Teacher Demands Her Students Deny the Existence of God

[aris2chat]

Is not the ten commandments written directly by god?

"Thou Shalt Not Have Any Gods Before Me" First book of the bible

It precedes everything else in the bible like Isaiah

God was the god of Abraham and Moses, not of the rest of the world, or he would have not just mentioned the jewish prophets of the bible.

Why can god be everywhere and in all things but people must pray to him without form or figure on their own? Why if god is life and earth and nature are the source that provides for mankind, can't mother nature be worshipped?

If there are not other god, then why can't what every image people choose to pray to the same as praying to god? Is god not in the stone or wood a statue is carved from?

If people pray to the sun and moon and river, are not god there and therefore they are already praying to god?

Yet christians pray to a wooden cross and a stone figure nailed on it. Why pray to jesus and not god?

 

[aris2chat]

OK, I am going to try to answer all these question as best I can. I dont mean to offend, but if I do let me know for future reference, OK?

Christians would say zeus never existed, but the bible says no god above him, not there are no other gods at all

I disagree.

Isaiah chapter 44
6 “This is what the Lord says—
Israel’s King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty:
I am the first and I am the last;
apart from me there is no God.
7 Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it.
Let him declare and lay out before me
what has happened since I established my ancient people,
and what is yet to come—
yes, let them foretell what will come.
8 Do not tremble, do not be afraid.
Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago?
You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me?
No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.”

If god is everywhere and in all people and thinks, why object to tree worship? Isn't god there as well?

This is the heresy of panentheism, at least it is in Christianity, I dont know what Judaism teaches on this topic.
Panentheism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

What has never made sense is the idea of believing in the "son" but not the father directly.

The Son is the Greek concept of the Logos, generally, and the Son is the conceptualization of the universe and every universe God has ever made. I think of it as a sort of mental interface between the Creator and His Creation, but which is still part of the Being who makes the conceptualization. This makes the Logos in part in the flow of time and space and able to take on the form of man.

Jews pray to the father, christens to the son. Isn't the father a more direct and powerful being? Why do they need to pray to the son at all? Jesus is just an avatar of the father that visited the mundane for a few years.

The Son is more than just an avatar of the Father, but you could think of it that way. There are more accurate ways to think of it, but they are all inaccurate in some way or another. It is a difficult concept.

The Son intercedes for us with the Father as He is part of the Godhead and a facet of the Father Himself.

The mythology of Jesus has elements of a dozen or so beliefs. He is not an original. The people around him are historical figures. A man Jesus might have existed but to believe in him as a god and not the father is to me blasphemy. He came to teach of god not replace god or to start and new religion.

I dont know of a myth where a god took on human form and allowed himself to be killed by those same humans and then raised himself from the dead.

IF you know of one can you provide a link here?

While some separate elements of the Christ have been contained in other myths, He isunique in many respects and in the sum of the method and message He is completely unique.

Praying to a man suffering on a cross is both obscene and idolatry. If god is a being of love, why pray to a dying figure? Pray to life and love and joy and caring for others. Pray to the sun and harvest and flowers and beauty and all the warm fuzzy feeling in the world that touch our hearts.

When we pray before a cross, we use the cross as a symbol of self sacrifice, and the suffering of this life that will soon be over come as He overcame it with His Resurrection. We are not praying to the cross as though it were some kind of idol with its own mind and some sort of power to it. It is only a symbol.

Pray to life, no to death.

Good idea.

If christian dogma is to be believed, jesus did not die, so why the dead body on the cross? Jesus was freed of his mortal shell, which should be a good thing, not a sad. Man kind should be free of sin, but christens want to make every act and thought a sin that will send us all to hell for eternaty. What happened to no sin and all being forgiven?

Jesus did die, but He did not remain dead. He conquored death and overcame it. A very pleasant and profound true story if you let it soak its way in unhindered.

Buddha
Krishna
Odysseus
Romulus
Dionysus
Heracles
Glycon
Zoroaster
Attis of Phrygia
Horus
Mithras

 

[aris2chat]

aris2chat fell right into it as well.

We have a fallacy of X not Y. It does not preclude divinity at all.

No. I'm questioning why not both or all.

Some christians and muslims are saying only X and everyone else is totally wrong and either will go to hell or should be killed, or forced to convert.

I don't particularly believe in a god and certainly not the god(s) of organized religion.

If anything, I lean more to a star wars philosophy of a "force" with no form, personality, purpose or motivations. We can tap into it if have the knowledge and desire but should not be ruled by or try to let it control us and fall into the dark side.

Organized religion IMHO is too often already the dark side.

My views are highly eclectic and far from set in stone. Unique, just like me. Most of my life I have been a "religion" of one, and I don't accept converts. You have to find your own, I don't share, not even with my family.

 

[JakeStarkey]

My faith is a fact to me. Whether you agree matters not to me.

You and I have every constitutional right to enact legislation based on our moral and ethical and religious values.

Look up the words 'faith' and 'fact' - they are diametrically opposites. You cannot have them working in tandem. Your faith is a 'fact' in the sense you believe. But it is not a 'fact' that your faith is a truism.

No you do not have the right to enact legislation based on your religious beliefs. If you do honestly believe in that, then if by some quirk of fate Sharia laws becomes enacted in the US, I can expect not a peep out of you. Keep religion OUT of politics. Keep it in your home and your church. Thank you

You grasp not the difference of religious value and religious organization, which the Founders supremely understood. No, you will have not have your way. Period.

 

[JakeStarkey]

And thank you, aris2chat, for your calm, reasoned comments.

 

[Dr Grump]

You grasp not the difference of religious value and religious organization, which the Founders supremely understood. No, you will have not have your way. Period.

As far as I can see both are intertwined and those of the religious bent who want to enact such legislation can't see the difference. And that is the worrying thing.

What exactly is 'my way'?

 

[JakeStarkey]

You grasp not the difference of religious value and religious organization, which the Founders supremely understood. No, you will have not have your way. Period.

As far as I can see both are intertwined and those of the religious bent who want to enact such legislation can't see the difference. And that is the worrying thing.

What exactly is 'my way'?

Your way is you don't see clearly.