Is the Xian God A Predator? Are All Gods Predators?

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This topic contains 25 replies, has 8 voices, and was last updated by  PopeBeanie 5 years, 5 months ago.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 26 total)
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  • #24238

    tom sarbeck
    Participant

    The OED defines predator as a person who ruthlessly exploits others. The word’s Latin root is praedator, which means ‘plunderer’.

    #24244

    Davis
    Moderator

    Yes. An undeniable yes. It is the most perfect description of the monster and mobster of the old testament.

    A more interesting question is: Was Jesus a predator? Is he now in whatever bizarre form he has in heaven…a predator?

     

    #24245

    PopeBeanie
    Moderator

    The men who invented those fictional characters were cultural predators.

    Shower thought, rephrase the above for accuracy, albeit the following attempt at pith could also benefit from added context or qualification:

    The men who fleshed out and promulgated as “true” those invented, fictional characters were cultural predators.

    • This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by  PopeBeanie. Reason: added pith, if that's not an oxymoron!?
    #24247

    _Robert_
    Participant

    The men who fleshed out and promulgated and as “true” those invented, fictional characters were cultural predators.

    It does seem like this is true. Some religions are the direct result of a concerted conspiracy to control or prey on others. Mormonism and Xtian Scientism come to mind as obvious frauds. It’s harder to prove with the ancient fables but I’d bet they started the same way and they certainly are  promulgated by unbelieving predators to this day.

    #24248

    Jehovah Witnesses are predators. I have seen them lurking outside train stations, in retail parks, on the high street, looking all pious and friendly but all the while trying to lure their prey (pray?) with moronic answers to important scientific questions. Prime targets in the urban jungle for people like me who hunt alone 🙂

    #24249

    Strega
    Moderator

    It amazes me that they have absolutely no idea how ridiculous they sound to almost anyone not of their particular cult. Does any of this doorknocking actually work?

    Theyre all ridiculous. Look at the Mormons. Magic underwear. I can’t….. I just can’t.

    • This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by  Strega.
    #24251

    #24252

    PopeBeanie
    Moderator

    History has been my weakest subject, for like… 50 years, actually, so recently I’ve been binge watching some dramatic series’ on Netflix as a quick summary on the past couple thousand years. I’ve mentioned here how the lack of a  “reformation” explains a lot about why Islam is so far behind Christianity, but damn, I didn’t know until now how the reformists could be such monsters. I’m thinking now the importance of reformation was only part one, the break from Catholic papacy, while the equally important step two was separating church and state powers… which is what I need to learn more about now.

    It was difficult to listen to all the “for God this, in God’s name that” spoken a dozen or two times per episode, the extreme arrogance of the different sects peacocking their differences to justify all kinds of beheadings, burning at the stake, tortures. At least the Scandanavian barbarians had the humility to hope a god was on their side, and not force everyone to worship a fully defined, characterized god that is also claimed to speak through an authoritative clergy quite regularly.

    #24255

    Davis
    Moderator

    Predator in the sky:

    • This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by  Davis.
    #24257

    Simon Paynton
    Participant

    It’s implausible that someone gets either “heaven” or “hell”.  People are never “all good” or “all bad”.  What about people near the dividing line?  Some people in heaven would be only marginally better than some people in hell, and that isn’t fair.

    I think it would be more plausible that heaven or hell depends on a person’s conscience about the life they led: in a situation where they could no longer fix a misdemeanour, a bad conscience would feel very itchy.

    #24258

    Clearsky
    Participant

    Religious belief & the oppression of the golden rule.
    “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” commonly known as “The Golden Rule,” is indeed a biblical principle. Luke 6:31 records Jesus saying
    Seems on the first reading as a pretty good moral rule? It is almost universal in various religious scriptures.
    The problem is in my opinion, what a religious person wants IS not what an atheist wants.
    For example a Christian may want the whole world to convert to their religion, and they would be happy if others “ did that unto them”
    Take the example of how the colonists reasoned, that it was OK to take over other countries. Their explanation was that it was in order to civilize the natives. That if they were in the situation of the native people they would like it. This is in my opinion highly debatable.
    First Amendment to the United States Constitution separates religion from government.
    If you do happen to be an atheist & have no beliefs in God or any supernatural phenomena.
    Then all religions are a human construct, they only exist in the minds of the faithful, and culture. If you go out in the world looking for empirical evidence of God it will not be found.
    It is not God that is a problem, because God does not exist. like I don’t have a problem with Santa Claus either.
    What is problematic is the Belief in those things.

    Which is as Richard Dawkins says it’s a God delusion.

    Its problematic purely because those things are a delusion, they don’t really exist ( heaven & hell, God)

    People should not be living their lives, controlling others, running government, fighting wars based on false beliefs.
    The good thing in all of this is belief’s can be overturned, with reason & evidence. Humans do have the capacities to develop moral principles independent of nonexistent Gods. Humanist can then judge the usefulness of their rules by the outcomes with flexibility. Hopefully this is better than the fixed dogmatic beliefs of religion which cannot be changed even when they cause mass suffering

    • This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by  Clearsky. Reason: Spelling error
    #24260

    Simon Paynton
    Participant

    what a religious person wants IS not what an atheist wants.

    – I think the Golden Rule is a good rule of thumb, but it depends on self-other equivalence, i.e. placing oneself or a loved one in the place of some other approved of person in similar need.  So if European imperialists were trying to compare themselves to African tribespeople – they would have to be very careful.

    #24261

    The Golden Rule was known in pre-christian times and was not “invented” by Jesus as most Christians now claim. If Christianity never came to be, we would still have it.

    • This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by  Strega.
    #24263

    Simon Paynton
    Participant

    I think the Golden Rule is human nature.

    #24264

    Yes, it must have value as it a universal cultural meme that our evolving species has retained just like we kept about 2% of Neanderthal genes that protected us from flu’s. I like to think of it in these terms:  Genes are to biological DNA as Memes are to our cultural DNA. So long as either remain beneficial to our survival they will be inherited. I would bet that all evolved apes reading this still like it when someone else scratches their back for them 🙂

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