NationStates Jolt Archive

Of God: A Brief Rant

It is existential on the surface. Rather than facing pure nihilism people contrived the concept of God. In order to face the world with a certain confidence and a sense of purpose the God concept was used an existentialist escape. It gave life meaning and an ideal of perfection for which is revered. With God the nakedness and pain of life was made bearable With the reverence of God, it gave man a duty for which to fill his life. To take it further, God was existence and with the knoweledge of ones own existenece there is comfort and the anxiety and fear that existence is merely an illusion vanished before the eyes thousands of faithful believers. This was of course faith in raw form, before it became a rare form, before the dogma of religion came. Though life was not complete bliss, nor should it be, there was contentment. With this deity there was no elaborate celebration as there exist in the modern age. There were no mysteries shrouding this being, beyond the obvious few inquiries, nor any services of worship and prayers for pity or guidance with a skeleton of hope welded to together by strong emotivist overtones. There was no oligarchic order nor a supposedly enlightened hierarchy. No, this deity was not an image in that grand marage. As it is today, the concept of God does not serve as an answer to nihilism, but rather as a way of occupying our constant thoughts in an attempt to maintain ignorance from the fear of a world of insignificance and of a life with no inherent purpose or reasoning. This God derived from pure deism.

If you really want to discuss the evolution of "God," it's usually best to begin with animism.

Of God: A Brief Rant

It is existential on the surface. Rather than facing pure nihilism people contrived the concept of God. In order to face the world with a certain confidence and a sense of purpose the God concept was used an existentialist escape. It gave life meaning and an ideal of perfection for which is revered. With God the nakedness and pain of life was made bearable With the reverence of God, it gave man a duty for which to fill his life. To take it further, God was existence and with the knoweledge of ones own existenece there is comfort and the anxiety and fear that existence is merely an illusion vanished before the eyes thousands of faithful believers. This was of course faith in raw form, before it became a rare form, before the dogma of religion came. Though life was not complete bliss, nor should it be, there was contentment. With this deity there was no elaborate celebration as there exist in the modern age. There were no mysteries shrouding this being, beyond the obvious few inquiries, nor any services of worship and prayers for pity or guidance with a skeleton of hope welded to together by strong emotivist overtones. There was no oligarchic order nor a supposedly enlightened hierarchy. No, this deity was not an image in that grand marage. As it is today, the concept of God does not serve as an answer to nihilism, but rather as a way of occupying our constant thoughts in an attempt to maintain ignorance from the fear of a world of insignificance and of a life with no inherent purpose or reasoning. This God derived from pure deism.
....could be ....

Or maybe there was a really brainy, kind woman called God, and when people were faced with a problem they would always say, "God knows," or "God help us." And after she died, people were so upset, they deluded themselves into thinking that somehow she was still alive, even thought she had stopped moving and started to smell bad.

Yeah, that's about it, although you probably want to mention the nature spirits and the anthromorphizing of natural forces.

thats what ive always thought. superstition, grief, looking for patterns in the world, powerlessness, all combined to make a theory of "god".

Or maybe there was a really brainy, kind woman called God, and when people were faced with a problem they would always say, "God knows," or "God help us." And after she died, people were so upset, they deluded themselves into thinking that somehow she was still alive, even thought she had stopped moving and started to smell bad.

Except that God's definitely a man. When was the last time God had to spend an hour sprucing before going out and doing a miracle? And God's not afraid to tell you how old he is. I mean would a woman tell you she was infinite years old? No, she'd say I'm 28, i just look old for my age.
Plus i asked Him whether he was *really* a guy like last week... it's been kinda uncomfortable talking to him since that... yea...
[/ :D ]

Except that God's definitely a man. When was the last time God had to spend an hour sprucing before going out and doing a miracle? And God's not afraid to tell you how old he is. I mean would a woman tell you she was infinite years old? No, she'd say I'm 28, i just look old for my age.
Plus i asked Him whether he was *really* a guy like last week... it's been kinda uncomfortable talking to him since that... yea...
[/ :D ]
lol
god became a man after he got more efficient in doing miracles, he started out female.

