Even though i do not have a religion i like to learn about them and walk some of the ways. I found a vision quest to be one of the most important things i have ever done. For me a religion is not about the religion, but how it makes me a better person. .
marlindap: Even though i do not have a religion i like to learn about them and walk some of the ways. I found a vision quest to be one of the most important things i have ever done. For me a religion is not about the religion, but how it makes me a better person. .
IvoryguyCape Town, Western Cape South Africa139 posts
mykingdomforanam: I don't worship any religion.
I worship God.
I believe I understand something that many people are confused by, which causes fighting over something that we shouldn't be fighting over...
There's only one God; and God gave us many languages.
God, in all his many formats, was independently invented by chiefs and despots around the world as a way of controlling the ignorant, mindless and unthinking masses. Christianity and Islam are striking examples of their success.
Since the beginning of recorded history, which is defined by the invention of writing in Sumeria around 6,000 years ago, historians have cataloged over 3700 supernatural beings, of which 2870 can be considered deities. So, next time someone tells me they believe in god, I'll say "Oh, which one? Zeus? Hades? Jupiter? Mars? Odin? Thor? Krishna? Vishnu? Ra? ...If they say “Just God. I only believe in the one God,” I’ll point out that they are nearly as atheistic as me. I don’t believe in 2,870 gods, and they don’t believe in 2,869.
Ivoryguy: God, in all his many formats, was independently invented by chiefs and despots around the world as a way of controlling the ignorant, mindless and unthinking masses. Christianity and Islam are striking examples of their success.
Since the beginning of recorded history, which is defined by the invention of writing in Sumeria around 6,000 years ago, historians have cataloged over 3700 supernatural beings, of which 2870 can be considered deities. So, next time someone tells me they believe in god, I'll say "Oh, which one? Zeus? Hades? Jupiter? Mars? Odin? Thor? Krishna? Vishnu? Ra? ...If they say “Just God. I only believe in the one God,” I’ll point out that they are nearly as atheistic as me. I don’t believe in 2,870 gods, and they don’t believe in 2,869.
Here's part of a poem dedicated to Zeus...
ARATUS, PHAENOMENA
PHAENOMENA, TRANSLATED BY G. R. MAIR
From Zeus let us begin; him do we mortals never leave unnamed; full of Zeus are all the streets and all the market-places of men; full is the sea and the havens thereof; always we all have need of Zeus.
"For we are also his offspring;"
and he in his kindness unto men giveth favourable signs and wakeneth the people to work, reminding them of livelihood. He tells what time the soil is best for the labour of the ox and for the mattock, and what time the seasons are favourable both for the planting of trees and for casting all manner of seeds. For himself it was who set the signs in heaven, and marked out the constellations, and for the year devised what stars chiefly should give to men right signs of the seasons, to the end that all things might grow unfailingly. Wherefore him do men ever worship first and last. Hail, O Father, mighty marvel, mighty blessing unto men. Hail to thee and to the Elder Race! Hail, ye Muses, right kindly, every one! But for me, too, in answer to my prayer direct all my lay, even as is meet, to tell the stars.
Paul quoted it and another Greek poet, to glorify Jesus....
"For in him we live, and move, and have our being;" as certain also of your own poets have said, "For we are also his offspring."
Acts 17:28
I think that the average Christian isn't aware that Paul used poems about a God that's not named Jesus; because he attributed the qualities attributed to Zeus, to Jesus, in spite of the fact that their names are in different languages.
So I'm not going to argue with anybody who's confused by the fact that the same God who's offspring we are, and in whom we live and move, and have our being... has a Greek name and a Jewish name.
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