Do you fear God, God/desses? Do fear God taking vengeance on mankind?

No, I don't. Nothing to fear, imo. Unless you're afraid of natural things happening anyway...it's easy to blame a deity, but much more difficult to take responsibility.

Peace,

RadicalGnostic

Not really. God supposedly promised to never freak out on our stupid a**es again, even though He prolly should.

It ain't vengeance of a supernatural kind we gotta look out for, it's that of our brethren creatures and the rest of the planet we oughta consider!

nope.

(such a simple answer)

I'm afraid of the wrath of my mother.
Does that count?

Have you been a bad boy? lol I used to fear mine too. Still do just cause she is dead doesn't mean she can't come back and give me a swift kick in the a**

The title of this thread reminded me of something my (blonde) co-worker said. She was talking about the "Raft of God." Yep...'so-n-so' was tempting the 'raft' of God. Well, she had the entire office giggling. It took her a while to realize her error. Poor girl. (She's 52.)

As to the actual question, no, I don't fear God. I give God my love and respect, and I try to honor God's commandments. No fear, though.

I think people have been blaming God for so many things that he/she had nothing to do with. I think God has given us free will to make our own choices. Whatever bad that happens is the result of our choices, not God's punishment of us here on Earth.

Those horrible natural disasters are pretty much it--natural. God may intervene if we ask him/her, but God made the Earth to work on a natural system--and sometimes crap happens, especially if humankind does things to throw the system out of whack. It's the nature of life--you live, you suffer, hopefully you grow spiritually, and then you die--and join God again. I see Earth as our school--and we have to take some hard knocks before we can learn and go on to the next level.


Life is too short to live in fear--especially in fear of the One who is all-forgiving and loves us unconditionally.

I fear his power, what he could do to mankind if he wanted to. But I am thankful for the nature of God.

It would depend on your definition of "fear". If we are talking about Fear as in abject terror or horror, then I would definitely say no - my God holds no terror for me. However, if Fear is used in the sense that it was used in the Bible to say "Fear God", then by all means, yes I Fear God.

In Hebrew, there are over 20 different words that are translated into English as "fear". Each of these words highlights a different aspect of Fear. Some highlight terror and horror, while others highlight other aspects. The only word used to refer to fearing God is in the context of being in awe and wonder at the majesty of God. Similar to the "fear" that an NFL player might feel right before they run on to the pitch for the Super Bowl Final. The crowds, the atmosphere, the magnitude of the situation, and the NFL player, just one small speck in the magnificence of the event.

In this context, I fear God - me, little old me, standing next to the wonder and awesomeness of the Creator of all that exists and has existed...... feeling God's power and majesty - I am awestruck. Awestruck that a being as great and wonderful as the Creator would have created me and all of humanity and cares for me and all humanity.

To fear God.....as PA explained...to be in total awe of....

Perhaps the question was meant to be: Are you afraid of God?

Hmmmmmm.....


No.


The Wrath of God is the reward of worshiping ourselves. In all of the known Universe...it is only Man who worships Self. The worship of self is the original sin. It is our nature to worship self. Unnatural to the rest of the Creation. Only through denying our self can we escape the Wrath of the Worship of Self.

One may therefore ask...what is Denying Self. It is something we all learned in Kindergarten and forgot in second grade. Love is the key to Self Denial. Love your neighbor as yourself. The care and love and giving of the human heart is a mighty thing...when it is focused on others it is Beautiful. When it is focused on our self it becomes wicked, mean and nasty and worthy of the Wrath of God. Look at the world. TV focuses on self. Music focuses on self. The vast majority of human activity is focused on self. It isn't God that inflicts Armageddon...it is the end result of Self Love and Self Worship.

I trust the Judgment of God, including his wrath. Do I fear God, yes.

But since I don't trust human judgment, I mostly fear the wrath of man using bio/nuclear weapons...

But Joc, how can you love your neighbor if you don't have self love and see yourself worthy of love. When you are a caregiver of an ill relative or partner you learn all about self denial. You learn if don't care for yourself and treat yourself with respect you go down hill fast and you're no good to anyone. Love of self is what keeps us a live. Art (music, theater, painting etc.) is a refection of self view of the world. When you look at the art of Van Gogh you see no self love in them, you see a broken heart and we all know how that end up, he put a bullet in his belly. It is when self love leads to greed that is when it becomes a problem, and that is the root of war.

Perhaps rather than saying Self Love and Self Worship, I should just have said...Self Worship. It is important to take care of ones own self, to recognize one's own needs...but what I am talking about is Indulgence of Self...Worship of Self. It is displayed billions of times a day in just this country. We witness it constantly...cutting in front of someone else in traffic, interrupting someone in a conversation, putting ones Self above the Self of others. We are either servants to our Self or we are servants to the Self of others. When we Love our neighbor as our Self...we are actually recognizing the GodSelf in others. When we focus on our own Self we our blinded to the GodSelf. When we focus on the Self of others, we find our true Self.

But it is the Godself which connects with the Gods.

mmm, yeah, that used to be one of my classics...how can you love someone else if you do not love yourself...its logic isnt it.

I came to consider this point once more the other day...i was on the loo actually ...i figured that it is possible to learn to love yourself through the love of others. Once you realise that we are within everything, then everything you give to another you are also giving to yourself.

There are no 'Gods'. There is the Infinite. We cannot focus on our self and on the Infinite at the same time. You must choose one master and deny the other. There are only two masters...self...and the Infinite. One can only master self by denying self...by loosing self. Being Selfless.

i hav much fear in God. He can turn sunny days to earthquaking storms. He can do anything. litterally!

Much as a "god" would be unconcerned with my opinion of it, I am unconcerned with the opinion of "gods".

