Post by Tamil Selvi on Yahoo 360----------------------
The "Perfect God" Syndrome
Disclaimer:
[I am quoting this hilarious writer Redicus and paraphrasing many of his thoughts in this blog. His conclusions are kinda radical, but they are very thought provoking and true; impressed me very much. Hence don’t read this if you are a strong believer in any religion. This does not mean that you have to be an atheist to read this post, it is just that the content might offend you if you strongly believe in some form of organized religion!]
Have you ever tried to have a conversation about religion with a believer (a devout religious person), only to find them completely unable to debate rationally? lol.
Redicus quotes Let's go back to the beginning. Before Jews, Muslims and Christians… when gods were simply more powerful versions of humans! They laughed, they played, they ate ambrosia, they drank wine and they carried on (for you kids, this means screwing). Sometimes they would drink too much and destroy a town, other times they would see some hot babe or dude and anoint them with their godly favors (this also means screwing). Sometimes they would get pissed off at something you said or did and turn you into a goat or chain you to a rock so buzzards could peck out your liver or make you roll a rock up a hill for all eternity. They were jealous, showed favoritism and generally acted like spoiled children! lol hilarious, my belly is aching! This attitude of the gods and their frivolous behavior extended pretty much everywhere, from the Incas and The Maya to Babylon to Greece to China and Japan.
Then the Jews, Muslims & Christians came along with their all-knowing, all-seeing, omni-everything God. Which if you are trying to overshadow a bunch of fallible pagan gods is a pretty good strategy. How do you compete with a god that knows everything and sees everything? That would be the best guy to have on your team, ha ha.. I can’t take it people… because the implication is that if your god created the heavens and the earth and the universe, then he also must have created all the gods and demons including Satan and would have supreme power over them! pulling my hair :)
So how does this scenario create the whole Perfect God Syndrome?
1. Well imagine this: if you believe that your god is a perfect being that is incapable of error or wrong doing or any other failing and your entire belief system is based on that, then imagine what would happen if you questioned it? The entire thing would come apart, since there can be no room for error with a god who is perfect. So, with this in mind, how would you react to questions or contradictions or anything contrary to the perfect god system? Deny, Rationalize, and then Deny… then Rationalize..lol
2. Further, they double screwed themselves (and us) with the idea that the scriptures are divine word of god – so now you can't even question the writings either! lol.
3. And finally, anything that would potentially be contradictory or questioning, they would simply consider as a "test of their faith" sent by god! - thus they are immune to critically thinking about anything pertaining to their beliefs or belief system! Amazing self preservation mechanics... similar to what I blogged earlier!
Ultimately this situation creates a pattern of behavior which forces the devout believer to ignore anything contradictory and avoid any and all questions that they don't have prepared answers for. Try it next time you come across one. You'll get stock answers to questions and contradictions and when you probe deeper and exceed their programming, you'll probably either get a lot of repeating of the pre-programmed answers or simply an end to the conversation (and some derogatory under the breath comments finished with "I'll pray for you")... lol. Now you know how these institutions survive!
Either God is omnipotent and omniscient or he isn't, there really isn't a middle ground. As a result of this conundrum you have people who's only recourse is to develop more and more complex denials and rationalizations so that their God stays intact - this is what causes Perfect God Syndrome. The fact is that the further we go down this path the worse it will get, which is why many religious leaders are so dead set against relativism. Relativism leads to questions and conditions which then lead to thinking! Absolutism provides inflexible and unquestionable directions so no thinking is needed. It's also why we have such incredible polarization over religion.
This is how the many politicians managed to take over a country. By nominating themselves as God's party with God's chosen candidates and the keepers of the covenant and defenders of the faithful - a vote against them is a vote against God and what would the believers dare do? lol.
The only really viable action is to try and catch as many people who are still questioning before they go past the point of no return, and for the rest, the only option is to wait it out, until the entire system crashes under it's own illogical weight!
