In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth

Re: # 309 Farzana,

Guess its time we called the truce and retreated to our corners then. No harm done.



#302 by hamidm2
Re: # 298

........... the last time God did it the people beat the crap out of him and then crucified him ........... if he showed up today they would lock him up in an insane asylum or kids woud chase him down the street shouting ``pagal e oye



Remember that the people against him, were not atheists, but `god believers` of another variety - the jews! Interesting that Jesus got a taste of the venom he himself had introduced.

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth Re: # 290 Farzana,

``Those posts convey much more than all those quotes you put up. Thanks again!``

I am certainly in no race for `best post` here. And I do think some of your posts were good. Each one has his own `best post` and team of admirers.
However, Farzana, sarcasm is just no measure of genius.

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth I am still trying to understand how `God` as a belief, originated.

Why do believers still quote proof for Gods existence revolving basically around the same three or four topics...for eg.

1. The boundless atom.

2. How life began years ago, and related topics

3. The inscrutable Universe.

While I have always thought it was just a matter of being told so by friends, teachers and especially, relatives, some of the answers on this board by the believers are perplexing.
I dont claim to know the answers to the ablve questions, nor does `science`.
To any reasoning mind, this does not mean that a default `super natural` has taken over.

Do religionists have any proof in our everyday lives?
Bottomline is : Why does nt God show himself and clear all doubts?

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth Re: # 280 by Zeena on April 30, 2007 8:28pm PT
``As much as I found height of retardedness in this article and in majority of posts here on this board......

I am impressed to read Farzana Versey`s post #244........

Farzana Versey, she is the best interactor,writer and humanist...........``




But you have nt even read my first few posts here 1-9 or so...maybe you d have a different opinion if you had read them since they were actually the best :-)

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth

I am still trying to understand how `God` as a belief, originated.

While I have always thought it was just a matter of being told so by friends, teachers and especially, relatives, some of the answers on this board by the believers are perplexing.

The proof quoted for Gods existence revolves basically around the same three or four topics...for eg.

1. The boundless atom.

2. How life began years ago, and related topics

3. The inscrutable Universe.

I dont claim to know the answers to the ablve questions, nor does `science`.
To any reasoning mind, this does not mean that a default `super natural` has taken over.

Do religionists have any proof in our everyday lives?
Bottomline is : Why does nt God show himself and clear all doubts?

Rahul Gandhi\'s Election Campaign Re: # 4
Nila,

True, the article is not about the BJP. But its just unfortunate that India does not an opposition that is worth its salt. The BJP is bad as a political concept, since it seeks votes primarily on the basis of religion - at least the Congress, for all its mistakes, cannot be accused of that. And the other opposition parties are nt better off either. If we did have a better party in the opposition, we should nt need the Congress anymore. Sycophancy is of course, the bane of the Congress, but to me, is anyday better than casteism, corruption or communalism.

The family accused of sycophancy, is one that has served the nation most, and stayed on even after sacrificing lives for the country. There are hardly any monetary benefits to show for it, unlike the `new` parties and politicos who are out to make a fast buck. And remains an inspiration to many as compared to the opposition.

As for Rahul, I agree that he needs better mentors than his sister, though this one `wrong` act alone does not take away his right to enter politics.

Thanks for your questions.

Rahul Gandhi\'s Election Campaign The unfortunate fact, is that the Indian opposition has nt grown up at all.

The BJP, is but a representative of religious fanatic forces that do not want to openly call for votes based on majoritism. Unfortunately however, the BJP, is an international shame on the country. Recently, there have been allegations that the police in a BJP state were killing people belonging to a minority religion as `encounter killings`. And a tasteless BJP MP was arrested for trying to smuggle a woman abroad allegedly for money.
At all given opportunity, the BJP tries to split the country on the basis of religion. The congress, however lethargic it might be, has nt yet openly taken to religion based politics.

This is not to take away any credit from the other regional and semi regional parties, that are always on the look out to divide people on the basis of caste, and make corruption money more and more daringly.

The Congress, for all its real and imagined faults, at least has a leadership that has not allowed any of the vicious slander to stick to it. Compared to a Jayalalitha, Sonia Gandhi must be a pauper.

Compared to a Pramod Mahajan`s son, Rahul is nothing short of a saint.
Indeed, that comparison just about sums up it all.

