Who do you think G-d is, and what is your opinion on Jesus?

Well, no, like what form do you assume G-d takes? Is he a bearded guy sitting on a cloud? Is he in everything around us? Is he our conscience? And do you believe that Jesus had supernatural powers?

Good …..Orderly …..Direction

Oh and personally for me Jesus is my brother …As all humans are sisters and brothers. Granted, some I’d rather not be related to but that’s not my choice. LOL

YAH is the one and only true God , all others are just images and shadows

God is the source to which all energies are created and flow in and out through the God source. Yes, Yes, and I don’t know I wasn’t there but people who were claim he did.

I do not believe in the God made up by religions and believe that Jesus was just a highly evolved human just like Buddah was.

God is Santa Clause for adults. Be good and you will get nice things, be bad and you won’t. The thing is that most people figure out that Santa isn’t real as children but never figure this out about God. Jesus may or may not have existed. There are so many parallels in the story of Jesus and earlier hero/saviors from early religions that it is likely Jesus is simply a composite of the other hero/saviors. If the man Jesus existed the various stories attributed to him came from earlier hero/saviors like Krishna, Zoroaster, Mithras, Horus, Attis, Dionesus. If you research these religious figures you will see the idea of being born of a virgin, born on December 25, being wrongly convicted of a crime and dying for our sins, healing the sick, driving out demons, etc. were all in pagan religions long before Jesus.

God is love. “God is love, and he who abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him.” One of my favorite verses. Jesus is the manifestation of Gods love. The reconciliation. Though we turned our backs on the father, he gave us a way home. the story of Jesus, whether you believe in Jesus as a man, as a God, or as prophet, or perhaps only as a fictional story, is still the greatest love story ever told. Jesus, no matter your personal belief about him, is the single most important figure in human history.

God is my Savior!

God is a device. He/She is the easily digested answer to all those ‘unanswerable’ questions. It is easier, and to many comforting, to believe that there is a being greater than humankind that gives meaning to our lives and protects us, who works great wonders and cannot be totally defined for He/She is beyond our understanding. Some argue that the most stubborn and opposing aspect of religious people is their desire to feel superior to others and to feel divinely special (as one of God’s sacred children), better than those who would deny Him/Her. I do agree that these types are challenging to uproot from their beliefs, yet their pride and narcissism are easy to point out and their low morals would make them unpleasant recruits anyway. It is those everyday, typically decent religious people who are the true obstacle. For as I said, they are united in their desire, even necessity, to know that they are not alone, that they are being protected, watched over, and that their loved ones are equally cared for. This is the true impediment to the spread of atheistic reasoning. As for Jesus, I agree with filletofspam.

yes i believe jesus have supernatural powers. And i do imagine God as a person. Since i have no idea what he really looks like. I would imagine him lookin like a wise man in a vision of bright light. But of corse my mind could never imagine how he truely looked

and yes he is everywhere lookin down at us. Can even hear our thoughts and feel our emotions. He is all knowing.

I agree with Angel above.

G-d is the “higher being” that Christians and catholics believe in. In other cultures they may worship other G-ds or g0desses. Personnally i am not quite sure if i believe in “G0d.” I do believe in a higher power and in the universe. I live by the rule of the universe; what comes around goes around thrice fold

G-d is the “higher being” that Christians and catholics believe in. In other cultures they may worship other G-ds or g0desses. Personnally i am not quite sure if i believe in “G0d.” I do believe in a higher power and in the universe. I live by the rule of the universe; what comes around goes around thrice fold

G-d is the “higher being” that Christians and catholics believe in. In other cultures they may worship other G-ds or g0desses. Personnally i am not quite sure if i believe in “G0d.” I do believe in a higher power and in the universe. I live by the rule of the universe; what comes around goes around thrice fold

Proof? Just saying he is doesn’t prove it.

Proof? Just saying he is doesn’t prove it.

But the problem with the highly evolved human theory is that evolution invariably takes place over hundreds or thousands of generations, not just one person being born from entirely normal, unevolved people. The closest they could have gotten would be a random deformity for either great strength, rejuvenation powers, or intelligence, but in attaining one, the person would have to sacrifice one of the others, rendering the stories that Jesus moved a two-ton rock and was more intelligent than all others contradictory.

