Why a higher power?!

[AqD]

Let's forget about all the debates about existence of god(s) blahblah now.

If you believe, or if you think we should believe if he/they exist (I know some atheists would!), why?

Why would you want to embrace some higher power above us? Why wouldn't you rather want to become that power? How can you live under anything other than your own rule?


Personally I found anything above me deeply insulting...... I mean if there is a king here I'd hate him and want him dead no matter what he does, or at least not saying like "God bless the king"! Unforunately everyone around me, everyone I know seem to love the idea of having a higher power above us...... Am I alone in this?

[Djûn]

Personally I found anything above me deeply insulting...... I mean if there is a king here I'd hate him and want him dead no matter what he does, or at least not saying like "God bless the king"! Unforunately everyone around me, everyone I know seem to love the idea of having a higher power above us...... Am I alone in this?

This was something I never quite understood about your mindset in reading some of your other posts. Why would you hate such a being so much? If there is a higher being which has created you, why would you despise it so for including you in existence, particularly with the Christian God who allegedly did a huge amount in an attempt to make your life good (and your afterlife as well, I might add). I only ask because the only explanation I could think of was that you hated the idea of something more powerful than you, and I don't believe you to be arrogant at all.

[AqD]

This was something I never quite understood about your mindset in reading some of your other posts. Why would you hate such a being so much? If there is a higher being which has created you, why would you despise it so for including you in existence, particularly with the Christian God who allegedly did a huge amount in an attempt to make your life good (and your afterlife as well, I might add). I only ask because the only explanation I could think of was that you hated the idea of something more powerful than you, and I don't believe you to be arrogant at all.

I'd hate it simply because it's above us, and therefore he has controls over us. How can I not hate someone who controls my life, judges my behaviors, and decides when and where and how I'd die, all in his will? How can we live free under him?

Besides, he doesn't make our life good. He merely gives us the life, and it's far from perfect (I have no idea how it can be perfect ).

[Hippolord]

I would thik that most humans would find comfort in the fact that there ius some incomprehensable being that is all powerful and personally sees to it that everythging goes according to plans.

Are you insulted by thefact that you are in this grand beings plans? Are you jealous of the fact that it is higher than you? Why? Instead of sitting around hating said gbeing just because it is higher than you, you should spend your time trying to be more like it. Yes i know that iuf we are thinking of the same kind of being that, that would be immpossible. But in most reliugons no one can be like there god it's the effort that counts.

So why fill your life with hate for this being? Why no acceptit, not only into your soul, but accept it into your very being and universe.

Make it part of you, just as you are part of it.

[MaximiIian]

I would think that most humans would find comfort in the fact that there ius some incomprehensible being that is all powerful and personally sees to it that everything goes according to plans.

[Djûn]

I'd hate it simply because it's above us, and therefore he has controls over us. How can I not hate someone who controls my life and decide when and where and how I'd die, all in his will? How can we live free under him?

I did not vote for the Labour party currently in control of the Legislative of the UK - arguably one of the most powerful Legislative branches in the world - yet I do not hate it or wish it destroyed, even though it controls the manner in which I must live my life (and what I must study for ). I don't see why something which exists above us requires so much ire; it seems like hating the laws of physics.

Besides, he doesn't make our life good. He merely gives us the life, and it's far from perfect (I have no idea how it can be perfect ).

I had in mind the idea of Jesus's sacrifice which would royally screw us from entering heaven without, but that's another argument entirely. At any rate, if it is the Christian God we are talking about here, then the mere existence of the afterlife must lend a great deal of credit to him simply because he is willing to give eternal bliss to anyone who follows the laws he gives; it's a hell of a lot more than the State has ever given anyone for simply obeying the Law.

[AqD]

I did not vote for the Labour party currently in control of the Legislative of the UK - arguably one of the most powerful Legislative branches in the world - yet I do not hate it or wish it destroyed, even though it controls the manner in which I must live my life (and what I must study for ).

I don't hate ours either, not yet. Since it's still made by our people. But it's only because I have the right in voting. If I don't have the right ......

it seems like hating the laws of physics.

I guess so

Why no acceptit, not only into your soul, but accept it into your very being and universe.

Just like the pigs accepting they're born to be our food, and forced to breed and eat a lot and then butchered; In the eyes of the pigs we must be very close to gods!

Or I should say like the cats and the mice. You see the mice always get hunted by the cats, but they never fight back! Natural laws!
Is that what we are? nothing better than pigs and mice?!

[Djûn]

I don't hate ours either, not yet. Since it's still made by our people. But it's only because I have the right in voting. If I don't have the right ......

So if you were able to vote for God, then it wouldn't bother you if it happened to be exactly the same as it is allegedly now? I guess it falls down to your interpretation of God. I, personally, do not know or think to know that God exists or not, yet if he were to exist, I would feel exactly the opposite of hate simply because I would know of what he had done for the benefit of mankind.

