God gives us the freedom to choose our own path and do what we want - that is what free will is. If God interfered that would be the opposite of free will. Free will dictates that God cannot interfere.
"If you obey, you will be rewarded and if you disobey, you will be punished" However, this does not mean there will be a judgment and casting into Hell of those who rebelled. God gave us free will; the ability to choose our own path. Why would he punish us for doing what we were created to do? Whatever exists beyond this I do not know but I am sure that there is more to existence than what we are living now. Why create a creature of consciousness and purpose with memories and be able to do all the wonderful things we can do and the ability to self-correct and just snuff it out?
God does not help us, God does not hurt us, and God does not give babies cancer. God does not give to us or take away from us. That is all part of the sales pitch of religion to ensure our obedience. Be good and God will help you, be bad and God will punish you - Serve God and your life will be easy, God demands justice and, in the end,, he will see to it the guilty are punished. All you have to do is obey and not make waves. All bullshit to make you feel good. In Reality, we are all on our own,
This is not an atheistic position. I do believe in God, just not a God promoted by religion. Not a dualistic entity that behaves like a man and gets angry, sad, or happy. I do not know what God is, I just know there is one as I have shared in other posts how I know that is true.
Religion is nothing but men speculating on what God might be. However, think about it. In order to think about it, we have to ascribe some attributes to God. However, since any attributes we assign to God are speculative, the more nonsensical God becomes as the list grows.
God is some kind of being that was able to create the entire universe. He had to be able to create a system that operates by all the laws of physics that we can observe. I think it is safe to say God is very powerful compared to us.
Look at the state of the universe. The Earth is in the perfect position in our solar system to be able to support life. Look at all the beauty, wonder, and majesty on the earth. Look at all the temperature and weather systems. Look at the hostility of many environments and look at us and our ability to adapt to those environments by using technology to mitigate that hostility surrounding us and live rather comfortably considering our limitations.
Look at us. Look at our ability to imagine and create. We have no idea where imagination came from (evolved from). We have no idea how creativity evolved. We have no idea how the ability to think critically to the extent we do evolved. We just know it did. Many just assert, without being able to explain it, that all this just arose from the electro/chemical action in the brain. I think it is also safe to say God is benevolent because we are still here in spite of all the challenges humanity has had to face as it was evolving.
So, we have two attributes, infinitely powerful (as compared to our finite nature) and Benevolent (humanity is still here and thriving) Those two attributes we have evidence for. They both, of course, are speculative but they make sense to me. I will not make any more assumptions. I may want a system of justice but what seems just to me may not be just for someone else.
I do not think there is anything like sin. I think we make mistakes and try to recognize those mistakes and do better next time (repentance). This leads to the purpose of life. I think it is to live, learn, choose our path, make mistakes, learn from our mistakes and fail till we succeed, while all the time struggling to maintain a good attitude and not give in to the depression that can come with failure.
Ethical Essentialism.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” The former is just gratitude for placing us in a chaotically ordered universe on a planet that can be quite hostile to us and giving us the ability to adapt our environment to our needs and create things that allow us to be comfortable and happy.
Then there is a pretty good ethical system we can adopt: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” and do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
That is all!!! No rules, no dogmas, no boring sermons. Just be who You are and keep your nose out of other people's business. Focus on your life and being the best, happiest person you can be. I also do not believe in dualism. No event is good or evil - they just are - no God or Devil is making things happen to reward or punish. Basically, Shit happens, deal with it with the best attitude possible.
Why does God have to be dualistic? Why does evil need to be perceived as something that does things to us? Why do we look at evil when we are the ones who have bad intentions, and we choose to act on those bad intentions? Why do we want to divorce ourselves from the responsibility of our actions or give others an excuse to get away from responsibility for theirs by claiming, "The Devil Made us do it".
Why can't we see that Shit happens and you deal with the consequences and if good things happen, enjoy the rewards? Why do we need to blame some force outside ourselves for the unexplainable? I actually got into a conversation with an atheist who said, about the Christian concept of God - "How can you say the world is a benevolent place, volcanoes kill, earthquakes kill. - Silliness. He also criticized this statement on my concept of God as, "Not giving enough attributes to judge my concept of God by".
He also says the only reason people do good things for each other is that they want to feel good as if no one gives to others because it makes the other feel good. Me feeling good because it makes them feel good is irrelevant to my motive.
When I give a piece to a child whose parents have brought them to my table when I am selling outside on the street, because they love it, they handle the jewelry, and smile and laugh and oooh and awe. They make a terrible mess but they are so fun to watch, and it is even funnier to watch the parents try to control them while trying to be nonchalant.
They smile and thank me. It makes them feel good, is that so hard for him to believe. I really do feel compassion for people who are so cynical. What kind of lives did they have to twist them so severely that they have to blame a God they do not believe in for natural phenomena or think no one does anything good for the benefit of others and sees that their own good feeling is just a natural response to the other, the person being given too's, happiness?
My business is using symbols to help people feel better and be more successful using the brain’s ability to do what it naturally does and is backed by Neuroscience. Yes, it is magical the things we can achieve if we just hack our brain’s natural capacities. https://www.atlgothworks.com. I invite anyone to debate with me or make an offer for me to speak to any group.
The Birth of Venus · Artist
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