So, other than the bible, what proof is there for Jesus having superhuman powers? One source does not prove something…

I love the puppy pic…And you said it in far less but appropriate words.

thank you! Her name is Cloe we have her sister as well :) and thank you because i know this is really contraversial so i wasn’t sure if i mande it approptiate or not :)

you dont need proof. religion is usually a faith-based idea. you need to have faith to believe in something that can’t be proven. I believe in God because evolution in 2 far fetched for me to have faith in. i think it requires less faith to believe in God than to believe that we evolved from monkeys. thats just me personally. There is no proof for evolution besides some coincidences.

I had a Siberian which I called Tasha and she was nothing like a dog…..She taught me many things …most of which was patience, understanding and realizing her intellegence I can’t see one and not think of her. Your Cloe has similar markings. As for the topic, people just don’t choose to see the simialrities that’s why it becomes so controversial. In my book you summed it up perfectly. It’s not as important what you believe then in how you live it. Everyone has a little God in them Whether they believe in a religious one or not. The bottom line is how we take responsibility for it.

Oh, I meant spiritually evolved as in reincarnation. A higher being that adopted a physical shell and decided to share his knowledge.

There is none. But i dont need none. I got faith

I hate that this offeensive answer got so many likes. Horrible in my opinion. But thats cool.

Wait that meant to go abobe filletofspam

I’m an agnostic so I’m not sure. If I was a theist, I’d be a polytheist because it seems more logical to have a lot of gods with little power to affect life than one massive one who is all powerful. One thing is for sure, I will never be a Christian.

Personally, I have a dislike for a god who sets down too many laws. Also, I find that discrimination linked to the Christian god is disgusting as the Bible states “that a man should not lie with a man as he would a woman”, which is just outright homophobia. But it also says “a woman shall not wear a man’s garment, nor shall a man put on a woman’s cloak, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord your God” but you see a lot of women wearing trousers in churches so the whole thing is far too hypocritical for my liking.

In my opinion, we are an evolved species and it’s likely there was a Jesus but he wasn’t nessary the son the god. no ranting, just what I think with reason.

Fillet, have you ever read the biblical book of Job? Your ideas about G!d are still stuck in children’s Sunday school.

You mean the story about how Satan claims that Job is only pious because God has blessed him so richly so God allows Satan to test Job’s piety by tormenting Job however he wishes short of killing him. Satan destroys all of Job’s possessions and kills his 7 children.and covers Job with painful boils. Job’s wife tries to convince Job to curse God; Job curses the day he was born but still refuses to curse God. After Satan fails to sway Job, God rewards Job with double his previous riches, gave him new children, and allowed him to live 140 years.. The Book of Job is one of the reasons I believe as I do.

… Hang on a second. You’re saying that evolution has no proof? I just took AP Biology, and it seems like it has plenty of proof to me. Take, for example, the Darwin finches on the Galapagos Islands. Each few years, the size of their beaks change IN ACCORDANCE WITH the number of trees with smaller or larger seeds, with the birds with bigger beaks becoming more numerous when there are trees with bigger seeds. Because these birds reproduce so fast and there is a high level of variation in their genome, the birds with larger, thicker beaks can more easily crunch and eat the bigger seeds, giving them more food over their competition, and thus allowing them to live longer and reproduce more. Conversely, the large beak takes up more energy to fly with than a smaller, lighter one, so when the seeds are small and a large beak is not necessary, the birds with smaller beaks use less energy and can thus survive longer with less food, enabling them to reproduce more. Because, in each of these cases, the bird with the better suited beak reproduces more, their offspring will also gain the bigger/smaller beak, and thus, the species evolves slightly. Now, the reason why the seed sizes change is because the birds with the larger or smaller beaks eventually get so numerous that they eat all of the seeds for the corresponding tree, which in turn doesn’t reproduce if it has the appropriate seeds for the birds’ beaks. Thus, because it has no seeds, the trees with the opposite seeds to the birds’ beaks become more numerous due to lack of competition for space and resources, and the whole cycle changes, all because of evolution and the passing down of genes.

