as absured or paranoid and afraid, to me.


What do you believe in for certain synaptic aether, is there anything at all?

[synaptic aether]

What do you believe in for certain synaptic aether, is there anything at all?
/em hug(((Hyperstar)))

hopefully nothttp://www.hipforums.com/forums/images/smilies/wink.gif

[Occam]

What is certain..?
Hmmmmhttp://www.hipforums.com/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif

No-one can prove they dont exist.
For in the attempt, the prove they do.

Occam

[BlackGuardXIII]

i really don't understand why everyone must constantly insist on believeing in any "god" entity at all.

it seems like it's taking sooo fucking long for people to get out of it.

however, i am only agnostic about it all cuz how can we really tell, of course... and totally believeing one way or another registers as absured or paranoid and afraid, to me.

I must share my slightly different conclusions regarding faith. I do not insist on believing, I have come to the conclusion that Spirit is very real, to me. If not to others, then they live in a different reality, which I support as being just as real as mine. I didn't feel this way most of my life, so in my case, it took me a long time to get in to it.... lol. I am not a big fan of facts, so I have few things I 'totally' believe. But I assure you I am not afraid in the least, far from paranoid, and pretty sure my critically thought out, analytically deduced views are not absurd. They may sound that way to others, but they are logical to me.

[Occam]

I am not a big fan of facts
Blackguard.

There is fact, then there is fantasy
Occam knows this because reading sections are labeled this way.
Fact and fantasy.
If you dont like fact, then fantasy is the way.
There are some cool fantasy books.

Occam thinks kings gunslinger series beter than that boring other fantasy,
the bible.

Occam

[synaptic aether]

fact or fantasy?

i prefer factasy
or maybe fanct

[Kharakov]

There is fact, then there is fantasy
Occam knows this because reading sections are labeled this way.
And you believe the labels? Whooo...

[themnax]

earth, our entire solar system of which our earth is a part, is one very small grain of sand, on one beach of one ocean that we know to have many beaches, and for all we know there may very well be other oceans as well.

it is one thing to experience nontangable companionship. it is quite another to immagine it to begin and end with what we think we know about it.

what i feel is one kind of reality, what lots of people can observe and aggree upon by their own riggorously detatched observation is one kind of reality.

what makes no sense is for someone to expect what they believe to be greater then themselves to begin and end with what they, or anyone else, or any many anyone elses, think they know about it.

if you had as many children as earth has humans, multiplied by all the worlds that might have tangable sentient people, could you keep them all from scraping their knees? or would you not simply have to resign yourself, that no mater how omnipotent or omniscient you might be, knees are going to get scraped?

i think it's good to have nontangable friends just like it's good to have tangable ones, but however sincere and well meaning a friend is, or even how powerful and capable, there's realisticly only so much anyone can do for anyone. especialy when their tangable frends demand and expect conflicting and contradictory myricles.

[BlackGuardXIII]

Blackguard.
If you dont like fact, then fantasy is the way.
There are some cool fantasy books.
Occam thinks kings gunslinger series beter than that boring other fantasy,
the bible.
Occam
I haven't read any of King's novels, though the film adaptations are pretty good, I've seen over a dozen of them. I read maybe one novel for every 50 non-fiction books I read, and the novels I do read are not in King's genre. Michener and Marquez are more my taste. For fantasy, I have read Frank Herbert and J.R.R. Tolkien.
I should have said I have found that many of the facts I've read upon further study were not facts at all. The thing I don't like about facts is they often aren't.

[Destro_the_punk]

I killed god in the first dream i had In 2005
seemed real enough to me.
Is there a god? no. he died in January 2005 when i blasted him with my inner self. End of debate

[boredhead]

His last name is Simmons...

Actually I think people attempt to prove the existence of a God to try and fill the gaps that science hasn't. When I first started thinking about the nature of the universe it all seemed so vast and impossible that it was so easy to just fill this massive lack of understanding with God. After reading quite a bit of stuff on the matter I've realised that science has apparently fairly well filled this gap.

There are still a lot of things science can't answer for. There are various paired particles of an atom, which react dependently to one another. Experiments have actually been done taking one particle something like 13 metres away from the other. Even at this distance when one of these subatomic particles is affected, the other shows mirroring effects.. or something like that.

Anyway, when I first read this it was so easy to go "Look, see, Einstein was wrong!!. The theory of relativity doesn’t answer for everything, this must mean there's a God" But of course that's a would be an argument entirely based on the statement "but you don't know either". It just seems naive to believe that just because science know then it must be the work of God. We just haven't figured it all out yet...

[Occam]

And you believe the labels? Whooo...
Kharakov

Cant believe anyone actually missed that small joke.
But u did.

