God and Humans

(Heroin, Ra, and the Essay's Limitations)

Dion

To define God one must distinguish between Heaven and God, Heaven being the home of graduated souls from this existence or Gods. There are different "levels" of God depending on experience and purpose or goals. The "main God" of any species, however, is like the first mother and father souls that fused in spiritual wedlock for that species. God is not a huge male ghost with a son who is missing and no wife or mother. God is a fused in love male and female soul living in Heaven with the Gods of other species and colonies but as one family. self

Henry's Ride

You dont think that the sun god is ruler of humanity do you? I can agree with that type of thinking but not when it leads to worshiping Ra.

Kilohurt

I thought it was a beautiful description of his way of looking at this. But HENRY'S RIDE is to only worship what? Can you define worship? I had high hopes of actually learning something from you, so far the lesson has been about vanity.

John Dishwasher

DION has an interesting polytheistic idea here: Humans have a god. The different species of animals each have their own god. Maybe the animal gods are especially effective, or have a different philosophy than the human gods. Because animals seem to have a lot more peace of mind that humans.

But, really. Does it matter? Wait, if some human decided to start worshipping one of the amphibian gods, and found peace of mind, isn't that alright? I mean, that's the point, right? If you can find peace of mind does it matter how you get there? In other words, I have no problem with people who worship Ra.

But to come back to the idea in the essay: It's not this actual finding of peace of mind that defines god, I'm arguing, but that original thirst for peace of mind that initiates the search.

Henry's Ride

Would you feel the same way if satisfying their god meant killing you or enslaving you?

John Dishwasher

Fantastic reply! Yes, that was in the back of my mind when I typed that paragraph, but I left it out. This is a very important qualification that I always think to myself and I usually include. Thanks for calling me on it. Here it is: Any kind of search for peace of mind is valid, as long as it does not compromise someone else's search for peace of mind.

Henry's Ride

Yeah, but if you end up believing in non-sense, like some people in cults end up, that still does not make what you believe true and reliable. Lots of things which make you feel good can be bad for you. Are you saying if I find peace of mind in Heroin, that's great, so long as I don't sing and dance in the middle of the night, and disturb my neighbours, who may be finding their peace of mind with a good nights sleep? Nothing, or something useless or damaging, does not become more just because it is beautifully wrapped. Not all searches for peace of mind are valid. Only the ones which actually lead to finding something good that can stand up to reason.

John Dishwasher

Yeah, I'm getting out of my league here. I really just wanted to talk about the simple point of the essay--that everyone shares a need for peace of mind. But then, inevitably, you know, we all start trying to decide how that peace of mind can be found, and we're right back where we started. It's kind of maddening, but inevitable. I mean, you'd think that like, for example, even Christians could get along with each other. They start with a simple the idea that God exists and Jesus was the messiah. Everyone's fine with that. But then they start trying to figure out how to keep that idea alive and suddenly you got like wars going on and people beheading each other. See what I mean? And they even agree with each other. So yeah, you're right. My line about "it doesn't matter how you get there" needs some more qualification. Like I said I'm out of my league on this. I'm never going to be the type that starts outlining for people what they should or should not do. I'm just the guy who stands there and points and says, "Look, you guys, we all agree on this part. Can't we just at least acknowledge that we have this in common? Atheists, and hardcore believers, and that poor dude vomiting because of his heroin?"