God, the Lottery Winner

[Ramaraksha]

Picture it - you are a regular guy, nothing special about you, women turn down dates with you all the time, you rarely get invited to the happening parties but then suddenly your life changes - you have won the lottery! Now suddenly women are falling over themselves trying to date you, everyone wants you at their party, people cross the street to greet you warmly and call you their friend!

Unless you are a dumb fool you realize that all this "love" is for your money, not for you

I wonder how many would remain Theists who "love" God - remember this is a being they have never seen, have no clue what he or she or it looks like - absolutely zero idea of its nature - & yet they "love" Him, if there is no Heaven - no magic land of plenty, the cartoon land where nothing bad happens, land of plenty, just sit back and enjoy the good life!

Religions simply feed this greed for the easy good life and it amazes me how many millions, and even the best and brightest of them, fall for it

To be fair, I am a Theist - well, Atheist Hindu to be exact - but i feel shamed that God feels like a Lottery Winner, God is no fool and i refuse to see Her as such and so i reject Heaven and Hell

 

[ideologyhunter]

And -- in the JudeoChristian scheme -- they "love" "him" (it) even tho' "his" book portrays him as genocidal, fickle, shortsighted, enamored of sacrifice, racist to the nth power, sexist to the max. Oh and pro-slavery.

 

[Ramaraksha]

And -- in the JudeoChristian scheme -- they "love" "him" (it) even tho' "his" book portrays him as genocidal, fickle, shortsighted, enamored of sacrifice, racist to the nth power, sexist to the max. Oh and pro-slavery.

Well, actually it makes sense if you bring these ideas down to a rational level.

Remember these religions were born when Kings ruled with an iron fist, there was no democracy, the King was master of his land, and a subject's quality and quantity of life depended on how good the master was. These religions simply made God in the King's image - that's all they had to use. Subjects/slaves/servants brought before the king/master got down on their knees, shaking with fear, swore undying loyalty(belief in today's religions). If pleased he will let you stay in his kingdom(heaven) or else!(hell). Your words describe a common King, Dictator (remember they didn't have our democracy those days, it was a Top-down society, unlike today)
Master's word was law, master could do no wrong - "Did you hurt your hand beating me master?" - Slave mentality has been encouraged and promoted and millions blindly follow like sheep, as they say

 

[James Brown]

"We don't worship God because he's good. We worship God because he's powerful and we want to stay on his good side."

 

[Lunawalk]

Picture it - you are a regular guy, nothing special about you, women turn down dates with you all the time, you rarely get invited to the happening parties but then suddenly your life changes - you have won the lottery! Now suddenly women are falling over themselves trying to date you, everyone wants you at their party, people cross the street to greet you warmly and call you their friend!

Unless you are a dumb fool you realize that all this "love" is for your money, not for you

I wonder how many would remain Theists who "love" God - remember this is a being they have never seen, have no clue what he or she or it looks like - absolutely zero idea of its nature - & yet they "love" Him, if there is no Heaven - no magic land of plenty, the cartoon land where nothing bad happens, land of plenty, just sit back and enjoy the good life!

Religions simply feed this greed for the easy good life and it amazes me how many millions, and even the best and brightest of them, fall for it

To be fair, I am a Theist - well, Atheist Hindu to be exact - but i feel shamed that God feels like a Lottery Winner, God is no fool and i refuse to see Her as such and so i reject Heaven and Hell

Very interesting if there was an creator of the universe it indifferent to life on this one planet. Just curious what is an atheist Hindu? Are like a deist?

 

[Ramaraksha]

Picture it - you are a regular guy, nothing special about you, women turn down dates with you all the time, you rarely get invited to the happening parties but then suddenly your life changes - you have won the lottery! Now suddenly women are falling over themselves trying to date you, everyone wants you at their party, people cross the street to greet you warmly and call you their friend!

Unless you are a dumb fool you realize that all this "love" is for your money, not for you

I wonder how many would remain Theists who "love" God - remember this is a being they have never seen, have no clue what he or she or it looks like - absolutely zero idea of its nature - & yet they "love" Him, if there is no Heaven - no magic land of plenty, the cartoon land where nothing bad happens, land of plenty, just sit back and enjoy the good life!

Religions simply feed this greed for the easy good life and it amazes me how many millions, and even the best and brightest of them, fall for it

To be fair, I am a Theist - well, Atheist Hindu to be exact - but i feel shamed that God feels like a Lottery Winner, God is no fool and i refuse to see Her as such and so i reject Heaven and Hell

Very interesting if there was an creator of the universe it indifferent to life on this one planet. Just curious what is an atheist Hindu? Are like a deist?

You might get a different answer from others who call themselves that - but to me it says i don't have to pray to God - visit a Temple or read any holy books - i let my actions do the talking - praise God by my actions - i don't have to believe in any deities, pray or do any such things, though it is not prohibited, it is not necessary. The most important things are my Karmas(actions) - how i lead my life, what i do with it etc

 

[Colonel Sanders]

The whole "I love Jesus/God/The Divine Whatever" has always been baffling to me.

As James Brown said:

"We don't worship God because he's good. We worship God because he's powerful and we want to stay on his good side."

If there was no threat of eternal hellfire, and God was all, "Take me or leave me, you're just part of the Great Infinity and you'll be a part of it anyway," or something along those lines, people would immediately not love God. Yet, if there is an afterlife, that's exactly what's going to happen.

