Stephen

Heaven's in the Back Seat of My Cadillac - Hot Chocolate.

or

Heaven's in the Back Seat of My Toyota Echo Wedged Between the Two Child Seats - fazstp

SIRIUSB

Hesperus (Greek Hesperos) is the personification of the "evening star", the planet Venus in the evening. His name is sometimes conflated with the names for his brother the personification of the planet as the "morning star" Eosphorus (Greek "bearer of dawn") or Phosorus (Ancient Greek:"bearer of light", often translated as "Lucifer" in Latin), since they are all personifications of the same planet Venus.

"Heosphoros" in the Greek LXX Septuagint and "Lucifer" in Jerome's Latin Vulgate were used to translate the Hebrew "Helel" (Venus as the brilliant, bright or shining one), "son of Shahar (Dawn)" in the Hebrew version of Isaiah 14:12.

When named thus by the early Greeks, it was thought that Eosphorus (Venus in the morning) and Hesperos (Venus in the evening) were two different celestial objects. The Greeks later accepted the Babylonian view that the two were the same, and the Babylonian identification of the planets with the Great Gods, and dedicated the "wandering star" (planet) to Aphrodite (Roman Venus), as the equivalent.

__________________
Welcome to my Strange Musiq
TaRkHeM

Stephen

So, after some 47 pages into this thread... Does God merely exist in your mind?

It's kind of interesting the idea that an idea in itself can take on a life beyond the individual who originally conceived it. Kind of a superorganism derived of a mutually agreed upon self-deception.

Howard the Duck

i'm still on that quest

the replies in this thread haven't given me a satisfactory explanation

i was hypothesizing God is a faction of neuroscience

seems not that many people here are that adept at neuroscience

__________________


Malaise is THE dominant human predilection.

Guybrush

How do you suggest to prove God is a result of neuroscience? I'm also of the belief that God exists only in our minds (which are generated by our physical bodies), but it's not exactly an easy thing to prove. However, I do think I mentioned an area of the brain that, when sufficiently stimulated, can cause extreme religious experiences. Some epileptics have intense religious experiences due to their condition.

Here's a news article on the subject : BBC - Science & Nature - Horizon - God on the Brain

Is this proof that God is an idea generated by our physical bodies? Probably not; at least not sufficiently to convince the opposition.

__________________
Something Completely Different

Vertigo

The problem with the religious argument about God is that most of the facts that they back it up with are full of contradictions.

Vertigo

I used to be, that is to say I turned to religion after my Dad died in 2005. I guess I was looking for comfort, an answer, maybe something that could make me understand and, in some small way, accept what had happened. After 18 months, I was completely disillusioned and the only thing I got out of church was I couldn't do anything right!!

It also became harder and harder to argue scientifically proven facts against religious claims, which are nothing more than fables and legend.

Vertigo

Not all all. I believe that there is some vast, unimaginable power connected to the Universe as a whole, that everything and everyone is connected somehow, but that the actual concept of this is way beyond our comprehension. I find it unacceptable and ignorant that religious groups can have the audacity to pin a label on this power, tell us that they know what it expects of us and what will happen if we don't.
Death? I think everyone, if they're honest, has an amount of fear about death. It's the one part of our lives that we aren't prepared for and, maybe, if it was discussed more rather than avoided it would be easier to accept. I do hope that there is something beyond death, that the rest of time won't just spin out into total darkness. I'd like to think this life is the first of (or one of the) steps that we all take before moving on.

Guybrush

I don't believe we experience anything after death and it really doesn't concern me at all. I think trying to imagine what it is like being dead is a bit like trying to imagine what you felt like in those billions of years the universe existed before you were born. Of course you didn't feel like anything because you didn't exist, just like I believe you won't after you die.

With my limited imagination, I imagine that "me" existing temporarily and then ceasing to exist is better than "me" existing infinitely.

__________________
Something Completely Different

Hitch

When I die, my body will rot (Bertrand Russell). Seems about right. Well, at the least, we all get to find out when we're dead .

With regards to Heaven and Hell, the idea of eternal praise and 'happiness' (heaven) seems extremely undesirable. With regards to hell, even in North Korea, you can die and be free. But considering there is this unlikely notion of hell, the prospect of a sneak-peak at Galileo or Oscar Wilde seems like a worthwhile effort.