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God (Ask Me Anything)


Herbert Sanders

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On 1/25/2020 at 12:21 PM, Hammerclaw said:

Ah, cryptic conundrums and cotton candy mysticism. i'll make popcorn. Seriously, I noticed how quickly specificity devolved into vague generalities. 

Love “cryptic conundrums and cotton candy mysticism”

Sugar rush for the seeker 

“cryptic conundrums and 

cotton candy mysticism”

 

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So is this dude claiming to be God?

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On 1/31/2020 at 11:22 AM, Mark Sanders said:

I do want to get a bit more into this. The way I see it, money is dependent upon consumersim, fads and fashion. Needless stuff that consumers spend their money on, without money flowing capitalism stagnates and we need that economic growth (GDP) to sustain value in our currency. A little depreciation helps consumers overcoming the fear of investment because the other option is depreciation. And so we are bound to low inflation (deflation stagnates, high inflation well that is simply punishment lol).

How do we grow GDP? We need more economic activity which in its extreme form is simply slave labor. And this slave labor then appears as overpopulation, but is it really? If we were to invest less energyin fads, fashion and consumer gadgets and more into simple clothing and simple but robust housing and food (the essentials) then the earth could perhaps have plenty. The problem is we would not have an economy due to the lack of economic forces.

Point being poverty to a large extent is merely an accounting problem, a lack of balance.

No economy, no society. Unless we all denounce materialism (and with it superficial hedonism).

What are you on about?

God has created lives for us to enjoy living rather than be bored, miserable, and depressed. We are supposed to buy the latest clothes and gadgets, to enjoy eating out at restaurants, to go on holidays, and to basically have fun. It is perfectly moral to enjoy receiving money and then spending it on things that bring us joy.

What is immoral is denying ourselves that which has been provided by God for us to enjoy. Capitalism and hedonism are morally superior to living a harsh Spartan existence. Poverty is caused by the scarcity of resources. Until we figure out how to magic material things into existence then there will always be a limited supply. The more limited, the more expensive it is.

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56 minutes ago, RabidMongoose said:

What are you on about?

God has created lives for us to enjoy living rather than be bored, miserable, and depressed. We are supposed to buy the latest clothes and gadgets, to enjoy eating out at restaurants, to go on holidays, and to basically have fun. It is perfectly moral to enjoy receiving money and then spending it on things that bring us joy.

What is immoral is denying ourselves that which has been provided by God for us to enjoy. Capitalism and hedonism are morally superior to living a harsh Spartan existence. Poverty is caused by the scarcity of resources. Until we figure out how to magic material things into existence then there will always be a limited supply. The more limited, the more expensive it is.

In proper seasons you are right. But money has its way of causing system wide collapses. In these last days, due to corruption, life becomes increasingly harsh and politics quits serving the populous due to self-interest.

Quote

For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries. - Revelations 18:3

Good and bad times change as the seasons do. In our or the next generation we might see a jubilee (resetting of debt).

Edited by Mark Sanders
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53 minutes ago, Mark Sanders said:
Quote

For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries. - Revelations 18:3

Good and bad times change as the seasons do. In our or the next generation we might see a jubilee (resetting of debt).

I can be far from the target, but i like to give an example from old Norse Mythology. Posted in the magic wand thread. I am talking about the Norn Skuld, witch means debt, and cause.

 

After translating Skirnirsmal i have made a story. Here is Skirnir trying to force the woman Gerd  (free will) to marry the vane king Frey. He is using his wand. Gerd is actually the Norn Skuld, which means cause or debt. She is also Idunn who is Brage`s wife. Brage is the bear drinking poet in Norse mythology, Lokis worst enemy and creator. Skirnir has a wand and a sword. He speaks:

