'God'/'Jesus' - Invisible/Imaginary Friends For Adults

[I AM ALL I AM]

Imaginary friend

Imaginary friends and imaginary companions are a psychological and social phenomenon where a friendship or other interpersonal relationship takes place in the imagination rather than external physical reality. Imaginary friends are fictional characters created for improvisational role-playing. They often have elaborate personalities and behaviors. They may seem real to their creators, though they are ultimately unreal, as shown by studies.

Imaginary friends are made often in childhood, sometimes in adolescence, and rarely in adulthood. They often function as tutelaries when played with by a child. They reveal, according to several theories of psychology, a child's anxieties, fears, goals and perceptions of the world through that child's conversations. They are, according to some children, physically indistinguishable from real people, while others say they see their imaginary friends only in their heads. There's even a third category of imaginary friend recognition: when the child doesn't see the imaginary friend at all, but can only feel his/her presence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imaginary_friend

G'day.

1. Are 'God' and 'Jesus' invisible/imaginary friends ? Please present your reasoning with your answer.

2. What difference is there between children with imaginary friends and adults that believe in 'God'/'Jesus' ? Please present your reasoning with your answer.

3. Should those that have invisible/imaginary friends be stopped from being in charge of countries and making decisions for the nation, including international relationships ? Please present your reasoning with your answer.

4. "Some child development professionals still believe that the presence of imaginary friends past early childhood signals a serious psychiatric disorder." Does a belief in invisible/imaginary friends as an adult show "a serious psychiatric disorder" ? Please present your reasoning with your answer.

5. Are those that do not have invisible/imaginary friends the ones with "a serious psychiatric disorder" ? Please present your reasoning with your answer.

[AdHoc]

1. Are 'God' and 'Jesus' invisible/imaginary friends ? Please present your reasoning with your answer.

2. What difference is there between children with imaginary friends and adults that believe in 'God'/'Jesus' ? Please present your reasoning with your answer.

3. Should those that have invisible/imaginary friends be stopped from being in charge of countries and making decisions for the nation, including international relationships ? Please present your reasoning with your answer.

4. "Some child development professionals still believe that the presence of imaginary friends past early childhood signals a serious psychiatric disorder." Does a belief in invisible/imaginary friends as an adult show "a serious psychiatric disorder" ? Please present your reasoning with your answer.

5. Are those that do not have invisible/imaginary friends the ones with "a serious psychiatric disorder" ? Please present your reasoning with your answer.[/b][/color]

1. Invisible yes, imaginary no. My reason for believing this likely stems from 3 things 1) My upbringing 2) The effects, which I attribute to God in my life and others (what most Christians call a "relationship") and 3) Something else that I can't describe but what I will simply call "knowing something in your heart" (which someone else might call delusional)

2. I don't know anything about having a childhood imaginary friend but if someone has an imaginary friend as an adult I suppose I would be more worried about them than a child and probably strongly suggest that they see a psychiatrist. My reasoning would be that I think its not highly unusual for some children to have an invisible friend and something they would grow out of with time.

3. If you are talking about a democratic nation then the only way to stop them is to not vote for them and I probably wouldn't vote for them. Yeah.. no, what if the imaginary friend, which I assume is some kind of coping construct, said "push the button of doom"?. Is it reasonable that all the strategic nuclear weapons in the United States are all ready to be launched at the word of only one person regardless of what they believe? (shiver)

4. Yes, do I even need a reason?

5. I am going to go out on limb and assert that all adults that have an imaginary friend have a serious psychological disorder but it doesn't necessarily follow that all people with serious psychological disorder have imaginary friends.

[Filthy Tugboat]

1. Are 'God' and 'Jesus' invisible/imaginary friends ? Please present your reasoning with your answer.

2. What difference is there between children with imaginary friends and adults that believe in 'God'/'Jesus' ? Please present your reasoning with your answer.

3. Should those that have invisible/imaginary friends be stopped from being in charge of countries and making decisions for the nation, including international relationships ? Please present your reasoning with your answer.

4. "Some child development professionals still believe that the presence of imaginary friends past early childhood signals a serious psychiatric disorder." Does a belief in invisible/imaginary friends as an adult show "a serious psychiatric disorder" ? Please present your reasoning with your answer.

5. Are those that do not have invisible/imaginary friends the ones with "a serious psychiatric disorder" ? Please present your reasoning with your answer.[/b][/color]

1. Invisible yes, imaginary no. My reason for believing this likely stems from 3 things 1) My upbringing 2) The effects, which I attribute to God in my life and others (what most Christians call a "relationship") and 3) Something else that I can't describe but what I will simply call "knowing something in your heart" (which someone else might call delusional)

Fair enough, how do you know he's invisible? He could be visible... and.. hiding?

[AdHoc]

Fair enough, how do you know he's invisible? He could be visible... and.. hiding?

Because He's omnipresent and I can't see Him

[Filthy Tugboat]

Fair enough, how do you know he's invisible? He could be visible... and.. hiding?

Because He's omnipresent and I can't see Him

Is he? What does it really mean to be omnipresent?

