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The Perfect Religion
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Justinian View Drop Down
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Posts: 1399 		  Quote Justinian Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: The Perfect Religion
    Posted: 24-Sep-2007 at 02:34

An important point too is that if god were to create a perfect religion for us, then that would offset the whole idea of freedom of choice.  God allowed us free will, as the phrase goes; we have to live our own life, no one can live it for us.  One could say that is the reason there is no perfect religion.
"War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace."--Thomas Mann

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Posts: 474 		  Quote snowybeagle Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24-Sep-2007 at 02:21
Originally posted by Paul

It would be like one man created a bicycle, another a soapbox cart and god created a formula one racer. Or if they bought you a meal one man would buy you a hotdog, another a hamburger and god a six course meal by a 3 star michelan chef.
The assumption here is that there is a standard benchmark that can be applied to show which candidate is superior.
 
However, this assumption does not hold true at all in real life.
 
A formula one racer will win a bicycle or a soapbox cart if they are competing around a racetrack.
 
But what if they are racing across the outback, or up the mountain, or down the hill?
 
The six course meal by a 3-star Michelin chef is nice, but it is not a viable choice for mountain climbers.
 
So the fallacy here lies in the assumption that religion can be benchmarked on a common standard when in real life, different people have different expectations and requirements with respect to religion.
 
Of course, one can argue that a perfect god should be able to make a perfect religion that meets each and every individual's needs, regardless of how different these needs are.
 
The presumption then is that a god should be catering to the expectations of humans, instead of behaving like god and tell humans what he expects from them, which IMO, isn't really a god but a genie.
 
Even as a mere mortal, I am free to decide what I want, to be able to tell my friends they better respect my rules when they are under my roof, instead of people telling what I should be doing before they'll deign visit me.
 
I don't think a god who cannot do even that is really god.
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Justinian View Drop Down
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Posts: 1399 		  Quote Justinian Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24-Sep-2007 at 01:04
Until humans become perfect there will never be a perfect religion.  You just have to pick and choose; choose aspects of the religions we do have, adopt one of those religions completely or none at all. 
 
There are some good ones out there to choose from.
"War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace."--Thomas Mann

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Posts: 2091 		  Quote Akolouthos Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-Sep-2007 at 21:19
Originally posted by Mixcoatl

Originally posted by Akolouthos

Gregory of Nyssa once said that one of the reasons God created man was to have a being capable of interacting with Him and returning His love.


Isn't that a bit selfish, to create a humans (suffering an all) because you want to be loved?

Besides, why does an omnipotent god even need love?
 
Well, nobody ever said that He needed it; indeed our reciprocation is necessary for our survival, not His.
 
You see God's creation of humans as selfish because part of our purpose is to love Him. I see God's creation of humans as an act of unspeakable generosity precisely because He has chosen to share His love with us.
 
-Akolouthos
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  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-Sep-2007 at 20:15
Perfect religion?
 
Free thinking!
 
 
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  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-Sep-2007 at 18:35
Originally posted by Akolouthos

Gregory of Nyssa once said that one of the reasons God created man was to have a being capable of interacting with Him and returning His love.


Isn't that a bit selfish, to create a humans (suffering an all) because you want to be loved?

Besides, why does an omnipotent god even need love?
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Posts: 2091 		  Quote Akolouthos Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-Sep-2007 at 18:14

This might add a bit of context Paul. Gregory of Nyssa once said that one of the reasons God created man was to have a being capable of interacting with Him and returning His love. In light of this, it would seem that God, for whom all things are possible, created a religion in which He allows man to play a part, at least in Christian belief. As stewards of the kingdom of God, we are granted the ability to play an active role in that kingdom.

The long and short of it is this: no, I don't agree with the following:
 
Originally posted by Paul

So god's religion would be so far superior to any created by man no persdon on earth could fail to reconised it. It would wipe the other religions off the earth in a day......
 
This hasn't happened, there's only one conclusion.
 
-Akolouthos


Edited by Akolouthos - 23-Sep-2007 at 18:15
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Chilbudios View Drop Down
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Posts: 1900 		  Quote Chilbudios Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-Sep-2007 at 17:33
Ye. but you haven't shown that god's purpose was to build a religion or that he built a religion. You haven't shown god would want that religion to be easily recognized. I think the classical "Problem of Evil" works much better ...
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Paul View Drop Down
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Posts: 952 		  Quote Paul Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23-Sep-2007 at 16:21
God is generally reguared to be perfect and it naturally follows that anything made by god is perfect, whereas things made by men a flawed.
 
So if both god and a number of men all had a go at creating a religion, the religion god created would be perfect but all the religions the men created would be flawed.
 
It would be like one man created a bicycle, another a soapbox cart and god created a formula one racer. Or if they bought you a meal one man would buy you a hotdog, another a hamburger and god a six course meal by a 3 star michelan chef.
 
So god's religion would be so far superior to any created by man no persdon on earth could fail to reconised it. It would wipe the other religions off the earth in a day......
 
This hasn't happened, there's only one conclusion.
 
 
 
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