If there was a one "God"

[SHRED]

Then he/she/it could gradually replace negative thought patterns in man during sleep. Ever so slightly the world could become a more loving, caring, thoughtful, peaceful, and cooperative place.
You would wake up to better world each day until negativity was a distant memory.

Even little old me can think up this.
I see the opposite happening.
This is why I distrust the "one God" belief structure.

[Az]

1. Its that freewill thing

But I offer you this alternative that leaves freewill intact.

Why could god have not made a universe where freewill is intact and it would continually hold to a loving caring world?

[SHRED]

3. My thought on "free" will

If I truly had free will then I would be living in an ecological paradise surrounded by loving people.

[manic expression]

8. You have free will

but so does everyone else, and that is why the world is not the way you want it to be.

[CarbonDate]

2. When I build a desk....

...I don't care whether the bacteria residing on it like each other. If I was a god, I wouldn't especially care whether the people were nice to each other, either. I'd be more worried about getting in Aphrodite's... ahem.

[frogmarch]

4. When?

Sorry if this is off-topic for this thread, but what at point in the evolution of humankind do Christians who believe in organic evolution believe our souls first appeared? Did the Devonian crossopterygiian fish leading to us have souls? Did our early amphibian ancestors? How about our little mammalian ancestors of the Mesozoic that lived alongside the dinosaurs? And what about Australopithecus afarensis ("Lucy")? And Homo erectus? Did they?

Just curious.

I was brought up in a Christian family, but with me, religion just didn't take. I think my first doubts were born when I was around four and didn't see how Noah could cram all those animals onto the ark.


I don't care about other people's religious views - to each his/her own - but I transform into Militant Atheist when it comes to maintaining separation of church and state.

[FM Arouet666]

5. When the soulless sperm and egg meet, a miracle occurs.

I have asked the "when" question before and got the response above. I countered with the postulate that the sperm and egg actually have half a soul. My religious opponent resisted this notion, perhaps the implication for onanism was too much for him to bare.

Anyway, welcome to DU. Check out the Atheists, Skeptics and The Meeting Room forums.

Enjoy

[SHRED]

7. Welcome to the DU

I share your sentiment here too, along with many of the fairy tales in the bible.

"I was brought up in a Christian family, but with me, religion just didn't take. I think my first doubts were born when I was around four and didn't see how Noah could cram all those animals onto the ark."

[manic expression]

9. I'm not a Christian....

but why wouldn't those beings have souls? I believe every living thing (as well as "non-living" entities) has a soul, bar none. The body is simply a physical manifestation of the eternal individual (which is another facet of reality).

How could our ancestors NOT have souls? The soul IS the existence, and it is constant through life and death, joy and pain.

Hope that made sense.

[Old Mouse]

6. Why would a God do that?

[More Than A Feeling]

10. Only during sleep? If not in the day, why not?

(just out of curiosity)

[garybeck]

11. Free Will

if there is a God, perhaps he/she/it put is here so that we can find and make peace on our own, rather than giving us a magical cure in our sleep.

if we succede wouldn't it be more rewarding and fulfilling to know we did it on our own? wouldn't we learn more in the process?

negative thought patters
can be reversed
simply think good thoughts
do good deeds

[PsychoDad]

12. Well said.

We are born peaceful, we learn hate. Young children in a playground don't discriminate based upon race, politics or creed... they only do that when they get older and "learn" about why some people aren't as good as them.

They even have to be taught the concept of "Teams" - Us vs Them.

Children are born with a natural curiosity and desire to learn about their world and others... They "learn" to be closed minded as they get older.

As for violence and greed?

Children will fight over toys. We are the adults, we should know better.

Shalom/Salaam/Peace

[TallahasseeGrannie]

18. I'm not certain children are born all

that peaceful. I live with a nine month old girl and her two year old brother. Already there is strife between them over toys. "I want what you have" or "I don't want to give you what I have."

I think we take that attitude with us throughout life, but we learn to attach race and gender and creed to it when we get more sophisticated and need to blame our inborn selfishness on something.

[PsychoDad]

13. replace negative thought patterns in man during sleep

You mean program us like automations?

I'm sure God could, but for some reason gave us two dangerous things... "Intelligence"* and freewill. Bad enough by themselves but pretty downright lethal together.

Why exactly? That's the question.

What "One God" does imply, or should to it's believers, is the underlying unity of all things. All we see around us came from that oneness. Stars, animals, plants and humanity came from one source. We do not have multiple gods or come from multiple sources and creations, each tribe or nation having their own god/s. We come from one source and we return to one source and we shall answer to one, no matter what we call him/her/it.

We humans are one people, one family, and a functioning family can live in peace with itself despite personal differences of opinion.

Humanity is a dysfunctional family, and it's been left to us to solve that problem ourselves.

Why? Maybe if we solve the problem we will discover the answer. I don't know.


Peace

* this is in quotes because we like to think we have it. But it is often mistaken with arrogance.

[Disturbed]

14. Why does a God need to be personal?

Most people see a God as causing things to happen on this planet and to people and maybe even themselves. People need a reason that things happen so they invented Gods to give them the reason.

[Zebedeo]

20. Yes, very true.

and very wise.

[jcldragon]

15. There is one Sentience

that pervades the Universe in its myriad forms. Individuality is merely a mask it wears for expression, and experience of the Material World. All Life is One in Essense.

Note that Matter cannot move or change its form, except that some form of energy is applied to it. Thus, it follows that Life is a form of Energy. Life can change its form, but it cannot be created or destroyed. Therefore, we are all Eternal.

[SPKrazy]

16. This Is A Thoughtful Take On Eternal Life

one that is hard to argue with

circle of life and all

[Meshuga]

17. Do you want God to make us into robots?

I like being a free thinking human and make decisions on my own. I like the free will and the ability to choose to do good or bad. I try to do good as much as I can and use my religion to guide me in that department.

[Jeroen]

19. Love

Here is what I believe:

What you are talking about is love. Love is everywhere, even on a battlefield.
If we where fish, love would be the ocean we live in.

Perhaps you THINK: “Oh no, its that esoteric bs about love again, the God is Love mantra”.
But meanwhile love is the fabric that holds your words together, love is your 'core message'.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

21. This is kinda ... well, odd

because if God is omnipotent then he could do any number of things to replace negative thought patterns. He wouldn't have to do it during sleep. He could just wipe us all out and start over, for instance.

I believe God is omnipotent but we're thrown down here with the tools we have for a reason.

[JerseygirlCT]

22. Perhaps the point of us being here however, is to learn to do that

ourselves.

[Mazz]

23. symbiotic relationship?

how about that god and us share a symbiotic relationship?
when we are violent god is lost and alone and wants to be loved so is in an abusive relationship
every human mind is connected to god so we have this effect

in gnostic writings god does say
'I am the slave of him who prepared me. I am the ruler of my offspring.
But he is the one who begot me before time on a day of birth
And he is my offspring in time, and my power is from him.
I am the staff of his power in his youth, and he is the rod of my old age.
And whatever he wills happens to me'

The spark of god within is subject to our will and letting go and not dominating god would lead to a better world

Mazz

[JerseygirlCT]

24. Interesting thought... not sure I'm with you on it, but

it's a very interesting way to think about it.

[Disturbed]

25. God said there were other Gods.

In the OT, the 1st Commandment states, worship no other Gods beofre the one issuing the order. Thia statatement needs to be thought about.

[JerseygirlCT]

26. I've always thought about that allegorically

that is, other gods being things like money or power.