Religion is a conspiracy and God is an alien

Yes, I said it. Organized religions are all conspiracies. God is an alien.
I will start with my background... I was raised Catholic. Catholic school. Sunday school. I went to mass 6 days a week until I was 13 or so. Indoctrinated into the faith; absolutely. The problem that I developed later in life (problem, as defined by fellow Catholics), is that I have an open mind and an ability for reason.
The first real spark of "free-thought", if you will, was when I was a kid. We had a close family friend that was excommunicated from the church. I was still early grade school (1st/2nd grade), and I had no real comprehension of what "excommunicated" meant... so I asked my mother. She explained to me that "excommunication" was an expulsion from the church for committing a grave sin (the family friend had an affair outside of marriage), and that this friend will never be welcomed into Heaven... that bugged me for a long time...
This premise of the church's divine power on Earth is the problem... and it rings true of the other faiths... what other "idea" or belief structure has caused more bloodshed than any other "idea" in history? None.
On its own, faith, belief or whatever you may call it, is a good thing. Absolutely. How many stories have we all read, where an individual's faith got them through horrible circumstances? Would they have gotten through their ordeals on inner strength alone? Who knows. Faith is personal. Faith gives us a moral bearing. Faith keeps a lot of us honest... hey I admit it. Humans are inherently fallible; yet faith admits that... and therein is the problem.

First, God is an alien. Why do I say that? By definition, God is not of this Earth. God therefore must be an alien.. alien to us. We cannot even comprehend the idea of an all powerful creator. Sure, we like to think that we have a good handle on things, yet as God is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent, we CANNOT... and to say so is beyond arrogance.

Religion is man's power over the faith of the individual; co-opting faith for power. Period. Religion as we know it, is a creation of man. So is the bible.

The bible as we know it came into existence at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., led by the Roman Empire's Constantine. Some books were voted in, some deemed heretical... why? The books deemed heretical (such as the writings of the Gnostics) were deemed so by men. Were these writing any less divinely inspired, or did they threaten the "establishment"? Constantine was consolidating power and needed the growing Christian movement to "get with the plan" so to speak. Thus, the Catholic church was born. I have no doubt that the writings in the Bible are divinely inspired, but it is still a product of man... therefore inherently flawed. Man's interpretation of divine will.
The Crusades. The Inquisition. The Protestant Reformation. Today's Muslim "jihad" Man's interpretation of divine will.
This brings me back to the excommunication that I spoke of. Why did this happen? Adultery. Broken commandment? Yup. Broken Catholic dogma? Absolutely. God's will? I have no idea... yet, the church claims to know God's will. Pure, unadulterated arrogance.
How many times have I heard "if you aren't a _____________(supply any religion), you are going to Hell"? I like to ask this in response... "SO, as a/an ________________ do you claim to know God's will?" The answer is always "no"... yet, their respective religions claim to. Isn't that essentially what "jihad" is? Muslims claiming to know the will of God?

My own wife will happily tell you that the KJV is the only Bible that explicitly spells out God's word... yet the KJV is still a collection of man's writings, a derivative of the Bible canonized at Nicaea by the early Catholics, with a little help from the Roman Empire... pure definition of "conspiracy". The Council of Nicaea was a meeting of conspirators to reign in the Christians, to define what should and should not be believed; a definition of the will of God by men. Fallible, sinful men.

I have my faith and beliefs... those are mine. I commune with the Almighty on my terms, as I understand them. My decision. Free will.

So, to those that I am sure will absolutely FLAME what I have just written... I take no offense. Flame away.

To the rest I say this. Live a good life and try to be a good person. I truly believe that is all any of us can really do.

God is not an alien,

God is not religion.

God is inside every molecule of your body.

You are God.

You are not an Alien.

I am god and the conspiracy is that god is something other then yourself.

Everything else is a distraction.

reply to post by madmac5150


Why is it that everyone seems to think biblical canon was determined at Nicaea?

that is INCORRECT!

The council of Laodicea didn't happen until 50 some odd years later...

