this is quoted from an episode of malcolm in the middle. I thought it was pretty clever, and probably pretty accurate. It is not complete, I couldnt find the first part. but here's what I did find:

Dewey: Like Pastor Roy said, how God is so much bigger and wiser than us, and trying to see what He's thinking would be like an ant trying to see what I'm thinking.

Teacher: Yes, exactly. But we can trust in His wisdom, and have faith that He is watching over us.

Dewey: Like me with the anthill in my backyard. I spent days watching the ants, trying to figure out which ones were good, and which ones were bad, but they all just looked like ants, so I started smiting all of them.

Teacher: Well that's not --

Dewey: I was smiting them with the garden hose, and with lighter fluid, and with the lawnmower, and to be perfectly honest, I think I went a little crazy with the shovel. Those ants could have been praying to me all day, I wouldn't have heard them.

ponders

Dewey: There was nothing they could do about it.

Teacher: But, I don't think --

Dewey: Really, it's the same with us. There's nothing we can do about anything either, so why worry about it? Hey, this is making me feel better.

Teacher: Well, that's good, but --

Dewey: I guess all we can do is live our lives with as much kindness and decency as possible, and try not to dwell on God standing over us with a giant shovel. Bye!

quote:Originally posted by chickenpoop:

[B]I wouldn't have heard them.

B]

I'm an atheist, but I think a god would be able to listen a little bit better than Dewey

"God is everything, the entire universe is like a dream. There is some order, sometimes.

The answer lies in the unfathomable, your human reasoning is leading you astray.

It exists because it does, It started because it did and it will end because it will."

quote:Originally posted by CatharticWeek:



"God is everything, the entire universe is like a dream. There is some order, sometimes.

The answer lies in the unfathomable, your human reasoning is leading you astray.

It exists because it does, It started because it did and it will end because it will."

prove it.

quote:Originally posted by CatharticWeek:



"God is everything, the entire universe is like a dream. There is some order, sometimes.

The answer lies in the unfathomable, your human reasoning is leading you astray.

It exists because it does, It started because it did and it will end because it will."

What is unfathomable or impossible for one Man may be but difficult to another. Our human reasoning is the highest pinnacle possessed by mankind. To choose to discard it

for any faith or vain imagination would be a mistake...or what is it exactly that you trust more than human reasoning and what did you use to decide upon it?

The God of Dewey exists in Dewey's mind. Your Idea of God exists in your mind. Sorry to repeat myself, but like any "Purpose of Man" must exist in a mind (No mind, no purpose), so must God exist in the Mind of Man. There is no other known place he can exist.

quote:Originally posted by MoonTalker:

Originally posted by CatharticWeek:



"God is everything, the entire universe is like a dream. There is some order, sometimes.

The answer lies in the unfathomable, your human reasoning is leading you astray.

It exists because it does, It started because it did and it will end because it will."

What is unfathomable or impossible for one Man may be but difficult to another. Our human reasoning is the highest pinnacle possessed by mankind. To choose to discard it

for any faith or vain imagination would be a mistake...or what is it exactly that you trust more than human reasoning and what did you use to decide upon it?

The God of Dewey exists in Dewey's mind. Your Idea of God exists in your mind. Sorry to repeat myself, but like any "Purpose of Man" must exist in a mind (No mind, no purpose), so must God exist in the Mind of Man. There is no other known place he can exist.



Or is it that only in the human mind can God be seen as anything other than what it truly is?

quote:Originally posted by Hexadecimal:

Or is it that only in the human mind can God be seen as anything other than what it truly is?

"...It's strange how many people only picture God as transcendent, making himself known by shooting off thunderbolts. God is transcendent, above the world and beyond it, outside time and space in a mode of being which is beyond the scope of our imaginations to conceive, but the God who makes Himself known to us is the immanent God, the God who's so close that He's at the very center of our existence. It's strange too how much time people spend traveling round and round the circle of existence and getting nowhere. The real journey - the journey all people are required to take to achieve integration, self-realization, and fulfillment - "the eternal life" of religious language - is the journey inwards, the journey to the centre of the soul."



Susan Howatch

Namaste http://www.totse.com/bbs/smile.gif (http://www.totse.com/bbs/smile.gif)

quote:Originally posted by redzed:

"...It's strange how many people only picture God as transcendent, making himself known by shooting off thunderbolts. God is transcendent, above the world and beyond it, outside time and space in a mode of being which is beyond the scope of our imaginations to conceive, but the God who makes Himself known to us is the immanent God, the God who's so close that He's at the very center of our existence. It's strange too how much time people spend traveling round and round the circle of existence and getting nowhere. The real journey - the journey all people are required to take to achieve integration, self-realization, and fulfillment - "the eternal life" of religious language - is the journey inwards, the journey to the centre of the soul."



Susan Howatch

Namaste http://www.totse.com/bbs/smile.gif (http://www.totse.com/bbs/smile.gif)

I've no quarrel with that. I believe God to be transcendent from my philosophies, personal from my life - I suppose it's nice that such belief works for me from the pantheist view of God.