The big picture

[RashanGary]

Here we sit. . . People are out there learning about our earth, learning about our solar system, learning about our galaxy. . . . We are constantly learning, documenting our findings and passing them down to the next in line.


People have been navigating water for thousands of years with sail boats. 6000 years ago, Egyptians were known to be using crude sails with crude boats to get around.

Just for some perspective 100 years is 1.6% of 6000. If a person has lived to be 100 years old, they've lived 1.6% of the 6000 years since our transportation has really taken off.

The history of human life has been about 200,000 years by some estimations.

So we've been writing books (the bible for example) for a relatively short amount of time.


Our whole lives, we're not less ignorant than those who came before us. Our cell phones, cars, homes, etc. . . . We've got it so figured out.

Yet here we are, wars still waging. . . We're still going to die. There is so much left to learn in the universe. It's scary how little we know. And then there is god. . . .


In the big picture, I don't think we have much of a clue what we're doing here. We have this (bible) to lead our way. It started being written about 3500 years ago. So a great majority of people who roamed this earth never had a, "bible" to lead their way. . .


So here we are. Politics, religion. . . . Who has the answer for what we're doing, where we're going, the whole point?


Religion feels like the closest thing for me, to touching on the big picture. The idea of a creator, a beginning, a reason. . . . God passed he word on to us through people 3500 years ago. It's the beginning and end. It captures the big picture.

Muslims. . . . Jews. . . . Christians. . . . Various other spiritual groups. . . . Which of them has it figured out?


So you get to a point, you're never going to have a difinitive answer and if you do, billions will disagree with you. . .

How to find a purpose.


Maybe we just go through life, enjoy the things we enjoy. Live the best way we know how and then die and if anything comes after that, hopefully you end up with the good afterlife.




So get up, go for a jog. If you're married or in a relationship, maybe have some sex. Hey, it's a wonderful experience between two people. It just happens to be a key to our existence, but ignore that reality. Focus on how it makes you feel, focus on what it means to you. . . . Go to Packer practice, read the news. . . . Live our lives. . . Whether we know what we're doing or not is beside the point.

[MJZiggy]

Someone's feeling a little philosophical this morning. What exactly did you put in your coffee this morning.

Today existentialism means wiping out the empty fridge/freezer and replacing the lost food. It also means writing a grad school paper on the experimental research method and writing up a literature review on employee satisfaction and the effects of blog posts and negative media campaigns.

Then I get to put the clean dishes away, do the laundry, be interviewed as a professional working in our field for a classmate's final project in another class, trim the garden, pick up the sticks that the storm dropped all over the yard and if there's anything left, then I get an episode of Six Feet Under followed by sex.

That is the purpose of life. Oh. And coffee.

[RashanGary]

My wife and kids are gone for the weekend. Usually I'm too busy to worry about such petty things as, "is there a religion that has it figured out"

[swede]

There are many immortals. Your actions and ideas can survive you to echo beyond you and influence the scope of human history.

Socrates, Lincoln, Martin Luther King, John Wayne Bobbit to name a few.

[MJZiggy]

There are many immortals. Your actions and ideas can survive you to echo beyond you and influence the scope of human history.

Socrates, Lincoln, Martin Luther King, John Wayne Bobbit to name a few.

Leave it to you to get all serious about it...

[swede]

You knew who that was without wiki, didn't you!

You would probably be a terror at Trivial Pursuit--if they even play that game anymore.

[MJZiggy]

You knew who that was without wiki, didn't you!

You would probably be a terror at Trivial Pursuit--if they even play that game anymore.

Please, the man added a whole new word to the lexicon and made abusive and cheating men across the country think twice--or 14 times--for a while anyway.

Trivial Pursuit got outdated in a hurry as new, useless stuff happened.

I guess to answer Justin's question a little more seriously, I believe that most religions have individual small pieces of the puzzle and use stories to make their followers feel more secure about things they can't explain. They like to believe that they are somehow insulated from the bad things that happen in the world because of their beliefs, but we see that's a false belief. Tsunamis, earthquakes, plane crashes, wildfires, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, droughts, car accidents and murders happen too randomly for me to think that any one religion has their prayers answered any more than anyone else. Animals get eaten by other animals and if we stray to the wrong place, we get eaten too. Good people get cancer. It's just the way it happens. Do I think that God put his kid here to have us murder him during his natural lifetime and that somehow exonerates us for everything we do wrong? No. Do I think that God came to a mountain and invented a burqa? No. That's man trying to keep himself from being tempted and in the process stripping the ones he loves of their identity and robbing himself of the beauty of the individual people around him. Every religion I've ever looked at has some good ideas and then some crazy practices and demands of its followers that just seems like nonsense. So no. I'm closer to being a Deist like our Founding Fathers. There's something there, but we haven't scratched the surface of figuring it all out yet. And that's ok.