[AdHoc]

Fair enough, how do you know he's invisible? He could be visible... and.. hiding?

Because He's omnipresent and I can't see Him

Is he? What does it really mean to be omnipresent?

To be everywhere at once

[Filthy Tugboat]

Fair enough, how do you know he's invisible? He could be visible... and.. hiding?

Because He's omnipresent and I can't see Him

Is he? What does it really mean to be omnipresent?

To be everywhere at once

OK, if he's everywhere at once and he's invisible, that only accounts for one sense being incapable of sensing him, why can't we touch, taste, smell or hear him? I suppose some people think they can hear him but I haven't even heard him brush past a wall or knock something over. If he's everywhere at once does that mean he is inside us as well? And inside walls and other inanimate objects? How does that work?

[AdHoc]

Fair enough, how do you know he's invisible? He could be visible... and.. hiding?

Because He's omnipresent and I can't see Him

Is he? What does it really mean to be omnipresent?

To be everywhere at once

OK, if he's everywhere at once and he's invisible, that only accounts for one sense being incapable of sensing him, why can't we touch, taste, smell or hear him? I suppose some people think they can hear him but I haven't even heard him brush past a wall or knock something over. If he's everywhere at once does that mean he is inside us as well? And inside walls and other inanimate objects? How does that work?

I guess because our senses are severely limited. The amount of electromagnetic radiation that occupies the visible bandwidth that you and I can experience is really a fraction of what is going on all around us. Same goes for hearing and touch. Some scientists today believe in a multi-verse that is made up of 10 spatial dimensions, but we can only see 3. Carl Sagan believed that if a creature from a higher dimension were to comunicate with you and I it would actually sound as if its voice was coming from within us.... hmm?

[Filthy Tugboat]

OK, if he's everywhere at once and he's invisible, that only accounts for one sense being incapable of sensing him, why can't we touch, taste, smell or hear him? I suppose some people think they can hear him but I haven't even heard him brush past a wall or knock something over. If he's everywhere at once does that mean he is inside us as well? And inside walls and other inanimate objects? How does that work?

I guess because our senses are severely limited. The amount of electromagnetic radiation that occupies the visible bandwidth that you and I can experience is really a fraction of what is going on all around us. Same goes for hearing and touch. Some scientists today believe in a multi-verse that is made up of 10 spatial dimensions, but we can only see 3. Carl Sagan believed that if a creature from a higher dimension were to comunicate with you and I it would actually sound as if its voice was coming from within us.... hmm?

I can't really comment on Carl Sagan's beliefs or the meaning and relevance of other universes and/or dimensions. I honestly have no idea how they would work or what they really mean. So you believe that our senses are incapable of sensing God? What does that mean for those that think they can and have sense[d] God?

[TheJackelantern]

The really bad thing about claiming a higher dimensional being as a GOD is the fact that a higher dimensional being would require more cause to exist than a lower dimensional being. Complexity is a Bit+h.. The more power and complexity you have, the more cause it will require for you to exist. Origins can not be solved by going up the ladder.. It's solved at the bottom of the ladder. Theists are like someone that believes the 100th floor of a building is it's foundation and can magically stand 100 stories in the air without the 100 other floors (basement being the extra floor, and the ground state of the building.

As for Jesus, he needs to prove that such a character existed outside of the book, or his faith and imagination.. The major historians of that era make no mention of such a person. There is zero archeological evidence, and there is zero written literature from this supposed person.. Pretty funny that a supposed GOD can't write his own bible, or philosophies down.. It's even worse knowing that what is said to be what Jesus taught or had said, was written well after his supposed death. And we are supposed to believe that these people remembered everything he said word for word with all the dots and t's crossed. And you are supposed to believe the first party accounts to whom have had an invested interest in creating the Jesus character..

Imaginary being would be the most accurate description of Jesus.

[AdHoc]

Fair enough, how do you know he's invisible? He could be visible... and.. hiding?

Because He's omnipresent and I can't see Him

Is he? What does it really mean to be omnipresent?

To be everywhere at once

OK, if he's everywhere at once and he's invisible, that only accounts for one sense being incapable of sensing him, why can't we touch, taste, smell or hear him? I suppose some people think they can hear him but I haven't even heard him brush past a wall or knock something over. If he's everywhere at once does that mean he is inside us as well? And inside walls and other inanimate objects? How does that work?

I guess because our senses are severely limited. The amount of electromagnetic radiation that occupies the visible bandwidth that you and I can experience is really a fraction of what is going on all around us. Same goes for hearing and touch. Some scientists today believe in a multi-verse that is made up of 10 spatial dimensions, but we can only see 3. Carl Sagan believed that if a creature from a higher dimension were to comunicate with you and I it would actually sound as if its voice was coming from within us.... hmm?

Yes that's exactly what I believe. I believe that "we see through a glass darkly and one day we will know just as we are known" I think we see God through His creation, we feel Him through the effects of His working in our lives and we hear Him through His Spirit when we read His word.

P.S. I thought for sure you were going to hammer me on the hearing voices in my head comment... maybe you felt sorry for me?