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stella41b -> RE: Define God (8/10/2009 6:59:14 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Brain
I understand metaphors. The problem is some people believe the Bible to be literally true. I believe they're evangelicals. And that can be dangerous when you start talking about Bible prophecies, and the end of the world when Jesus returns, and there is violence and war in the Middle East.
You know, you've seen those nuts I am sure on TV in the middle of the night selling Bibles and asking you to call the phone number, that man with the grey hair and the blonde lady.
Now here I'm inclined to agree with you. Thank you for responding and I see now more of where you are coming from.
I was declared a Bible prophet at the age of 16 by the Elim Pentecostal Church after getting into a heated debate over the Book of Revelations. So ended my own Christianity because it raised and left too many unanswered questions and I wanted knowledge as opposed to blind faith and assumptions.
This is where I worked out that much of organized mass religion has the objective of mind control by playing on our innermost fears, such as the fear of death. Now I accept that some people appear to need this, but there are others who don't and indeed many Christians who are intelligent enough not to cling to what is said and written literally, but who understand the underlying messages and are actively practising Christian ethics in their lives.
But yes Brain, I see your point here and I fully agree with you.
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The roots of George W. Bush's spirituality, his language of God and faith, his views on God and government, and his impact on evangelicals.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jesus/
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http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/1981/the-jesus-factor/
Frontline’s ”The Jesus Factor” made me fucking sick. I am, at this late hour, still reeling, despite anticipating every single thing that was said. I know, for example, that George W. Bush is the most overtly religious President in the history of the United States, and I am quite familiar with his born-again status, the result of a lifetime of drinking, snorting, reckless driving, and losing other people’s money in shady oil schemes. I also know that Bush believes Jesus was a political philosopher, and that his relationship with him is apparently sufficient to guide what officially must always remain a secular nation. But there was something nauseating about seeing all of these things in one place; sort of a “greatest hits” collection of everything loathsome about our current Commander-in-Chief. Frame after frame, quote after quote, speech after speech, confirmed Bush’s status as the most reprehensible human being alive. Yes, the most. You fucking heard me. He’s the worst because he’s shredding the spirit of our country; taking enormous dumps on the Constitution because he once was lost and now has a friend to keep him away from the Jack Daniels. Other nations, with far more repressive and violent leaders, make no pretense of liberty, as there is no system of laws in place to prevent the establishment of religion or taxpayer support of religious institutions. In these admittedly backwater pits of despair, the church is the state, and no one has the history, philosophy, or political sophistication to alter that fact. Seeing how destructive such an incestuous relationship always is — and how religion has never done anyone a bit of good that something far less illogical could also have achieved — we have the empirical data, as well as centuries of rock-solid legal principles, to guide us. Knowing all of this, Bush still chooses Jesus. Not for himself alone, but for all of us. That’s not only stupid, it’s criminal.
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