And if you think genes don’t get passed down, which I believe is the only thing I haven’t explained yet, look at the similarities between family members, even extended ones like cousins and aunts and uncles. Maybe everyone in your family has brown hair, or the same eyes. It’s a well-known fact that genes get passed down in humans, and all other species as well.

That’s your science lesson for the day, hope I made evolution seem a little less far-fetched.

By the way, nice picture :D

But I have to argue against that. You say you don’t believe in the god made up by religions, so what god if any, do you believe in? And how would reincarnation work?

I agree with fillet here, that story proves exactly what he just said, so referencing it wasn’t such a good point to argue on :)

Jenkins, in this comment I’m going to address only the “Jesus” part of your question; maybe later I’ll write another comment to answer about “G!d,” too.

I have no opinions about Jesus as a person. To me, he is the lead character in a moving, powerful, and historically important story. I enjoy it both as a story and as spiritual teaching from a tradition different from my own, valuable as wisdom literature but with no inherent authority beyond that. I don’t mean to say that I think Jesus never actually lived, nor that I think he did live; I have no opinion on that and it makes no difference to me.

The only aspect on which I do have a firm view is not about Jesus directly, but on the Church’s later theological claim that Jesus was, in some way, himself G!d, or the “only begotten son” of G!d, or one of three “persons” of the one triune G!d, or however you want to put it. To me, those statements reflect the pagan origins of the Church. I don’t say that to knock paganism, which I also consider a perfectly respectable religion (or loose set of religions), but rather to say that these claims stand in absolute contradiction to the Hebrew Bible and all later Jewish tradition. To say that any person - or, for that matter, any entity in the world - is uniquely G!d is to totally reject or misconstrue any biblical or rabbinic conception of G!d.

That doesn’t mean that I in any way denounce the religious commitments of those who do hold that Christian view, but only that as a Jew, I firmly reject those claims and I find it important to clearly dissociate them from any connection with Torah (for example, from the idea of a moshiach or, in English, messiah). In this regard, at least, there is no such thing as “Judeo-Christian.”

i didnt read it becuase i have adhd and it got boring after the first 7 words, but im just saying you cant proove anything. even with recorded evidence there is still the chance of it being fake.

Yeah, if you read all of Leviticus God also forbids eating seafood without fins or scales, Planting fields with different crops, wearing clothes made from different kinds of cloth. Having sex with your wife when she is on her period or 33 days after she bears a male child or 66 days after she bears a female child (she’s unclean twice as long after a girl). It also lists homosexuality as an abomination. Modern Christians happily ignore almost all of the Old Testament but they focus like a laser on anything they can find to justify their own bigotry.

I’m the stereotypical Christian bigot. Jesus is consubstantial with the Father and the Holy Spirit as one being, God. Jesus was born under the law to redeem those under the law. He fulfilled the OT prophesies and became the light to the Gentiles. He is not the Father nor is he the Holy Spirit, but he is consubstantial with them. One God, one being.

I think Hayyim was speaking of how the book of Job completely refutes the idea that if you do good things you get good things. Sometimes you get seemingly bad things for no reason. That is the purpose of the book. That last chapter is saying there is an ultimate reward at the end, which in the story comes before Job’s death, but in life generally comes after one’s death.

We certainly do not ignore the OT. Please do not slander us like so. The sacrificial laws are no more because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice (curtain was torn, exposing the Holy of Holies, no more sacrifice). With no Jesus, we’re still under sacrificial law. The laws concerning who we can have relations with are still active because they don’t have to do with cleanliness, but with honor. You cannot sleep/marry with your daughter-in-law, your mother, your step-mother, another’s wife, any man, a daughter and a mother, an animal, a sister, a step-sister, and a few more. It’s all basically followed naturally. The only debate is homosexuality, but it’s not part of sacrificial law. This is again emphasized in Romans where Paul lists common sins, including homosexuality, after resurrection of Jesus. We keep it because it was not lifted.

