h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Cl - Cannot not go too wrong there and being a nice person.

I have faith you exist
I am also uncertain what will happen next.

Surely the feeling of "enlightenment" is Nirvana, and Zen is just the atittude of detachment/compassion? Well, enlightenment to me is best portrayed in 'American McGee's Alice', a computer game based on Alice in Wonderland. Alice is chained up in an insane asylum. People with their minds turned completely in on themselves. *shudder*

<---Is merely a figment of someone's imagination. There is no spoon.

I wouldn't go so far as to say mathematical proofs stand. You make all sort of wild assumptions like the existance of the past and that a point is where it is and so on.

I think that there are a number of basic statements (e.g. that we exist) that it would be so crippling to try and live without we are forced to make them or else we are powerless. I'm not saying that these are right, just that we should assume that they are.

*the observer affects the observed*

A408638

I wish there was a similar principle which could be applied to religion and the fact that the various forms of belief and deities are entirely the result of the observer/creator of said religion.

*the observer affects the observed*

A408638

I wish there was a similar principle which could be applied to religion and the fact that the various forms of belief and deities are entirely the result of the observer/creator of said religion.

Terry Pratchett's Small Gods defines that principle for you cl zoomer. A really thought-provoking book that one...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/F20543?thread=19391 Following the conversation zoomer left ,ends up at another article and this thread in which God-physics are a topic.

Small Gods is mentioned here alot.
It's worth a look for these questions

Excellent, very good! *runs to book store*

*Thought Models(like religions) are less importantly true than useful and good in their influence.*

Perhaps never a truer sentence written here.

Scepticism Inc. - there is another interesting read, another work fiction but I can't remember the name of the author this time. I really agreed with the book's final conclusion (which I won't write here in case I spoil the ending for anyone) wholeheartedly.

Catching up on backlog - I wondered how long it would be before Pratchett's 'Small Gods' came into it!

I am also wondering whether believers all have roughly the same 'image' of God. Do different religions have a similar description of God? If the views are significantly different, then to my mind that negates the idea of there being a God and illustrates the geographical variation in religion.

Personally I consider the religious experience to be more likely a brain function than related to any deity figure. Either that or God isn't really that bothered about belief or we would be shown a more credible proof of existence.

You sometimes heard people says "All religions teach basically the same" which to me shows that you know nothing about the subject. Besides devotion and worship of the deity, most religions are fairly different.

That's not what I'm saying. I know there are variations in what is taught & how religions are practised, but how different are the characters of the deities?
From what I have learned, it seems that there are common factors in the character of deities - the creator, all powerful, with whom 'oneness' is the ultimate goal. Are there any deities worshipped that do not fit this pattern?

The characteristics these gods share are the same characteristics all human civilizations share. Because they are made by humans in the image of humans, there's something in them that we can all identify with.

Well for a start there's all the polytheistic gods. Plenty of them aren't all-powerful or creators, or particularly filled with "oneness" either.

Yeah try to imagining Odin and Loki and oneness in the same context...

*aside - anyone read Neil Gaiman's 'American Gods'?*

I think that most of the multiple God beliefs merely divide aspects of life/nature and attribute them to different persona. Some of these gods were considered to have many human characteristics. There is usually still one 'overlord' and some sort of aspiration of 'heaven'. Are there many active polytheistic religions today?

Having a god to worship for a particular benefit such as a good harvest or good health is quite understandable. Humans can only do so much themselves, then they are at the mercy of nature. If things go wrong, doesn't it feel better to be able to blame the god?

On the other hand, feeling guilty for being an inadequate worshipper could be very destructive. I once heard of some fervent Christians saying to their childless friends (who were longing for children) that they hadn't prayed hard enough.