What Would God Do?

[mtmynd]

What if the aliens showed up in the future and said, "Oh...You don't believe in God anymore? That's too bad. We have to blow you up now."

Conversely, what if aliens showed up tomorrow and said, "YOU believe in God??? We have to blow you up now."

There's so much to think about, to ponder and contemplate, to debate over whether there is God has been rehashed over and over by every thinking person at least once in their lives and nobody has concluded anything. But ask if there is godliness in mankind, and I believe you'll find no argument from the honest amongst us.

What would god do about that statement?

[Nazz]

Wow, going deep here. Makes me want to have an Edie Brickell sorta moment. Toss me in the shallow water...

Alien from Space: "Take me to your leeder."

Me: "Which one?"

Alien: "The powerful one."

Me: "We have quite a few."

Alien: "Well... then do you believe in God?"

Me: " Which one?"

[Barry]

LingOL at Nazz's post. Effing hi-larious, dude.

Conversely, what if aliens showed up tomorrow and said, "YOU believe in God??? We have to blow you up now."

Yes, yes, the aliens could think that way. I just have a suspicion that a belief in goodness - godliness, if you will - is most likely universal in the universe. And I suspect that the switch from poly- to monotheism on Earth had perhaps more to do with shifting spheres of influence in the galaxy than cultural evolution on this minor planet orbiting a lonely star in the backwoods of the Milky Way. "On Earth as is is in [the] heaven[s]" and all that, you know? Spheres of political, religious and economic influence shift all over the face of this globe all the time. Why should it be any different in the wider world of the galaxy? Perhaps we moved into a new shere of influence back then? Or one expanded to included us?
When I posted I was minded of an episode of, I think it was Amazing Stories, but it could have been the Twilight Zone redo in the 80's. In it, aliens showed up in huge ships hovering over all major cities on Earth. (How many movies have we seen that in?) Somehow, the political leaders of Earth got it in their heads that the aliens were going to destroy Earth because world peace had not come about yet, that we were still too militaristic. So they hammered it all out at the UN over a period of days or weeks. They finally did it. World Peace for all time. All weaponry was destroyed or otherwise neutralized. When the alien spokesperson came back down to talk to them, the leaders of Earth proudly held up the thick tome they had put together, the document establishing World Peace. The alien spokesperson began to giggle, then progressed on to gales of laughter. Through his mirth he explained that the Earth leaders had misunderstood. It wasn't World Peace the aliens wanted. They wanted a fighting force, an army. Earth had now destroyed all their weapons. Their capability as a fighting force was no more. They aliens now would have to blow them up. It was really very sad and wasteful from the point of view of the aliens.
So yeah, I get you Cecil. You just can't know for sure. Other than looking into your heart, that is, and using what you see there to speak your mind.

As I stated above; God is like the flag...Not the thing itself, but the symbol. If one keeps this in mind, there is no debate.

Peace,
Barry

[mtmynd]

God is like the flag...Not the thing itself, but the symbol.

Wavering..?

When, and if, all questions are answered, there may well be or may not be, this essence we've given the name, 'god.' Until that time, mind's questioning seems to be interminable... like an interminable god. Perhaps god is a process ... a process of questioning..?

[hester_prynne]

God would come over to my house and sing "Down by the riverside" with me in great gusto and harmony.
Then he would show me how to make greedy people's money combust into nothing, and then he would lead me to the bigger perspective outside of self where I would meet alot of likeminded friends that I could teach the combustion of greedy money trick to.
Once all the greedy money was destroyed then God would lead a us to a piece of land and we would turn it into a communal neighborhood based on peace, love, understanding and awareness and we would live happily ever after. God would remind us all that evolution is a state of mind and we would seek that. And then God would turn around to us all and say, hey, don't give me all the credit for stuff....even the good stuff because it takes a village, a community working together for the good of all to experience heaven.
Amen
H

[Barry]

God would come over to my house and sing "Down by the riverside" with me in great gusto and harmony.
Then he would show me how to make greedy people's money combust into nothing, and then he would lead me to the bigger perspective outside of self where I would meet alot of likeminded friends that I could teach the combustion of greedy money trick to.
Once all the greedy money was destroyed then God would lead a us to a piece of land and we would turn it into a communal neighborhood based on peace, love, understanding and awareness and we would live happily ever after. God would remind us all that evolution is a state of mind and we would seek that. And then God would turn around to us all and say, hey, don't give me all the credit for stuff....even the good stuff because it takes a village, a community working together for the good of all to experience heaven.

My God! That's exactly what happened when God came to my house. To a freakin' tee. Blessed be to you. Muchly.

Wavering..?

Not in the least. I've long made it clear that to me God is the universal field of consciousness of which our individual consciousnesses are only a part. But as far as "God" the word, you know, the G-word everyone has such a problem with, that is the symbol of which I speak, like the flag is the symbol of our nation but not our nation. Burn the flag all you want. The nation still stands. Deny the existence of "God" all you want. God is still there. Or do you not have a mind?

