Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Why They Believe: Revisited

Quote:
If it is true that no one is smart enough to know how to live his own life and if it is true that no one else knows how to live your life either, then you are in a real fix unless there is a God who does know and is available to give you direction.

Putting it personally, I have concluded that I will never know how to live my own life, and that is exactly why I need God! As I think about it in terms of the most important learning of my life, I put it in this way "No one is smart enough to know how to live his own life and that is exactly why you need God!"
---Strengths-Based Advising: MY MOST IMPORTANT LEARNINGS: Edward C. Anderson


No one is smart enough to be able to live his own life? What are they talking about, babies? That's why we have parental instincts. If God made all the creatures of the world, he decided that some animals don't need the tutoring of parents, most do, and the ones that look the most like us seem to need the most parental instruction. A few thousand years ago, we didn't seem to need as much as we do now. A few thousand years ago, we were considered elderly at 18.

I'm not altogether certain that is what they mean, though. Help me out: how smart do we have to be to "live our own lives?" Isn't that a meaningless question, since they already admitted that no one else can live your life for you? No matter how much of a failure you are, you are still "living your own life," aren't you? If you look around, there are plenty of people who could be considered "failures." They are still living their own lives, but most of them are theists. There are also many people living successful lives as atheists. So it doesn't matter how stupid you are: a life is a life, no matter what, and it belongs only to the one living it.

If this is one of Edward's "Most Important Learnings," he probably needs a lot of help with living.

I need God. I need God to help me be the person that I know is inside me. I need God to give me a reason to clear away the cobwebs and fog, and to touch the bright space of my soul, the goodness that can't be corrupted, can't decay. I need God because I am afraid I am in danger of never seeing that goodness again. I do not want to be one of those icy, bitter people who no longer believe in anything, whether it's God or love or themselves.--Right Thinking Girl

Another example of a giant ego. I talked about this in my post about The Soul. Where does the belief that there is a perfect person, a magical potential inside all of us, just screaming to get out? It's not in the bible. We are all imperfect in the eyes of God, and it's only through God's graciousness that such dirty people are allowed in. And those dirty people are, ostensibly, our souls. Our dirty, soiled souls. Not the gleaming, shining Goodness that RTG fancies herself. The "icy, bitter people" part? Meh. Heard it all before. Seen it, wrote about it, ranted about it. All of us atheists are dark chocolate. I like dark chocolate. Good for the heart. Of course, you know I am incapable of goodness, don't you?

6 comments:

breakerslion said...

Yeah, we've all heard this one before. I don't believe in god, therefore I don't believe in "anything". Well then, I guess I'm dead because I don't believe in breathing, or eating, or earning a living....

I'm going to take that charge seriously for a change. What if I am just a brain in a jar, and all of this is just an illusion, caused by some kind of programming, a la "the Matrix"? (I know, but it’s the analogy that most warm bodies will understand.) Well, when I drop an "imaginary" bowling ball on my "imaginary" foot, my whole world narrows down to the "imaginary" pain I think I am experiencing. In other words, If I want to interact with my environment in a non-destructive way, I must treat it as real. Therefore, it is irrelevant whether or not it is actually real. The simplest explanation is, that I can accept at face value the apparent fact that you, the sofa, and everything else is what it seems. I cannot extend this same consideration toward god, simply because there are alternative explanations, and ulterior motives for perpetuating the lie of god. The justifications surrounding the idea that such a being is alleged to have a great influence on my life, but won't interact directly, rather needs a scurvy bunch of "preachers" to make Its will known, is ludicrous.

Still, at times, I envy the believers. It must be very pleasant to live such a chuckleheaded existence. Thinking is such hard work, after all.

Hellbound Alleee said...

I am not so sure that it's so great. I was a believer for most of my youth, and I recall it being a time of great fear. The concept of a biblical god frightened me.

Perhaps I was so scared because I was a doubter living in a household of doubters who lived in an evangelical church. Doubt+fundamentalism=fear of hell. I was afraid of a lot, like all those demonic movies they made in the 70's. It freaked me the hell out. I was also afraid of ghosts and the dark.

That's why accepting my atheism was so wonderful. I could finally be happy and stop being afraid of myself all the time.

Francois Tremblay said...

Mike is really a sub, and he's just pretending because he`s too much of a pussy to do it in "real life."

The point is, S&M is in a wider genre of sexuality called "role playing." That's very important to remember. There's a difference between an S&M game and in real life. And any dom that has half a brain knows that it's the submissive that always runs the show. It's the dom's job to pretend it's the other way 'round. The religious submissives are in charge of their own fantasies, not a god.

So basically, Mikey here is telling us that god is imaginary, and so is his...."big".....cock.

Hellbound Alleee said...

To continue role playing...that was me, not my husband, who just made fun of the size of Mike's prosthesis.

Aaron Kinney said...

LOL where do I submit my completed form?

Reverend Jeremiah said...

Sheesh. People arent smart enough to live without God. What a moron! This theist doesnt even act concerned that maybe his specific God out of the hundreds of thousands that have existed throughout history that he is worshipping might not be real. His argument is slam full of holes. Such as; Does a worshipper of zeus have the same guidance? And if not, then explain how Alexander the great conquered europe and thereby starting western civilization? If Christianity is such a great guiding light for people, then why did it cause the dark ages for the first 1000 years it came into power? Explain how I (an Atheist) am doing such a great job raising my two children specifically to be Atheists? You would think that a God would be offended by that, nope. My children are healthy and intelligent.

If this is Mr. Edwards strength, then he is sorely weak. Nobody 'needs' an imaginary friend (god)to live their lives, regardless of the number of people who 'want' the imaginary friend to be real.

P.S. The next time you presuppose that everyone in the world is as dumb and gullible as you, do us intellectuals a favor by beating your head into your monitor instead of posting ignorant drivel such as this. You are giving otherwise intelligent beleivers a bad rap as well.