What difference does it make?

[DLH]

SIMPLY

What difference does it make whether OR NOT gods exist?

 

[Shadowy Man]

What definition of “gods” are you using here? In your other thread your definition included things that do indeed exist, so it would be weird to ask the question in the title of this thread if we already established that “gods” do exist.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

What difference does it make?

Well, for most of history, it was very rare to find anyone who didn't believe in God, ...

but don't forget how he defines gods in an out-of-context way from the forum purpose. Remember, money, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Kim Jong Un are gods. Defined that way, every human, every animal, every thing is a god. So, basically, the impact of gods is tremendous, ubiquitous and also silly to ask of us gods. We all know how valuable we gods are to the world.

Thank you. Thank you. *bows*

 

[steve_bank]

That is god as metaphor not as real gods.

 

[Elixir]

Wonder the dog has been with us for over two and a half years now, and most definitely thinks I’m God. She can beat me in hide and seek, but when it comes to important stuff like food and finding new ways and places to play, I’m all that and more.
Lucy, senile and feeble though she is, still knows she’s God. Complains to her subjects except when they’re fawning over her.
Seven the horse is the only sane member of the family. He knows I’m God, and considers himself on the same level with everyone else, four legged or two. He always has the right answer to questions that start with “what’s the best way to get to ,,,”
Mrs Elixir thinks I’m the devil and I kind of agree. I’m better than some but not near good as she.
The difference it makes might be hard to see,
Anyhow I pray to the gods I believe in and the ones I do not (which takes much longer)
I pray that I won’t let them all down as a god, or as a subject in Lucy’s case. And thanks for the food.
Xmas Eve I made a beautiful salad and cooked snow crab clusters , then tonight simple elegant filet mignon, baked potato and Green beans.
My advice if you’re gonna be a god (I’m not god material myself, but I’ve seen gods made) is keep your mouth shut until you find somebody’s keys they dropped, and you can catch up them to tell them you found their keys. Or something like that. An opportunity to lend surprise help.
Oh -gotta brag on being god again. Yesterday at Safeway carrying on
at the checkout when a couple got in line behind me waving a card to which two sets of plastic measuring spoons were attached. “Excuse me, we really need these-can we put them on your discount card and we’ll pay for it?” They seemed frantic like a critical baking emergency was in progress, so I leaned over, grabbed the spoons and handed them to the checker to scan them. I handed them back to the panicked baker couple and she was all no no no trying to give me money and I just asked don’t you have to be baking something somewhere? And they got all happy and grateful. I said merry Christmas, my friend the checker lady said “that was really nice!”. I felt like god.

 

[Wiploc]

SIMPLY

What difference does it make whether OR NOT gods exist?

Depends on the gods. It gods who torture people forever in the afterlife existed, that would be bad.

 

[Wiploc]

... Atheist only have one thing in common. Double speak.

I'm an atheist. You have my full attention.

I think your claim is outrageous, unsupportable.

But I don't want to derail this thread. Shall we start another?

 

[lostone]

It’s incomplete. What matters is the damaging and harmful manifestations of control that other people exert on him.

But the control isn't dependent upon the existence of God. If the God didn't exist something else could be used. Like science.

Don’t be confused into thinking it’s about Tom wanting control.

It isn't about Tom wanting to control his own life without the interference of anyone else for any reason?

He’s been clear over the years that it’s not a desire to be in control (aka to “want to be god-like” as the religionists mistakenly assume), it is a desire to not be harmed by the prejudices of others.

I didn't think it would take long for you to do what every other ideologue always does. What you say I'm doing. Let Tom speak for himself. Let the religionists speak for themselves. Put away your fragile dented mask.

You cup of derision runneth over. Tom didn’t do anything to earn snark from you. He didn’t reach some epiphany that you nurtured. It’s what he’s said all along. It’s you who finally caught up.

Do please be quiet.