I don't know. I just had one of those sharp moments regarding the absurdity of the Christian god. Huh. It's been awhile.

 

[Atheos]

Yeah, it's not something folks would really want to admit to themselves, but perhaps that's because they believe their god knows their thoughts as well. This would certainly give one a sense of urgency not to think in skeptical patterns. I suppose I'm getting more and more cynical as I get older but I'm beginning to believe that apart from children and low-functioning adults, everyone who "loves" god are motivated in some part to do so by Pascal's Wager.

 

[funinspace]

Yeah, it's not something folks would really want to admit to themselves, but perhaps that's because they believe their god knows their thoughts as well. This would certainly give one a sense of urgency not to think in skeptical patterns. I suppose I'm getting more and more cynical as I get older but I'm beginning to believe that apart from children and low-functioning adults, everyone who "loves" god are motivated in some part to do so by Pascal's Wager.

Well....I've interacted and gotten to know at least 2 liberal protestant preachers over the years, and neither one really believed in eternal torment. They might have believed that there would be a "true death" for those that are really bad people. But in the end they seemed more like near universalists. They were both very thoughtful and intelligent people. I liked one comment made by one of them: "we don't have to check our brains at the door of the sanctuary when we go in".

Of course I faked my faith for a number of years, before giving it up, so I know it isn't that hard to do. Maybe these preachers were faking it to....but I have no inkling that they were faking it. At the same time, lots of "Christians" rarely go to a church, rarely give much of any time, rarely give much of their money, and often hardly know anything about their holy book. And something in that holy book said a thing about knowing them by their fruit. At level, I think the scripture is spot on in this one regard.

 

[Atheos]

I get what you're saying and for every opinion (especially ones that require as little thought as most of mine do) there's going to be plenty of counter-evidence no doubt. Having been a conservative preacher myself I know how things were for me. I was brimming with confidence that I was right, but to say I really "loved" god was stretching things a bit if I were to be totally honest with myself, which for the reasons I enumerated above was a thought I wouldn't allow myself to think.

This is especially true if one applied the "Love god with all your heart, soul, mind, strength" principle from Deuteronomy 6:5. God's more important than anything else in your life. Your children, your wife, your property, even your own life. I really find it hard to believe that more than a handful of believers can honestly say they live chronically at anywhere near that level of commitment. That's pretty tough considering you never actually get to interact with the dude except in your imagination.

 

[funinspace]

I did the mainstream Protestant thing growing up, and then was in indy/conservative Bible churches for about a dozen years as an adult, so I've kind of lived in both worlds. I think the liberal God-Inspired Bible Theology (GIBT) construct is a lot easier on the brain than the God-Breathed Bible Theology (GBBT) construct. Though the GBBT seems to offer the notion of simplicity, as you just take the Bible for what it says; or so that is what they tell themselves.

Then there is Mark 9:47 ""If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell,". So why aren't there lots of one eyed evangelicals? Because, duh...it is not to be taken literally. Yet, the fundagelical will bitch about those liberals, when they don't take the Bible literally. The liberal Christian doesn't need to wallow in shame for their perceived depravity; nor do they typically gloat about their piety, and about how evil those gays are. Yeah, it is weird how the fundagelical go to both extremes, often as Calvinists in the first group and then evangelicals in the second camp.

So what's the difference between a liberal Christian and the fundagelical Christian? The liberal Christian understands that they are in a cafeteria picking and choosing their food.

 

[Atheos]

Tru dat. I was in one of the more hardcore fundie groups, the church of Christ. The old joke about them was:

Guy dies and goes to heaven. St. Peter's taking him on a tour of the place. They go past this one room where folks are really having a high old time in a big drunken orgy. Peter explains that these were the Southern Baptists who never got to act like that while they were alive. Next they look in a room where folks are sitting around bored. Peter explains they were the Episcopalians and pretty much did it all while they were alive. Then they head down this long hallway with one desolate room at the end. Guy starts to ask who is here but Peter shush's him before he can talk. He whispers, "Those are the church of Christ folks. They like to think they're the only ones here."

Also:

Q: Why don't church of Christ folks have sex standing up?

A: Folks might think they're dancing.

 

[funinspace]

LOL Hadn't heard the dancing joke before.

 

[Atheos]

Another one:

Q: What's the most common first words out of a newly baptized church of Christ member's mouth?

A: Now, where's me someone I can argue with?

 

[James Brown]

Tru dat. I was in one of the more hardcore fundie groups, the church of Christ. The old joke about them was:

Guy dies and goes to heaven. St. Peter's taking him on a tour of the place. They go past this one room where folks are really having a high old time in a big drunken orgy. Peter explains that these were the Southern Baptists who never got to act like that while they were alive. Next they look in a room where folks are sitting around bored. Peter explains they were the Episcopalians and pretty much did it all while they were alive. Then they head down this long hallway with one desolate room at the end. Guy starts to ask who is here but Peter shush's him before he can talk. He whispers, "Those are the church of Christ folks. They like to think they're the only ones here."

Also:

Q: Why don't church of Christ folks have sex standing up?

A: Folks might think they're dancing.

I heard both jokes growing up, except the denomination was Baptist.