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So many people I know and respect are smug know-it-all atheists...

The internet changes the way religion is transmitted. Hopefully, one day, familial transmission will no longer be the dominant mode.
 
If atheism is the admitting of ignorance, then surely theism is the intellectual deliberation in long expressed discussion about how the universe is the evolution of one big consciousness, forming volitional formation out of ignorance, which would be produced out of the nothingness that is in mainstream science called the Big Bang, producing one giant consciousness that would encompass everything. Forming it's own worlds and beings in them. This would then be called God.

If the universe fits in the mind, and if the mind is luminous instead of an intake of information, then the mind creates the universe. Each mind being one entire universe, the inter-connected strings that forms through communication then produces a large formless world that fills the gap between these worlds and illuminates as an expansion of what we call the expansion of the universe. The Big Bang/God.
 
^I'm not following your 'if THIS than THAT' logic in the first paragraph there. I don't think theism is as grand as you put it, I feel like its simply a belief in a higher creative power that controls reality.

I just don't buy the idea that the big bang is god, or was manifested/kicked off by god. Its an incredibly indirect way of creating something, to leave it entirely to chance. Our evolution tells us that intelligence is not needed to create complexity on earth, and I don't think this premise changes when looking at the broader universe. The universe appears EXACTLY the same as a universe that is designed to look random.

Interesting post, what bits of it my simple mind could follow. :)
 
Heh... we don't even know what force is driving the universe. We have sub-categories of forces, like weak force and strong force, gravity and EM... we don't know what ties it all together. What is making the cosmic dance happen.

My sense is that physical reality is directed by non-material forces, dare I say spiritual ones. I don't believe the human mind can ever grasp the grand design. It's not meant to. That's why I look forward to death, in a way, because I won't be in this limited skin anymore.
 
Same here. I'm very hopeful that death will be a very positive thing. If my "I" completely disintegrates as if it never were and there is no "spirit" aspect to creation that's just fine by me. I do fear mindless rebirth into physical forms eternally but even then I think most physical things preferable to the human form and mentality. Yuck.
 
^I'm not following your 'if THIS than THAT' logic in the first paragraph there. I don't think theism is as grand as you put it, I feel like its simply a belief in a higher creative power that controls reality.

I just don't buy the idea that the big bang is god, or was manifested/kicked off by god. Its an incredibly indirect way of creating something, to leave it entirely to chance. Our evolution tells us that intelligence is not needed to create complexity on earth, and I don't think this premise changes when looking at the broader universe. The universe appears EXACTLY the same as a universe that is designed to look random.

Interesting post, what bits of it my simple mind could follow. :)

The evolution of a consciousness from nothing, would indeed form a random design as there are no conditions of where volitional formation would be drawn from.
 
I’m happy to answer this, but it’s only fair for me to point out that my answer reflects my own perspective. My view is that God, Christ, and Satan are symbols. And of course different people interpret these symbols differently. For mainstream Christians, Jesus was God, and Satan is the enemy of God and of Christians. Following a more Gnostic interpretation, I see the true God as being ineffable and existing in the Pleroma beyond the material universe created by the false god. I equate the god of this world with Satan. He is our adversary. He is the principle or power that seeks to keep us imprisoned in the material realm. Jesus may or may not have been a historical figure. My view is that there very well may have been a historical Jesus, and I’ve read many different theories about who he was and what he did. At the very least, I would say that if there was a historical Jesus, it’s very hard to say very much if anything about him. And most of what is recorded about him is almost completely legendary and mythical. So I approach the Christ as a mythical figure. For me, he is a Lucifer figure. That is to say, he is a messenger of light. He is that being through whom we can know the unknowable Father or Divine Source. In a sense, the Christ is that higher Self that exists within each of us and guides us toward Truth. Of course, the Christ myth is very complex and I don’t want to try to explain it all here. I’m not sure if that’s even possible. In a sense, the goal of all spirituality is to enter into a personal relationship with this Christ figure and to experience him within ourselves. This is something I haven’t talked about directly before. For me, this is the essence of mystical Christianity, or Christian Gnosticism. In some interpretations, Satan or the Demiurge is a kind of tester. Although he appears to be our enemy, he ultimately exists in order to help us evolve. A very down to earth way of understanding this idea would be that life tests us. It presents us with challenges that we must overcome. It reveals our true character. It offers us opportunities to grow. And the suffering we experience allows us to reveal God to one another. Taken literally, this leads to a dry theological argument about why a good god allows evil and suffering. I don’t believe anyone has ever found comfort, meaning, or the experience of the Transcendent in that sort of dead religion. The symbols have to resonate with you in a direct an personal way such that they provide you with a kind of map. The map gives you a sense of where you are so that you don’t feel lost. In a sense I would agree with that you are your own savior and destroyer. But in your destructive aspect is that function is working properly. But in the end, I believe that everything that happens to you happens in order to help you to know yourself and to become God. I’m hesitant to say that everything is opinion. I do accept that there is such a thing as absolute truth. I don’t promote relativism. But I do think that truth will sometimes reveal itself to different people in different ways at different points along their journey. I do believe there are provisional truths. Something may be “true” in the sense that it is what you needed to know to get you to the next stage in your evolution…at which point a higher truth may be revealed to you which you wouldn’t have been ready for previously. This is to say that we become illuminated by degrees. I think it’s healthy to recognize that others may be wrong. There is a danger in trusting too much in someone else’s “authority”. But it’s great to seek out those who you can learn from. I just advise people to avoid the trap of becoming a “disciple”. Christ wasn’t a Christian, Hegel wasn’t a Hegelian, Pythagoras wasn’t a Pythagorean, Buddha wasn’t a Buddhist, Jung wasn’t a Jungian…you get the idea. Once a person becomes an Illuminist, they’re unlikely to ever become an Illuminatus. That’s my view. No teacher worth following seeks followers. no God worthy of worship needs to be worshiped. There’s a reason why my friend Illuminatus Pythagoras ended his video “God’s Dying Words” with the words “You Are”. The words symbolize the redemption of the Abrahamic God who identified himself to Moses as “I Am”. In becoming a generative rather than a receptive force, he merged with the Source of Life. Those are a few thoughts.
 
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