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Here's the difference. Know one in the first believed God was made up. If they did the argument falls to shreds. I maintain they did not. A child cannot distinguish between imaginary and real. We can. As such it follows that the notion is different.
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Here's the difference. Know one in the first believed God was made up. If they did the argument falls to shreds. I maintain they did not. A child cannot distinguish between imaginary and real. We can. As such it follows that the notion is different.
Like how I hold the Bible as true over, say, the Davinci Code. Both have historic truth in them, mixed with some unlikely's. However, Dan Brown always said that the Davinci Code was just a story. The writers of the Bible claimed it as fact: and that's the kicker.
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Damn I should have looked at the grammar before i pressed submit..Hope it makes sense to you..haha
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Heavenly Father is who we pray to, in the name of Jesus Christ. We also have a Heavenly Mother who is literally the mother of our spirit. We do not pray to her, but we know of Her and she knows us. Heavenly Father is very protective of Her. Look how everyone talks about Him and even misuses His very name. He doesn't want Her hurt, so He has told us that when we pray, we are to pray to Him.The relationship between our Heavenly Parents is different from the Godhead if that is what you mean. Now atheists can disbelieve in 2 beings I guess.
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I believe what you are asking Mark is what the intention God always had. Unfortunately, man has done a great job of making of fear Him then letting us know how much He loves us. The one author who changed this for me was, surprisingly a Catholic priest, Brennan Manning.
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I have thought much about this, believe it or not. All of my friends are in various ratios of imagination and reality. Some far more real than imaginary. Others far more imaginary than real. Hell. I even carry around some ideas/thoughts like friends. But, methinks none of them truly go 100% in either direction.
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I have thought much about this, believe it or not. All of my friends are in various ratios of imagination and reality. Some far more real than imaginary. Others far more imaginary than real. Hell. I even carry around some ideas/thoughts like friends. But, methinks none of them truly go 100% in either direction.
So all that being said, I don't think friends are necessarily bad to have around. Ditto for imagination. On the other hand, you got watch out for Crazy. He's not a very nice friend, and will often make me mad.
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I just wrote this to another question, but if we have a Heavenly FATHER, guess what else we have. One cannot be a father unless there is a mother. One cannot have a Heavenly Father without a Heavenly Mother. It does not make sense any other way.
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God does not control us, He gives us free agency to make our own choices. For istance I don't think He really cares what color we paint the livingroom, only that we're happy with the color. The universe is not a daddy figure, it's one of God's creations. It's strange to me that people don't see Him as their father and choose to see Him as some energy or cloud or force floating around in the universe. He is literally the father of our spirits.We can talk to Him as we talk to our earthly father.
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Its quite strange to me that people personify the universe into a big ol' daddy figure...It might as well be Zeus or Allah or the Sun god Ra for all that matters...its just a personification of the natural laws and processes that govern peoples lives.
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Its quite strange to me that people personify the universe into a big ol' daddy figure...It might as well be Zeus or Allah or the Sun god Ra for all that matters...its just a personification of the natural laws and processes that govern peoples lives.
Its just strange to me when people externalise that power as someone outside of themselves that has more control over your life than you do, it becomes a bit like when people start talking about themselves in the 3rd person.
Patient: "God helped me get through this!"
Doctor: "err...actually, I did the work...and you really pulled yourself through....but sure, whatever helps you sleep at night"
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Oh, the idea of a personified God gains attributes that we can not assign to a great big nothing, such as caring, understanding, loving, knowing, these are all things we attribute to persons such as "Mother" "Father" "Friend" so in order to assist itself with these hopeful possibilities it makes sense to me that mind would package that concept in a familiar humanish package at times with positive results.
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I think this exercise is TREMENDOUSLY valuable. The mind seems to assist itself by conceptualizing. There is something positive the mind notices about a "character." Perhaps it is freedom, courage, or wisdom. As a step toward attaining the desired qualities, the mind internalizes the "character." As an internalized concept, the mind identifies in internal other who can serve as a guide, role model, friend... As the mind pays attention to this internalized "other" the desired attributes come into the attention again and again. I think an important next step often goes missing. The next obvious step is to observe "this conversation with the 'other' is happening inside my own mind. Therefore, my own mind must be capable of the identified positive attributes. At that point of understanding that "this is in my mind," the person can hopefully claim these attributes and identify with them. This process can mature a person toward that which they wish to attain. "God" is a character famous for many positive attributes that may vary from person to person, but we usually attribute things we wish to attain to our own version of God. Therefore, I do not argue with a person who internalizes a personified God. I think it is valuable for that person to do this exercise this way. Often, abstracted notions of "a God out there somewhere" seem to fall short of this process that helps one attain desirable attributes.
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