I shared your enthusiasm for COSMOS and for Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" There is an earlier work by Gilbert Ryle called "Dilemmas" that would interest you if not already. Sagan makes the point that Science is SELF-CORRECTING which Dogma cannot be. It sends me into hysterics when the Vatican is forced to admit error.Lifting the Excommunicae of Galileo after centuries was hilarious,but the faithful either didn't notice,didn't care or simply did not understand.Protestant Fundamentalists have lately coined the doctrine of "Continuing Revelation' to provide a vehicle for changing doctrine as needed.In our time they will use it to concede the basic model of organic evolution. Thinking people will notice that the once-infallible is omniscient no more. Science is inductive.There can be no end to it,no last word.As Hawking said:"...for then we would know the mind of God"
Then please Captain narrow it down.According to your own interest.The best direction from the O.P. is the least possible direction.Let it go where any would take it.
Oh, we're doing Bible quotes, that's always a give-away.
I kind of figured you set up this to do preaching rather than discussing.
And it's Christianity which is your focus, innit?[/quote
I describe myself as a Freethinker.Most of my life I have been hostile to rational systems of one sort or another. You are not reading my posts.Why on earth would you think I was selling Christianity?
You want a discussion?Like everyone else on here? Unruffle your feathers and discuss something. I have nothing to sell you.I would instead learn from you if you will permit that.
Now these thoughtful Contributors have moved to address the 20% I dont hear anyone preaching an Organized Religion.It's all very personal.See Captain,Personal rather than Organized.
Remember this: "Therefore FEAR God and keep his commandments...." JOB
Jehova ,by his own admission,was a god of fear,jealosy,wrath,vanity retribution...on and on..
Agreed. There are many Motivators,fear and curiosity .....and a list. This is a complex subject.I have seen a million laboratory animals give their all in consideration of our understanding of what moves behavior. What I wonder now is can we re-work our own motivation--take out fear and use something of our choosing to provide the stimulus behind our actions.Or are we stuck with fear? The Faithful above(this post)negate fear one way.Faith. What are the options?
I've tried to imagine such a world.A difficult task. I keep coming back to fear as a motovator.And I'm glad you expanded to "every need taken care of".It is illustrative. A creature without motivation will do nothing.Consider a Grizzly with a dead elk and a warm place to sleep.He will eat and sleep until he must do otherwise. EQUILLIBRIUM is an abscense of motivation.It is inertia.Without fear--now add hunger lust etc.--what will drive the engine?We might be free to pursue creativity,art,making sense of things,but would we do it? BLISS is a static concept.There are no events to disrupt it and w/o events there is not even Time--no need for it.Someone( Sartre??)remarked that Heaven would be boredom because nothing would ever happen to differentiate it from Non-Heaven.Would we be able to find a substitute for Fear et. al. to move us,inspire us ,cause us to act,to achieve to do Something? Or would we just go to sleep? Perhaps forever? What Irony.
Athiesm requires presumtion.You have many options besides Organized Religion.Some of the contributors have a lot of information in that vein. I'm just a simple-minded country boy who preferred going fishing to attending church.Oddly,It was a life-lesson.
Acouple of Vanderbilt Cheerleaders were pulled over,again. When the cop saw the Vandy sticker he smiled and began to unzip. Cindy said to Mindy:"Gee Girlfriend,looks like we're gonna have to take ANOTHER breathalizer test...
I once had a Pentacostal sweetheart.We confirmed that God has a sense of humor. After all He arranged for us to meet,then he walked away laughing...His emoticon?
I could reach Elizabethton in a few days....but my old grey horse died years ago.My rusty armor was sold for scrap metal. Roses make me sneeze. Besides it's too hot....or too cold ...or.. And you probably have a wicked step-mother wanting to change me back into a toad which is a hard way to live. Plus you're too wholesome and pretty for an old windmill tilter like me.Do you have an evil step-sister who puts out with only a Grimm fairy tale required?
Thank you Storm.I know many wonderful people in varied faiths including fundamentalist Christens.The love of my youth was raised in THE ASSEMBLY OF GOD.I learned from her the complexity of a mind and disposition different than my own. I descibed the Holiness sect only for the reality of their existance as a phenomenon.There is much more to it than my feeble summary.
Among the Charismatic churches is the Holiness sect which appeared in the late 19th century,about the same time as the Pentacostals.Both were derivative of the Church of God. These are the snake handlers.Occasionally someone dies of snake bite.There have been legal actions to remove small children from the home.Another demonsration of faith is the consumption of poison,always dilute strychnine.The mason jar sits on the altar where anyone so inclined can have a hit. It is now known that the effect of nipping strychnine is much like an acid trip--a very likely vehicle for seeing Jesus or whatever else you want to hallucinate. There is a Holiness church near here.Appalachia is the most likely area to find one.I attended once around 1966 as a curious boy. Usually the snakes are milked in advance and they learn how to dose themselves with the strychnine so as to facillitate the "religeous experience." The scripture is less specific reading "any deadly thing" Being young and skeptical I suggested they might consider Lead Arsenic just for a change.Then I worried for awile that some zealot might follow through and burn his insides out.I had nought to worry about.They only appear to be that stupid.
wonderworker Forum Posts (1,883)
Is organized religion based entirely on fear?
If I were to label you based on this and earlier posts What comes to mind is TRANSCENDENTALIST or GNOSTIC.Correct me if that is amiss.