You forget the bible is not one book nor one writer. There are multiple writers that say that Jesus preformed miracles (which aren’t necessarily supernatural). That’s the proof we need. However, there are, of course, multiple outside sources that confirm Jesus’ existence and the early claims about him.

If you really want extra-biblical texts, read Ignatius, Polycarp, or Clement of Rome. Those are the better texts outside. If you want cool stories (probably not true), read the Gospel of Thomas.

As Evan rightly said, I cited Job not as a “nice” religious story, but as a contrary one. The fact that you feel disdain for one sort and offended by the other suggests that the real source(s) of your objection have little to do with whatever rationale you may find convenient at the moment. But, to answer your question, yes, your reading of Job is EXACTLY what I meant. The framing of the story as a melodrama, on which you focused exclusively, is the part meant to let children understand it at their simple level of moral development. The adult conversation that forms the bulk of the story - and that directly contradicts your caricature of religion - was completely invisible to you.

Evan: Only after Job completely debunks the idea of worldly reward and punishment (and after G!d concurs) does the melodramatic voice return to reassure those who cannot absorb this truth that “everything will turn out ok in the end if you behave.”

There’s a lot of debate of what is natural and what is unnatural. Using planes, wearing clothes, taking medication - all of these things and many more don’t exactly happen because it is a “natural” thing, they are manmade. If you class things as natural or unnatural, you refer to what is manmade and what is given by nature. So homosexuality is something made by man even though homosexuals do not decide to be homosexual or not because that means that hetrosexuals are choosing to be that way also. I have no respect for any Bible or god who insists homosexuality is a sin. If god made everything, he wouldn’t have made homosexuality. Simple. And yes, I will “slander” any religion who believes homosexuals should not live because of their orientation. It’s a facist concept.

Well, just a question, were those outside sources claiming to have seen him do all of these amazing things, or are they just accounts from the time period?

So, you’re basically saying this: “Even though there’s undeniable proof, I don’t believe you. Instead, I think a big man in the sky created us about 6,000 years ago, even though carbon dating and hundreds of other dating techniques have proved that there are fossils and rocks from millions of years ago” Because that’s what it sounds like.

mr. Jenkins then tell me which one can first hen or egg ? can you give me the answer ? egg it is then how egg came first ? and if it is hen then how how it got first ? the only one knows the answer of this Question is my lord God YAH,all we can do is believe in God

I would disagree with your notion that the chapter of the book is a lie (if it’s not the truth, it is what it is). There is a reward at the end of the drive. There is a resurrection of the dead, is there not?

I guess I believe in no Gods? But I do believe on a conscience awareness after death were you realize that you died.

God is real. His Son Jesus Christ lived, died, and lives again. If you really were serious about knowing, you would read more carefully, sincerely, with a (real desire to know) and not just for entertainment. There is a history. If you travel around the world as I have, watch people, listen, learn to inquire and study, Your impression and belief would increase what you do know. Paul says Prove all things and hold fast to that which is good….you can only know by reading and then asking God if it is true. He will manifest the truth to you through the Holy Ghost. If you do not understand this, then you haven’t read enough to form an opinion.

God is real. His Son Jesus Christ lived, died, and lives again. If you really were serious about knowing, you would read more carefully, sincerely, with a (real desire to know) and not just for entertainment. There is a history. If you travel around the world as I have, watch people, listen, learn to inquire and study, Your impression and belief would increase what you do know. Paul says Prove all things and hold fast to that which is good….you can only know by reading and then asking God if it is true. He will manifest the truth to you through the Holy Ghost. If you do not understand this, then you haven’t read enough to form an opinion.

The glory of mankind is that we are not ruled by physical nature. We are naturally selfish, naturally h0rny, naturally prideful, etc.. This nature is not beneficial. We are the gluttons, the adulterers, and the oppressors of this world, not God. All problems of this world are caused by ourselves. Blaming our problems on God is childish. Homosexuality is a part of many people’s physical nature, but we are not ruled by that nature. That nature is not part of being human. All sexual activity is between two married people because we are not to simply be fulfilling a material desire to explode juices everywhere, but fulfill an immaterial desire for the pleasure of the partner because of Eros (romantic love) between the man and woman.

