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Originally Posted by Brendan
Saying that God only stops us from forming our own view is again akin to saying "you're not yourself." How can I ever not be myself? Even when I'm acting strange, it's me who's acting strange.?
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How can I not be myself? When other people convince me that I must believe in God and I must do it exactly as they tell me to. Thus, instead of living the kind of a life I want to live, I end up executing their orders. The idea of God is extremely subjective, however, one aspect of this idea is objective and ostensible to all. Namely, that it is something sublime, something that we all must believe in. This becomes very dangerous when somebody manages to convince other people that only they know what this sublime thing is, and therefore everyone else must listen to them if they too want to have it. In other words, somebody says that they have the word of God, everyone wants the word of God. Everyone believes this person/group who claims they have the word of God, and therefore this person/group robs people of their true self by imposing their commands on others.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brendan
Also, if God doesn't have any objective value, then how can we blame God for how it is used to justify things like bigotry, war, evangelism, anymore than we can praise God as the cause for acceptance, peace and coexistence?
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The idea of God forces people to conform to the orthodoxy on a very superficial level, yet it does not at all encourage people to explore ideas on that topic on their own initiative. The fact that there is a myriad of different views on what God is is not evidence of individuality, but merely disorganized thinking on behalf of the people. They were instructed specifically on what 'God' is by their religions, yet even those tiny bits of information they were not able to store properly.
In short, this shows that they simply are not thinking clearly.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brendan
But while I understand where your coming from when you say people should form their own views and come up with their own ethical standards, my point of view is that that is exactly what the concept of God allows us to do.?
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I see no reason why we cannot think of the deeper, otherworldly questions of life without the idea of 'God' being imposed upon us. The working definition of 'God' I have is 'something sublime that I do not understand, but must believe in'.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brendan
Also, if God doesn't have any objective value, then how can we blame God for how it is used to justify things like bigotry, war, evangelism, anymore than we can praise God as the cause for acceptance, peace and coexistence?
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It has degenerated into an empty vessel for people to occupy with whatever political or spiritual ideas that serve their purpose. To correct this problem, the idea of God should be clearly defined. If it is clearly defined, people cannot distort it as easily as they have always done and do today. It is certainly difficult to blame the idea of God for anything as we do not know what exactly it is in the first place. What can be reproached however, is the vagueness of term (which allows for it to be easily distorted) and the 'sublimity' aspect which pushes people to believe in it. In itself 'sublimity' may be nothing undesirable, however, when it is combined with the vagueness, we come across a very dangerous combination. Namely, people are pressured to believe in something they do not understand. This leads to disastrous consequences too often.