What am I?

SetiAlpha6

SetiAlpha6

Come Let Us Reason Together
Valued Senior Member
I resolve to love justice, to long for that which is right, to love mercy, to pity the suffering, to assist the weak, to forget wrongs and remember rights -- to love the truth, to be sincere, to utter honest words, to love liberty, to wage relentless war against slavery in all its forms, to love wife and family and friend, to make a happy home, to love the beauty in art, in nature, to cultivate the mind, to be familiar with the mighty thoughts that genius has expressed, the noble deeds of all the peoples of the world, to cultivate courage and cheerfulness, to make others happy, to fill life with the splendor of generous acts, the warmth of loving words, to discard error, to destroy prejudice, to receive new truths with gladness, to cultivate hope in others, to see the calm beyond the storm, the dawn beyond the night, to do the best that can be done and then to be resigned.

I resolve to live my life with Faith, Hope, and Love. Faith believes that God is and Hope trusts that He is truly wise and good. Those who have no shelter hope for a home. -- Hope builds their house and plants the flowers and fills the air with song. The sick and suffering hope for health. -- Hope gives them health and paints the roses in their cheeks. The lonely, the forsaken, hope for love. -- Hope brings the lover to their arms. They feel the kisses on their eager lips. The poor in tenements and huts, in spite of rags and hunger hope for wealth. -- Hope fills their thin and trembling hands with gold. I will Hope against hope that this poor old earth on which we now live, may still one day be a world without crime -- without hunger -- without hate -- without fear -- without a tear. The dying Hopes that death is but another birth, and Love leans above the pallid face and whispers, "We shall meet again." I will Hope that there is another life after this one. One that will bring peace and joy to all the children of men.

(I rewrote and personalized something that was originally written by Robert G. Ingersoll)

If this were my religion what religion would I be?
 
I guess what I am really trying to say is that; to me at least, the above text seems to provide a pretty good working philosophy for most of life. I would regard it as generally a better way to approach life and other people than the Christian, Muslim, or Jewish faiths. I have been a Christian for over 40 years now and I am finally, painfully, waking up to the real problems that exist within my own faith. But I can find no other faiths that are really substantially any better.

Does anyone else have a better working philosophy?

Thanks!
 
There is no need to be Christian, Muslim, Jewish, etc. There is no point to join an organized religion (besides the social benefits). Just do what you believe is right, and live your life fairly and happily. Do you really need to pick and set of doctrines to follow? Do you really need to be under a "named religion." Believe in the God that you feel exists and follow the life style that you feel you should follow. Just face that fact that no muslim, christian, jewish, zionist, etc. religious figure knows what the shit they are talking about. Either way its not fact.

I'm an atheist not because I hate religion, but because I don't feel the need to join an organized religion and because I just simply don't believe in God. But I'm not trying to advise you on the existence of a god --I'm trying to explain that there is no right or wrong religion and thus no point in following a specific one.
 
SetiAlpha6,

From your original post, I would deem you a Deist with Humanist overtones. And probably a real nice guy.

Frankly, SA6, the only that really separates Christianity from most everything else is Jesus Christ. The main thing Jesus does is to pardon us from our guilt before a totally just and honorable God.

Being 'nice' to people isn't an exclusively Christian concept. The Hindus, for instance, are nice to everyone - except the 'untouchables' and the Buddhists and the Sikhs and the Moslems in Pakistan. The Buddhists are nice to everyone, except the Hindus. The Muslims are nice to each other, most of the time. Humanists are nice to everyone in the world - except anyone who disagrees with them.

The matter in which Jesus is really indispensible is that whole 'go to heaven-go to hell-take your pick' thing.
 
Thanks for your comments. I am just trying to find my way through a maze of confusing ideas.

I am surely not perfect but I seem to, at least, have the ability, desire, and the will to forgive my own children for wrongs done against me simply because I love them. I never threaten them with death, or eternal torture, or demand a payment of some kind before I forgive them. I just forgive them! I can even forgive them before they ask me to. There is nothing unjust in doing this, as far as I know. It’s usually called love. What about justice demands that you treat a person who offends you, even in a very small detail, worse than they have ever treated you?

If I can do such a simple thing then why is it that the God in the Bible cannot? According to the Bible, God is love, and he loves us since we are all His children. But also according to Bible, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). I, at least, know of no single instance in the Bible where God just forgives a person because He loves them. There is always, always, the shedding of blood and death for payment. Now, indeed how can I be “better” than the God who created me? I can’t!

My original post describes a person who is better than me. But if I hold those, or similar, ideals as my goal perhaps I will grow in those directions. I will have to look into deism more in the future. Any deists out there?
 
Archie said:
The main thing Jesus does is to pardon us from our guilt before a totally just and honorable God.
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"I cannot conceive of a god who rewards and punishes his creatures or has a will of the kind we experience in ourselves. Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egotism, cherish such thoughts. I am satisfied with the mystery of the eternity of life and a glimpse of the marvelous structure of the existing world, together with the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in Nature."

~~ Albert Einstein
 
SetiAlpha6 said:
I guess what I am really trying to say is that; to me at least, the above text seems to provide a pretty good working philosophy for most of life. I would regard it as generally a better way to approach life and other people than the Christian, Muslim, or Jewish faiths. I have been a Christian for over 40 years now and I am finally, painfully, waking up to the real problems that exist within my own faith. But I can find no other faiths that are really substantially any better.