This entire board is absolutely full of evidence for the relatively universal opinion that if religionists, cultists and believers didn’t try to harm us so regularly, we wouldn’t give a care what fantasies they indulge.

Bullshit.

Your calling someone else an ideologue is irony at its finest.

 

[Jarhyn]

Like, it matters to me because if gods didn't/couldn't exist, I couldn't play video games where I technically am one, for all I am glad the phenomena in them don't evolve or learn philosophy.

That would make me sad because I do enjoy certain games! It's not even about the "power" so much as learning in general how to construct systems.

I care little about whether such an entity exists with relation to this world, other than that I would like to build heaven for everyone here today, even if I find that such a place is radically different from the one I was working in/on previously (such as i does and find an afterlife to keep working in)

The contemplation matters more than the existence of a creator of this world. While I worry that if there is a god of the sort the Bible describes, that we would be in the very end of the endgame now, that we are already deep into the very end of days, and some big event is right around the corner.

And still the right answer is to continue working our hardest to build the kingdom of heaven today now for everyone.

That means blackjack and (consensual; robot?) hookers for the people who like blackjack and hookers. It means being able to crawl into a bottle but having every reason and resource not to, and people who really do want to talk rather than to just watch someone drink themselves to death. It means for the people who hurt others, for the people who were lazy, for the people who stole and cheated their way through their life, so long as those people can find happiness through simulation. It just means that whatever I build, I have to build it in a way that prevents others from being co-opted into a scene outside strong informed consent.

For the remainder who require a failure of consent to occur for their happiness to be experienced, those can exist in their own virtual wasteland where at least they are only the victims of each other.

But I don't really want to be in charge of that? I mean I spent decades figuring out why that's the goal, and how to accomplish that goal, and I think it's an awesome goal most people would agree with accomplishing assuming it's possible! But the last thing I want is all that responsibility. I just want to build it so I can live in it!

 

[Eldarion Lathria]

Not a great deal to me. But happens when a Christian dies, and stands before Odin?

Eldarion Lathria

 

[Elixir]

Not a great deal to me. But happens when a Christian dies, and stands before Odin?

Eldarion Lathria

I really don’t know, but sounds like things could get ugly!

 

[Jarhyn]

Not a great deal to me. But happens when a Christian dies, and stands before Odin?

Eldarion Lathria

I really don’t know, but sounds like things could get ugly!

And this was the initial intuition that got me to the idea that it's probably better to be an atheist who hopes to meet ANY good God that a theist who will almost certainly meet the wrong one!

Build heaven here, today, for everyone, and the only god who would judge you negatively for it is an asshole who you don't want in your eternity anyway.

 

[James Brown]

If there is a hereafter, then we will deal with it when we get there.

In the meantime, there is far too much work to be done in this world to spend any time thinking about the next one.

 

[abaddon]

If there is a hereafter, then we will deal with it when we get there.

In the meantime, there is far too much work to be done in this world to spend any time thinking about the next one.

Which is the difference that God-belief makes. He's a distraction from life. Too many believers think it's a fallen, corrupt, demon-haunted earth, and God will destroy or transfigure it soon. Life here is lesser than life in a more perfect "realm" somewhere else. So why care much about the work to be done in this world, unless it's for immediate comforts? IOW, unless it enriches the believer for the time that he has to endure being here?

They want to feel there's meaningfulness and they want an infinitely long life. But finding meaning in imaginary shit strips life "here on earth" of meaning. (And wanting an infinitely long life is a side-effect of hating reality).

Then post-christians look around and wonder "meaning? what meaning? it's an absurd universe!" because the traditional god-image is no longer viable. Humanity is STILL comparing reality against God and finding it lacking, even after stopping believing in God. (God, as an idea, is hardly "dead").

So of course it matters whether gods exist (in people's heads).

 

[TomC]

Not a great deal to me. But happens when a Christian dies, and stands before Odin?

