to think it is rude to persistently refer to God/Allah/etc. as an "imaginary friend"

[AtheneNoctua]

even after asked not to by several posters who have stated they found it offensive.

Iorek 'I' know how they get there - religious organisations make it up. I only wondered how they justify it nowadays since they keep rewriting the past.

Most christians now will challenge inconvenient bible quotes and say "oh you can't take any notice of that. It was just written by men" so where is the source of the detailed instructions on how we should live our lives.

And thank you for your suggestion that I study the subject. I had never thought of that.

[ties children up in order to check thread]
I'm not scared of the Hadron collider, no, it would be wonderful if it does help reveal some things like a way of treating cancer with particle beams instead of x rays.
I am scared of black holes though.

Fair enough

I wonder why all those believers are so keen to claim all these virtues for their imaginary friends that do not actually seem to be borne out by their own 'evidence'. Many of these imaginary friends are spoilt brat egotists who have to be sung to all the time, all of them appear to suffer from the major sexual disfunction of not being able to leave anyone else's sex life alone, many are possessive and punitive, and they are all capricious (saving one dimbulb from a housefire and letting all the rest die).
For creatures that are supposed to be all-knowing, all-powerful and all-loving, they are not doing much of a job. Now you could believe that the fuckers are asleep at the switch, or that their feelings are hurt because of all these naughty unbelievers, or you could just, you know, come to the logical conculsion that none of them actually exist or ever did.

justaboutagrownup, I can't find any profundity in that at all, I'm afraid.

Here; try this one:

One night I dreamed a dream.
I was walking along the beach with my Lord. Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life. For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, one belonging to me and one to my Lord.

When the last scene of my life shot before me I looked back at the footprints in the sand. There was only one set of footprints. I realized that this was at the lowest and saddest times of my life. This always bothered me and I questioned the Lord about my dilemma.

"Lord, You told me when I decided to follow You, You would walk and talk with me all the way. But I'm aware that during the most troublesome times of my life there is only one set of footprints. I just don't understand why, when I need You most, You leave me."

He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you, never, ever, during your trials and testings. When you saw only one set of footprints, It was then that we hopped."

almost blue: I was groaning when I saw your post with that walking along the beach thing...someone sent it to me when my Dad died and it made me really cross. No-one was carrying me and anyhow dad had lived a good life and I didn't actually need any supernatural help to come to terms with it.

Till I got to the last word and nearly choked on my tea 'hopped' ROFL.

justaboutagrownup - nope. Nothing there, either. 'It's good to listen to each other' and 'a good life is judged by its impact on others' are just truisms. To paraphase Tina Turner, what's god got to do with it?

That footprints one is ancient. It's very nice and poetic but it proves nothing.

I don't see how people got from "that warm and fuzzy feeling" to "ooh, it must be God." I'd know God every time I sat down to watch Doctor Who with a nice glass of wine if that were the case.

How would you know it was meant to be "god" if nobody had ever told you? This is another big hole in the entire thing. Someone who has grown up devoid of all the cultural baggage about Christianity is not going to "come to god" spontaneously.

Anyone for a brief digression into Cargo cults?

"often the natives first will assume that the newcomers are spiritual beings of some kind who possess divine powers"

justa,
your first one is funny (and would be true
enough if there was a god)

your second I didn't really get but both it and the third would be a lot better not delayed till the afterlife.

Listen to others, and assess your own life NOW while you've got one.

oh yeah... duh, I just skimmed it...

i don't think god/ess minds or is offended so neither am i.

sorry but everytime I see this thread title it makes me titter! I wouldn't have the nerve be so disrespectful in RL but just sometimes, I'm tempted...

there aint no god

justaboutagrownup...if your stories make any point, it's that god is superfluous. And I'm not really sure that's what you were trying to say...

Yes, and so is Little Red Riding Hood; but I wouldn't tell it on this thread...

I didn't think you were arguing against atheists.... just mildly puzzled what that rather trite waffle was about. Sorry.