My annual Memorial Day thread (1 Viewer)

Biologically there is no mother without a father and vice versa.
so ultimately the question is "why use 'father' as the metaphor?" which as you are pointing out here should, at the very least, be a couple and as i am pointing out, for 99.9999+% of species the mother HAS to be present at birth (or at least egg laying) and then for most mammals the mother HAS to be present for nourishment (basic nature - not things like adoption - if the mother dies at childbirth or soon after that's like a near certain death sentence whereas the father does not need to be present for survival)
 
so ultimately the question is "why use 'father' as the metaphor?" which as you are pointing out here should, at the very least, be a couple and as i am pointing out, for 99.9999+% of species the mother HAS to be present at birth (or at least egg laying) and then for most mammals the mother HAS to be present for nourishment (basic nature - not things like adoption - if the mother dies at childbirth or soon after that's like a near certain death sentence whereas the father does not need to be present for survival)
Does it really matter?
You can use He, She or It if that's what you believe.

My reference is biblically "God the Father".
 
Here's my belief:
I believe that prayer does work...but not always in the way that we want them to.
I believe that God is our All Knowing Father.
I view Him not just as my Creator...but as my ultimate parent.

When I was growing up, I would ask my Mom and Dad for things.
Sometimes the answer was "Yes"...but most often the answer was "No" because my parents knew what was best for me as a child.

IMO...the same thing goes with God being my ultimate parent.
Sometimes our prayers are answered with "Yes"...but most often it's "No" because God knows what's best for us.
IMO His plan for us was in the works long before we were born.
The difference is who abides by and accepts that plan?
And who doesn't?
You don't get in trouble because God denies you what you want as a parent figure, you get in trouble due to your craving or aversion for events or things. We are here to learn and to teach. Once those things are accomplished it's the end of our time.

It is said that our Essence dwells for a time in the Sprit world, but then must descend to the material realms to learn, or to assist others to learn. Our spirit picks its path here knowing the parents who will birth it, and all the trials and triumphs it will face. We are not allowed to speak of the World outside this one, and so as we prepare for birth the Angel presses it's finger to our lips and says "Shhh". This gesture leaves the indentation under our nose and ensures our silence.

God is more like a therapist than a parent. He/she is not here to tell you exactly what you should or should not do, but rather help you make that choice for yourself. The Buddha was once asked why his teaching appeared contradictory. He said "If you're walking down the road and you're about to fall into a ditch on the right side, I'll say 'go left. If you're about to fall into a ditch on the left, I'll say 'go right"

"Be still and know that I am..."
 
I can’t say that I pray like I should but I when I finally decided to get sober I also decided to give prayer a chance. What I learned was that I had never once known how to pray. I had always done the prayers asking for something or to get me out of some consequences. So I decided to pray only in regards to things outside of myself. Basically just “show me how to be useful “. I had so many problems including trying to be sober, where was I going to live etc. But I started helping others around me with the same problems. I was shocked to see how good it felt and though I was helping many with the same problems I had, including making calls and finding them a place to live, and meanwhile my problems just kind of sorted themselves out without much effort from me at all. I’m still Mr skeptic guy and prefer an logical explanation but also if Im taking a placebo but it’s helping me, why stop.
 
Does it really matter?
You can use He, She or It if that's what you believe.

My reference is biblically "God the Father".
Let me ask you
You don’t think 3000 yrs of referring to the religion figurehead exclusively in males terms would have an adverse cultural impact?
You yourself said there needed to be a mother and a father, but then have an entire religion based only in the father would enable an unnecessarily hierarchical society, no?

(there’s a related question about worshiping a middle eastern man, but viewing him only with European features)
 
Let me ask you
You don’t think 3000 yrs of referring to the religion figurehead exclusively in males terms would have an adverse cultural impact?
You yourself said there needed to be a mother and a father, but then have an entire religion based only in the father would enable an unnecessarily hierarchical society, no?

(there’s a related question about worshiping a middle eastern man, but viewing him only with European features)
It’s trying to give it a form at all that is the problem regardless of gender. I try not to say “God” at all when I’m talking about it. In both the teller and the listener, this serves nothing but to confine our thinking about something that we can’t comprehend anyway. Even the term “finding God” or “finding spirituality” is very limiting because of what our expectations of that should be. My favorite line of poetry (and I don’t know by who ) is

“Spirituality is not about finding the answers but learning to love the questions”
 
It’s trying to give it a form at all that is the problem regardless of gender. I try not to say “God” at all when I’m talking about it. In both the teller and the listener, this serves nothing but to confine our thinking about something that we can’t comprehend anyway. Even the term “finding God” or “finding spirituality” is very limiting because of what our expectations of that should be. My favorite line of poetry (and I don’t know by who ) is

“Spirituality is not about finding the answers but learning to love the questions”

What is your take on Genesis 1:27?
In the NIV and NLT, "man" was replaced with "mankind" and "human beings" respectively to go with the times, but all of the other versions say "God created man in his own image". What do you think this image is?
 
What is your take on Genesis 1:27?
In the NIV and NLT, "man" was replaced with "mankind" and "human beings" respectively to go with the times, but all of the other versions say "God created man in his own image". What do you think this image is?

I think there are some good esoteric messages in the Bible that get lost on most. But those books were chosen by men and some were left out by men. It’s not my first source for anything.
 
i think many skeptics would be a bit more willing to cede the point if prayer people added caveats like "Prayer works FOR ME"
that would be much harder to argue against since it would be difficult to disprove
but 'prayer works' is rather easy to disprove and anecdotal evidence even exists in this thread

so many things we work like that
yoga works, atkins diet works, ployamory works, the stock market works, et al
none of those are completely true statement since there is so much counter evidence
but those things with "for me" could very well be true
Prayer works for me, and everyone I know personally, that has tried it, in a beneficial way.
 
I think there are some good esoteric messages in the Bible that get lost on most. But those books were chosen by men and some were left out by men. It’s not my first source for anything.
Those books were written by men as well.

What sort of esoteric messages are you referring to? I'd think a perfect deity's message would be perfect, and should be clear to all.
 

Create an account or login to comment

You must be a member in order to leave a comment

Create account

Create an account on our community. It's easy!

Log in

Already have an account? Log in here.

Users who are viewing this thread

    Back
    Top Bottom