Does anyone else have a better working philosophy?

Thanks!
Click to expand...


What are these "problems in your faith" ?

All Praise The Ancient Of Days
 
Adstar said:
What are these "problems in your faith" ?

All Praise The Ancient Of Days
Click to expand...

I am not really interested in destroying the faith of others but I am interested in the discussion of topics that might help me see the "truth" more clearly, as far as it can be determined.

One problem in my faith, as I tried to express above, has to do with the issue of forgiveness. We could explore that topic a little more if you like.

Another basic problem in my faith is that the more I study the Bible the more I seem to find inconsistencies and even contradictions in teaching. Some that are critical to the faith itself, in my view. So, I do not currently hold the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy as being true.

Thanks!
 
The answer is quite simply 'God' doesn't exist. You are a human and have needs. You need to have a good relationship with yourself (the ego, often thought of as 'God'). You need to have a good relationship with others. You need to deeply appreciate something and view it as 'higher'.

IMO, be happy, amazed, and awed that you're a point of consciousness in a reality that has natural processes to produce sentience. Develop all the right relationships and appreciations. And above all, don't substitute fantasy for truth.
 
Crunchy Cat said:
You need to have a good relationship with yourself (the ego, often thought of as 'God'). You need to have a good relationship with others.
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Like I say, what people call God is our higher self.

We separated from God. Garden of Eden. We separated from our true self. We are not ourselves anymore, so we keep evolving.

We have crucified our higher self on the cross which represents the world/body.
 
ellion said:
SetiAlpha6:
do you know God or do you Believe in god?
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I am not sure what to think about God right now. I have lived by faith virtually all of my life as a Bible believing Christian with a personal relationship with God. But during the last two years or so I have been testing my faith with basic reason and simple logic and I am at a point now where the more I read the Bible, the more evil that God seems to become to me. I still believe in God, because I have personally seen Him work in my life and others. My father was physically healed by Him. I know, miracles don’t really happen anymore, right? But I still have problems with the Christian faith and the accuracy of the Bible. Perhaps God is better than what has been written about Him.
 
SetiAlpha6 said:
I am not really interested in destroying the faith of others but I am interested in the discussion of topics that might help me see the "truth" more clearly, as far as it can be determined.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. And do not worry if you do destroy someone’s faith then that faith was worth nothing at the start. ;)

One problem in my faith, as I tried to express above, has to do with the issue of forgiveness. We could explore that topic a little more if you like.
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So you have a problem with forgiveness? But you do not identify what the actual problem is? Yes i would like to explore this topic. I would like to explore all your topics. That’s why i asked you "What are these "problems in your faith" ?" :)


Another basic problem in my faith is that the more I study the Bible the more I seem to find inconsistencies and even contradictions in teaching. Some that are critical to the faith itself, in my view. So, I do not currently hold the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy as being true.
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Please fell free to bring forth one. You don't have to find them all just find 1 and post it to me and i will see if i can answer it for you.

So please tell me the problems in your faith.



All Praise The Ancient Of Days
 
Adstar said:
Please fell free to bring forth one. You don't have to find them all just find 1 and post it to me and i will see if i can answer it for you.
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Proverbs 20:30 (NIV)
30 Blows and wounds cleanse away evil,
and beatings purge the inmost being.

I do not agree with this "truth"! Do you? If you agree with it, how should we implement this "wise proverb" to cleanse the world of evil? Should the church adopt this practice and use it against its own "evil" people (that would be all of us)? I think it has actually done this in the past, by the way. Or should we use it only for "evil" people outside the church instead?

In my opinion, we must surely not do any of these wretched things because it is a false and evil statement to begin with. This is called physical abuse! And this is immoral.

Best Wishes!
 
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Hi Seti,

Just wanted to add, that I hold c7ityi_'s assertions that 'look like' they build upon my response as pure fantasy. There's really no relation and please let me know if there are any questions about my original response (mine and c7ityi_'s are posted below for convenience.

Crunchy Cat said:
The answer is quite simply 'God' doesn't exist. You are a human and have needs. You need to have a good relationship with yourself (the ego, often thought of as 'God'). You need to have a good relationship with others. You need to deeply appreciate something and view it as 'higher'.

IMO, be happy, amazed, and awed that you're a point of consciousness in a reality that has natural processes to produce sentience. Develop all the right relationships and appreciations. And above all, don't substitute fantasy for truth.
Click to expand...


c7ityi_ said:
Like I say, what people call God is our higher self.

We separated from God. Garden of Eden. We separated from our true self. We are not ourselves anymore, so we keep evolving.

We have crucified our higher self on the cross which represents the world/body.
Click to expand...
 
Crunchy Cat said:
Hi Seti,

....let me know if there are any questions about my original response
Click to expand...


Hi Crunchy,

Thank you for your comments, but I am not personally sure that the “ego” has the ability to heal a completely debilitating bone and cartilage back problem overnight. That is what happened to my own father over forty years ago and he has never had a back problem since that night. The doctors had given up on him. Sorry, but that is a reality in my life that I just can’t quite easily ignore. My dad is a witness to me of the healing hand of God every time I see him up walking or even dancing around.

So, I guess I would ask you, how you know there is no God? That is a fairly difficult, if not impossible thing to prove.

Thanks!







Thank You!
 
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