Atheists: What would it take?

[cole grey]

That just shows you can't take every thing in the bible literally.
It goes against all sensibility that these words mean your life will be a joyride. Some of the most widely read christian authors, C.S. Lewis for example, suffered quite a bit.
Most everyone does. If not everyone.
David suffered quite a bit, too.
Maybe there is more to the book you quote from than what first meets the eye.

 

[one_raven]

(Fuck the raven, a toast to his fingers falling off.
Bad writers should be penailized)

What the hell was that for?
I didn't say anything about your post.
Actually, I thought it was a damned good post and it gave me a lot to think about.
I didn't respond sooner then this simply bacause I haven't been online.
God has to be male for the story.
The protagonist is male, but was female in a past life and knew God on a personal level. This aspect is something that can't be changed, unfortunately.
The protagonist (Eric, by the way) will eventually find out about his past lives and his constant connection with the God character.
(God has actually been stalking HIM through quite a few lifetimes trying to reach him/her)

I know this isn't making a lot of sense, and couldn't if I didn't go through the whole story and far too many details to really sum up on a forum.

I am drawn to your ideas of the God character's personality, though and have to real sit with them and mull for a while.

If i am an atheist i would ask him to make me omniscient for a minute. Knowing all about/of the present (if possible past) alone would suffice to realise who he is. I don't think either devil (or alien) can do this feat.

He does eventually.
He has to learn how to acquire this skill that, actually, anyone can master.

Still sifting through the other posts.
Thanks for the advice and insight.

 

[one_raven]

But if I were to ask of something I think I would ask "What would prove that you don't exist?" the outcome would prove to me that he exists or doesn't.

I like that.

You have been conditioned by society to accept death.

I think you have that backwards.
One of the main driving forces behind science, medicine, social structures, religious practices etc is attempting to deny or overcome mortality.
Fear of death is the driving force behind most people's lives and motivations for almost all things.

 

[mopc]

An addendum here: people confuse believing God exists with "believing in God" (creed). That's stupid. So I believe rabbits exist, thus I believe in rabbits? God may exist and he may never interfere in the world, so we don't have to care about God.

 

[Yorda]

That's stupid.

Now you're being sarcastic again.

 

[gendanken]

I know, I know, I know- Gendanken should be punched through the mouth for being so late.
Procrastinate, irritate.

By now your rough draft is probably polished up and finished so anything I add here would be pointless- but I did promise you I'd post.

What the hell was that for?

Sorry.
There's a pattern around here of people not reading 'serious' posts, so excitement to just post goes wasted- bad feeling.
I thought this was that.

(bad Gendanken!! Bad girl!!)

I didn't say anything about your post.
Actually, I thought it was a damned good post and it gave me a lot to think about.
I didn't respond sooner then this simply bacause I haven't been online.
God has to be male for the story.
The protagonist is male, but was female in a past life and knew God on a personal level. This aspect is something that can't be changed, unfortunately.
The protagonist (Eric, by the way) will eventually find out about his past lives and his constant connection with the God character.
(God has actually been stalking HIM through quite a few lifetimes trying to reach him/her)

I know this isn't making a lot of sense, and couldn't if I didn't go through the whole story and far too many details to really sum up on a forum.

I am drawn to your ideas of the God character's personality, though and have to real sit with them and mull for a while.

Well, if neither the gender or plot can be altered I still say the God personality would be much more interesting if kept simple.
And counterintuitive.

Say “GOD” and people see halos. The vision is Hellenized and majestic, the entity clever and noble with this amazing quality of 'seeing right through you'.

That's been the cliché from hieroglyphs to the DVD's, to picture god so nobly.

But to find a storyline where God is a contradictory moron is weird.
I have yet to read a story where its protagonist meets a simple human being- say the person standing in front of him at FoodGiant or the janitor- and as the story unfolds finds himself riveted to this person they know is an idiot.
They know but are in bondage nonetheless for no explainable reason.

In much the same way that believers know whoever wrote that Joshua made the sun stop in the sky was a cosmological idiot but still believe anyway.


"Bruce Almighty" did something like this- god was both black and a janitor, two counterintuitive strikes against the traditional image of god.
But we are made to know that Morgan Freeman is God because of the same cliché: he can see right through you, knows your past, and does magic.

But something wholly counterintuitive would have made him not only black and a janitor but a little 'dumb' as well.
That'd make a far more interesting story.
It would actually make you think about the nature of religion instead of being entertained by it.

Maybe I'll write it.