So many things. The most ridiculous is that when we invented gods, we didn't even give them any self confidence. That'll be like me making a tiny Lego man and then having such low self confidence that I'd want him to worship and bow down to me and then finally create a place where he worships me continuously for eternity. Very weird.
I have more confidence of the power of Lego Man. Have you stepped on one?? True power to make a grown man cry.
@Alimacbean Bwahaha!
@Alimacbean Lol very true. Are you saying that the bearded guy in the sky is currently keeling over in pain from standing on us? (assuming that the bearded guy is real just for this conversation)
@Mofferatu maybe, but we'd all have to be pretty hard headed to do any damage. I'd like to think many aren't
The root of what broke me free from being a baptist since childhood was the cognitive dissonance I felt when I tried to understand how a God who claimed to be Love, defined what love was in 1 Cor. 13, and acted in direct opposition by being jealous, angry, vengeful, and allowing a war in heaven and looking upon evil which he cannot stand to do. Now if he truly was omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, and self sufficient, then there would be no need for worship, no need for an adam/eve, noah's ark, and so on. (after all he already knew what path man/woman would take). If God truly created all things, we must also consider that he created both good & evil and by such is both. What is most ridiculous about worship is...worshipers are following books of cognitive dissonance without even using built-in common sense to evaluate if what we are reading is even genuine and even if genuine...does it make sense? Some crazy folks made some crazy books/movies/etc....who is to say those ancient writings aren't some babble from a mad man/woman?
Yeah - "cognitive dissonance" pretty much sums it up, and as you've said, once you stop drinking the Kool Aid and look at it from the outside you see all of the contradictions inherent in it you wonder how anyone can NOT see them.
That said, I followed a similar path as you, but I still believe consciousness survives death and that there is "something" out there - just not a divine order as is depicted by various religons' doctrines.
Also, I don't think "good and evil" necessarily exist - those may just be human constructs or judgements. Or to the extend that they exist, they exist within the context of our little world and not from the perspective of some entity or intelligence observing us from outside of it.
I also consider the possibility that various religions' writings may all contain some level / hidden spiritual truths, while still being ridiculous if taken literally - kind of the idea behind Aldus Huxley's "Perennial Philosophy" or even Jungian psychology - that there are mechanisms beyond our understanding that cause knowledge to be symbolically represented to us in all forms of human endeavor. And this effect may be entirely passive - i.e. there doesn't have to be some "god" out there purposely sprinkling hidden seeds of truth onto us, but rather it is inherent in the nature of creation that as it expresses itself that underlying truth is also expressed.
Anyway - I ramble. But yes -once you're outside looking in, you think - how can they NOT see the contradictions!?
@Fins I also believe there is something beyond, however, nothing of judgement based upon religious books. If there is any purpose to this place, I feel it is a discovery of who you are by how you act/react to things in this life. It's also where you are tested perhaps if you will follow group think (religion) even when it doesn't make sense or will you dig deeper into yourself and seek truth regardless of where it leads you? This is why I have comfortably settled for being Agnostic instead of resting in the term Atheist. While I agree with atheists, this is no evidence for a "God or Gods" there may be something which created this structure we are witnessing every day, however, I will not claim to know if it exists or what it is.
Nothing at all, as long as I'm the one being worshipped. ?
Hahaha!!! I wouldn’t complain about that if I was being worshipped.
At Christmas, singing about the virgin birth.
On Easter Sunday, singing "Hallelujah!" Jesus is risen from the dead!
Singing "Be still my soul, the Lord is on your side." Although I love the melody, I cringe at the lyrics.
Have been an atheist since age 13. I feel like a hypocrite singing hymns and Christmas carols.
I love the old church hymns.
I find the singing weird, too.
The mysterious ways bullshit...
Watching OTHERS at church worship I tend to look at it very analytically: they're performing a type of meditation that makes them feel calmer and more at peace. They think they are worshipping THE actual god of the universe and that it is somehow for his benefit. And then I think, if I were the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent god of the entire universe, why would I WANT or CARE that a bunch of teeny, tiny creatures on a tiny planet, in a tiny solar system, in an average galaxy way at one side of my universe are singing songs - fairly average and unremarkable songs, mind you - to try to please me?
But I don't begrudge those who get something out of it. Nobody has the corner on truth and we're all just trying to do our best and get through life, and toward that end we home in what works for us. Unlike many here, I believe there is an intelligent creator or consciousness out there and that our consciousness survives death - and I can understand people wanting to connect with their conception of it.
What I find amazing is how many people believe in speaking in tongues or in faith healing. I sometimes watch television preachers just to put myself in a state of dumbfoundedness. I watch as a television preacher commands the devil to leave the man who is crippled. So being ill is the devil taking over? It makes no sense to me.
The first time I heard speaking in tongues as a little girl, I literally had to keep myself from bursting out laughing.
Yawning.... geeze... I thought I was possessed.
Christians insisting the bible is the word of God when even if God existed what you are actually looking at is translations of translations of secondhand reports, hand copied and edited over a period of 2,000 years give or take by people with their own agendas. It is the end result of an extended game of Chinese whispers with some of the people along the way deliberately altering the message to their own advantage.
I have always found the phenomenon of transubstantiation absurd. In England while Henry Vlll was supporting the Catholic Church as the state religion (before he went to the Church of England), belief in transubstantiation was taken as evidence of appropriate religious beliefs. What?????That amounts to belief in ritual cannibalism. This is evidence of piety??? I find that ludicrous.
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I hate to see congregations singing in church on TV.
It's mass insanity and delusion. They also seem to be smug and self righteous, and completely unconcerned about the homophobia and misogyny their religion fuels.
So when I see them all grinning like junkies, high on their opium, I think to myself - 'toxic bigots'.
To be clear, I don't find worship inherently ridiculous. I have no problem with someone with a different belief system then mine finding comfort and purpose through acts of worship.
For me, it's the human quirks in the systems that confound me. Such as tradition for the sake of tradition. When the only argument for doing something a certain way is because that's how it's always been done, I just can't accept that.
The raw emotions based on something I know is utterly undefined or undefinable.
Like weeping over a question mark.
WTF?