Yours is a sudden change. What prompted such a switch? Do you sincerely believe in science as a divine figure, or was it a manner of speech?
Some personal unexplained situation came in my life,i was having immense faith, but due to disastrous end result, you may say i am sounding like having grudge against The Superior being. But after considering the viewpoints of many rational persons, and analysing my self that, look, if God was there, he would have prevented some of the most painful and inhumane conditions which some people do suffer, but no! Now what I believe is in yes there is some sort of energy,which helps when we pray deeply ,may be in form of waves, but no superior being as such. At the end I acknowledge power of institution of a human being over anything else. And honestly telling I was much happier earlier, when i meditated and it helped me getting stress free and optimistic.So if some one is believer, it will be good for him to remain so. Now that sort of divinity gone out of my life, it has become somewhat lustre less, but reality is always non glamorous, no? And hard to accept in contrast to beautiful world of fantasy. My personal opinion is all moral values in religions are worth abiding, and at least, the name of God is necessary to enforce conformity to those values. But,painfully some people on earth are killing their fellow beings(who are obvious) in the name of God(who is not obvious).
That's an interesting point of view. So, you don't believe that God has a plan for everything? that maybe he's giving people nothing they can't handle? You no longer meditate? Why? (side note: I gotta make that #talkreligion post about prayer. I'll ping you when that happens so that you could take part in the conversation. In case you don't know, #talkreligion started as a dialogue between the religious person in the face of rd95 and an atheist in the face of myself, as we keep the topic of correspondence of those two points of view while inviting everyone to join the conversation) A thought that helps me is that the Universe is under no obligation to do well onto people. Jean-Paul Sartre has said it best in his writing on existentialism, and I'll rephrase it for the sake of brevity: Human beings are capable of making choices, and not making a choice is, itself, a choice. Recognizing that and acting according to one's agency is what brings one happiness. While we may act as if bad things happen to us, it's in our power to act differently - better - towards the same circumstance. You can weep, or you can work to get out of it. You can complain, or you can change it. The world isn't pretty, but it isn't supposed to be. Accepting things the way they are is the first step to doing better. Do you believe that, without God and his followers enforcing His laws/commandments/moral rules, human being would be uncaring, selfish and otherwise immoral? I like how you point that out, and it's a good point. Thank you for replying in such a detailed way.And honestly telling I was much happier earlier, when i meditated and it helped me getting stress free and optimistic.
but reality is always non glamorous, no?
and at least, the name of God is necessary to enforce conformity to those values.
some people on earth are killing their fellow beings(who are obvious) in the name of God(who is not obvious).
1. No, I don't believe in any plan. I believe in action and through it we can build our future. 2. May be due to sudden change in belief in stopped meditating, but meditation can be done without need of believing in God, such as focussing on breath, Yoga, and it has benefits mental and physical. 4. Thanks for letting me know about #talkreligion, i would love to be part of that :) 5. You have very nicely quoted Sartre,Thanks for that. Reminds me Nietzsche; "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." and “The Obstacle Is The Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials Into Triumph” by Ryan Holiday, summarized as it is our choice on how to act. 6. You have well questioned me on whether without God world will be selfish, in short you have questioned my faith on Humanity,Thanks, so I partially take back my words back, and quoting Gandhi here: "You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty." And Atheists can be wonderful people too=> Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawkings. So, for minority fear of God will be required, and for major section I uphold morality of Humanity.
That's what I've been thinking. There's a lot of talk about meditation in the secular context, and a lot of atheists have told me how helpful meditation is and that I should try it, to deal with stress and to explore myself deeper. I'd like to point out that I didn't question your faith in humanity: I was merely asking you about your beliefs. That is to say, I didn't mean to criticize you in any way: I was curious about your views on this subject. Stephen Fry - and I can't for the life of me find the source again - once said that it is appalling that the Christian teaching is that there must be God for people to behave in a morally positive way. He said that if we are to go by this religion's line of thought that people prior to Christianity's birth were all rapists and burglars who suddenly came to realize "Oh, well, that is wrong", which, Fry argues, is not true. I will try looking for the source later, because it's a fascinating thought and I can't just let it go. It also implies that atheistic human beings can not act moral without some sort of a supervision, which isn't true, an example being myself having a civilized, polite and overall decent conversation about belief on a forum filled with such people, each of different beliefs. Stephen Fry has long been an opponent of Catholic church in particular and, it seems, Christianity in general, so you might want to be careful listening to him talk about those subjects. He calls himself a humanist, which sounds like something exactly down your lane, so you might want to research that further. I wonder how you see that working. Whom does this minority consist of, and why do they require fear of God to put them into their senses?but meditation can be done without need of believing in God
You have well questioned me on whether without God world will be selfish, in short you have questioned my faith on Humanity
So, for minority fear of God will be required
In the eyes of a benevolent God, no? After the golden calf in the Torah, God commanded Levi's to slay their kin. Even those who are "Children of the Book" according to Islam ended up in painful and inhumane conditions to this day at the hands of Muslim rulers (unfortunately, in a worse light modern day); those who weren't, worse so. Contrary, we can look to Akbar's reign in India, but that's a different matter. Ultimately, I guess I'm teasing your brain with regard to one's own definition of who, what and why is God, but with this I couldn't agree more.But after considering the viewpoints of many rational persons, and analysing my self that, look, if God was there, he would have prevented some of the most painful and inhumane conditions which some people do suffer, but no!
My personal opinion is all moral values in religions are worth abiding, and at least, the name of God is necessary to enforce conformity to those values.