Peace,
Barry

[mtmynd]

Deny the existence of "God" all you want. God is still there.

I'm lost. Where's there..?

[Nazz]

G-d is all of the above. Often used as a crutch. Or a weapon. Or some sort of leverage too.

Guts, God and guns, hey!
Guts, God and guns, hey!

I once was a humble carpenter.
Now I got guts, God and guns, hey!

[stilltrucking]

God works in mysterious ways.

It struck me then that I have Hitler to thank for my existence, for the Germans had killed my father’s wife and two young children, erasing his prior life. And so were it not for the war, my father would never have emigrated to New York, never have met my mother, also a refugee, and never have produced me and my two brothers … The outline of our lives, like the candle’s flame, is continuously coaxed in new directions by a variety of random events that, along with our responses to them, determine our fate.
What are the odds?

Oh yes hester lets sing it, "Down by the riverside, down by the riverside, I ain't goin to study war no more" One thing about the promised land god will lead us there sure but we have to wipe out the indigenous population on our own. Pesky Canaanites.

I know Barry, but you do not have to defend God. God can look out for itself.
Same with Jesus.
That is my opinion.
Interesting book called The Evolution of God. I have not read it just bits and pieces. I think about how my notion of G-d has evolved over the years, from atheist, to Jesus Freak, to quantum mystic.

[Barry]

I'm lost. Where's there..?

Inside you. Outside you.
"Within you and without you" as George Harrison sang.
Everywhere.
Everywhere you are.
Everywhere you aren't.
There.

[The universe]works in mysterious ways.

Yes. Exactly. If I hadn't fucked off my good job in 1992 I never would have worked at The Fossil Cartel; I wouldn't have met my wife; we wouldn't have the wonderful children we do. I might have children, but they wouldn't be these children. Mysterious.

you do not have to defend God

How does any of this come off as defending God? Is the opposite of denying God defending God? If it's okay to deny God, which is certainly is, why is it not okay to defend God? You see, this is the root of the whole issue, the reason for the whole post...Why do so many people get so bent out of shape just talking about God? They bring up things people have done "in the name of God" as answer, when those are all things people did, not God. But the point still remains: many are uncomfortable discussing God.

Why?

Peace,
Barry

[stilltrucking]

For me it is because you seem to be trying define G-d, trying to get your mind around god. intellectualize god Something I can not do anymore. I put it down to a function of age maybe.

[Barry]

Well maybe that's the problem. Perhaps you're trying to be more in my head than in your own head. Never works for me, either. My own head is confusing enough. Other peoples? I don't bother. Just so you know, I'm not trying to define or wrap my head around God. I'm discussing God.

Peace,
Barry

[stilltrucking]

you are saying what god is
which is more than I can speak to.

Barry wrote:

God is part of a pair-bond, just like everything.

That kind of threw me for a loop.

I said:

"God is the square root of minus one"

I can't remember where I read that, and I can't do the math.

But as I understand it the square root of minus one is an imaginary number. Yet it is useful in math.

I sometimes think about God as the Puerto Rican janitor in the play Steam Bath.

I think you would really like this Barry.

People inside a public steambath realize that they have passed on...and God is their Latino mop-boy! A genuine oddity in the world of TV, this shot-on-video production is certainly not going to appeal to everyone...but for anyone with an interest in strange teleplays, this comes highly recommended. 7/10

The film opens in a steam bath. Bill Bixby, confused in a towel, is told that he has died and the steam bath is the holding pen before moving into the netherworld (there's actually a door leading to eternity (heaven or hell??). He eventually determines that the skinny little Puerto Rican janitor on the other end of the room is God. "God" stands at a computer terminal making fateful decisions for those on earth (ie, Mary drives down Rt 1 in San Francisco, makes a fatal driving error and goes off the cliff). This film was highly thought-provoking and eerie. The entire film took place in the steam bath. Creepy. Makes you think.


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167415/usercomments

[Nazz]

Something vaguely Zen trippy in that. So that would make God times God less than zero. Whoa.

[stilltrucking]

Definitely Zen, I thought I read it in a J. D. Salinger story called Teddy but I can't find it in there. I have Googled it a hundred times but I can not find the source of the saying. Plenty of quotes but no attribution.

Speaking of Salinger's short story I liked this bit. I think this is what Barry is saying. Not to put words in his mouth.

"I was six when I saw that everything was God, and my hair stood up, and all that," Teddy said. "It was on a Sunday, I remember. My sister was only a very tiny child then, and she was drinking her milk, and all of a sudden I saw that she was God and the milk was God. I mean, all she was doing was pouring God into God, if you know what I mean."

Teddy