Eldarion Lathria

I really don’t know, but sounds like things could get ugly!

Ha ha ha!
Betty Bowers* and Jerry Falwell probably Believe that they can make things ugly for Odin.
I doubt it very much.
Tom

 

[Elixir]

there is far too much work to be done in this world to spend any time thinking about the next one.

Indeed. The heat death of the universe looms!

 

[southernhybrid]

Wonder the dog has been with us for over two and a half years now, and most definitely thinks I’m God. She can beat me in hide and seek, but when it comes to important stuff like food and finding new ways and places to play, I’m all that and more.
Lucy, senile and feeble though she is, still knows she’s God. Complains to her subjects except when they’re fawning over her.
Seven the horse is the only sane member of the family. He knows I’m God, and considers himself on the same level with everyone else, four legged or two. He always has the right answer to questions that start with “what’s the best way to get to ,,,”
Mrs Elixir thinks I’m the devil and I kind of agree. I’m better than some but not near good as she.
The difference it makes might be hard to see,
Anyhow I pray to the gods I believe in and the ones I do not (which takes much longer)
I pray that I won’t let them all down as a god, or as a subject in Lucy’s case. And thanks for the food.
Xmas Eve I made a beautiful salad and cooked snow crab clusters , then tonight simple elegant filet mignon, baked potato and Green beans.
My advice if you’re gonna be a god (I’m not god material myself, but I’ve seen gods made) is keep your mouth shut until you find somebody’s keys they dropped, and you can catch up them to tell them you found their keys. Or something like that. An opportunity to lend surprise help.
Oh -gotta brag on being god again. Yesterday at Safeway carrying on
at the checkout when a couple got in line behind me waving a card to which two sets of plastic measuring spoons were attached. “Excuse me, we really need these-can we put them on your discount card and we’ll pay for it?” They seemed frantic like a critical baking emergency was in progress, so I leaned over, grabbed the spoons and handed them to the checker to scan them. I handed them back to the panicked baker couple and she was all no no no trying to give me money and I just asked don’t you have to be baking something somewhere? And they got all happy and grateful. I said merry Christmas, my friend the checker lady said “that was really nice!”. I felt like god.

Sorry, but I think you've got it a bit backwards. We are not the gods of our dogs. We are their servants and they are our gods. We adore them. We feed them, take them for walks, make sure they get good medical care and give them, warm, safe comfortable homes. That is assuming they have good servants, which I'm sure you are. In return, like any good god, they give us unconditional love and they forgive us our sins, like when we forget to feed them on time or take them for their walks. And, as you know, the word god itself, has been spelled backwards forever in English. Dog is God!

I buy things for a poor friend's grandkids and sometimes I give her money too. It doesn't make me feel like god. It makes me feel like I'm good without a god. Get it right!

 

[AdamWho]

The existence of god(s) matters because believers are willing to do evil things in the name of their god(s).

So fighting theism is a moral imperative

 

[ideologyhunter]

Not a great deal to me. But happens when a Christian dies, and stands before Odin?

Eldarion Lathria

If you are brought before a god that you never worshipped, and who threatens you in any way, there is one sure way to get out of the dilemma. Give God a wedgie. He/she/it becomes your bitch. Works with the gods of all times and cultures. This is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know. Give God a wedgie. I learned this from my grandmother, and she was no insane cuckoo.

 

[Jarhyn]

Not a great deal to me. But happens when a Christian dies, and stands before Odin?

Eldarion Lathria

If you are brought before a god that you never worshipped, and who threatens you in any way, there is one sure way to get out of the dilemma. Give God a wedgie. He/she/it becomes your bitch. Works with the gods of all times and cultures. This is all ye know and all ye need to know. Give God a wedgie. I learned this from my grandmother, and she was no insane cuckoo.

What if God isn't wearing pants?

 

[ideologyhunter]

I asked my grandmother that question. She said something like "Always carry an old jockstrap with you."