The Godself is your higher self and it is the higher self which connects with the infinite or the Universe. The higher self is the soul and it is infinite. You sound like a Buddhist.

There are no gods, there is no Infinite, there is no self, there are no masters.

With respect to what you refer to as the higher self; There is only the Infinite. Self is part of the Infinite. To do the will of self, we must first look away from the Infinite and focus on self. This is the original sin...the sin of self. I have never studied the teachings of Buddha. I have studied the teachings of Jesus. Perhaps they are the same. Jesus saw He and the Father as one. Jesus denied self...and in doing so became one with the Infinite. Becoming one with the Infinite is not 'higher self', rather it is Total Self Denial. The Universe guides us. We can not follow the path of the Universe unless we deny self.

No but i fear people who believe in god and what they may interpret as gods wrath...scary and disgusting thought.

O yes, FEAR ME!!!!

God works in so far mysterious ways.

Its been repeated many times in the Quran. " For man is not aware" "For man for now cannot comprehend"

There is a lot of chaos and evil that goes on this planet. Is this God's Vengence?

1 thing is for sure God knows everything.

But is He Vengeful?

I can tell you for the time being man has no answer to this question.

If you are referring to the God of the Bible, you must first decide on which God you mean.

The creator of the Universe, Anu in Sumeria and Elohim in the Bible, does nothing wrathful at all in the Bible.

Acording to the Bible this creator assigned creatures he called his "sons" to shepherd the various ancient tribes and Yahweh was the creature assigned to the Hebrews.

These creatures are described all over the world as "dragons", and Yahweh is referred as one by the Gnostics and the Zoroastrians ,and hints that this is his form in the bible itself.

The bible is very clear that this Yahweh is a prideful and wrathful, even fire breathing monster, destroying his people in their thousands. But this is not the creator God, and even Jesus said "this murderer from the beginning" was not "his Father", obviously meaning that the creator Elohim was. Yahweh, like Satan are merely Elohim's assistants, apparently modified from some large anicent reptile millions of years before humans would evolve. Yahweh is the same "Great Dragon of Heaven" Enlil, in the much older original Sumerian "Noah flood story" repeated in the Bible. And this creature is also subservient to a higher creator being called Anu, who would be Elohim in the Bible.

yes...thats all him, nothing to do with the earth, climate or geography

LOVE IT!!!

you should fear the wraith of god. consider this:

a). mankind is completely undeserving of life. we never earned a right to live at all, much less living in a life with such abundances of beauty and joy. so right off the bat, we owe god.

. why is it so unreasonable for god to have certain expectations with what we do with this gift of life? it seems like a fair price to me.

c) i tell you this, mankind hurts each other. maybe not on a personal person to person basis, but as a whole, mankind deserved to be punished for their inequities.

If we are undeserving of life then why are we here. Why would a God go to all the trouble if making life if he, she,it, they don't want us to be here? We are here and we have a purpose. We need to wake up and seek that purpose. Someone once told me we are the evolution of the Universe to reflect upon itself. Some how it made a lot of sense to me.

we are undeserving of life. by gods grace, we are given it.

We are the Children of the Earth and we are here to reach for the stars. We are but godlings in training.

No, I've never been given a reason to fear the Father or the Mother. Treat them well, and they generally treat you well in return.


Only if you worship me!


What happened to ? Oh! My mistake. A personal person to person basis? It seems a bit too impersonal!

We're "punished" for our wickedness, surely. Karma has a way of dealing with it.



Well said!

I don't fear the Creator... I have no reason to. It's never done anything to suggest I should.

Not fear in the sense of being scared, but fear in the sense of reverence. Total, Absolute, Submission to the Almighty God.

wow you people are hardcore (actually im impressed)
so i guess no one here believes that we evolved on this planet?
and we have to fear a god no ones seen, because of the things we've done?
i only fear the consequences of anything ive done that might not be the right decision. not a god someone came up with. if i make a mistake, i deal with. and like someone said earlier, karma may play a role in it.

There is something! But it is really nothing.

I believe we evolved.

There are more holes in evolutionary science than in the cheeses of the Swiss. On the other hand...there are more holes in creationist theory than holes in Blackburn, Lancashire.

When I say the Earth is my Mother I am saying we evolved on this planet.

A lot of people get way with a lot of rotten stuff and some of the kindest people get the shaft in life. No karma just the laws of chaos. I know that is kind of a funny way for a polytheist to think.



Not really there is a lot evidence, they call them fossels, but that is another discussion.

QUOTE(rev r @ Jul 2 2007, 10:47 PM) *
There are no gods, there is no Infinite, there is no self, there are no masters.

I concur Rev...

I think when you apply this concept there is no fear. You realize and Know everything is about love.

Actually you'll ALL see the day that you tremble before God. Wait and see, after all what else do you have to do?

What have we done to deserve Gods Wrath?

I would have to look at the fear of God's wrath from different wiews.
If I think of the biblical God, then yes, I have a fear of God's wrath.
If I think of my God, then I have respect for, but not fear of God's wrath.
If I look at the actions taken by other religious extremists, I conclude that they have fear of their God's wrath also.
I believe in karma 100%. I try to live my life so that I do nothing to make me fear receiving a punishment from my God.
Fear of the Unknown is what I fear. But then, too, I am scared of everything . That's just the way I am wired.

uhh...i kinda have a life to live. family, friends, job. sorry thozz

If I stood before my Gods and trembled in fear they would not respect me. They expect me to stand before them with courage and strength. To respect myself as I respect them. What else do I have to do? Lets see I have to finish my Lughnasa ritual I started. I have to work on the staff and wand I am making, I got a web site I am building for my local MS buddies. I don't fear your God, I have been through hell and back there is little your God could do to me that would be worse than what I have gone though in this life.