Do you think we are wishful thinking, in a God?

@Budwick well put dude . You have some really good insight . I’d love to read more comments from you like this and less about politics .

@AthrillatheHunt Thanks.
I admit my attention is drawn heavily toward saving my country.
Maybe saving souls should be tended to as well.

@Coralmist Everyone has questions Coral.
Even more so in troubled times.
I am suggesting that you bring your burdens to Jesus instead of Similar Worlds.
Best of luck to you.

@Rhode57 I agree most of it is a mash of myths, legends, fragments of distorted history and simple statements if particular religious beliefs, but you are wrong about its age.

If it had been written when you claim, it would be late-19 or early-20C age. IF Jesus existed as and when claimed the New Testament tales started to be set down within the first 2 or 3 centuries AD when Christianity started to form as more than just a minor Jewish sect.

The Old Testament is an anthology of ancient Jewish writings from around 500BC, and with some differences including their order, these also form the Torah.

Whatever the unknown scribe who concocted Genesis really meant, no-one except a few rabidly fundamentalist types terrified of questioning it, takes it literally these days. Even its writer, who genuinely would have known nothing about astronomy, geology and palaeontology, may have meant it metaphorically - but we cannot know that.

It does though contain hints of being written by and for a priestly caste of tribal rulers intent on pushing their own religious beliefs as part of trying to weld a bunch of tribes into a single society.

I've wondered if the "In the beginning...." phrase and consequent text might actually be part of a Year 0 concept - rather as we saw in our own times with the far crueller and far more crass Khmer Rouge. Meaning, "Errr, yes, there were people and societies with their own religions before we Hebrews but we must not talk about them". If so, it certainly worked though its author could never have dreamt of it inspiring 6000-year-old-Earth enthusiasts in far-away lands 6000 years after his own life!

The whole lot though has passed through many editors and translators so it's hardly surprising it cannot be taken as an accurate account - though details like Jesus' and his father's trades are really not that important. It is though worth considering that for centuries the Church of Rome used its monopoly in Western Europe to forbid translating the Bible from Latin to national languages, so most of the common herd could not read it and form their own opinions on what the priests said it all meant or were quoting selectively.


In the end though it's not what a bunch of people in a small society in the Middle East 2000 - 3000 years ago thought and wrote. It's how people use or misuse their thoughts nowadays that counts.

@Allelse I think you are being a bit harsh though I agree with your point generally.

Many do find comfort in religion, especially when bereaved or in facing death. That has been a central point of most known religions, extant and extinct, even surmised, of any deities, from ancient times.

The approach to religion has often been made very egocentric though, in the past, by religious authorities and particularly by the Christian Church for its own power.

The Ancient Greeks (BC) had a totally different religion but did mix it up with philosophy, so the Christian (AD) Church found it very convenient to enforce for centuries, Aristotle's geocentric universe as home to we humans it thought the pinnacle of the Christian God's creation. Yet in Christian terms Aristotle was a pagan, and his pantheist religion had died out!

@NerdyPotato @NerdyPotato If there is a God he is the same as a parent who would put its own child in danger or not care for it

@NerdyPotato Yeah it doesnt make sense, when God supposedly created his own children, to hate some or allow some to greatly suffer??

@Coralmist nope... For me that is the main reason to question whether a god exists or whether he deserves the praise he demands if he does exist. I'm still open to the idea of one existing and even to him being all good and powerful, but some explanation is in order before I'll have anything to do with him, let alone praise or love him.

@JoyfulSilence My favorite author Byron Katie..shes AMAZING...SAID we are love itself just by being here, by being a humanbeing 🌸

@Coralmist

I agree that humans have the capacity for love. But a lot of nasty things, too.

I would love the unconditional love that something like God could provide. But I do not think God is real, so it is inaccessible.

@AthrillatheHunt I guess I wonder why if God is omnipotent and all loving, why to allow atrocity? And to create humans to have these traits..greed, jealousy etc.

@Coralmist we all wonder that. It’s a sign your relationship w your creator is evolving .

@SW-User Can you explain..?🍀

@Coralmist Heaven is the only place where sickness and evil cannot enter. The fact that we see these things is evidence that we should continue to pray and give thanks because it could have been you. Every individual has their own journey, some good and some tragic, that's a part of life, if you read the Bible you'll notice even God's own people face tragedy.

@GovanDUNNY Thanks Govan 🌿

@Budwick So if they are ALL LOVING, how is extreme horror or pain , disease etc? 🤔