God is Love. What does that mean? I find the statement so cloyingly naïve that I can’t help but rise to the bait whenever it is thrown out there by some hare-brained idiot in the midst of a serious discussion. God is a word that represents a spiritual being who occupies the pinnacle of theist belief systems. Love is an emotion. By all means say that you love your God but don’t equate It with the emotion you direct at It. God may be the source of love for you, or the object of your adoration, or the center of your fucking universe, but if God is nothing but another word for love then why bother with all the rest of the crap that goes with religion? “Love to a running tree is a running root with a running shoot”. You want to dispute that? All that such tautology does is add baggage to the exploration of being. It’s like tabling a motion in parliamentary procedure. Deal with your cosmology rather than playing stupid semantic games and bogging down the evolution of consciousness in the rest of the world in the quagmire of meaningless drivel.
Not that I don’t respect the beliefs of those who are genuine in their faith (I may sigh to myself). As long as they don’t deprive me of my freedom to challenge my/their paradigms or chop my head off for drawing HIM in a cartoon, people can interpret their existence in whatever framework they choose. I may find some more ridiculous than others (the one based on Joe and the disappearing golden tablets comes to mind) but as long as they aren’t hurting anyone, no problem. I spent my working career in the Catholic school system of my city and, although I attempted to examine the beliefs of my colleagues and attempted to reconcile those beliefs with my own cosmology, I never ridiculed or undermined the beliefs of those around me.
Not that I wasn’t tempted. It’s funny how Catholics (Christians) talk about the gift of faith yet act like it is a given for everyone. I know I was passed over when the line was filing past the creator. I probably know more about what it means to be Christian than most Christians; I just don’t believe any of it. That doesn’t make me a bad person. But it does make bad persons of those who pretend to believe and just move their lips during prayers so that everyone can see that they know the words. If it’s what you believe in then I respect that; if it’s what you project so that you can use the secret handshake, go to the right parties, be holier-than-thou and have the right friends, then not so much. If your belief makes you think, then I’m all for it; if it is a substitute for thinking and a barrier to growth, then not so much again.
So if you love your God, I may wonder if you love It more than people but I won’t dispute your right to dispense your emotions as you see fit. If you say God 'is' Love or God 'is' Truth or any other such boondoggle, prepare to be challenged and pilloried and ridiculed to the extent of my abilities to do so.
Not that I don’t respect the beliefs of those who are genuine in their faith (I may sigh to myself). As long as they don’t deprive me of my freedom to challenge my/their paradigms or chop my head off for drawing HIM in a cartoon, people can interpret their existence in whatever framework they choose. I may find some more ridiculous than others (the one based on Joe and the disappearing golden tablets comes to mind) but as long as they aren’t hurting anyone, no problem. I spent my working career in the Catholic school system of my city and, although I attempted to examine the beliefs of my colleagues and attempted to reconcile those beliefs with my own cosmology, I never ridiculed or undermined the beliefs of those around me.
Not that I wasn’t tempted. It’s funny how Catholics (Christians) talk about the gift of faith yet act like it is a given for everyone. I know I was passed over when the line was filing past the creator. I probably know more about what it means to be Christian than most Christians; I just don’t believe any of it. That doesn’t make me a bad person. But it does make bad persons of those who pretend to believe and just move their lips during prayers so that everyone can see that they know the words. If it’s what you believe in then I respect that; if it’s what you project so that you can use the secret handshake, go to the right parties, be holier-than-thou and have the right friends, then not so much. If your belief makes you think, then I’m all for it; if it is a substitute for thinking and a barrier to growth, then not so much again.
So if you love your God, I may wonder if you love It more than people but I won’t dispute your right to dispense your emotions as you see fit. If you say God 'is' Love or God 'is' Truth or any other such boondoggle, prepare to be challenged and pilloried and ridiculed to the extent of my abilities to do so.
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