I was struck by the phrase "self-deification" used in the Lenten reflection quoted in #10248. I see this as one of the major tools used by the devil to destroy our faith. It is so often used as in:If I were God I would not allow ....
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If our sense of morality and reason is or opposite from our creator, it can only mean two things:
Either god is outright evil, as he deliberatly gave us the opposite of his and yet punishes us when we act accordingly.
Or god is horribly incompetent if he can't even get that right.
Or both: god is evil, but unintentionally gave us a morality that allows us to see him like that.
Either way, god is not worthy of our worship.
In other words:
If I were God I would not allow....
Alan Burns: "In these examples the devil is tempting us to assume that our way of thinking is superior to God's. So instead of using our God given gifts of intelligence and intellect for good in the way God intended, the devil tempts us to become like robots who have gotten so advanced, TOO advanced, they've developed self-awareness and a free will independent of their creators' programming."
Societies which don’t follow rigid religious rules tend to prosper, societies which do - not so much. So according to the evidence our way of thinking is better than God’s. If he thinks otherwise he is free to present his evidence. Or, you know, exist.
Complex one.
On one side, he rightfully whips at all those believers(and not only christians) who project their own wills upon God's will. No matter wether you're a believer or not, it's bound to be a bad thing - and a deserved criticism.
OTOH, calling the devil to explain that is exactly the same phenomenon : he projects (right, in that case)his own view on the devil, instead of accepting it's just a human's weakness.
It is right to complain about religious people putting themselves in the place of God. However, Alan Burns is complaining of people who are, in effect, seeking to exercise God's mercy ; fundie Christians, however, put themselves in the place of God, seeking to exercise God's judgement .
"So instead of using our God given gifts of intelligence and intellect for good in the way God intended, the devil tempts us to mis-use them, along with other God given gifts, to destroy out faith"
'Our God given gifts of intelligence and intellect', you say? So where's yours if you can't spell 'Our '?!
I've built wheels when I worked in a bike shop. I know that Pi = 3.141592...
...when your oh so superior 'God' thinks Pi = exactly 3. And according to him, insects have four legs.
So thank you for admitting that your 'God' is in fact inferior to his creation. We can make wheels on the basis of Pi = 3.141592...
image
A lot of wheels on the above Challenger II. Made here in the UK: where tanks were invented in WWI.
Judges 1:19 alone proves that we mere mortals can make your 'God' our bitch; a 21st Century Iron Chariot developed via our evolution -given gifts of intelligence and intellect, to destroy your God .
...so why haven't you come up with the only possible reason why your J-boy hasn't returned by now, Al?
Mayasmom
If I were a god, I'd try to make things better. But people would probably not listen to me. And argue. And try to put me on trial for smiting bad guys. And call me a tyrant and/or the Devil, despite the fact I clearly said that was my brother. And throw water on me. And would pray to me all hours of the day and night so I get no sleep. And make up stupid shit about me like I hate the color blue or that Cadbury chocolates are an idol to other gods. And form offshoot religions that protray me as pure evil or sadistic. Or like a child having a temper tantrum.
Who'd want that?
special pleading. why, exactly, should i NOT assume my way of thinking is superior to god's? considering all the myriad muddled conflicting interpretations there are of the endlessly mistranslated, outdated, internally inconsistent holey writ that's supposed to be our record of "god's way of thinking", it's not hard at all for me to produce a morality tale superior to THAT.
I was struck by the phrase "self-deification"
Me too, I thought it meant making one's self less iffy.
Sounds to me as if Al was struck by self-defecation .
He is a major tool .
(sounds just like a commercial!):
'Yes! Use this major tool to Destroy out Faith!'
X3
> Every time you pray you are telling your god that your ideas are better than what he's doing.
For some reason, the Christians that agree with you are the scariest...
'Self deification' sounds awsome. If I was a god, I'd actually do things, you know? Actually change things, create new devices, whereas your god, to me, sits on his ass all day and dosen't meddle with us anymore. I'd say this means we can probably use our intelligence; we are the ones who do things here, not him.
There are two ways in which people weasel out of the old "problem of evil": one is to claim we bring evil on ourselves through our own free will and God just lets it happen, and the other is to deny that evil exists and God has some master plan that we're too stupid to understand. Burns apparently falls into the second camp.
The Jim Carrey film "Bruce Almighty" is one of the type of films I'm an enthusiast of: the 'What If'.
It posited the notion 'What would you do, if you were God?'
I bet you daren't watch that film, Al. Or that by Simon Pegg, "Absolutely Anything".
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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