NMH
Banned
Hungry Joe said:It depends on your definition of God as a creative force. If you accept that the universe was formed then this creation itself and the forces it used can be taken as God or a Godhead. That's where all religion and science starts from, an attempt to explain it all. It certainly is no coincidence that earlier pagan religions or belief structures used more natural figures as their godheads as they were limited to the experiences of their immediate surroundings and their imagination. Hence Mother Nature is God and she takes on various guises depending on the environment you lived in. As human experience has expanded and the majority of us have looked more outward and have become more removed from the natural world immediately around us then the nature of religion and science has changed too into bigger and wider theories and explanations that leave the older versions seeming strange or irrelevant.
Many modern Christians, like Brovian, accept that the basis of their faith through the Bible doesn't fit in a modern world and therefore interpret it's teachings less rigidly. Likewise some other religions such as Buddhism are open in admitting that they are using metaphor as a way of gaining enlightenment. It's all about personal choice as to how you see yourself in the world and what best fits for you. That's why any religion that dictates a way of life and a belief structure seems about as unspiritual as you can get to me.
Just read this, and can't disagree (even) with you Hungry Joe!
The concept of personal choice though, seems a little unbending, whereas as somewhat over-confident children in this universe and existence, humans do strut their stuff arrogantly in-considerately, assuming that we homo-erectus are of a completed intelect, fully aware of our claim to 'highest rank' in nature.
That kids need parental guidance in society is a given, but as we well-know, parents are often...no-, usually, in need of guidance. What can give a guide to society, in which we have to have some sort of order?
If none exists, or if it is ignored, then, in the story in the Judaic old Testament - it's the Cain and Abel result.
Shouldn't some sort of guidance, other than personally chosen or societally lawed, exist for the general reference of mankind?