why is it that there arent heaps of people believing in a god that is not benign but amoral? i mean theres no evidence saying gods not exist and its easy to believe in him. but all teh evidence inteh world shows that if there is a god, he doesnt care about suffering, especially in his own name. id have thought in this day and age tehre would be people aknowleging god for his power alone, aknowleging that he is not all good, but that he in fact doesnt give a shit? it fits in well that god is not good, if he is real. so yeh are there any groups like this that ive just not heard of? ive had conversations with some very convincing preachers but if anything gets their knickers in a knot and has them stumbling for words is asking what makes them think that god must be inheritly benign and is not a slave to power like all other entities.
haha, that's probably a good way to piss a preacher off They ususally have some cop-out explanation though, like "god works in mysterious ways", but that's no explanation at all. I'd feel better if these people could admit that they didn't know, because they obviously don't, yet they still try to look like they do. Anyways, I never really heard of anyone worshipping an amoral god (if you mean the judeochristian sort of god). the greek gods were pretty much just powerful people, had the same drama and passions humans did, and were probably worshipped more out of fear than reverence. Maybe Satanists fall into your category though...I'm not really sure, since I know almost nothing about it.
good point, stonerbill. i suspect that the main reason "evil god" religions are relatively uncommon is that they're probably pretty damn depressing! what you're describing, though, is believed by gnostics, and there are still versions of gnosticism around today. a rundown on gnosticism: matter is evil. the physical world is corrupt and flawed, but the spiritual world is good and perfect. since god is perfectly good, he couldn't have made the world. enter: the Demiurge, a lower god who created the world out of ignorance and who presides as god over it. this is the god of violence and harsh justice in the Old Testament. Jesus and the merciful loving god of the New Testament then arrive on the scene. Jesus brings the 'gnosis' or 'knowledge" on how to get your ass out of the physical world and back into the spiritual world to the High God. the gnostics thought that they alone were in possession of the secret gnosis, and thought of themselves as being more advanced than the jewish-christians. it's really interesting to read about, and there's a ton of different versions. back in the days of antiquity jewish-christianity and gnosticism along with other philosophies like zoroastrianism, platonism, stoicism and other greek philosophy, mixed and mingled and had a ball so it was difficult to tell which was which til theologians started laying down the law in the second century. this reminds me of a girl i once talked to in a pub who told me she believed that this is hell, being on earth, and we need to work on getting out of hell and back into heaven. weird. maybe she's gnostic. peace,
that description of gnostim intruiges me, that sounds like a perfect explination of the universe if your gonna believe in gods and the like in the christian sense
yeah it's pretty interesting hey? it's like just as crazy as other religions, but with extra toppings. or maybe it's just more unheard of, anyway check out http://www.gnosis.org/welcome.html apparently gnosticism is alive today, there's a gnostic society and everything. i bet they wear cloaks.
I was brought up a catholic until I was old enough to make up my own mind. I'm not a practising catholic now although sometimes I find myself praying to God even though a part of me thinks it's all nonsence. I live in hope that God does exist and I also believe my grandfather looks down on me and looks after me. When it comes down to it though a bigger part of me thinks that when you die you die. There is no heaven or hell. You just cease to exist anymore. I hope I'm wrong and when I die I'll no doubt find out.
thats my interpretation of god. it just is- it doesnt tend towards good or bad. emotions are human; it would seem that an allpowerful God would be above emotions such as love.
some beleive in the concept of the universal conceisness, & when you die your conceisness remains as a part of the universal conceisness, meanning your thoughts live on joined with the thoughts of all others who had diesd before us, when we're alive thise gifted at meditation, & psychics tap into this universal mind so, if this concept is real, & this universal conciesness exists outside of the confines of space & time, wouldnt that be an exoplanation for the beleife in an all knowing "god" that is in al places at once? & wouldnt heaven & hell be 1 in the same since both the good & the bad become a part of this god like universal conceisness? thereby explaining pain & suffering as well as joy & hope.. & then couldnt the saying we are all children of god be a misenterpration meant to be we are all the children who shall be a part of god? wouldnt then all lives have purpose to join into the universal conceisnesswhen we die instead of only those who choose to follow 1 book over another?
I may be totally out of order in comparing but for instance do Ants go to heaven or hell. Why because we have a bigger brain we continue in another existance. Maybe the bible says all living things do, if it does please correct me as I'm unsure.
from my understanding of the bible, or at least christian thought which doesnt always jive with the bible, they don'y recognize the fact that humans are animals with well developed brains according to them animals are seperate from people & are just here for us to use & abuse
The bible isn't concerned with animals. As far as I know, it doesn't talk about them at all in the sense of whether they have souls and whatnot. It's just a book about humans and their relationship to God; ants will just have to find their own bible (haha). Still, one wonders. Genesis says God breathed spirit into Adam through his nostrils to give him life. In many languages (including Latin and Hebrew) the word for spirit and breath is the same, because they are thought of as being the same. Even in English there's a relationship: inspire means to breathe in (and to "be filled with spirit"), expire means to breathe out (and die). Since animals breathe, one might assume that people back then thought animals would be in heaven too, especially considering that they saw heaven as being the Earth remade, not a nonmaterial, spirit world. Nowadays, with our ideas being more abstract, dealing with spirit worlds and such, things have changed, and it doesn't seem that most people think animals will be there. Anyways, has anyone read the Gnostic Genesis? I mean their creation story. It's way more involved, far more interesting, than the bible's. I'll say one thing for them, it's imaginative. One thing I like about Gnosticism is that it's not so male dominated: "wisdom" is Sophia, a female god or spiritual aspect. If there's one thing modern religions need, is balance, not this masculine dominated, agressive, linear, terrifying form we have now in the J-C-I religions. Even though women in the West aren't virtual slaves anymore, the culture as a whole is still mostly masculine.