[Iron Mike]

My wife and kids are gone for the weekend. Usually I'm too busy to worry about such petty things as, "is there a religion that has it figured out"

I'd say you have some time to read some Joseph Campbell, then.....

[falco]

[HowardRoark]

You knew who that was without wiki, didn't you!

You would probably be a terror at Trivial Pursuit--if they even play that game anymore.

Please, the man added a whole new word to the lexicon and made abusive and cheating men across the country think twice--or 14 times--for a while anyway.

Trivial Pursuit got outdated in a hurry as new, useless stuff happened.

I guess to answer Justin's question a little more seriously, I believe that most religions have individual small pieces of the puzzle and use stories to make their followers feel more secure about things they can't explain. They like to believe that they are somehow insulated from the bad things that happen in the world because of their beliefs, but we see that's a false belief. Tsunamis, earthquakes, plane crashes, wildfires, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, droughts, car accidents and murders happen too randomly for me to think that any one religion has their prayers answered any more than anyone else. Animals get eaten by other animals and if we stray to the wrong place, we get eaten too. Good people get cancer. It's just the way it happens. Do I think that God put his kid here to have us murder him during his natural lifetime and that somehow exonerates us for everything we do wrong? No. Do I think that God came to a mountain and invented a burqa? No. That's man trying to keep himself from being tempted and in the process stripping the ones he loves of their identity and robbing himself of the beauty of the individual people around him. Every religion I've ever looked at has some good ideas and then some crazy practices and demands of its followers that just seems like nonsense. So no. I'm closer to being a Deist like our Founding Fathers. There's something there, but we haven't scratched the surface of figuring it all out yet. And that's ok.

Which religion teaches that its followers will be insulated from bad things happening to them? I am a Christian, and Christianity certainly does not teach any such thing.

So, you will decide what is good and evil while sifting and winnowing through the various religions out there. I believe we have the god of all gods right here then…..You.

How do you determine what is “good and what is “evil.” Very dated linguistics by the way…..I thought you were more enlightened than that….Imagine there’s no heaven, no hell below us…..and whatnot.

[retailguy]

My summary of this book:

"If I (the author) can't conceive it, it is not possible..." Scary ego right there.

[MJZiggy]

You knew who that was without wiki, didn't you!

You would probably be a terror at Trivial Pursuit--if they even play that game anymore.

Please, the man added a whole new word to the lexicon and made abusive and cheating men across the country think twice--or 14 times--for a while anyway.

Trivial Pursuit got outdated in a hurry as new, useless stuff happened.

I guess to answer Justin's question a little more seriously, I believe that most religions have individual small pieces of the puzzle and use stories to make their followers feel more secure about things they can't explain. They like to believe that they are somehow insulated from the bad things that happen in the world because of their beliefs, but we see that's a false belief. Tsunamis, earthquakes, plane crashes, wildfires, tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, droughts, car accidents and murders happen too randomly for me to think that any one religion has their prayers answered any more than anyone else. Animals get eaten by other animals and if we stray to the wrong place, we get eaten too. Good people get cancer. It's just the way it happens. Do I think that God put his kid here to have us murder him during his natural lifetime and that somehow exonerates us for everything we do wrong? No. Do I think that God came to a mountain and invented a burqa? No. That's man trying to keep himself from being tempted and in the process stripping the ones he loves of their identity and robbing himself of the beauty of the individual people around him. Every religion I've ever looked at has some good ideas and then some crazy practices and demands of its followers that just seems like nonsense. So no. I'm closer to being a Deist like our Founding Fathers. There's something there, but we haven't scratched the surface of figuring it all out yet. And that's ok.

Which religion teaches that its followers will be insulated from bad things happening to them? I am a Christian, and Christianity certainly does not teach any such thing.

So, you will decide what is good and evil while sifting and winnowing through the various religions out there. I believe we have the god of all gods right here then…..You.

How do you determine what is “good and what is “evil.” Very dated linguistics by the way…..I thought you were more enlightened than that….Imagine there’s no heaven, no hell below us…..and whatnot.

