...who among you actually believe...

**Darkest Angel** · September 14th, 2004, 04:27 PM

...of course, it is a scientific fallacy that we only use a small part of our brains... [img]wink.gif[/img]

**Biomechanoid** · September 14th, 2004, 08:54 PM

Originally posted by Andyman:
I subscribe to Terry Pratchet's take from his book "Small Gods". How strong and influential a god becomes is in direct proportion to how many believers he has. Silly as the story is I feel it has some credence. People here talk about how we only use a small percentage of our brain. Okay, what about the world population as a whole? If we could link ourselves as a colony of ants or bees do, imagine what the human race could create with all that brain power combined? A god maybe? [img]graemlins/wonder.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I can't remember if I read that in its entirety, but it accompanied the stack of literature I went over studying Nirvana (not the band). For myself, I can only be sure of the character of God. I haven't any solid thoughts as to the composition of this being. There may be some merit to the notion that the one life force split into millions of corporial hosts, living now in our collective consciousness. How many religions claim that their god is within them? I have seen from Darwin's perspective how a race can invent a deity, and certain aspects of that theory are quite aparent in the way some people conduct their worship. Perspective.

DA, some of us are using all the brains we have left...why else would we drive on the parkway and park in the driveway? [img]wink.gif[/img]

**Darkest Angel** · September 14th, 2004, 09:15 PM

...Nostro, that excuse doesn't fly with my ilk and you know it! Need more brains? EAT MORE! [img]wink.gif[/img]

But I digress. The nature of God? How did my little thread come to all that? Wowzers. I think, if there is a god, he/she/it has one helluva sense of humour. Take that as you will.

**Biomechanoid** · September 15th, 2004, 01:51 AM

My fault, getting to why I don't believe in psychics was probably a lot messier than you cared to expect. I'll try to refrain from now on.

Although I'll quickly add this: how could any deity be expected to cope with everything we blame him/her/it/them for without a paramount sense of humor? There are some I studied that came across as a bit more prudent, but God allegedly built the first man out of a pile of dirt, and then grew a woman on one of his ribs. How fucking funny is that? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

**Biomechanoid** · September 15th, 2004, 03:17 AM

Fate.

This was a hard one for me to make up my mind about, especially in regards to divine fate. Has God set my destiny in stone, so that no matter what I choose my purpose and outcome will come to pass according to His design? Or, is it that within the wisdom of said Creator, my free will causes ripples across the spiritual landscape that have already been foreseen and prepared for? Am I really making decisions, or is my free will anticipated and no other path is possible?

Upon pondering at length about the immense ratio between the portion of the brain that science reports as unused and that which is used, and comparing the minute store of data my bio-electrical memory has collected in my short lifespan to what this potential supreme being must omniciently posess, I ultimately settled on this notion: Choice is not written. As a sentient being my decisions are my own (however easily influenced they may be), but the unfathomable wealth of knowledge that a singular master being - the deity - holds lends quite naturally to the possibility that every outcome of any one of my actions may effect is already known. Therefore, no future is written. This challenges Christianity, of course, because many would argue that it was Jesus' fate to be a sacrificial lamb. I believe that as the manifestation of God on Earth, he may have foreseen potential outcomes, but as a man he still was bound by the choices of free will. There again, that's just me.

**Andyman** · September 15th, 2004, 03:58 AM

I subscribe to Terry Pratchet's take from his book "Small Gods". How strong and influential a god becomes is in direct proportion to how many believers he has. Silly as the story is I feel it has some credence. People here talk about how we only use a small percentage of our brain. Okay, what about the world population as a whole? If we could link ourselves as a colony of ants or bees do, imagine what the human race could create with all that brain power combined? A god maybe? [img]graemlins/wonder.gif[/img]

**Andyman** · September 15th, 2004, 11:35 AM

Yes, a lot of people believe in a divine scapegoat. That solves any issues with the personal reponsibility thing. [img]wink.gif[/img]

<font color="#cd6600" size="1">[ September 15, 2004 08:35 AM: Message edited by: Andyman ]</font>

**Darkest Angel** · September 15th, 2004, 12:09 PM

Fluffles, don't get me started.

...OK, too late. Here's what thinking about yesterday's posts got me: Fate, destiny, those things open up a can of worms that I don't think many people are prepared to deal with. For instance, if each and every one of us is on a path we are meant to travel, how does one explain the life and actions of someone like Hitler? Was it all simply meant to be? If so, what does that say about the nature of good and evil? If it was meant to be, if it had to happen...how can it be "evil"? If not..well, where the hell have the spiritual police gotten to? 'Cause they damn sure fell asleep on that job.

But one need not invoke anything quite so horrible to question the theory. If there is some kind of "Fate" at work in our lives, we begin erring toward beliefs in predestination and the like. In other words, it doesn't matter what we do, as we are going to end up wherever we are intended to be regardless. So why bother with charity and kindness and all that bullshit? History will just keep tweaking itself to keep us on our intended paths regardless of how we live our lives. And that just doesn't sound quite right to these ears...