BTW I am not an atheist...
Disclaimer:
[I am quoting this hilarious writer Redicus and paraphrasing many of his thoughts in this blog. His conclusions are kinda radical, but they are very thought provoking and true; impressed me very much. Hence don’t read this if you are a strong believer in any religion. This does not mean that you have to be an atheist to read this post, it is just that the content might offend you if you strongly believe in some form of organized religion!]
Have you ever tried to have a conversation about religion with a believer (a devout religious person), only to find them completely unable to debate rationally? lol.
Redicus quotes Let's go back to the beginning. Before Jews, Muslims and Christians… when gods were simply more powerful versions of humans! They laughed, they played, they ate ambrosia, they drank wine and they carried on (for you kids, this means screwing). Sometimes they would drink too much and destroy a town, other times they would see some hot babe or dude and anoint them with their godly favors (this also means screwing). Sometimes they would get pissed off at something you said or did and turn you into a goat or chain you to a rock so buzzards could peck out your liver or make you roll a rock up a hill for all eternity. They were jealous, showed favoritism and generally acted like spoiled children! lol hilarious, my belly is aching! This attitude of the gods and their frivolous behavior extended pretty much everywhere, from the Incas and The Maya to Babylon to Greece to China and Japan.
Then the Jews, Muslims & Christians came along with their all-knowing, all-seeing, omni-everything God. Which if you are trying to overshadow a bunch of fallible pagan gods is a pretty good strategy. How do you compete with a god that knows everything and sees everything? That would be the best guy to have on your team, ha ha.. I can’t take it people… because the implication is that if your god created the heavens and the earth and the universe, then he also must have created all the gods and demons including Satan and would have supreme power over them! pulling my hair :)
So how does this scenario create the whole Perfect God Syndrome?
1. Well imagine this: if you believe that your god is a perfect being that is incapable of error or wrong doing or any other failing and your entire belief system is based on that, then imagine what would happen if you questioned it? The entire thing would come apart, since there can be no room for error with a god who is perfect. So, with this in mind, how would you react to questions or contradictions or anything contrary to the perfect god system? Deny, Rationalize, and then Deny… then Rationalize..lol
2. Further, they double screwed themselves (and us) with the idea that the scriptures are divine word of god – so now you can't even question the writings either! lol.
3. And finally, anything that would potentially be contradictory or questioning, they would simply consider as a "test of their faith" sent by god! - thus they are immune to critically thinking about anything pertaining to their beliefs or belief system! Amazing self preservation mechanics... similar to what I blogged earlier!
Ultimately this situation creates a pattern of behavior which forces the devout believer to ignore anything contradictory and avoid any and all questions that they don't have prepared answers for. Try it next time you come across one. You'll get stock answers to questions and contradictions and when you probe deeper and exceed their programming, you'll probably either get a lot of repeating of the pre-programmed answers or simply an end to the conversation (and some derogatory under the breath comments finished with "I'll pray for you")... lol. Now you know how these institutions survive!
Either God is omnipotent and omniscient or he isn't, there really isn't a middle ground. As a result of this conundrum you have people who's only recourse is to develop more and more complex denials and rationalizations so that their God stays intact - this is what causes Perfect God Syndrome. The fact is that the further we go down this path the worse it will get, which is why many religious leaders are so dead set against relativism. Relativism leads to questions and conditions which then lead to thinking! Absolutism provides inflexible and unquestionable directions so no thinking is needed. It's also why we have such incredible polarization over religion.
This is how the many politicians managed to take over a country. By nominating themselves as God's party with God's chosen candidates and the keepers of the covenant and defenders of the faithful - a vote against them is a vote against God and what would the believers dare do? lol.
The only really viable action is to try and catch as many people who are still questioning before they go past the point of no return, and for the rest, the only option is to wait it out, until the entire system crashes under it's own illogical weight!
BTW I am not an atheist...
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