Who said their religion teaches it? I said some "like to believe" did I not? It's up there in red for your reference. I know plenty of people like that. I have a facebook friend who posted to her page that she feared flooding with the recent storms. She decided that since she only had puddles all over her basement that God must love her (this is a pattern--she puts preventable problems in God's hands and takes no action on her own). Her kid got braces and the whole family prayed that her teeth wouldn't hurt because God loves her. Ummm...they're moving her teeth. That hurts. When the baby had a fever they gave God credit when it broke. The tylenol had nothing to do with it. A large segment of our population seems to believe that God wants them to wear a small hat from Friday night to Monday morning. Another segment seems to find female hair evil--some of them think the whole of the female is evil and needs covering. Some believe meat is evil, but only on Fridays during lent. I know some who believe Christmas trees are evil. They also believe that God is all powerful but yet that after they die they become him. Some people leave medical intervention in the hands of God. People die that way from thing like appendicitis.

Some believe God is all loving, all powerful and omnicient. if God is all powerful, then he has the power to control the world yet doesn't protect those he is supposed to be all loving to. His followers often die horrid deaths just like everyone else. So is he not all powerful or just an ass that doesn't look out for those who love him? Or is he not in control? Do you really think he track and micromanages the lives of 6.8 billion people?

You want to know good from evil? If you hurt others, that's evil. If you treat others and the world and yourself with respect, not evil. You think you need a god to tell you right from wrong? Are you not bright enough to figure it out on your own? And if you do need him, do you want the lesson from someone who could control the horrid, wretched things that happen to people and chooses to let his people be screwed over, drowned, struck by lightning killed, maimed or a million other stupid things that happen to people? If god is such a certainty, then why do you have doubt?

[retailguy]

Some believe God is all loving, all powerful and omnicient. if God is all powerful, then he has the power to control the world yet doesn't protect those he is supposed to be all loving to.

My answer is free will. God wanted us to have the ability to make choices and benefit from them, or learn from them if we didn't make the best choices. Interfering in those choices, would inhibit mans ability to learn and grow from those decisions.

I'll admit, that I struggle with illness in little children. Most of the rest of it, I can accept. That'll be one of the questions that I'd like God to explain to me.

His followers often die horrid deaths just like everyone else. So is he not all powerful or just an ass that doesn't look out for those who love him?

Why should he interfere? So he can "prove" he exists? Is he truly showing "compassion" to keep that person alive and on earth if the the true reward is found in heaven? Wouldn't "compassion" be letting that person die so they can go to the true reward?

Or is he not in control?

He is "controlling" those things that he wishes to control. He is letting you control your life, and me control my life. He rewards me when I do well, and punishes me when I don't.

Do you really think he track and micromanages the lives of 6.8 billion people?

Tracks? yes. Micro manages? No. I don't believe that God cares about a lot of my decisions. I think he's interested what I pick and what I do with it, but I'm not sure most of my decisions are a big deal. I question whether God really cares where we work, or what car we drive, or where we live. I think he cares deeply whether I manage my finances properly, and raise my children according to his word, and that I treat my neighbors with respect.

You want to know good from evil? If you hurt others, that's evil. If you treat others and the world and yourself with respect, not evil.

So, is it good or evil if I have great intentions when I hand that bum on the side of the freeway a dollar, and it enables him to stay on the side of the road for another day, instead of forcing him to get the help he needs?

You think you need a god to tell you right from wrong?

I don't think it matters what I think. I think God defined morality when he wrote the Bible, and since it was around before I was, it defined right and wrong for me. I can't honestly argue with anything that the Bible says is right and wrong, so why do I really need to "figure it out for myself"?

Also, if I were writing the rules of morality, wouldn't I make sure that my needs were taken care of?

Are you not bright enough to figure it out on your own?

Do you really believe that some of those folks on the bus next to you can figure out right from wrong on their own? Really?

And if you do need him, do you want the lesson from someone who could control the horrid, wretched things that happen to people and chooses to let his people be screwed over, drowned, struck by lightning killed, maimed or a million other stupid things that happen to people?

Yes.

I always know there is a part to the situation that I can't forsee and I can't understand. Knowing that what seems like certainty isn't, helps me think of solutions that I might not pursue if I knew that the particular situation is "over".

If god is such a certainty, then why do you have doubt?

Faith. God wants us to choose him. He wants us to believe even when we cannot get all the facts.

Hebrews 11:1 tells me that "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

If he were to "completely" prove himself to the world, the world would not need faith. Faith is the cornerstone upon which God wants me to base my belief.

I doubt because I don't fully understand why this is necessary. I have difficulty being OK with the fact that I don't "control" the rules.

[falco]

[wootah]

It always strikes me how religious people still are in the USA. I'm happy for those who find strength or comfort from such an idea, but I'm an atheist myself.

Our current level of science doesn't allow us to explain some things, but I haven't seen or felt anything in my life which concludes me to think there is a god somewhere.