Gaia Community

Re: God and religion?

Chris~toe~fur said Mar 13, 2008, 2:03 PM:

You say we are all just prisoners in a cage…well “we” being those who believe in a religion. How is an atheist outside of the cage? I don’t see one doing anything amazing. I don’t see them being the envy of the world. All I see is them attempted and trying in every way to disprove God, because the don’t truly disbelieve in Him. What is really going on is God is calling them to Himself, and they can’t get away!

Show Replies

Re: God and religion?

Chris~toe~fur said Mar 13, 2008, 2:04 PM:

sorry for the duplicate posts…it froze and I didn’t know it had posted it.

Duplicate posts Re: God and religion?

janos said Mar 20, 2008, 6:58 AM:

No problem Chris. I have taken out the copies.

Thank you for joining us. Sorry to have left it so long to respond.

Re: God and religion?

janos said Mar 20, 2008, 7:28 AM:

Interesting point. In my view, most atheists are really critiquing religion rather than the belief in a supreme God. We definitely have to separate these two concerns.

“By their fruits you can know them…”.
A very significant crop of fruits from organised religion is bitter and poisonous indeed.

Community of believers is one thing; an institution with great power over the minds of individual members is another.

I believe that each individual has a direct access to God—congenitally, if I may use that word—and no intermediary should insist on being indispensable to that access (Christ may have said that of himself, but he also said that he is one with God).

It may be that the direct access to God needs to be nurtured and developed. So there may be a place for helpers in this process, just as interaction with adults is necessary for children to become decent and moral adults. However, all too often, religions prevent the individuals under their influence ever growing up into mature self-responsible adults.

As to the very concept of God being a prison, I do not know the context in which Buddha spoke of the issue, but suspect that he did not actually mean to say what atheists think he said.

One other distinction is good to make, the distinction between atheists and anti-theists.

Re: God and religion?

Chris~toe~fur said Mar 22, 2008, 9:29 PM:

But what is the need to critique a belief in nothing? Can one even do such a thing? If one states that he/she “beliefs there is no God,” then any futher reseach would seemingly go against the prior declaration of belief. Is it necessary to prove your beliefs…in particularly to yourself??? Maybe that's the question that's worth asking. For, if one has to prove it to himself, it would point to a possibility of the opposite being true. Would it not??

Re: God and religion?

mita said Mar 24, 2008, 1:46 PM:

Hi everyone. I grew up as a minority buddhist in India, surrounded by Hindus who seem to have myriad Gods and Goddesses, paths and philosophies. Being a Buddhist helped me to see things as they are, without taking any position on anything and cultivate mindfulness.

Early on as a child I decided, “well if there is a God or many gods or no God” i'll be able to know or realize that for myself. For me the questions, “do we live somehow after we die, does our consciousness continue, our living spirit survive physical death…those were more important to my human existence than existence of God ;)

Anyway I could never accept the concept of a authoritarian judgemental God dispensing rewards or punishment for our deeds.

Word Buddha means 'awakened intelligence'. Most people are asleep or sleep walking with eyes open when it comes to realization of the nature of reality, mind, self, god and such. These are all related and fuse into one as one goes to deeper level of consciousness.

Truth has nothing to do with whether I believe in something or not. All beliefs tend to solidify into positions, become dogma and prejudice. Both religion and science (materialistic science) started with good intention of creating order insociety, but both can degenerate into dogma with fixation of beliefs and attitudes. A person can invest his/her whole life believing into someone's else dogma, communism, or capitalism and that belief can become one's social mage or ego-identity for which a person may even kill another.

Buddha taught about the value of knowing one's own mind, settle it into calm stillness, discipline and direct our wholesome thoughts in skillful ways for our own good and the welfare of all beings. The emphasis is on direct, first hand knowing in this moment with open heart than secondary knowledge, theory or past memory, which are ways to run away from being present totally now.

Unlike all scriptures claiming to be direct word of God, Buddha is simply a light unto himself and inviting us to be a light and refuge to ourselves (see my quotes)

That's all for now. Hope it makes sense.

Peace & joy
mita

Re: God and religion?

helenrscp said Mar 25, 2008, 12:29 PM:

Mita, Thank you for your post…it resonates so strongly with me, especially:

”Buddha taught about the value of knowing one's own mind, settle it into calm stillness, discipline and direct our wholesome thoughts in skillful ways for our own good and the welfare of all beings. The emphasis is on direct, first hand knowing in this moment with open heart than secondary knowledge, theory or past memory, which are ways to run away from being present totally now.”