Nicaea was primarily about the Arian heresy going around at the time...

reply to post by Theflyingweldsman


Again. YOUR faith... YOUR belief. How you view God, the Almighty, the Creator, or whatever you call him/her is how YOU comprehend God. I never mentioned my creation belief or whether or not I believe God is in all of us. It is of no consequence to anyone else but myself.

reply to post by madmac5150


Since there are no aliens why do you inject that into your topic? I don't even see the word alien in your post other than to say "god is an alien"...hehe

reply to post by madmac5150


You do realize that this isn't a new idea? This is like intelligent design all over again.

God isn't a sky daddy, so we might as well make Him a highly advanced extraterrestrial species.

Originally posted by Xtrozero
reply to post by madmac5150

 

Since there are no aliens why do you inject that into your topic?

Ever seen Ancient Aliens? Who is to say those "aliens" weren't angels? Who is to say that angels are not aliens? Who is to say the ancient aliens weren't God himself? Maybe God is the original ancient alien...

reply to post by madmac5150


Jesus taught us to feed birds and love our neighbours.

A book does not describe God.

The universe describes God.

We are made of stardust....

Is that not wonderful enough?

Why confuse it with words, written aeons ago.

God is here and now in you and me.

Always, forever and thats the way it should be.

reply to post by madmac5150


People can look at religion in terms of ET. Or people can look at ET in terms of religion.

No way to know which is closer to truth. All we can do is go with what attracts us and try not to judge anyone.

I try to avoid that ET-or-religion dichotomy... I try to realize that God transcends all conceptualization, all theories, all thought, all ideas. I try to reach the supra-conceptual state called the 'cloud of unknowing'.

As a concept, ET is as mythological as angels. That is to say, we are projecting archetypes of the collective unconscious and they bounce back at us in symbolic forms that our culture in its present state can actually accept.

No one is real but me, and you all are actors in my mind movie.....go on, prove me wrong.

If there is a God, and I do believe in a creator of some sort. Then he/she/it created the universe and all that resides in it, I think the word alien is a problem. Aren't Mexicans that cross the border illegal aliens? Basically people that come from other parts are considered aliens yet are of the same species as ourselves.
So if at some point of time in the past a so called alien species altered our dna to set us on some path by introducing their own dna then are we not part alien ourselves?
If in our galaxy there are probably thousands of different sentient beings, then those from other galaxies are alien to us.
I think the problem is our bigotry to those that are either a little different ie. language, skin or hair colour, eye colour, religion etc. When it is all boiled down we are all made from the same star stuff as others at a microscopic level and therefore inherently related.
Is God an alien? I dont think so.

Originally posted by DBCooper71
No one is real but me, and you all are actors in my mind movie.....go on, prove me wrong.

I will prove you wrong once I get to Hoth.

reply to post by DBCooper71


If this world is your mind movie you have a very sick mind.

reply to post by madmac5150


Ok, fine- people are good and bad, so religion is good and bad. After all, it is run by people.

And I don't care if God is an alien, maybe he is. Anyway, this(alien idea) is becoming a more logical line of reasoning, as we progress as intellegent thinking beings. You know, number of planets we are finding verses probability of life on those planets...

I do think that some good things have come out of religion, like the 10 commandments. They came in handy for Moses--his people became unruly. I (for one) happen to like the 10 commandments. Ten simple rules to try and follow to be a more sociable creature. Besides, without something to believe in and follow the world can become quite a chaotic place.

Originally posted by DBCooper71
No one is real but me, and you all are actors in my mind movie.....go on, prove me wrong.

No need, you are quite right.

Originally posted by kudegras
reply to post by DBCooper71

 

If this world is your mind movie you have a very sick mind.

Their was a mix up at the mind movie rental store....you ask for a comedy and you get a horror instead (can't get the staff)

I like your post very much, as I have gone through a similar though shorter spiritual journey myself.

I firmly believe that the various paradigm shifts one experience throughout his/her life-time is necessary, not only for ourselves but for the collective of Mankind in the long run.
Personally, I was raised in a family of different views on life, in a community in which Christian traditions were present, but Christian belief and doctrine was rare.
I appreciate that I was brought up in such neutral surroundings, especially since my family is a mash-up of various ethnicities and cultural backgrounds which has blessed me with the chance to experience the diversity of lifestyles and faiths that exist around the world.

