Basically, given what we know about the world and how it was designed, I don't like God... If there is one. I don't want to be a pawn in their game. Obviously, we don't get the choice and- defying God may well lead to being punished but, I think it's important to stand up for what you believe in and I don't like how God created the world and if they actually bothered to stick around- how they maintain it. I have no desire to be part of such a corrupt system.
Of course, I still will be if all this religious stuff is true. I have no doubt I'll be sent to hell for all this. I doubt I'd be able to fake liking God though either. If God is real, they already know how I feel about them and, I'm already doomed most likely, whether I suicide or not. I doubt complimenting them on rainbows and waterfalls is going to make up for how many times I've cursed them.
Don't get me wrong. I admire people who create something good out of terrible adversity. Following a brutal murder or illness, you sometimes get families creating charities to raise awareness and help prevent these terrible things happening again. I do think that's hugely brave and amazing.
Bottomline though is- God is the supreme designer and enabler of suffering! If God did/ does things intentionally and doesn't make mistakes, I can only assume they want us to suffer. God created fallible bodies that can experience all sorts of pain and illness. God created the murderous/ peadophilic/ psychopathic brain. God enables rape, murder, genocide, starvation. Sorry but, I'm not that in to masochism and martyrdom!
Maybe the religious folk want to blame the devil for all the bad stuff but then- they need to concede that either the devil is stronger than God or, God allows the devil to continue hurting their 'flock'. Neither points to an omnipotent, loving God. It points to a being who is in league with the devil in testing us. For what though?
I can only conclude that this is all one big test. We have to stay faithful to a being we're not even sure exists despite all the terrible things they enable to happen to us and everyone else. Plus, we innately have a whole bunch of 'natural' desires we need to supress to show our loyalty- lust, gluttony, greed, wrath. Hell- even the ability to question is problematic. God doesn't seem to tolerate being questioned. We've been set up for failure from the start. WHY??? Why put us through such a cruel test? What really is the end goal? Some big party in heaven for eternity sounds like such an anticlimax after all that and an eternity in hell for using a few curse words seems crazy too.
In terms of our lives being an expression of the divine. I don't really believe that. I think it's just typical of the over- inflated human ego trying to feel less insignificant than it could well be. Presumably, the animal we ate for lunch wasn't quite so important? You have to almost admire the lengths we go to to feel less significant- if religion is all fantasy in the end. To engineer a story where a mortal being can become immortal- you can't really get more imaginative/ delussional! (If it is all delussion.)
I suppose where I do agree though is, I think life can have the potential to be good. Really good for some people. Obviously it is, otherwise, more people would be killing themselves! I'm personally not a death/ suicide worshipper. I think suicide is tragic in as much as that person's life must have been terribly blighted for them to hate it so much that they wanted to end it. Did they need to suffer from mental or physical illness? Did they need to be abused in childhood? Did they need to struggle to fit into this society? Did they need to be bullied? No- surely not. And, guess who enabled all that shit ultimately?
But- why should they be expected to put up with it?!! Who do they owe anything to? They didn't choose to undertake all that crap. That decision was made by their parents and God ultimately. Why are they so surprised and disappointed when their children rebel at being made to suffer without even being given an adequate explanation as to why they should?
If we truly have the divine in us, why don't we know the answers? How can there even be atheists if we have the divine in us? Did they get a lower dose?
Nah, even if it is all real, it utterly repulses me. I can't get beyond how sadistic a system it is. I simply can't envisage a good enough reason to warrant all the suffering. So- no- I'm not willing to comply to it. Even if that means being punished. I admire people who stand up to dictators. God has to be the supreme dictator.
J.P. is not worth another 5 minutes on, IMHO.