Woman! Do you see this sword, defectionhunter, misserybringer, that I have in my hand? In front of this sword the old giant will fall, your father will die. I will make you without will, tame you with my wand. Woman! according to my will you will end up where the children of men will never ever see you. In the home of the mighty giants you shall sit forever. With rulers and tyrants, with the warriors of the earth, with those who rule according to their will, you will sit forever. Turned away from your home, you will long for and wish death. Your nourishment will be tears from slave-bound children and it will be intolerable. All people will see you as a gleaming fake worm. You will be an unhappy sight. When you show yourself as the great enemy and receive threats from staring witnesses. Scared witnesses will backbite you. Angry witnesses will scold you. They will fear you and hide from your shadow. You will be known as a guardian of gods and deceit, while you cry in your cage.
You will be guilty of rage and screams, cause of chains and intolerable suffering. And your tears will grow with your grief. Down you will fall and I will judge you responsible for the flood of evil and the anger it is mixed with. Troll will force you every day to exhaustion in the old giantfarm. You will be towed to the stone hearts' halls every day without choice. On the ground you wild creep without hope. As the ruler toy, you must be owned, accompanied only by tears, sadness and exhaustion. With rational, self-conceited trolls, you will live without benefit, as if you did not exist, your self will be abused, taken with force. You will grow sick of illness, like a prickly thistle with no room to be, facing the end. - Skirnir stopped to catch his breath.
- I've been in the dark forest. And far and wide in the world. To create a wand, to breed a magic wand. Odin is angry with you, the best of the Æsir are angry with you.
Listen up giants, listen to me troll, listen to me revengefull children of violence, tyrants and giants. Even gods listen to me, how I forbid, how I curse human joy with this woman, human will not have the benefit of free will. Icy, masked and furious are the trolls you will be with, together you are guilty of evil on earth. There you will be forced to drink your own goatp***. You should never get better drinks because of your choices, because of my choices. With my wand shall I write that you are a troll and three words; evil, madness and suffering. What I write with my wand will happen. But I can also wipe it out again, if you give me a reason to do so.

I think it is like looking at the same house from another angle. hehe.

Edited by Skirnum
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On 1/25/2020 at 12:14 PM, Guyver said:

Why did God create a world that has so much suffering and evil in it?

URANTIA answers this in many of its sections (original emphases):

Quote

3:5.5 (51.4) The uncertainties of life and the vicissitudes of existence do not in any manner contradict the concept of the universal sovereignty of God. All evolutionary creature life is beset by certain inevitabilities. Consider the following:

3:5.6 (51.5) 1. Is courage—strength of character—desirable? Then must man be reared in an environment which necessitates grappling with hardships and reacting to disappointments.

3:5.7 (51.6) 2. Is altruism—service of one’s fellows—desirable? Then must life experience provide for encountering situations of social inequality.

3:5.8 (51.7) 3. Is hope—the grandeur of trust—desirable? Then human existence must constantly be confronted with insecurities and recurrent uncertainties.

[... 9 in total...]

3:5.14 (51.13) 9. Is pleasure—the satisfaction of happiness—desirable? Then must man live in a world where the alternative of pain and the likelihood of suffering are ever-present experiential possibilities.

;)

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On 1/26/2020 at 6:23 AM, joc said:

I always thought it was a silly question.  So, I'm gathering that maybe you wish to be questioned on the content of the Word of God, rather than philosophical meanderings of non-importance to the believer.

Regardless...there is a question of that philosophical meandering that I don't think is answerable but it gets to the heart of Creation.

Where did God come from?  How did God come into existence?

URANTIA: (original emphasis)

Quote

0:2.2 (3.15) Cosmic consciousness implies the recognition of a First Cause, the one and only uncaused reality. God, the Universal Father, functions on three Deity-personality levels of subinfinite value and relative divinity expression:

Quote

0:3.23 (6.3) The concept of the I AM is a philosophic concession which we make to the time-bound, space-fettered, finite mind of man, to the impossibility of creature comprehension of eternity existences—nonbeginning, nonending realities and relationships. To the time-space creature, all things must have a beginning save only the ONE UNCAUSED—the primeval cause of causes. Therefore do we conceptualize this philosophic value-level as the I AM, at the same time instructing all creatures that the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit are coeternal with the I AM; in other words, that there never was a time when the I AM was not the Father of the Son and, with him, of the Spirit.

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On 1/26/2020 at 7:04 AM, joc said:

According to religion...God created the Heavens and the Earth...and goes into quite a bit of detail about exactly how He did that.  7 days, including the day he rested...Sun being created on the 4th day...etc.  No where in scripture does it say that God was the light...God said, Let there be light.  Therefore, God is an Entity...the Bible is very clear that God is a Living God...not a system.   So, if a system created God, and God is alive, then the 'system' must have created God as well.  Logic does precede everything we know because without logic we know nothing really.