In essence, I had been an agnostic all of my life until I got to the point, I guess, at which it was time for me to explore numerous theologies, theories and paradigms myself and come to my own conclusions inevitably.
This experience had me looking for answers all over the place and was admittedly rather difficult to bear at times, as it broke down my world-view and reconstructed it repeatedly, until it finally calmed down and I found myself essentially becoming a man of faith; but not in any specific religion but rather of my own interpretation of what the nature of existence and reality is all about.
And I do believe creation, and that there is a reason as to why we are here and that life itself has a purpose, but that it is one that we are not meant to understand as it would eliminate the entire meaning of it all.
But do I believe in God? Yes, I most certainly do believe in a conscious creator and that recognizing its existence is entirely a matter of perception and how we interpret what we know as reality.

I believe because I exist, I am conscious, can recognize beauty and have the ability to experience joy and love.

I don't need any book, preacher, or school to teach me this.

Appreciation for life and nature is the key to world peace, in my opinion.

ugh, I always stray somewhat off-topic when I try to engage in discussions about theology... Sorry.

Originally posted by ABeing
I like your post very much, as I have gone through a similar though shorter spiritual journey myself.

I firmly believe that the various paradigm shifts one experience throughout his/her life-time is necessary, not only for ourselves but for the collective of Mankind in the long run.
Personally, I was raised in a family of different views on life, in a community in which Christian traditions were present, but Christian belief and doctrine was rare.
I appreciate that I was brought up in such neutral surroundings, especially since my family is a mash-up of various ethnicities and cultural backgrounds which has blessed me with the chance to experience the diversity of lifestyles and faiths that exist around the world.

In essence, I had been an agnostic all of my life until I got to the point, I guess, at which it was time for me to explore numerous theologies, theories and paradigms myself and come to my own conclusions inevitably.
This experience had me looking for answers all over the place and was admittedly rather difficult to bear at times, as it broke down my world-view and reconstructed it repeatedly, until it finally calmed down and I found myself essentially becoming a man of faith; but not in any specific religion but rather of my own interpretation of what the nature of existence and reality is all about.
And I do believe creation, and that there is a reason as to why we are here and that life itself has a purpose, but that it is one that we are not meant to understand as it would eliminate the entire meaning of it all.
But do I believe in God? Yes, I most certainly do believe in a conscious creator and that recognizing its existence is entirely a matter of perception and how we interpret what we know as reality.

I believe because I exist, I am conscious, can recognize beauty and have the ability to experience joy and love.

I don't need any book, preacher, or school to teach me this.

Appreciation for life and nature is the key to world peace, in my opinion.

Exactly.

Reminds me of a line from MIB, which I am sure to misquote, but the gist of the conversation is that: a person is intelligent and rational, society is not. If you show a real live space alien to a person, that person can handle that knowledge.... BUT show that same space alien to the general public and it will be mayhem. Tell 1 person you disbelieve their faith or show proof to the contrary and that person may punch you in the face, but is more likely that person can process that information and do with it what they want.... BUT, tell a religion they are wrong or offer proof to the contrary, and you can bet that blood will spill.

reply to post by madmac5150


Agreed. It is a brittle thread that stability clings onto when people of various paradigms, especially religious, engage in discussions like this.
I tend to think that it is all about how much the individual is willing or dare to explore the unknown. Therein awaits revelations that may and most likely will alter one's way of thinking, but the paradigm shift is much like a journey through a long, dark and lonely tunnel.
In it, we are presented with realities that are strange, almost inconceivable and even scary at times, but once we reach the end of the tunnel and we emerge into the light of day again; we find ourselves reborn in a sense, but with an even broader perspective on things. Which is a good thing depending on how one was able to deal with the unexplored and unknown territories upon the journey.

I would like to address the belief that some and even I considered that includes that we live in a self-manifested reality in which the people around us are nothing but expressions of ourselves and everything that happens takes place due to our subconscious desires and fears.
There is a danger in considering this paradigm to be true, but if it is, I wish to remind those that live according to this paradigm that morality must not be suppressed and ignored.
The fact is, that if this paradigm was to be the reality of things, if one considers to hurt someone either physically or emotionally and believes that there will be no consequences; remember that if all livings things in the world is but manifestations of one's mind -hurting them will only result in one hurting oneself, as the paradigm states that all is one.