What is the purpose of religion

[dio9]

I hope to learn something here, what you think.
My thought is the purpose of religion is to bring ones own life into harmony with the will of God. Agree or disagree .
Curious what you think , believer and atheist .

[William]

[Replying to post 69 by Clownboat]

Take a Christian for example, they have been indoctrinated to believe that there can be only one god, and that just happens to be the god of their religion. Therefore, to a Christian, all the other god concepts are from Satan and do not infact bring ones own life into harmony with the will of any god.

In the case of Christianity, there are at least the two ideas of GOD - one is the 'real' and one is the 'false'.

So the blind with the elephant analogy in that case is with recognizing the human condition and assigning entity attribute to the distinction between apparent 'good' and apparent 'evil', and saying that both cannot belong to the same.

Altogether the ideas of GOD expressed by separate religious ideology can be seen to represent an aspect of a real GOD playing the many parts of the GODs in which humans believe in.

If one real GOD can play the role of every imagined one, and in doing so connect with the individuals beliefs systems in a real and meaningful manner, (as far as the individual believes) then one real GOD can effectively make all imagined GODs 'real' too.

In my mind, I think that all organised religions were initiated by that process, when they were but small cults and gained following and eventually institutionalized.

The concepts might be different and thus expressed into the world as non-unified, but this does not mean that an individual has to conclude that it must be the case that no GOD is a unified whole.

Religion of any sort does not get to say what GOD actually is, only what they believe GOD is, as contained within their scripts.

[Clownboat]

[Replying to post 69 by Clownboat]

Take a Christian for example, they have been indoctrinated to believe that there can be only one god, and that just happens to be the god of their religion. Therefore, to a Christian, all the other god concepts are from Satan and do not infact bring ones own life into harmony with the will of any god.

In the case of Christianity, there are at least the two ideas of GOD - one is the 'real' and one is the 'false'.

So the blind with the elephant analogy in that case is with recognizing the human condition and assigning entity attribute to the distinction between apparent 'good' and apparent 'evil', and saying that both cannot belong to the same.

Altogether the ideas of GOD expressed by separate religious ideology can be seen to represent an aspect of a real GOD playing the many parts of the GODs in which humans believe in.

If one real GOD can play the role of every imagined one, and in doing so connect with the individuals beliefs systems in a real and meaningful manner, (as far as the individual believes) then one real GOD can effectively make all imagined GODs 'real' too.

In my mind, I think that all organised religions were initiated by that process, when they were but small cults and gained following and eventually institutionalized.

The concepts might be different and thus expressed into the world as non-unified, but this does not mean that an individual has to conclude that it must be the case that no GOD is a unified whole.

Religion of any sort does not get to say what GOD actually is, only what they believe GOD is, as contained within their scripts.

Are you able to define 'god' for us as you are using it?

You said: "Altogether the ideas of GOD expressed by separate religious ideology can be seen to represent an aspect of a real GOD"

What is this real god you speak of? Is it a real thing or an invented concept? How can you know and how can you know that all the differing god concepts out there are pointing to a real god? When I study other religions, I see them only pointing to their own god concept. Therefore I must reject your claim that religions all point to a god with all capital letters in it spelling at this time.

[William]

[Replying to post 71 by Clownboat]

Are you able to define 'god' for us as you are using it?

Certainly.

You said: "Altogether the ideas of GOD expressed by separate religious ideology can be seen to represent an aspect of a real GOD"

What is this real god you speak of? Is it a real thing or an invented concept? How can you know and how can you know that all the differing god concepts out there are pointing to a real god?

I know because I acknowledge those connections.

When I study other religions, I see them only pointing to their own god concept.

This is true. I am not arguing otherwise. I acknowledge that individuals invested in their particular religious script are like islands which have discontented from each other. Pieces in a puzzle in which, I too, study.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pang ... ion_03.gif

My conclusions so far are as I have already written.

Altogether the ideas of GOD expressed by separate religious ideology can be seen to represent an aspect of a real GOD playing the many parts of the GODs in which humans believe in.

Therefore I must reject your claim that religions all point to a god with all capital letters in it spelling at this time.

Whereas I am fully able to appreciate where you are coming from in relation to your own manner of studying what is observed.

[Zzyzx]

.

[Replying to post 71 by Clownboat]

Are you able to define 'god' for us as you are using it?

Certainly.

Kindly provide that definition.

[William]

[Replying to post 73 by Zzyzx]

Are you able to define 'god' for us as you are using it?

Certainly.

Kindly provide that definition.

For those who might have missed the definition I gave for GOD, 'as I am using it', in both post #72 AND post #70, here it it once more.

Altogether the ideas of GOD expressed by separate religious ideology can be seen to represent an aspect of a real GOD playing the many parts of the GODs in which humans believe in.

[Zzyzx]

.

[Replying to post 73 by Zzyzx]

Are you able to define 'god' for us as you are using it?

Certainly.

Kindly provide that definition.

For those who might have missed the definition I gave for GOD, 'as I am using it', in both post #72 AND post #70, here it it once more.

Altogether the ideas of GOD expressed by separate religious ideology can be seen to represent an aspect of a real GOD playing the many parts of the GODs in which humans believe in.

Talking about an 'aspect of' is not a definition.

What is the 'real god' to which you refer?

[William]

[Replying to post 75 by Zzyzx]

Talking about an 'aspect of' is not a definition.

That was not the question though. The question was;

Clownboat wrote:
Are you able to define 'god' for us as you are using it?

What is the 'real god' to which you refer?

The answer to that is complex, as can be seen in my Members Notes to which the reader who is interested in the actual answer to your question has access to.

What I think about consciousness in relation to this reality.

The Dangers of Separating Human Consciousness From Any Idea of GOD

The evolution of the understanding of the idea of GOD

[Clownboat]

[Replying to post 75 by Zzyzx]

Talking about an 'aspect of' is not a definition.

That was not the question though. The question was;

Clownboat wrote:
Are you able to define 'god' for us as you are using it?

de-fineDictionary result for define
/dfn/Submit
verb
1.
state or describe exactly the nature, scope, or meaning of.

I acknowledge that you cannot define this god concept you are talking about. Perhaps it is real, perhaps it is just your imagination. I guess we will never know because a god being a thing that other gods point to is not defining it.

A morffball is a thing that other morffballs point to as being real.
What! You leaned nothing about morffballs from my 'definition'?
(As you can see, nothing was actually defined).

I believe you personally want there to be a god. Therefore, you invented the idea that all the competing god concepts point to the god concept you hope is there. That is not compelling and you still have not defined for us what you mean when you use the word 'morffball'... I mean 'god'.