Of God: A Brief Rant

It is existential on the surface. Rather than facing pure nihilism people contrived the concept of God. In order to face the world with a certain confidence and a sense of purpose the God concept was used an existentialist escape. It gave life meaning and an ideal of perfection for which is revered. With God the nakedness and pain of life was made bearable With the reverence of God, it gave man a duty for which to fill his life. To take it further, God was existence and with the knoweledge of ones own existenece there is comfort and the anxiety and fear that existence is merely an illusion vanished before the eyes thousands of faithful believers. This was of course faith in raw form, before it became a rare form, before the dogma of religion came. Though life was not complete bliss, nor should it be, there was contentment. With this deity there was no elaborate celebration as there exist in the modern age. There were no mysteries shrouding this being, beyond the obvious few inquiries, nor any services of worship and prayers for pity or guidance with a skeleton of hope welded to together by strong emotivist overtones. There was no oligarchic order nor a supposedly enlightened hierarchy. No, this deity was not an image in that grand marage. As it is today, the concept of God does not serve as an answer to nihilism, but rather as a way of occupying our constant thoughts in an attempt to maintain ignorance from the fear of a world of insignificance and of a life with no inherent purpose or reasoning. This God derived from pure deism.


A few points.

First, existentialism and nihilism are NOT natural conditions of the Human mind; neither of them is the un-partitioned human "hard drive" before formating and installing an operating system. ;) They are intentionally bleak systems of denial formulated by men within the last century. A self inflicted state of mind, so to speak.

Second, as others have said you completely failed to mention nature spirits, and the anthromorphizing of natural forces. Both have played massive roles in religion for millennia, not sure how you missed them really.

Third, "a life with no inherent purpose or reasoning" is a interesting proposition, as is "It gave life meaning and an ideal of perfection for which is revered." Inherent purpose is not some sort of answer to an otherwise pointless existence because existence has a point, we see it everyday. A butter knife exists, its purpose is to cut butter, if it achieves this purpose to a specification that is satisfactory to the person who made it then it is "perfect." Take a hypothetic "existence," a plan to invade Mexico; it exists, it has a purpose, and if it fulfills that purpose to the satisfaction of a creator then it is perfect.

Now, let us make an assumption; that the world we reside in is as it is supposed to be. Part of our existence is the common tree, a tree, as I hope all of you know, creates oxygen through photosynthesis which is a vital part of the existence of most everything living on earth. It serves a "purpose" in our "existence." If you believe in a Creator (which is a fairly logical conclusion when you take into consideration our own creations and what I stated above) then Humanity fulfills existence, purpose, and perfection just like everything we have ever created. If you deny a Creator, then you place yourself into a frame of mind where reasonable existence, purpose, and perfection evaporate before you. This effectively makes the philosophies you speak of a result of a purposeful course taken by the mind and NOT a natural condition that we seek to avoid. Nihilism is a state of mind that is a result of itself and nothing else.

Finally, it falls on you to prove that denial is the beginning and basis of human thought, instead of belief. Bare in mind however, that denial doesn't help you in relieving ignorance and that every human being to ever live has believed in something.

Bump (oh wow my first bump)

I am curious why such a deep thought was conveyed through crappy spelling.

Excellently said to both Lukewarm Monetarists and Ekland.

Both arguments are very nicely said, despite contrary views.

Not again. I've done this too much to form a decent reply.

Not again. I've done this too much to form a decent reply.

See? I told you that religious threads are stupid...

It is always interesting to see the crazy modern interpretations of the past we can come up with. So interesting that we say, "it must of been like this, because of that new fangled theory/ new way of thought that we just came up with."

That period of time is so far gone that all we can truly say is that some one believed in this. Someone else believed in that. We can't really say why, what were their reasons etc.

Ad besides, philosophers always leave out the big "what if". What if there was no evolution of God, but a de-evolution of the concept of God. or what if God just exists and that is how man came up up with the idea, because God told him? ;)

But these ideas are not popular because it takes all the mysticism out of the idea =)