So...to get into the weeds of the question...if energy is all that exists, and energy cannot be destroyed, then energy created God, who in turn, created the universe.  If that is true, where did energy originate?  And if energy created God, how many Gods did energy create?

Just let me know when I am becoming intolerable and I'll stop :)

URANTIA:

Quote

42:1.6 (468.3) Energy proceeds from Paradise, fashioned after the divine order. Energy—pure energy—partakes of the nature of the divine organization; it is fashioned after the similitude of the three Gods embraced in one, as they function at the headquarters of the universe of universes. And all force [energy] is circuited in Paradise, comes from the Paradise Presences and returns thereto, and is in essence a manifestation of the uncaused Cause—the Universal Father; and without the Father would not anything exist that does exist.

;)

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On 1/25/2020 at 11:32 AM, Rlyeh said:

So you can't answer the question?

Think its something to do with circles.

Personally I am afraid to ask him a question incase I get a similar load of rambling ball locks he gave you. 

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26 minutes ago, freetoroam said:

ball locks

Very creative. 

 

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Hallelujah! :D

 

 

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On 2/2/2020 at 4:02 AM, RabidMongoose said:

Poverty is caused by the scarcity of resources.

Clearly not so. Some very resource rich countries have the highest levels of poverty. 

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On 1/31/2020 at 10:22 PM, Mark Sanders said:

Point being poverty to a large extent is merely an accounting problem, a lack of balance.

No economy, no society. Unless we all denounce materialism (and with it superficial hedonism).

Poverty seems more of a humanitarian and political problem. Not only in "banana republics" but even democracy itself, which has long been considered a shining light, has now simply become a means of implementing crony capitalism in large part, more so than having the priority of looking after the populations best interests. 

Anyone running for office should be submitted to stringent psych evaluations for ASPD (the general traits that make up "psychopathy"). It's generally accepted amongst social scientists that corporate executives are heavily weighted to this, which is probably something that no one can do anything about, but it's also obvious in politics. Sadly as Douglas Adams noted..."it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it".

Economics should be tempered by sociology and take into account what the natural sciences say. It's odd to find people trained in economics, with little knowledge of anything else, disregarding science. 

 

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Asking how long you can remain compelling assumes that you were compelling to begin with.

You weren't. Is this some kind of a joke topic? Lol

Edited by Nuclear Wessel
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2 hours ago, Horta said:

Poverty seems more of a humanitarian and political problem. Not only in "banana republics" but even democracy itself, which has long been considered a shining light, has now simply become a means of implementing crony capitalism in large part, more so than having the priority of looking after the populations best interests. 

Anyone running for office should be submitted to stringent psych evaluations for ASPD (the general traits that make up "psychopathy"). It's generally accepted amongst social scientists that corporate executives are heavily weighted to this, which is probably something that no one can do anything about, but it's also obvious in politics. Sadly as Douglas Adams noted..."it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it".

Economics should be tempered by sociology and take into account what the natural sciences say. It's odd to find people trained in economics, with little knowledge of anything else, disregarding science. 

 

IMO regarldess of who comes in power. Money by its very nature will bring poverty to many. Cannot be helped, simply a matter of time, the system will break.

Edited by Mark Sanders
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On 1/26/2020 at 10:53 PM, joc said:

I always thought it was a silly question.  So, I'm gathering that maybe you wish to be questioned on the content of the Word of God, rather than philosophical meanderings of non-importance to the believer.

Regardless...there is a question of that philosophical meandering that I don't think is answerable but it gets to the heart of Creation.

Where did God come from?  How did God come into existence?

Evolved, like us. :) 

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On 1/26/2020 at 11:45 PM, MissJatti said:

How do you know God is God, and not some super intelligently advanced Alien from outta space, who'd ultimately kill us all.

In which case, does it matter? 

By definition god IS a super intelligent, advanced, alien from outer space.( if it is real and not an construct of human imagination )

We have to rely on its advanced evolutionary ethics, to believe that it will not kill us all :)  

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On 1/27/2020 at 10:43 AM, Habitat said:

I really think churches and other such places should be banned for people under the age of legal responsibility, and no-one should be able to feed religion to children, the same way as you aren't allowed to serve liquor to children anywhere. Think how that would have gone for you, joc.

