Real World Philospohy

[Cyrien]

ask God.

Ok. I did. He said not to believe a word you say.

Guess that settles that one.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

methinks Cyrien is making fun of me.

/me whacks Cyrien.

[Fyron]

Not if they are claiming it is the God of any particular arbitrary religion, as all religions are just inventions of man.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

that's an arbitrary statement.

[Fyron]

Umm... sure. What is arbitrary about it?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

you have arbitrarly declared all religeons inventions of man. have you undertaken a rigorous study of all religeons and asked God?

[Cyrien]

Yes. I have undergone a rigorous study of all the major religions in any event. I doubt it would be physically possible to gain even a basic understanding of ALL of them. To many small ones.
Based on my study of the major religions and their existing texts I have found that almost anything can be justified using religion, even things that are apparantly contradictory based on the interpretation given to what was written. This is only compounded as problem with ancient religions as they tend to use dead Languages in their original forms. Languages that few people speak and even then not as a basic language. Thus everything within them is not only subject to interpretation but also translation. Double whammy. As a general rule I am undecided on the issue of is their a God. I am quite decided however in my belief that organized religions are the earliest forms of government and means of limiting citizenry to acceptable rules of behavior often in the absence of strong central authority with other backing, that have grown out of control and taken on a life of their own once other authority did arise.

I also looked up arbitrary.

ar·bi·trar·y
adj.
1. Determined by chance, whim, or impulse, and not by necessity, reason, or principle: stopped at the first motel we passed, an arbitrary choice.

2. Based on or subject to individual judgment or preference: The diet imposes overall calorie limits, but daily menus are arbitrary.

3. Established by a court or judge rather than by a specific law or statute: an arbitrary penalty.

4. Not limited by law; despotic: the arbitrary rule of a dictator.


Based on definition 2 it seems that all statements could be considered arbitrary.

PS: I wasn't making fun of you. I asked God and this voice in my head answered. And told me that it disagreed with you. I can only assume that the voice was God.

[Fyron]

There is nothing arbitrary about my "declaration". You seem to have missed this post...

Keep in mind that "religion" started with primitive man as a means to explain everything he could not understand (which was pretty much everything around him). The concept of "God" did not come along until 100,000s of years later. Before some people in ancient Babylon began claiming that there was only one God (the Jews), everyone believed in either multiple gods or some other belief in which everything (people, animals, rocks, etc.) was spiritual (with the occasional "other"). Of course, there were probably some minor pockets of monotheism before Judaism came along, but that is the one that got the whole notion of one God going strong (after quite some time, mind you).

This is how religions have evolved over the millennia. It does not take a rigorous study of every single religion to realize this. Also, it is rather difficult to ask anything of a fictional character. It is of course possible that there is some sort of supernatural force (not necessarily likely, but possible). In any case, it is certainly not "God", or the deity of any other religion. The possibility of one religion being right and the other 1000s of them that have existed over the years (and that still exist) being wrong is so absurdly small that it can safely be ignored. Even if you want to go by weight of numbers, Christianity would come out wrong, as some 2.5-3 billion people on this planet are either Buddhists or Hindis, with Christians coming in at a measly 500 or 600 million. So why does "God" not speak to all those people, just a few in the West?

[Fyron]

Plus what Cyrien said.

[Loser]

This thread has grown far too fast for posting in it to be a good idea. Nonetheless.

Is the same God talking to you that talked to me and Muhammad and Orpheus and Joeseph Smith? There are good reasons for doubting whatever God is saying to all these people. If He's talking to any of them at all He's still got some explaining to do.