God of little things

[The Glue Man]

I'm sorry, still don't get what you are saying.

Rallying cry ?

It looks to all intents and purposes like a belief system with the evangelical zeal that goes with it.
A desire to see babies get heart valves shouldn't preclude prayers to the black madonna or St. Jude or a whole host of angelic upstarts. Dick Dawkins seems to think that would be letting the side down. I'm not so sure.

[Jaded]

My God is tall and has a perfect bottom.

I don't know her name.

[Frenchie]

But is it okay to feel awkward when a scientist mixes religion and work... I am uncomfortable with the idea. I don't feel science, unlike theatre maybe, needs a deus ex machina... I feel science offers a sufficient for me as far as nature is concerned; for the rest, well, I am lucky to have dear ones, lovely friends, a work I enjoy, good society...

[scaglifr]

My God ( for what it is worth ) is simply " doing the right thing " whatever that may be under the circumstances.  Sounds trite and too simple but TRT might be a simple decision not to treat or to leave the undiagnosed undiagnosed, it might be hearing the click click of a mech adjusted " just-so " or bowling at one of the sons in just the right way to stretch him just the right amount.

A philosopher friend once told me that my philosophical problem was that I was not aware that I had a philosophical problem ( but then he programs in LISP for fun !! ).

Tolerance is TRT.

[The Glue Man]

They don't call it an operating theatre for nothing.

[Mal Volio]

Sorry.  You keep posted 2 things I can't follow: " children's toys", "rallying cry".

 "Belief system" I think I can understand, but are you then saying that any positon on any issue is equally valid irrespective of context, evidence or testability ?

That seems to be a position whish can't be argued against.

[The Glue Man]

Sorry.  You keep posted 2 things I can't follow: " children's toys", "rallying cry".

 "Belief system" I think I can understand, but are you then saying that any positon on any issue is equally valid irrespective of context, evidence or testability ?

That seems to be a position whish can't be argued against.

The exact phrase illudes me but Joseph Campbell said something along the lines of myth being the truth beneath the illusion of reality.
I feel like the chap on one of those early photos of cycle speed records, pedalling like crazy on some boards in the railroad tracks while the guys in the caboose hang out the back thinking 'rather you than me mate'.
We're both going to the end of the line but by different methods while looking in opposite directions. Some things can best be spoken of figuratively. It isn't an evasion but rationalists can bring you down to the hands on the clock while you're wishing on a star.

[Sane Man]

There's something of the inquisition about Prof Dawkins, a glint in the eye.

Whatever you think of Richard Dawkins, he has the advantage of being right.

Face it losers, even the Archbishop of Canterbury said in the paper today he backs science over "The Bible" and is against creationism being taught in schools. God is dead.

[Mal Volio]

Sorry.  You keep posted 2 things I can't follow: " children's toys", "rallying cry".

 "Belief system" I think I can understand, but are you then saying that any positon on any issue is equally valid irrespective of context, evidence or testability ?

That seems to be a position whish can't be argued against.

The exact phrase illudes me but Joseph Campbell said something along the lines of myth being the truth beneath the illusion of reality.
I feel like the chap on one of those early photos of cycle speed records, pedalling like crazy on some boards in the railroad tracks while the guys in the caboose hang out the back thinking 'rather you than me mate'.
We're both going to the end of the line but by different methods while looking in opposite directions. Some things can best be spoken of figuratively. It isn't an evasion but rationalists can bring you down to the hands on the clock while you're wishing on a star.

If  the exact phrase escapes you, then it most certainly escapes me.

This is completely pointless. Night night

[The Glue Man]

There's something of the inquisition about Prof Dawkins, a glint in the eye.

Whatever you think of Richard Dawkins, he has the advantage of being right.

Face it losers, even the Archbishop of Canterbury said in the paper today he backs science over "The Bible" and is against creationism being taught in schools. God is dead.

He has appalling shoes though and his trousers aren't nice. If that's certainty I'm with the animist in the Oswald Boateng two piece.
Actually certainty is for suckers. The man has no standards.

[Johnny Thin]

I once practised the same sequence of (very tough) yoga exercises every day for several weeks, as had been taught in a class by a spiritual leader visiting London.  After a few days I felt it an absolute necessity to have a God to worship, so supplemented the yoga with readings from the book I had for the purpose (which, incidentally, had nothing to do with the Xtian or the visiting teacher's preferred creed).

[Heretic]

Man created god in his own image, not the other way round. If I were to get religion it would be of the pre-christian fertility variety.

[BigDaveSkinnyTyre]

I never had a god shaped hole, but I have managed to squeeze in some fundamentalist Atheism, unfortunately I don't have much to be fundamental about :-\

[The Glue Man]

We're a binary bunch. I was hoping for a God thread that took in dark matter and angels on a pin head, mammon and multiverses and whether the lotus blossom flowered in 531 more than cro-moly.
These threads normally implode on the certainty principal about now. I hope this doesn't.

[bardsandwarriors]

These threads normally implode on the certainty principal about now. I hope this doesn't.

I usually understand, at least I think I do, everything you write - and find humour in most of it. But you'll have to explain "the certainty principle" ;)

As for finding religion in the poetry of steel, I'm too much of a pragmatist when it comes to bike components! My religion is in the wind that blows through me, and the appreciation of space, time and adventure; the steel is merely my steel horse, robust and dependable with a few tricks up its sleeve. In Conan's time I could have got that religion much more, but now there is so much to choose from it's more of a utilitarian thing for me.

[HumesC]

My God-Shaped hole (created by pentecostal upbringing which was not pleasant) was filled firstly by extreme marital bliss* (hubby has been affectionately termed my "god-form" for some years now!) and then settled into a spiritualism of a vaguely nature-based preference.

This has become more and more vague over the years until it has become a kind of gentle, curious agnostic state.

This is good for me as it leaves me free to dismiss or question the more outrageous and unbalanced statements and claims.  It also leaves me receptive and open-minded to all sorts of other news from alien landings to the latest origin of the species theories.

I like Scott's comment about us being "semi-evolved primates".  That mirrors how I feel exactly - we are precious and possibly unusual and interesting, but the level of our arrogance and short-sightedness constantly shocks me.  

I feel that the phrase about the dog being one meal away from being a wolf sums our species up nicely too.  We've not come as far as we thing we have.

*double entendre alert!