Reminds me of that story of teenage, and younger, boys left alone on an island with no adult authority and no  moral compass  (lord of the flies) 
There is a strong argument that, without adult authority and moral direction, passed down over the centuries from learned experiences and wisdoms,  civilization would break down in a generation

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1 minute ago, Mr Walker said:

Reminds me of that story of teenage, and younger, boys left alone on an island with no adult authority and no  moral compass  (lord of the flies) 
There is a strong argument that, without adult authority and moral direction, passed down over the centuries from learned experiences and wisdoms,  civilization would break down in a generation

What has that to do with childhood religious "instruction", though ? Plenty of children are brought up with virtually zero religious indoctrination today, and few go "feral".

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On 1/27/2020 at 11:18 AM, Crikey said:

 

Yes, some years ago a kid said in the AOL Religion chatroom "My parents make me go to church with them but I don't want to go, what should I do?"

so I said- "Refuse pointblank to go".

I gather he took my advice and  his parents later complained about me to AOL and I was warned and almost banned..:innocent:

Depends on the age of the kid,and his legal rights, but it was a dangerous thing to say.

Its like telling a child he can refuse to eat meat when it is  his parents who provide all his food.

  Yep he can stop eating meat but can't then expect his parents to provide additional alternatives  for him  He has to do that for himself  eg get a (part time)  job, get paid, and buy his own food.  

In general unless it breaks either wider social moralities or laws, children should be subject to their parents authority until they  are able to maintain an independent existence and earn the rights and responsibilities of being an adult.

Ie Even  if you are 30, but chose to live in your parent's house, you should still obey, or follow, their house rules, and eat the food they provide. .

Want to live by your  own rules ?

Get your own house :)  

In this case if the parents went to church was the child old enough and responsible enough to remain home by  themselves or could this leave the parents open to neglect charges? 

And certainly the parents should not be deprived of their right/choice to attend church(or any other function) just because a child didnt  want to go with them The child doesn't have to listen and doesn't have to believe, and forcing him to go might be counterproductive,  but basically yes, even today he has to obey his parents rules and expectations.

  Otherwise we have a society turned on its head, where children, lacking experience, wisdom, and knowledge, set the rules.  

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On 1/27/2020 at 11:34 AM, Habitat said:

The BIG question is, did Adam and Eve have  belly buttons ? Nothing much else matters.

yep.God has one and thus, being created in his image, so did adam and eve :) 

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On 1/28/2020 at 3:58 AM, Desertrat56 said:

Still not a definition.  You can't define "ordinary bloke" because it is a construct in your mind that you use to compare yourself to others, which is only valid in your mind, no one else's.  Ordinary is a subjective term.

Those within the middle 40% or so on a bell curve of human attributes.

Choose specific or general attributes, when seeking to  define bloke and ordinary. 

Eg does bloke also include sheilas :)   

In this case things like education,  depth of reading, experience, interest in the subject etc, across the human population    

The higher  20% might be labeled as extraordinary and the  lower  20% as  sub ordinary :)  with the remaining  20% both high and low (10% each)   as outliers of either  extreme interest  knowledge  and understanding, or total lack thereof  

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21 hours ago, Horta said:

Clearly not so. Some very resource rich countries have the highest levels of poverty. 

Poverty is a localised scarcity of resources caused by inequalities in things like distribution and ownership  Ie there s more than enough food and resources to adequately feed and care for our  current population but we choose not to distribute it equitably  because we have a monetary profit based economy

"Better" to throw some food out, create an artificial shortage,  and  then raise prices for those who can afford the higher price, while others starve, than reduce your profit margin by distributing all the food to everyone in need, with a lower margin of profit .  

Plus of course the definition of poverty differs from  country to country. Officially my wife and i live under the poverty line in australia yet live well resourced, rich  and happy lives 

True poverty exists where you do not have all your basic needs met and either cannot afford to, or do not live in a system which meets them for you 

In australia a family of two adults and two children is considered under the poverty line if their income is under about $46000 per annum 

This means many of us in australia are officially under the poverty line yet are not necessarily poor, or deprived of anything. 

Edited by Mr Walker
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2 hours ago, Mr Walker said:

The child doesn't have to listen and doesn't have to believe, and forcing him to go might be counterproductive,  but basically yes, even today he has to obey his parents rules and expectations.

 

All I know is that if I wanted to put a kid off Jesus for life, I'd drag him to church against his will..

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