Comments by "June VanDerMark" (@junevandermark952) on "Why religion is literally false and metaphorically true | Bret Weinstein | Big Think" video.

Well stated! I spent 70 years of my life being confused about why religious teachings never made any sense to me. The last 11 years, free of such confusion have been my best ... by far. I now believe as did Stephen Hawking (before he died) that the universe always existed ... no creator involved.
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@littlefab5389 ... Devotees in all religions tell their own stories about the Deity loving them, while not loving those in each other's religions. It's a cat and mouse type of game, that is only serious from the perspective of the religious devotees involved.
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@lmapls9690 Eskimo: "If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?" Priest: "No, not if you did not know." Eskimo: "Then why did you tell me?" -- Annie Dillard, 'Pilgrim at Tinker Creek'
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@lmapls9690 All religion is based on ego ... starting with the teaching that humans are special to a creator of the universe. How egotistical is THAT?
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@lmapls9690 Do you believe that your supposed soul is up for eternal rewards in an afterlife ... while evil souls of others will have to suffer for eternity? If you do ... THAT is egoism.
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@lmapls9690 So, if they were "good," they didn't need Jesus? Is that what you are claiming is true?
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@lmapls9690 I "no longer" find anything "deep" about the system of belief that the universe was created. It's a childlike, unscientific system of belief. Been there ... believed that.
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@lmapls9690 If a scientist is asked the question, “Do you believe that the universe was created,” and the scientist answers, “Yes,” that is not critical scientific thinking. That is “I accept as truth, what I was taught in my personal religion.”
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@lmapls9690 Jews, Catholics, Muslims, Protestants, and other ancient religionists, all believed that for "heresy, blasphemy, et cetera, that evil doers should be put to death. Religion drove them to commit insane behaviors against each other.
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@lmapls9690 Had Jesus lived, he would have thought of Catholicism as heresy. Religious Jews don't preach Catholic doctrine. Only Catholics preach Catholic doctrine.
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@lmapls9690 I don't believe there were origins to the universe. I believe as did Stephen Hawking, that in one form or another the universe always existed ... no creator involved ... and that suffering of all forms of life ... is natural. That is my belief. You can choose what seems to make sense to you.
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@lmapls9690 There were and are more twists and turns in religion, than we can ever imagine. From the book “Devious Derivations” … Popular Misconceptions and More than 1000 true origins of Common Word and Phrases … by Hugh Rawson. god. It should be of passing interest to women readers especially to know that god originally was of neuter gender, as in the Middle High German abgott, idol. The word became masculine following the conversion of the German tribes to Christianity.
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@lmapls9690 You can believe that a god exists to create souls of humans in "God's" image. I choose to believe that men (by using their over-active imaginations) created gods in their own images.
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@lmapls9690 If you were an all-powerful god, would you create souls of humans, so that most of the humans could fail your test? And if so ... for what purpose ... other than to watch them struggle, suffer ... and then fail? What sort of monster would behave in such a horrible manner? Religion is ridiculous, as were the men that created those stories.
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@lmapls9690 Yes ... a universe existing without a cause, makes complete sense to me. It explains that all suffering of all forms of life ... is natural. No plan, is far better than a vicious corrupt plan. If a creator existed, it would be totally vain, malevolent ... a horrible monster, unlike any other monster. I'm at peace with the belief that the universe always existed ... no creator or plan involved.
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@lmapls9690 It's only your terror concerning your belief that a god exists, that forces you to keep on worshiping ... in the hopes that you will be one of the chosen few ... because you believe that the only other alternative is for your supposed soul to suffer for eternity. And if a god exists, (which I don't believe is the case) ... it would know that the reason you worship is because of TERROR ... not because of ADORATION. You no-doubt can fool your self ... but if a god existed ... you would never be able to fool the god.
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@lmapls9690 If you were an all-powerful god, would you create a plan where non-human animals were all well-fed, without a need to kill each other? If you are not honest with your self ... you can't hope to be honest with me.
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@zombies4evadude24 Deism doesn't make any more sense to me that any of the other religious beliefs. They believe that the universe was created, and then the creator retired, (refusing to get involved in human affairs. I was raised in a Christian culture, and was informed many times that my personal belief was a cult. Finally I agreed that I was in a cult, and that others were also in religious cults, because all stories of the universe being created was cult. Of course they then didn't agree with me, as they still wanted to believe that their own personal systems of religious beliefs were based on literal truth. I suggest that rather than the word “truth” … for human imaginations gone wild … the word “truthiness is far more fitting. Truthiness "act or quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than those known to be true," catch word popularized in this sense by U.S. comedian Stephen Colbert, declared by American Dialect Society to be "2005 Word of the Year."
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@zombies4evadude24 I don't know about you, but Irelate to the following ... “We are all hallucinating all the time, including right now. It’s just that when we agree about our hallucinations, we call that reality.” Anil Seth … neuroscientist.
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@stephen6307 Religious mythology didn't exist, until humans existed ... to in turn ... spread that gossip as being truth. As for which came first the chicken or the egg ... I don't have an opinion on that subject. However, some scientists theorize that eggs evolved more than a billion years ago ... while chickens have existed for only 10,000 years. What is your belief on that subject?
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Most theologians teach that the “mind” of God, is beyond all human understanding. However, that is just before they start insinuating that they do understand exactly what “God” is thinking. I suggest that egoism is the nature of the human beast. >>> In the second page of the King James version of the bible the words read as follows … THE BIBLE THIS BOOK REVEALS THE MIND OF GOD, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. ITS DOCTRINES ARE HOLY, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. READ IT AND BE WISE, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you.
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