I don’t think the opening and closing chapters are a lie. Mostly I think they are a literary device. Even taken as revelation, they are -as I thought I’ve been saying - a reduction of complex, adult-level truth to a simple lesson for children.

Sorry, I forgot to add: In Job, there is no resurrection of the dead.

Job 14:14 seems to speak of a “renewal” or “release”. I think that for the sake of the story, the beginning and ending chapters are literary devices: they make the story better. However, there is truth to them. There is ha satan, and there is a reward, but for the sake of the story, we those ideas were simplified. I’m sure we could argue this until resurrection (then we’ll know), but for the sake of practicality, I’ll stop now.

Certainly there is a lot to the Book of Job. I have read several analyses of the Book of Job. The story of Job comes from a period before the modern concept of Heaven and Hell. There was Sheol which was the underworld where all of the dead went and it was a place of comfort for the righteous and torment for the wicked. While Judaism did not emphasize the afterlife as much as Christian fire and brimstone preachers do today there was a belief in an afterlife. Modern Christians do not spend a lot of time dwelling on the Old Testament unless they are using it to condemn homosexuality. While the Book of Job does add richness and complexity to the story I hold that in the final analysis there is no way to get beyond the fact that like the Santa Clause story it uses the promise of rewards and punishment to enforce belief and influence behavior. The Book of Job addresses the question of why bad things happen to good people. It goes along with the modern maxim “God works in mysterious ways.” Once the concept of Heaven was solidified the Book of Job was not as central to Judeo-Christian thought. Assuming that there is infinite payoff in Heaven in the form of eternal bliss any finite amount of suffering on Earth is inconsequential. As a mathematician might say, as the payoff approaches infinity suffering over payoff approaches zero.

Fillet, that’s quite a distance you’ve traversed, from defining G!d as “Santa Clause for adults. Be good and you will get nice things, be bad and you won’t” to “[religion] uses the promise of rewards and punishment to enforce belief and influence behavior.” The first suggests that G!d has the intellectual and moral credibility of a fairy tale in the service of narcissistic greed; the second points to an early but positive phase of moral development. The first is a dismissive and gratuitous insult to theists; the second, though still quite shallow as an overall understanding of religion, is nevertheless true as far as it goes, and could be a starting place for respectful discussion. Evan, I’m impressed that you know to distinguish between Satan, who does not exist in Jewish theology or mythology, and ha-satan, who, as the Job melodrama makes clear, is a loyal and obedient officer in the Heavenly Court.

Jenkins, or anyone still reading this, lol, here’s my briefest answer about G!d: G!d is not a being. G!d is Being.

I would classify Santa Clause and the Christian God as being the same archetype. The adult version naturally is the more complex story and has more psychological hooks but it is basically the same story. Much the say way as Pandora’s box and eating from the Tree of Knowledge are the same story or perhaps Romeo and Juliet and The West Side Story. “Santa Clause for adults” is the most succinct answer I can come up with for the question “Who do you think God is?” You should not be so dismissive of fairy tales. There is quite a bit of scholarship dedicated to the analysis of fairy tales. Fairy tales like religion survives because the stories resonate with something deep inside us. I would also argue that the way most people practice Christianity, God is even more like Santa Clause than he used to be.since the major thrust of most branches of Christianity is on the Heavenly reward rather than the more complex theological and philosophical questions. God’s adversary in the Book of Job did contribute to the modern concept of Satan. Perhaps he is a proto-Satan but referring to God’s adversary as Satan is misleading and a poor translation.

Evan, google The Christian Paradox” Most Christians not only ignore the Old Testament but the New Testament as well. Their Christianity has to fit into the nutshell that televangelists can fit into soundbites. The nature of good and evil is too big a topic to be a tangent of this question. The view that mankind is inherently bad and that only through God and Jesus can he be good is a central theme in most branches of Christianity. I generally argue from the position of enlightened self-interest. There are arguments that the Biblical injunctions against male homosexuality were aimed at the various pagan practices rather than homosexuality itself. Moreover, I’m not aware of anything in the Bible that condemns Lesbianism. If I’m wrong I’m sure you will enlighten me though.

