A pretty simple question, or is it? I would love to hear your opinion, PaRD

God is humanity's way of coping with death anxiety.

God capital "G" is the creator God. all other "gods" are lower case "g"
understanding this makes understanding scripture eaiser



i spent my life as i was. one day got it into my head to "find the truth of it all" at that time God was nowhere on my mind. eventually my 'quest ended up testing scripture. scripture holds up.
its your comment thats the cope

based



cope

Just a greater belief than one's selfish interests for many. Or something greater than yourself which is the same thing essentially.

Thing is though the majority of people don't keep consistent on that.

I just spent a month in Nepal where religion is still alive, Hinduism or Buddhism and watched as many believe in a nature God/ diety but turn around and toss their garbage directly on the ground or out the window. Talking to many people there though and they all said the same thing, the youth are not accepting religion and believe in no God's or dietys . You spend time there and learn that many view nearly everything as a type of God / deity and it's not hard to understand why youth are rejecting that.

This post was edited by SBD on Apr 5 2024 07:55am

For most western Abrahamic religions this is the case because people only begin to contemplate "What is God" when they are on their death bed. So instead of knowing God while they lived and understanding death is life they "believe" in God so that God will do something for them which in the case you mentioned is, "Get me into heaven" or some "better place then this". God "do something for me I am scared" and you are all powerful. In reality God isn't your servant and God doesn't really "act" people "act" on God. Big difference imo.



This is where everyone's spiritual journey begins and some people "realize God" in 30 seconds reading a single line of scripture while others "realize God" in 30 years after reading all scripture of all religions. Although the paths seem different they all lead to the same place, God. Even atheist are forced to God. Because by even acknowlding there could be a "God" you now know God.



People litter out of ignorance and doesn't have anything to do with God. God isn't keeping score. God isn't judging your bad deeds. You are God and you are doing all of that. God is not separate from this existence people only feel that way because they can't physically see him or feel him.

As for the youth "not believing" this is totally normal because we are at the end of the current Yugic cycle where the absolute worst of humanity/ego/hubris can be SEEN. This makes it infinitly easier for someone to come to KNOW God. That's the blessing of being at the end of this cycle. You are one thought away from that freedom. From knowing God. The "maya" or illusion is just so bedazzling, profound, and unavoidable that the average person can't see through it. It's so easy to say, "God doesn't exist" and just be "done with it" and that's a path some take. I personally wanted to prove it to myself so I studied it intensely for 5 years and came to KNOW God. There is a huge difference between believing in God(little to no feeling just hoping praying some God is there" and KNOWING God through every fiber of your being. That's what you saw in Nepal. Some people who believe in God and some who know God.

What you say and what's in practice does not align. People claim they respect the nature god. They absolutely know littering is bad and yet do it anyways. It's not ignorance its willingful negligence. I could list the inconsistencies of acknowledge deities that are respected and then the opposing actions that are directly contradictory.

Watching the bodies burned by the river, they can't even wash them with the river water anymore because its so disgusting so they have to use bottled water and then toss the bottles into the river directly after. It's almost comical.

Their belief is absolutely that God is judging and keeping count of good and bad deeds. Nearly everyone spoke of good and bad karma and God tracking what you give and you will get on return after death what you gave in life. For instance I gave out chocolate and they said I'll now get that chocolate in return after death.

Study vs actual peoples current day prtatice and belief is likely to not align at all.

This post was edited by SBD on Apr 5 2024 09:40am

"God", in all its forms and iterations across history and culture, remain centrally connected to death anxiety for all mortal beings. A conscious mind yearns for some kind of significance, meaning, or purpose to all the suffering and uncertainty that they experience while alive, and it is too painful to the psyche to accept that you (we) are not special, that there is nothing after death, and that there is no God(s), Oneness, or Grand Unified Consciousness on the other side of death.

This post was edited by Handcuffs on Apr 5 2024 10:00am

Atheism is humanity's way of coping with lack of confidence.

god=dog

there is a reason why dogs are man's best friend.