Opinions and conclusions about Religion and God.

My beef is that I don't want your god sticking his face and arse into my business. You are saying quite clearly that I have no choice in the matter. Your god is not the xian god I was taught as a child.

Do you really think we are rubbish? I think people are pretty great (when I'm in a good mood) really. Our brains are the most complex arrangement of matter and energy we have yest to discover in the universe.You say HE needs to do something from changing us. Why did HE not do it in the womb? Prevention is far better than cure don't you think?

I think this highlights part of your position Iano; you appear to need this absolute. It appears that self worth does not cut it for you. It appears that you need worth granted to you by a higher power.Am I in the right ball park?Btw can you answer my question about the Neanderthals yet?

Well said that man.

I did ask questions similar to the ones you stated, but after some time trying to find aboslute answers (as a child) it dawned on me that there does not have be be answers.Q: Who am I?
A: Who I have grown up to become. We change so quickly that to try to define oneself down to one 'self' limits ones ones potential. We are what we see our self to be; no absolutes needed.Q: Why am I here?
A: Because my parents gave birth to me. You could regress this back to the abiogenisis if you care but why? You can pick many answers to this question, probably an infinite amount. All are equally valid; no abosolutes needed.Q: Where am I going?
A: My future is unknown except in vague terms. I have plans for my life but shit happens. I don't worry about where I am going, I get on with whats happening now. The best you can do is react to whats happening at the moment. Reacting to what may happen just leads to worrying and stress. I did not understand your post re: Neanderthals, nor do I understand this statement.Can you tell me where the Neanderthals went when they died?If yes, please tell me where they go.

That is not what I said. I am a vast collection of traits, beliefs, schemata, atoms, systems which we could reduce to the quantum level if we wanted to.I am pointing to my self and saying that to correctly sum up my 'actuality' you need my 'actuality'. Trying to sum up a human being in words or concepts cannot be done. The amount of information needed to describe with 100% accuracy a human being is the same amount of information as is 'contained' within the very humnan being you are trying to describe.If you are asking for an answer to the question "Who am I?" and require an answer in words you will always be frustrated as the information you require is in the collapse of my wave form, not in words. Sigh. Well to the nearest point in time, I am here because a sperm cell met an egg cell in my mothers womb. That answers your question. Not true. That my answer is not to your taste does not mean that I have answered the question. Arguement to authority. Homo neanderthalensis buried their dead with ritual and cermony: this has a strong implication that they had a concept of 'going somewhere' when you die. They cared for the sick and elderly. Skeletons have been found with healed bones that could not have occured without support (and the concepts of affection that brings). They hunted with tools and used complex techiques to bring down large prey such as mammoths.They co existed with us in time. We could have looked into their eyes and seen ourselves. We both had langues so we could have talked to each other.Their genus was Homo.I hope that helps.They could not have known about the xian god.What happened to them when they died?

Why are they illusions? Oh course I don't agree. This is my answer. If you don't like it, well hard luck. I may be on thin ice but in this case I am correct. Sorry, they were in the same genus, but not the same species.Homo sapiens neanderthalis were around from 230,000 BCE to 30,000 BCE and would have (at least in a temporal sense) co existed with Homo sapiens sapiens who started out at 137,000 BCE till present.Mr and Mrs Neanderthal could not have any notion of the xian god because Homo sapiens sapiens as a species did not exist (to our best guess) untill H. Neanderthalis had been around for about 93,000 years.Having absolutley no way of knowing the xian god, what would happen to them when they died?By the way, this question could just as well include anyone who dies not having heard of the xian god, such as the native Amerindians.

You seem to be going back to needing to have validation from on high. I for one feel no need for the validation or 'mooring'. I feel perfectly happy spinning in the wind. We are at the belief stage here and we have been here a few times already Any minute now the words 'belief' and 'knowing' will turn up. You will appeal to the highest court that you know and I will chant "all is belief" ad nauseum.We've been down that road and I think it forks somewhere along the way. Lets not do it again. This is a bit of a kicker. They were around 93,000 years before your god made H. sapien sapien.Now if you claim they are souless then your god condemed them from birth not to even have a chance of getting into heaven. If they are not souless then they must have gone somewhere.Having no knowledge of the xian god (I assume this as they could not have read the bible and had knowledge of the Law- indead they had no written language) they would have went where? Hand waving?

A very, very good point Ifen. One that should always be born in mind (for us all).