I’m glad you think so well of me hayyim, but I was equating the Christian “Satan” and Job’s “ha satan” intentionally. The function is the same, and your claim that he is a loyal and obedient officer is not found in Job (though yes, he is a tool of God, as are all God’s creations). There are just too many random biblical stories that include some angel working against mankind’s good for it to be a literary device, eg: the snake in Genesis is not just a snake. However, I will say that Satan is no adversary of God, but of Mankind. He is our tempter, our accuser, and our enemy. He is not an anti-god, but a wolf to sheep that stray. Filetofspam, I too dislike Santa Clause versions of Christianity. I love philosophy, and religion should be diving into the answers that it can bring.

“lo, that which I feared has come upon me” this is the only thing from Job that means squat. It is the same message Jesus tried to tell us over and over again. We think, and ourselves become the things we think about. “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”. same thing. Man, even if you are an atheist like old Spam, if you have an open, reasonable mind, you can take quality life lessons from the bible. “there is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance- that principle is contempt prior to investigation.” I dint care if you are an atheist, hell, i dont even believe in atheism. I believe in a loving God only because I have been working in recovery for the better part of a decade and have witnessed Gods handy work up close and personal. Time after time story after story. Real life stories of recovery that when you lay them out on the table in an autopsy, there is nothing human or physical holding it together. There is only one answer, and he is a living, loving answer. In fact, I believe that in life there is only one problem from which stem all other problems, a conscious seperation from God. Thus there is only one anwer, consccious partnership with the one who made me. If my alcoholism for instance was merely a physical and a mental problem, then the best medical doctors, and the best physciatrists could take me apart and put me together and I would tick. But there are thousands of alcoholics dying everyday, in hospitals and sanitariams. They have a living problem, and they need a lving answer. i have seen the ones that choose the living answer walk out of the hospitals and sanitariams and never look back, and they leave perfectly normal lives, unmedicated, and helping others. Santa Claus is fiction, God is the real deal.

I dont know if I am Christian or not. I love Christ, but honestly, most Christians dont get it. It is not that god is good and we are bad. god is good and the bad is an illusion. The only thing that is real is love. God is love. period! Fear is the opposite of love, and it is an illusion. We are inherently good created in the image of God. Yes, for Gods sakes, even homosexuals and republicans. What is worse guys, people that judge homsexuals, or the ones who judge the ones who judge homosexuals? To God it is apples and apples, neither judgement comes from a position of love. We cannot force people to love through hate. A soldier is out on tthe battlefield, he is sent there by his government. he reaches deep inside and asks God to guide him, and he prays for his enemy, and asks God for forgiveness, that he has killed his fellow man. The soldier does not hate his enemy, contrarily he is compassionate for his enemy for they have fought courageously. He prays for their families and he weeps. then we have the angry protester, never been oversees, never smelled the battlefield, or asked his God for forgiveness, for he is a righteous man. He is angry. He hates war, and guns and he spits on soldiers. Now which was one acting out of love? Everything we do must be from a position of love, or it is not real. god is love, and God is reality. He does not live in our emotions. His energy is love, and love is all he recognizes, everything else is only recognized as the opposite of love. so to God it is not even recognizable in and of itself, only that it is absent. “These Occupy” protests would have much meaning if they were done out of love. why? because greed is a sickness that God wishes to heal. It is not Gods desire to punish sin, but to heal it, but he cannot heal it if we dont give it to him. How do we give it to him? we pray that the greedy tycoons may be healed we pray for gods will to manifest itself in their lives and ours. greed is fear driven and it is the opposite of love. they need to be loved, and only God can do that. We need to heal to. If you wake up in America you are, right now, better off than half the world, and that is if you are the poorest of our citizens. If I can get clean running water, which in portland oregon even the homeless can do any tiime of the day, you are better off than half of Africa. We have become so entitled to and force fed “the american dream” that we have lost sense of all reality. we should be thinking about sustainability but we are still thinking in terms of abundance and material wealth. Now I am rambling, sorry.

I strongly hope you’re not Christian Science. The physical world does exist. There are always material causes for all things that happen (including miracles, see Ex. 14:21). God is not a God of the gaps.