Occam

[Occam]

I haven't read any of King's novels, though the film adaptations are pretty good, I've seen over a dozen of them. I read maybe one novel for every 50 non-fiction books I read, and the novels I do read are not in King's genre. Michener and Marquez are more my taste. For fantasy, I have read Frank Herbert and J.R.R. Tolkien.
I should have said I have found that many of the facts I've read upon further study were not facts at all. The thing I don't like about facts is they often aren't.
Blackguard

Occam is an Speculative Fiction Junkie. [many thousands of works read]

Have read MUCH history and works on contemporary geopolitics
and statecraft.
Look at lord of the rings.
Replace the orks, goblins and such with combat troops
Ents and hill trolls with tanks.
The magic with science.
And you have a tight analogue to much of human history
if your looking at how the states of middle earth act and react.

As to facts.
Well, let us use the example of hydrogen fusion.
in 1800 it was not a fact.
in 1900 it was a good theory
In 2000 it was something we could reproduce for a a VERY short time
both in bombs and experimental reactors.
Thus becomming a 'fact' [ we could reproduce it..every time.]

Yah.. a hard science example... When we start talking about the 'facts'
of history .. all that 'verification' goes out the window.

Occam

[Zion]

Your small small just humans

[cswalters]

I don’t believe in God. I believe in Evolution theory and the Big Bang theory, religion is just a product of the imagination, which isn’t a bad thing, because some people can’t do well with the idea there is nothing beyond this life, which is fine, I respect their beliefs as long as they don’t press it on me…

[Sezzy]

awww, you didn't have to put 'don't care' with agnostics too... i happen to be agnostic AND care whether or not god exists

[Gh0sTiNnyc]

it lies with the babel fish
watch this video

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/hitchhikers/guide/babelfish.shtml

[PeaceMonkey]

god doesnt exist but if he did, why would he care if we live or die or whatever?

[r33f3r_m4dn3ss]

who are you to say god doesn't exist, and who is say he does care if we live or die.

[r33f3r_m4dn3ss]

and why do we refer to god as he.

[PeaceMonkey]

ok he/she/it, but why would/does he care? give me a logical reason

[r33f3r_m4dn3ss]

no one can answer that question, nothing can be logical because logic itself is manifestation of the human mind. our logic could not be compared to god's logic, because if it was, we wouldn't be asking these que.stions

[Occam]

r33

God, if one exists. Can only be a sexual being if it is a product of evolution.
No need for your rubbish about god's logic. http://www.hipforums.com/forums/images/smilies/wink.gif
Who do u think speak with?
People who dont have your smarts?
[obviously, well evolve up lad.. occam does]

Occam

[BlackGuardXIII]

'Look at lord of the rings.
Replace the orks, goblins and such with combat troops
Ents and hill trolls with tanks.
The magic with science.
And you have a tight analogue to much of human history
if your looking at how the states of middle earth act and react.'
Occam

'It takes a very long time to say anything in old Entish, so Ents do not say anything that is not worth taking a very long time to say.' Treebeard

Agreed. I first read the trilogy and the hobbit about 20 years ago, and marvelled at the sly manner in which JRR seemed to incorporate contemporary international political events into middle earth. I later read that the Bible and WWII were sources for many of his groups and events. The timeless themes translate well into any era.
It is a good thing that the LOTR movies were not produced by me, though. Mr. Jackson & friends have far more impressive imaginations, and made a set of films that far surpassed what my mind's eye saw when I read the books.

[Liroy]

I guess that you can only say if there is a god or not based on what you believe.
I mean I can believe i'm god, so then I would answer Yes to the poll.
But if they mean the god out of the bible, then I would vote No...

It all depends on what you see as god to tell if one exists.

[bamboo]

It almost seems that you protest a bit too much. Do you have a "cross to burn?" Ah heck, that's not really fair and I am just kidding. Deep down I have often secretly wondered if the "still small voice," or "the unseen and silent presence," is nothing more than the inarticulate right side of our brain trying to communicate through the constant chatter of the dominant left side. The "religous" gene might infact be nothing more than the peculiar wiring of our dual but different brain halves. heaven could be a content right half and hell could be an angry or deranged right brain...but this is just a thought and idle speculation. It is not a theory, belief or dogma that I hold dear.

[Last Stand]

DOES VENUS COUNTS?... http://www.eleganza.com/media/statues/greek/r-venus-milo-torso-mb-l.jpg..

[themnax]

DOES VENUS COUNTS?... http://www.eleganza.com/media/statues/greek/r-venus-milo-torso-mb-l.jpg..


appearantly not on her fingers and toes

=^^=
.../\...