[Oldgamer]

I'd hate it simply because it's above us, and therefore he has controls over us. How can I not hate someone who controls my life, judges my behaviors, and decides when and where and how I'd die, all in his will? How can we live free under him?

Besides, he doesn't make our life good. He merely gives us the life, and it's far from perfect (I have no idea how it can be perfect ).

You control your life. By your actions, you are your own judge. You will die when: a) someone kills you, or b) your natural life ends by old age or disease.

You are free. You can do anything you wish. However, there are consequences to that, both in this life and the next.

God gave you life, through the agency of your parents. Perfection is not to be found in a universe ruled by the Second Law of Thermodynamics ...

[Helm]

People just find the general idea comforting there's nothing more to it than that.

[Bovril]

Personally I found anything above me deeply insulting...... I mean if there is a king here I'd hate him and want him dead no matter what he does, or at least not saying like "God bless the king"! Unforunately everyone around me, everyone I know seem to love the idea of having a higher power above us...... Am I alone in this?

There are people who have a deeply sado-masochistic idea of god (in the charactological, not sexual, sense), and this coresponds well to what you are talking about. I agree that such an idea is repugnant. But you should not see God as some guy who has the power to beat you up whenever he wants. Talking of God is talking in symbols. This is true of all language, but we must recognise, with Witgenstein, that the symbols change between usages and contexts ('language games', to use his terminology). Even when we make the crude statement that God turned Lot's wife into a pillar of salt, this must mean something very different from a claim that some individual chucked acid on a person and they disolved away, or some such notion.

Your God is that which you yearn to know, to experience and even to be. Your faith is your will to do so. God represents a challenge to the believer to go beyond what is to what could be and what should be. In that respect, secular faith is very much possible, but without genuine concern for the trancendent, what legs has faith to stand on? What could faith mean if it is not concerned with that which is both beyond and eternally manifest?

[AqD]

There are people who have a deeply sado-masochistic idea of god (in the charactological, not sexual, sense), and this coresponds well to what you are talking about. I agree that such an idea is repugnant. But you should not see God as some guy who has the power to beat you up whenever he wants. Talking of God is talking in symbols. This is true of all language, but we must recognise, with Witgenstein, that the symbols change between usages and contexts ('language games', to use his terminology). Even when we make the crude statement that God turned Lot's wife into a pillar of salt, this must mean something very different from a claim that some individual chucked acid on a person and they disolved away, or some such notion.

It's no different IMO. I hate lightning, volcano, or any other unwanted things just much as I'd hate a god. The only faith I have is to believe we're born free and so we should not subject to anything, even the nature. We should be the highest power!

It must be a very weird idea.

[Chaigidel]

no its just a very very stupid idea.

[André Masséna]

I'd hate it simply because it's above us, and therefore he has controls over us. How can I not hate someone who controls my life, judges my behaviors, and decides when and where and how I'd die, all in his will? How can we live free under him?

By your own reasoning and logic, how could we live at all without him?

[webMaster412160]

People need to belief in something it's wat gives them hope.

[Aldgarkalaughskel]

One just needs to meditate, quiet himself, look inside and experience how is he connected to something greater than himself. Simple as that.

[The Count(er)]

Why a higher power?!

Because no one would feel better about themselves to have a lower power which they could order around, because one could never see or hear, or even prove, and that would make it lose all satisfaction. Or maybe because most people are followers and just want something really big to follow.

[S.L.I.G]

Let's forget about all the debates about existence of god(s) blahblah now.

If you believe, or if you think we should believe if he/they exist (I know some atheists would!), why?

Why would you want to embrace some higher power above us? Why wouldn't you rather want to become that power? How can you live under anything other than your own rule?


Personally I found anything above me deeply insulting...... I mean if there is a king here I'd hate him and want him dead no matter what he does, or at least not saying like "God bless the king"! Unforunately everyone around me, everyone I know seem to love the idea of having a higher power above us...... Am I alone in this?

It's akin to honouring your parents, only, far greater. Personal pride [and this is a lot coming from me, as I over flow with it] must be set down with God. He is not a person to be subject to, but a consciousnesses and force of nature that must be respected and acknowledged for all that is, was, and never will be.

Edit: And your whole idea of God judging and condemning us for some arbitrary delight- that is not God, but your interpretation. All that I know is God is God, nothing more. I add no human commentary.

[Muagan_ra]

Because we didn't create all known existence. It's really simple, in essense - intellectualising can sometimes be an impediment to understanding.

[Manco]

Aqd, it seems I have similar, though less strong, views on a higher being.

When I say I'm an atheist it's not merely 'I don't believe in god(s)', it's also 'regardless of their existence I would not worship them'. It's not because something might have created you, you are therefore obliged to worship it. Especially as we were 'created' with a sense of individuality.