"God" confused with "Religion"

[chompchompchomsky]

God and Religion are completly different things, and I think it's annoying that people critize religion and things religions have done and say that it somehow makes God a less valid hyothesis. Because it doesn't it all, considering its omniunknowabilty. Thoughts?

[Obbe]

I agree very much.

I think lots of the regulars of My God who often proclaim how stupid the existence of God would be, are actually just upset with one religion or another.

Most of the problems people have with spirituality that get discussed in this forum have to do with the traditions and unique beliefs of a particular religion, rather then the possibility of a God.

[Hare_Geist]

I think it's annoying that people critize religion and things religions have done and say that it somehow makes God a less valid hyothesis

That really depends on which God is under discussion. The Christian God, for example, is chained to Christianity. You can’t avoid criticising the Christian God, if you criticize, say, the notions of hell and all sins being equal. But of course said criticisms would have no bearing on conceptions of God dependent of Christianity, such as the idea that God is “beingness” itself (which I do not support, btw).

[...]

Members like yourself have claimed numerous times that the regular atheists - Rust, AngryFemme, BrokeProphet, etc. - are just angry about some particular religion, and each time they say they wouldn’t accept any god whose existence is unsubstantiated, yet you guys still don’t get tired of these accusations.

[SomeLowLife]

God and Religion are completly different things

re·li·gion (rĭ-lĭj'ən) pronunciation
noun.


1. Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe.

[Obbe]

Members like yourself have claimed numerous times that the regular atheists - Rust, AngryFemme, BrokeProphet, etc. - are just angry about some particular religion, and each time they say they wouldn’t accept any god whose existence is unsubstantiated, yet you guys still don’t get tired of these accusations.

I didn't say anyone in particular, and between the three you have listed, only BrokeProphet ever seems to have a lot of spite for a particular religion.

It is fine if they choose not to accept any gods whose existence is unsubstantiated, I don't have any problems with that.

I am not accusing anyone of anything, so please don't group me or anyone else who makes the observation that a lot of posters so called "arguments" against God are really only against a particular religion, as accusing everyone as doing so. It is a very observable phenomenon, there have plenty of threads about "what i don get about god..." that are clearly actually about problems with a particular religion. Do you disagree with that?

Who exactly do you mean by "you guys"?

[triballp]

That really depends on which God is under discussion. The Christian God, for example, is chained to Christianity. You can’t avoid criticising the Christian God, if you criticize, say, the notions of hell and all sins being equal. But of course said criticisms would have no bearing on conceptions of God dependent of Christianity, such as the idea that God is “beingness” itself (which I do not support, btw).

This is untrue. I believe in the christian god, but that doesnt mean that I agree 100 percent with the Churches views and the bibles. The church and the bible have been corrupted by man, since man isnt perfect. So criticizing the church doesnt necessarily mean Im criticizing god.

[villageillness]

I don't think people are actually criticizing religion but rather the will of God which brings forth a set rules, limitations and boundaries which forms a way of life structure equaling religion. A lot of people are not going to go out their way to point out which God they are referring to and which religion they are talking about. You can usually guess which it is by the nature of the post and in what direction it is.

But not to worry..If you want to focus on a particular religion and believe in the particular God of that religion. Then why not just make a thread about it explaining how the God of that religion is off the hook?

If however you want to leave religion out of it, and you have come to some different understanding of what you think God is and what brings you to that understanding and maybe that God could possibly even exist, then let's hear it :)

[Hare_Geist]

This is untrue. I believe in the christian god, but that doesnt mean that I agree 100 percent with the Churches views and the bibles. The church and the bible have been corrupted by man, since man isnt perfect. So criticizing the church doesnt necessarily mean Im criticizing god.

Ah yes, I stand corrected.

[triballp]

Ah yes, I stand corrected.

woah, i didnt realize you were a moderator. Please forgive me for my blasphemous ways against thy authority :D

[Hare_Geist]

Please forgive me for my blasphemous ways against thy authority :D

Nah, you're going to get it now! :p

[triballp]

Nah, you're going to get it now! :p

Good one.

[AngryFemme]

It's not God that I've criticized, but more the human propensity to become so transfixed and mesmerized by the idea.

My distaste for the many God concepts out there isn't partial to any one belief strain; the crux of the self-deception is one and the same to me - highly unappealing. Religion is just the unpleasant side effect of many people being infected by the idea, and is the result of the momentum that can build up in an idea as fit as the God one is. It's amazing, to me, that it still survives in this day and age.

Trying to figure it all out is mind-boggling, which I guess is what keeps it interesting. Sometimes I don't know whether to shit, or go blind.

[Rust]

I am not accusing anyone of anything,



I think lots of the regulars of My God who often proclaim how stupid the existence of God would be, are actually just upset with one religion or another.



You're not accusing anyone of anything... just "lots of posters" of "just being upset with one religion or another"...

[ArmsMerchant]

This is untrue. I believe in the christian god, but that doesnt mean that I agree 100 percent with the Churches views and the bibles. The church and the bible have been corrupted by man, since man isnt perfect. So criticizing the church doesnt necessarily mean Im criticizing god.

This makes you, by definition, a heretic. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

What you are saying is , to use a political analogy, that you are a Republican but you disagree with the party platform. Logically, you can't have it both ways.

That said, you have a lot of company, at least in America. Many people claim to be this or that flavor of Christian, whilst holding beliefs that are totally at odds with the dogma of their "faith".

[chompchompchomsky]

There cannot be any criticism of God, as this thing does not have any known qualities, it has only supposed qualities. There can only be criticism of a religious or spiritual concepction of God. Let us substitute "first cause" or "designer of your circultory system"or "initiator of evolutionary process" for "God"

[AngryFemme]

Let us substitute "first cause" or "designer of your circultory system"or "initiator of evolutionary process" for "God"

Let's not. Where's the utility in that? There's no sense making an already complex problem more complex and more problematic.

[shitty wok]

God and religion are different. One can believe in God but not associate with a religion (Deism), and some can have no belief in a diety but have religious convictions (some Buddhists, Raelians)

[chompchompchomsky]

Let's not. Where's the utility in that? There's no sense making an already complex problem more complex and more problematic.

I am making the problem much clearer. God is without known quality, and thus any criticism of it is a critisism of a human conception. "First cause" is really the only debatable aspect to God, all else is religious, that was my original complaint when I made this thread, that people bitched about God as though God made any promises. I am trying to seperate God from assigned qualities, as God's qualities are unknowable.