Besides e Emmit Fox I have not read much Christian Science, or metaphysics, i find it to detatched from the concept of a loving God. although jesus did talk about things being made that which :doth not appeareth”. Jesus, for instance was a physical being, who relied solely on the power of god. He did tell us that “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he”. Is that not the basis of Christian Science?

Jesus “relied solely on the power of god” because he is god. The phrase, “for as he thinks within himself, / so he is” was not said by Jesus, but solomon in proverbs. This is about how to deal with people, not about metaphysics.

1. Fillet, I have said several times in various contexts on FA that one of the most valuable things about this site is that we all tend to give the advice we most need to hear. I can think of no better example than your advice to me: “You should not be so dismissive of fairy tales… Fairy tales like religion survive because the stories resonate with something deep inside us.” When asked who you think G!d is, the only thing deep inside us that you referred to in your initial response was materialistic greed. It was, as you intended it to be, dismissive of religion - which, as you may know, has also had “quite a bit of scholarship dedicated” to it. I think you would do well to heed your own advice. Far from being a mistranslation, “ha-satan” is no translation at all; it is the Hebrew word that you have reasonably translated as “adversary.” Accuser or prosecutor would also suit. 2) Evan, please don’t overlook the important difference between “the satan” of the Hebrew bible and later Jewish thought vs. Christianity’s “Satan” (which Fillet oddly calls “modern”). For the latter, Satan is the name of a rebellious angel who is, as Fillet says, G!d’s adversary. But “the satan” (who is not called by name, but identified by his Divinely ordained function in the cosmic drama) is, as you said, Job’s adversary - and ours - not G!d’s. Not that the Job story claims that the satan is G!d’s loyal and obedient officer; it simply depicts him as such by his behavior, which is completely devoid of the rebellion attributed to Satan by Christian theology or myth. 3) Fillet and Evan, religion - with its myths, life-ways, rituals, ideas, and faith - shapes the experience, culture, and identity-formation of whole communities, including people of multiple generations and proclivities. There is no reason why the majority of religious people should care about “complex theological and philosophical questions.” To me, a religion’s “success” should be measured, as Freefromself suggests, by the quality of consciousness and behavior it produces in (or elicits from) its adherents. How able are they/we to treat each other with lovingkindness and generosity of spirit? To act with ethical and environmental responsibility? To stand before the mystery of all Being - or of another person - in awe, humility, wondrous amazement, and celebration? By those measures, the record of all religions, and of non-religion, too, are decidedly mixed.

God and Jesus are just a figment of imagination to explain the unknown. If we didn’t believe in something, nobody would be strong and confident. Just like a bully acts like they’re right and know everything and when they find out they’re wrong, they make up something else to cover the truth that they don’t know and if there’s no leader we would all just be confused and scared

I think part of the gap in communication. between us is that since I do not believe in a literal God that the God figure is what believers think him. Since I see God as made by man rather than vice versa God is what believers i,imagine him to be. You speak of a particular God that is widely misunderstood. My ex- was convinced that God looked like Angela Davis but talked like Barbara Jordan. I see a parallel between linguistics and religion. Note that scientists use Latin a lot. As a dead language it is unchanging, Paganism is a largely dead religion so it has been frozen in time. I think that there are metaphors that have been lost over the centuries in Judeo-Christian-Islam. The religion has been simplified and corrupted. Note that Barack Obama incorrectly stated that the Bible tells us that God helps those who help themselves. That is incorrect and a meme that has been attached by Benjamin Franklin. Plato had a profound effect on early Christianity but neither Franklin nor Plato were even Christians. Every believer has their own vision of God and the God most believers imagine is Santa Clause with higher stakes.

God is no one and nothing except a support system to explain the unexplained

Hey! I believe in the Creator of the universe….the God/Elohim of the ancient Hebrews…the Elohim of Abraham, Jacob and Isac. His Name is YHWH. I believe that He did send His Son to fulfill the covenant He established with Abraham. His Son is Yehshua my Messiah. King of the universe! He is love and righteousness! You can check out my blog!