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth

`HOLLY KORAN`

``Slay them wherever you find them...Idolatry is worse than carnage...Fight against them until idolatry is no more and God`s religion reigns supreme.`` (Surah 2:190-)

``Fighting is obligatory for you, much as you dislike it.`` (Surah 2:216)

``Men are tempted [in this life] by the lure of women...far better is the return of God. Say: `Shall I tell you of better things than these, with which the righteous shall be rewarded by their Lord? Theirs shall be gardens watered by running streams, where they shall dwell for ever: wives of perfect chastity...`` (Surah 3:14, 15)

``The only true faith in God`s sight is Islam.`` (Surah 3:19)




`HOLLY BIBLE`

The LORD is a jealous God, filled with vengeance and wrath. He takes revenge on all who oppose him and furiously destroys his enemies! The LORD is slow to get angry, but his power is great, and he never lets the guilty go unpunished. He displays his power in the whirlwind and the storm. The billowing clouds are the dust beneath his feet. At his command the oceans and rivers dry up, the lush pastures of Bashan and Carmel fade, and the green forests of Lebanon wilt. In his presence the mountains quake, and the hills melt away; the earth trembles, and its people are destroyed. Who can stand before his fierce anger? Who can survive his burning fury? His rage blazes forth like fire, and the mountains crumble to dust in his presence. The LORD is good. When trouble comes, he is a strong refuge. And he knows everyone who trusts in him. But he sweeps away his enemies in an overwhelming flood. He pursues his foes into the darkness of night. (Nahum 1:2-8 NLT)

If one curses his father or mother, his lamp will go out at the coming of darkness. (Proverbs 20:20 NAB)

All who curse their father or mother must be put to death. They are guilty of a capital offense. (Leviticus 20:9 NLT)

If a man commits adultery with another man`s wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10 NLT)

A priest`s daughter who loses her honor by committing fornication and thereby dishonors her father also, shall be burned to death. (Leviticus 21:9 NAB)

Whoever sacrifices to any god, except the Lord alone, shall be doomed. (Exodus 22:19 NAB)

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth ``Science with religion is lame ; religion without science is blind.
Science without religion is useful, religion with science is useless.``
(Albert Einstein / 1879-1955)

``Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.``
(Napoleon Bonaparte / 1769-1821)

``My uniform experience has convinced me that there is no other God than True.``
(Mahatma Gandhi / 1869-1948)

``[The Bible is] a mass of fables and traditions, mere mythology.``
(Mark Twain / 1835-1910 / Mark Twain and the Bible)

``So far as religion of the day is concerned, it is a damned fake... Religion is all bunk.``
(Thomas Edison / 1847-1931)

``Man is certainly stark mad: he cannot make a worm, yet he will make gods by the dozen.``
(Michel de Montaigne / 1533-1592)

``One of the most frightening things in the Western world, and in this country in particular, is the number of people who believe in things that are scientifically false. If someone tells me that the earth is less than 10,000 years old, in my opinion he should see a psychiatrist.``
(Francis Crick / English scientist, Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology, 1962 / 1916-2004)

``The Bible is one of the most genocidal books in history``
(Noam Chomsky / born in 1928)

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth
``Science with religion is lame ; religion without science is blind.
Science without religion is useful, religion with science is useless.``
(Albert Einstein / 1879-1955)

``Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.``
(Napoleon Bonaparte / 1769-1821)

``My uniform experience has convinced me that there is no other God than True.``
(Mahatma Gandhi / 1869-1948)

``[The Bible is] a mass of fables and traditions, mere mythology.``
(Mark Twain / 1835-1910 / Mark Twain and the Bible)

``So far as religion of the day is concerned, it is a damned fake... Religion is all bunk.``
(Thomas Edison / 1847-1931)

``Man is certainly stark mad: he cannot make a worm, yet he will make gods by the dozen.``
(Michel de Montaigne / 1533-1592)

``One of the most frightening things in the Western world, and in this country in particular, is the number of people who believe in things that are scientifically false. If someone tells me that the earth is less than 10,000 years old, in my opinion he should see a psychiatrist.``
(Francis Crick / English scientist, Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology, 1962 / 1916-2004)

``The Bible is one of the most genocidal books in history``
(Noam Chomsky / born in 1928)

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth

``Science with religion is lame ; religion without science is blind.
Science without religion is useful, religion with science is useless.``
(Albert Einstein / 1879-1955)

``Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.``
(Napoleon Bonaparte / 1769-1821)

