Aetheism, Do You Believe?

[DelBubs]

In the beginning Man created God;
and in the image of Man
created he him.

2 And Man gave unto God a multitude of
names,that he might be Lord of all
the earth when it was suited to Man

3 And on the seven millionth
day Man rested and did lean
heavily on his God and saw that
it was good.

4 And Man formed Aqualung of
the dust of the ground, and a
host of others likened unto his kind.

5 And these lesser men were cast into the
void; And some were burned, and some were
put apart from their kind.

6 And Man became the God that he had
created and with his miracles did
rule over all the earth.

7 But as all these things
came to pass, the Spirit that did
cause man to create his God
lived on within all men: even
within Aqualung.

8 And man saw it not.

9 But for Christ's sake he'd
better start looking.

The gospel according to Jethro, followed by the gospel according to Hazel O'Connor.

In the beginning was the world, man said: Let there be more light
Electric scenes and laser beams, neon brights the light abhorring nights
On the second day he said: Let's have a gas
Hydrogen and cholera and pest
Let's make some germs, we'll poison the worms
Man will never be suppressed

And he said: Behold what I have done
I've made a better world for everyone
Nobody laugh, nobody cry
World without end, forever and ever
Amen, amen, amen

On the third we get green and blue for pie
On the fourth we send rockets to the sky
On the fifth make the beasts and submarines
On the sixth man prepares his final dream:
In our image, let's make robots for our slaves
Imagine all the time that we can save
Computers, machines, the silicon dream
Seventh he retired from the scene

And he said: Behold what I have done
I've made a better world for everyone
Nobody laugh, nobody cry
World without end, forever and ever
Amen (amen), amen (amen), amen (amen)

On the eighth day machine just got upset
A problem man had never seen as yet
No time for flight, a blinding light
And nothing but a void, forever night

He said: Behold what man has done
There's not a world for anyone
Nobody laughed, nobody cried
World's at an end, everyone has died
Forever amen (amen), amen (amen), amen (amen)

He said: Behold what man has done
There's not a world for anyone
Nobody laughed, nobody cried
World's at an end, everyone has died
Forever amen (amen), amen (amen), amen (amen)

(Amen)

And getting back to the discussion. I personally have nothing against anyone practicing whatever faith they are comfortable with. It's when the faith they practice is put before the well being of others (Jehovahs Witnesses allowing their children etc to die for want of a blood transfusion) that rankle me. I also think some people use religion as a crutch and allow the church to make those hard decisions for them. Today I was told by my boss, a practicing christian that she would have a word with whoever is on duty at the pearly gates come my time to see if she could get me in. Explaining that my aetheism was the result of my not wanting to understand the truth. I get this kind of response on a regular basis when I state my beliefs. The term sanctimonious passes my lips a lot.

[Powersurge]

Where do they get this pearly gates of Heaven stuff, and this Hell stuff from anyway, not too mention the immortality of the soul?! The Bible I read spoke alot of a recreated Garden of Eden, Resurrection, a lake of fire called Gehenna, and the utter annihilation of the majority of the human race, but no Heaven, nor Hell, and no immortality except for a select few.

Not that I mind, mind you. As a Teutonic heathen I can certainly relate to the Gates of Heaven, Hell, Immortal soul ideas, amongst others. It's just... odd.

Cheers!

[kozzi24]

If it sounds too good to be true, it is.
The gates are meant to keep people in, not OUT.

[Le Messor]

I believe God is real.
I believe God is a person, not a force.
I believe He has existed a lot longer than me, knows more than I do, is bigger and more powerful than I am.

With those 'facts' in mind, I believe it is up to Him to tell me who He is, what He wants from me, how He wants me to approach Him, etc... For me to tell Him; that just wouldn't be worship.
I believe I do not have the right, the knowledge, or the power to tell Him 'I'll approach you *my* way or not at all; you are who -I- say you are, not who you say you are'.

I don't believe physical reality has ever bent to my will. I don't believe I chose where or when I was born, or who to; I don't believe I chose my natural hair colour, eye colour, or what I look like. I don't believe spiritual reality will twist on my whims, either.

With that in mind, I believe He has told us who He is. I believe He inspired a group of people to write His thoughts down; and later inspired another group to compile it--based on eyewitness accounts (yes, that includes Paul--see under 'road to Damascus').

I believe that, if you spend your life deliberately and knowingly rejecting Him, denying His Son and refusing His name, then show up at his front door one day and tell Him "I'm basically a good person, so you owe it to me to let me live with you," He'll just say "I'm basically a good person, and you've spent your life rejecting me. Try the other guy."

I believe I am getting tired of typing 'Him' and 'He' with capitals, and will now stop; it's not important.

I believe that human beings are capable of twisting anything to evil, no matter what.
With that in mind, I believe it is spurious to judge God, his book, his desires, based on what human beings do with it.
I believe this works on two levels:
First, that anybody can say they did anything in somebody's name. It doesn't make it so. I could go out tomorrow and shoot somebody, and claim Alpha Flight made me do it. If you argued there's nothing like that, I'd point out that Heather killed Snowbird, who had a crush on Mac (even in memory).
B) Even if you could find a belief system, from Buddhism to science to Hinduism to Paganism to Christianity, that hasn't yet been corrupted and used to excuse atrocities, it soon will be.

I believe that if you want to know what he wants from you, all you need is to read his book. Really read it; what it says, not what you want it to say. I believe you need to read both parts; don't stop when the Old Testament ends and expect to impress me with your knowledge.

That is what I believe.

- Michael Bennett, Oct 2006
"Ah tell you what Ah believe--**** 'appens."
- Predator 2

[JohnnyCanuck]

If it sounds too good to be true, it is.
The gates are meant to keep people in, not OUT.

like prison.


One thing I can say about this topic is that I've met a lot of people that I've said "well if you're going to heaven why should I want to be there?"

BTW I am proudly atheist and a firm believer in "Belive what you want. Just don't inflict it on me."
JohnnyCanuck

[SephirothsKiller]

BTW I am proudly atheist and a firm believer in "Belive what you want. Just don't inflict it on me."

JohnnyCanuck

Hmmm... The word "Inflict" betrays a less than accepting viewpoint methinks.

That said, I just wanted to note that when I saw this topic I thought it said: "aesthetisism do you believe?" Stupid Gothic Film class corrupting my mind.