Hey FrGamble!

Quote: Evenbob

You read to much into everything, make
it all too complicated. What you need to
ask yourself is, why do you so desperately
need a god in your life and I don't at all.
Why is it you can't cope with everyday
life without a god crutch, and I do just fine
without it.

So do you then sometimes experience inner resistance to doing something you know is good?

Quote: FrGamble

is that they are making up their own reality?

OK. Lets take you, the native in
the Amazon jungle who's never
seen society, and a fashion model
in France. If they aren't creating
their very specific realities that
vary wildly from each other, who
is. Are you saying a god is doing
it? And you called my ideas
"strange, childish, and prehistoric."

You take in your surroundings, the
society you live in, what your upbringing
was, what your opinions are,
your physical abilities and disabilities,
and a myriad of other things, and minute
to minute you create a reality for yourself
that's different than anybody else's.
There is nobody directing you like a
puppet on a string, your reality is created
by you.

Tell me you don't do this in your life.

My ultra religious friend posted this earlier on Twitter -- I no longer even respond but I guess St. Thomas knows the mind and abilities of "God" lol

Quote: aceofspades

My ultra religious friend posted this earlier on Twitter -- I no longer even respond but I guess St. Thomas knows the mind and abilities of "God" lol
]

When you invent a god, you can
also invent what he can and cannot
do.

Quote: Evenbob

When you invent a god, you can
also invent what he can and cannot
do.

Exactly - he is taking the word of a mere mortal as to what "God" can and cannot do

Quote: aceofspades

Exactly - he is taking the word of a mere mortal as to what "God" can and cannot do

It's what makes organized religion so
dangerous. You can never prove them
right, but more importantly you can
never prove them wrong. In the
wrong hands, and it's always in
the wrong hands, the religion
can be weaponized.

Quote: Evenbob

OK. Lets take you, the native in
the Amazon jungle who's never
seen society, and a fashion model
in France. If they aren't creating
their very specific realities that
vary wildly from each other, who
is. Are you saying a god is doing
it? And you called my ideas
"strange, childish, and prehistoric."

You take in your surroundings, the
society you live in, what your upbringing
was, what your opinions are,
your physical abilities and disabilities,
and a myriad of other things, and minute
to minute you create a reality for yourself
that's different than anybody else's.
There is nobody directing you like a
puppet on a string, your reality is created
by you.

Tell me you don't do this in your life.

I think we are talking about very different things. You seem to be talking about making the best of whatever situation you find yourself. I'm talking about making up whatever you want to believe as true and good just to suit yoursel without caring about if is really true or good. Until we better define what we mean about "making our own reality" we are stuck.

Quote: Evenbob

It's what makes organized religion so
dangerous. You can never prove them
right, but more importantly you can
never prove them wrong. In the
wrong hands, and it's always in
the wrong hands, the religion
can be weaponized.

Of course you can prove religion wrong, who ever gave you the idea you can't? The Mormons are wrong about ancient albino Israelites crossing the Atlantic or that the Garden of Eden was in the United States. Reason and archeology can show you that. You can also prove religion to be right. Look at what St. Paul VI said would happen to our society with the widespread use of contraception and you will see he was exactly right. You should ignore anything that someone says they don't need to prove is correct. Start with atheism, it has nothing to prove it and its only defense is that it doesn't need to prove anything (which we've already discussed is a falsehood).

Quote: FrGamble

Until we better define what we mean about "making our own reality" we are stuck.

"In 1781, Emmanuel Kant hypothesized the existence of two realities. An objective reality and a subjective reality. This hypothesis has since been confirmed by neurologists. Although many believe we perceive direct reality, we actually perceive indirect reality. This is, the brains representation of reality."

Our brains filter what it see's and
what it hears. Filters it thru our
past experiences, our opinions,
what we were taught, what we
learned. We create our own
individual reality within the
reality of the world around us.

An angry and vengeful person
perceives a world out to get him,
everyone is his enemy. He's creating
that reality, you won't talk him out
of it.

You get up every day and work at
creating your reality of a priests
life. You're not even conscious
of it, you do it automatically.
You create a world for yourself
that has a god in it. You see god
everywhere.

My world is a secular one, I see
no need to create a god. I get
along just fine without one
because nobody told me in my
formative years I needed a god.

Now you'll say, oh Bob you
couldn't be more wrong. God is
real and he loves you, blah b;ah
blah. You think what applies
in the reality you create should
also be true in everybody else's.
Just like the angry guy who thinks
everybody is out to get him, when
nobody even knows he's alive.

I know you still won't get any of
this because it flies in the face
of everything you believe in your
reality. You'll understand it
intellectually, but you'll think
it's all rubbish. That's fine,
that's how all this works. It's
why you seek out others creating
realities similar to yours, life is
more comfortable that way.

Quote: FrGamble

Of course you can prove religion wrong,

I'm talking about the deity part
of religion, the god part. It's
easy to disprove the nuts and
bolts of it, like walking on water,
and virgin birth. Nobody can
prove there is no god. You just
assume there isn't till one shows
up. Still waiting..