/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.17533980]

I believe in an uncreated God who exists outside the universe. I do not know if this is the God of the Christians, Jews, Muslims, American Indians, Hindus, etcetc. I pray to a God that I do not know. Every religion has its holy text proclaiming their religion to be the sole truth with miracles and other supernatural proofs to bring in followers. If I choose the wrong one I will send up in the correct religion's version of hell. I do not even know if this God hears my prayers of I do not follow the correct religion, but I have no way of knowing which is correct. I am damned.

[Anonymous No.17534027]

>>17533980
Read Aurelius. If you live righteously the gods will accept that. He also prayed for strength rather than good fortune.

[Anonymous No.17534450]

>>17534027
>>17533980
Accept Tawheed and reject false gods, and you'll not go astray

[Anonymous No.17534475]

>>17533980
Dianetics

[Anonymous No.17534525]

>>17533980
I feel the same way, op. I don’t pray to anything because it feels like a waste of energy. There are tens of thousands of different religions that all claim they have it right, and maybe ONE of them does. Anons almost always rail against it but maybe you should try a psychedelic? If you’re already well-grounded and spiritual (but confused) it might not be a bad idea.

[Anonymous No.17534529]

>>17533980
Don't listen to the Aurelius poster. Nobody lives a truly 'virtuous life', everyone sins and falls short of God, and the wages of sin are death. The most virtuous men in the world still bear the stain of original sin and have still sinned themselves. Also, being virtuous isn't going above and beyond - everybody should be virtuous. You shouldn't expect a prize for playing a game by the rules, how it's meant to be played, even when all the other players are cheating.

Christianity is true. It's the fulfilment of Judaism and actually has a coherent theology, following from the thought of Plato and especially Aristotle. The sheer fact that Islam promises earthly rewards - 72 virgins and the like - should be enough to dissuade anyone of its divine inspiration, but looking more seriously at comparative religion will stand you better than asking on 4chan. I'd recommend you read Augustine's confessions in any case, alongside familiarising yourself with Aristotle's thought which should do away with notions of polytheism.

[Anonymous No.17534542]

>>17534529
>The sheer fact that Islam promises earthly rewards - 72 virgins and the like - should be enough to dissuade anyone of its divine inspiration,
Please explain, I thought Christians believed in a bodily resurrection on earth, not just eternity as a disembodied spirit

[Anonymous No.17534555]

>>17534542
Christians believe in resurrection of the body, but not on Earth, and not a body in any sense that we understand it.

[Anonymous No.17534574]

Same here. If there exists such a thing as an absolute uncreated principle, I highly doubt any religion has ever managed to grasp it in any substantial manner.
>>17534529
>The most virtuous men in the world still bear the stain of original sin
Imagine falling for this absolute meme.

[Anonymous No.17534624]

>>17534574
>The most virtuous men in the world still bear the stain of original sin
This always felt like such a grift.

[Anonymous No.17534635]

>>17534624
Because it is. Most religions have similar guilt-tripping principles to con you into accepting their particular teachings.

[Anonymous No.17534658]

you have to understand that "hell" is just reincarnation and no matter how many times you have to reincarnate, compared to eternity it will be nothing

[Anonymous No.17534659]

>>17534574
>>17534624
Not a meme nor a grift. Everyone is a sinner, everyone falls short of God. To think yourself otherwise is literally the result of pride

[Anonymous No.17534663]

>>17534659
Fuck off conman.

[Anonymous No.17534677]

>>17534658
There's no more proof for reincarnation than there is for hell. For all we know the afterlife could incorporate neither of those concepts.

[Anonymous No.17534695]

>>17534659
okay but surely you can see (from the perspective of an outsider) how this looks like the PERFECT catch-all "you can't leave because you were born guilty" clause, right?

[Anonymous No.17534714]

>>17534659
>>17534695
it's like having to go to prison for something one of your ancestors did
complete nonsense, and that's assuming "sin" even exists in the first place

[Anonymous No.17534725]

>>17534714
Time flows both ways

[Anonymous No.17534757]

>>17534027
My problem with this is that without a moral reference point(take the Bible for example) good and bad can change over time. What was once honorable can be abhorrent tomorrow, and nobody would know better. Christianity is a safe guard to this, because no matter how twisted the worlds morality becomes, no matter how thick the lies become, Jesus will save you.

[Anonymous No.17534811]

>>17534757
Just be a decent person it's not so fucking complicated that you need a book to walk you through it

[Anonymous No.17534818]

>>17534725
time isn't real

[Anonymous No.17535146]

>>17534027
>Read some guys opinion on what the "gods" think and just have faith bro

>>17533980
You should probably read theology and learn about the actual differences between the world religions. It's not just down to what claims about miraculous events you believe. Each religion is a philosophical take on the world, you just have to find the one that is most coherent.

[Anonymous No.17535962]

>>17533980

[Anonymous No.17536022]

>>17534677

Why not? There's a traditional characterization of "hell" as a pit of flame where you dump bad guys, but there's also another traditional characterization where it is just the glorious light of God, and what makes it punishment to the wicked isn't the "heat" but the shame of knowing your own wickedness in the presence of God. Why is that conceptually weird?

[Anonymous No.17536132]

>>17536022
>Why not?
Because it's a possibility among others? It's not any weirder conceptually than any other take on what happens after death, it's just as likely as anything.

[Anonymous No.17536189]

Just read the Bhagavad Gita, it's basically your attitude.

[Anonymous No.17536257]

>>17536189
Hindus affirm a specific god though

[Anonymous No.17536428]

>>17536132

No. If you said that the afterlife is where we go to play professional golf forever, that would be absurd. Or if you said it was just a constant source of pain for everyone, no matter whether they were good or bad, that would be absurd. The concept at least has to cohere with our natural sense of justice and purpose.

[Anonymous No.17536501]

>>17536428
>The concept at least has to cohere with our natural sense of justice and purpose.
No it doesn't, that's completely arbitrary, you're just assuming things have to work according to human concepts which is preposterous.

[Anonymous No.17536719]

>>17536501

> you're just assuming things have to work according to human concepts which is preposterous

Of course I am, otherwise the world isn't intelligible at all. That's also like complaining that just because we think something is true doesn't mean it is true: while beliefs can be false, it doesn't mean we are any more capable of thinking about the world in terms other than what we believe. So, drop the pretense.

[Anonymous No.17536740]

>>17536719
>otherwise the world isn't intelligible at all.
Well what if it's not?
>drop the pretense
You're the one who thinks your biases should somehow be infinitely scalable.

[Anonymous No.17536828]

>>17533980
>exists outside the universe.
Brainlet