That is a good way to wake up after you die surrounded by gods with sticks saying “We’re going to show you what we think of Mr Clever Dick in these parts…”
4 Likes
If I recall rightly this arose because the Cathars believed that the clergy must be better people than their congregations, and that merit was acquired through good works and good conduct. The concubine-keeping, warmongering, power greedy bishops, abbots and Popes of the period naturally saw this as quite a threat, so they carried out genocide on the Cathars and emphasised justification by faith.
We’re seeing it again with politicians who don’t actually follow the agenda of the supporters of their own parties at all, but are entirely self-interested, so they justify everything they do by saying “there isn’t any point unless we are in power”. That’s why in the UK Jeremy Corbyn is being treated as if he was the new Luther. In the unlikely event that Sanders gets the Dem. nomination, the US media is going to go into a Murdoch/Koch/Adelson driven total screaming fit meltdown, for much the same reason.
1 Like
This thread is reminding me of an ancient BBC comic sketch series with a guy named Dick Emery. In one of them a load of bikers ride into a car park, whereupon one of them pulls off his helmet and announces that he is in fact a curate. It turns out that the entire gang consists of clergy.
So let me just state now for any future reference that I am not ordained in any shape or form and have absolutely no status in any church whatsoever.
3 Likes
It infuriates me (a bit) that I have been retroactively baptised by the Mormons. If I ever found a church, which is improbable, my second action is going to be to excommunicate all Mormons. It isn’t as if my Mormon relatives get in touch with me, after all. And they’re all Republicans.
2 Likes
Well, okay then. By way of reciprocity, Catholics who aren’t dicks about abortion, contraception and divorce can maybe go on the waiting list for a moravec body/full brain upload come The Singularity. Deal?
7 Likes
I’ve read actual technical manuals to which one could attach that description…
Silly, quoting Snopes automatically makes you Correct On The Internets.
Just remember if you wake up to some kind of consciousness after your death, it’s far more likely to be the work of some interfering, time-travelling alien than a god.
3 Likes
What amazes me is how people assume they would recognize either, and what the differences would supposedly be. Everything is alien to something else, and anything can be a god! Without baggage, they are fairly arbitrary categories.
Wouldn’t a god… or perhaps that should be God, be the creator of the universe? Or maybe like Brahma, the totality of all possible gods and the creator… why such an entity would want to suddenly present themselves to you in such a direct fashion, under what would amount to a continuation of consciousness, would require some explaining. And shouldn’t human technology a few geologic ticks into the future be able to achieve the same thing?
Anyway, my point was that advanced technology… indistinguishable… magic… all that stuff.
And why would such a posthumous meeting entail anything other than the meeting of two conscious entities? So, you created the universe. Nice one, I guess. I suppose you’re an absolute fiend at brewing tea then?
2 Likes
Better be; and distilling whisky too, since I’d hope for the opportunity to sit down and ask questions for a few millennia!
3 Likes
LOL, wasn’t this what Tolkien’s elves had to put up with whenever other races encountered their technology?
Why, of course we have ropes that untie themselves! We have been making them for thousands of years.
1 Like
I don’t think so. I have learned about many gods, and hardly any of them are claimed to have created the universe. They are such a specialized form of deity that these few are often referred to as “creator gods”.
My guess is that many people don’t recognize consciousness unless it closely resembles their own. Many humans refuse to acknowledge the consciousness of something so mundane as a whale or a fringe human. Beyond Earth, I expect they would have trouble recognizing other beings as even alive, never mind conscious and actually relating to them! I figure I am as likely to recognize and relate to a bloke who created the universe as a amoeba is likely to recognize and relate to me - I would probably not be able to discern them from the background of my existence. But humans tend to not devise gods like that, because they aren’t comforting!
I find that polytheistic pantheons tend to be more honest, because one can see how they are intended as metaphors for distinctly human personality traits.
Even though Brahma is a creator, hardly anybody worships Brahma. The closest Hindu concept to something like Jehovah might be Ishvara, who functions as “your personal god”, for those who are into that sort of thing. Ishvara is popular among Bhaktis, those who practice religion through personal devotion, which is the sort of practice most westerners seem to think of as being religion.
1 Like
While. Some Christians would agree with this, Catholicism does believe in free will.
/pedant.
1 Like
I thought it was protestant thing. I just posted it because IMHO it’s the most evil doctrine. Where as atheist going to heaven for good sounds like the most sane doctrine I ever heard.
Did you just pull a Drax the Destroyer with my mexico joke?
Very few, but the point stands: ‘following one’s conscience’ doesn’t guarantee moral behaviour.
18 Likes
Oh. My. Dog.
#Moar plz.
6 Likes
One step closer to the pope brazenly saying “Jesus isn’t real. Also, just don’t be assholes” and dropping the mic.
2 Likes