``My uniform experience has convinced me that there is no other God than True.``
(Mahatma Gandhi / 1869-1948)

``[The Bible is] a mass of fables and traditions, mere mythology.``
(Mark Twain / 1835-1910 / Mark Twain and the Bible)

``So far as religion of the day is concerned, it is a damned fake... Religion is all bunk.``
(Thomas Edison / 1847-1931)

``Man is certainly stark mad: he cannot make a worm, yet he will make gods by the dozen.``
(Michel de Montaigne / 1533-1592)

``One of the most frightening things in the Western world, and in this country in particular, is the number of people who believe in things that are scientifically false. If someone tells me that the earth is less than 10,000 years old, in my opinion he should see a psychiatrist.``
(Francis Crick / English scientist, Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology, 1962 / 1916-2004)

``The Bible is one of the most genocidal books in history``
(Noam Chomsky / born in 1928)

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth J. Krishnamurthi in 1929:


```Truth is a pathless land`. Man cannot come to it through any organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, not through any philosophic knowledge or psychological technique.He has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the understanding of the contents of his own mind, through observation and not through intellectual analysis or introspective dissection.

Man has built in himself images as a fence of security, religious, political, personal.

These manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs. The burden of these images dominates man`s thinking, his relationships and his daily life. These images are the causes of our problems for they divide man from man. His perception of life is shaped by the concepts already established in his mind. The content of his consciousness is his entire existence. This content is common to all humanity. The individuality is the name, the form and superficial culture he acquires from tradition and environment. The uniqueness of man does not lie in the superficial but in complete freedom from the content of his consciousness,which is common to all mankind. So he is not an individual.

Freedom is not a reaction; freedom is not a choice. It is man`s pretence that because he has choice he is free. Freedom is pure observation without direction, without fear of punishment and reward. Freedom is without motive; freedom is not at the end of the evolution of man but lies in the first step of his existence. In observation one begins to discover the lack of freedom. Freedom is found in the choiceless awareness of our daily existence and activity. `


``For centuries we have been spoon-fed by our teachers, by our authorities, by our books, our saints. We say, `Tell me all about it—what lies beyond the hills and the mountains and the earth?` and we are satisfied with their descriptions, which means that we live on words and our life is shallow and empty. We are second hand people. We have lived on what we have been told, either guided by our inclinations, our tendencies, or compelled to accept by circumstances and environment. We are the result of all kinds of influences and there is nothing new in us, nothing that we have discovered for ourselves; nothing original, pristine, clear. ``

Freedom From The Known (1969)


``That is the first thing to learn—not to seek. When you seek you are really only window-shopping. The question of whether or not there is a God or truth or reality, or whatever you like to call it, can never be answered by books, by priests, philosophers or saviours. Nobody and nothing can answer the question but you yourself and that is why you must know yourself. Immaturity lies only in total ignorance of self. To understand yourself is the beginning of wisdom.``

Freedom From The Known (1969)

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth

There is increasing debate recently about the assumptions of religion, particularly of God as in this thread.

The increasing recognition of the danger religion poses to the society is welcome.

Inspite of the billions in funds that pour into the coffers of organised religion, rational thinking can only augur well for the quick demise of brain washing, particularly innocent kids.

Façade of Pseudo Feminism



www.498a.org

God is a Metaphor

Re: # 163

The `science of religion` is hogwash.

Religion would nt exist if not for the organised brain wash engaged in, by people who have been not only brain washed themselves, but probably stand to gain from such acts as well.

If not for religious brain washing of children were abandoned, religion and god will die within years if not months.

All religions depend on brainwashing youngsters for their survival.

God is a Metaphor

I always have abhored the concept of religion, inspite of my fanatically religious upbringing.

Some questions continue to intrigue me :

Why is that we continue to brainwash our children, that too systematically, into believing in God, whether we may or may not believe in it ourselves?

How is it that even if we `grew up` enough to stop believing in ghosts, we do trust in God?

Why is that the western countries, supposedly `pure and godless`, continues to finance conversions in poorer countries like Africa and India?

How do we trust in religion, (which claims to be pro-peace) when it has been proven time and again to be more violent than any political organisation? (whether or not the church disowns Hitler)

When lies told for the sake of religion are so blatant, ( Mother Therasas miracles for eg.,), we still continue to trust in the church`s miracles?

How could we end up in this believing mess?

Have we lost our sense of rationality, or has it been robbed from us?