Comments

• 03/09/2008 @ 05:39 harmony said

  

  Hi OS

  I once felt like that sitting by Loch Trool in Scotland. I felt cpmplete fulfillment.

  When peopel say they don't believe in God, I always want to ask whe is the definition of the God they don't believe in (which I did get to do as part of my 3rd year University relig study part of my degree)

  I can tell that you believe in beauty, nature, kindness to others, your inner self, striving for healing/ wholeness. I'm wondering if your definition of God something different to all that.

  Love, Harmony

• 03/09/2008 @ 10:14 ant said

  

  Never felt like that - never even thought of being able to feel like that - I need to aim higher :)

• 03/09/2008 @ 12:22 Overseas said

  

  Harmony - for me, to not believe in God, means that I don't believe there's a Supreme Being and I don't believe in religion either. I don't need these to treat the others with kindness and humanity, and to respect them whatever their skin colors or origins are. OS ~

• 03/09/2008 @ 13:57 harmony said

  

  I absolutely agree with you OS, No one needs a religion or to believe in a God to be a humane, kind person. I don't believe in a supreme being either - stopped doing that about 16.

  I'm just always interested in people's definition of God - they are very very different but sometimes we assume we know what another person means when they use the word. I just wondered what it was you didn't believe in. My daughter once explained to me that the word 'God' meant the Sun to her. I loved that.
  Love Harmony

• 03/09/2008 @ 22:55 Overseas said

  

  I think you have a good approach to the question Harmony. It's better to let people explain rather than assume what they mean.

  Some years ago, I've experienced something interesting. As I was coming back home from the grocery shop, I noticed in the distance some agitation. After a while, I noticed the presence of two young men from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Many people they trying to get in touch with were gesticulating and giving any kind of reasons to avoid them. As I expected, the two guys came to me, ans asked some of their usual questions, and were rather surprised by my answers and reactions. The funny thing in all this is that when I looked around for a second I noticed that many people had stopped to see and listen what was going on there between the two guys and me, like in an arena.

• 05/09/2008 @ 07:01 ant said

  

  I am a bit of a bull ant at times - especially when it comes to Mormons - they fought on both sides of the Faulklands war - so they were killing each other and other christians - how can god be on all sides. - it isn't the notion of a god that I struggle with - although I am a very devout aethiest - it is the people that follow blindly those who claim to speak with the authority of their God.

• 05/09/2008 @ 07:50 harmony said

  

  Ant, I feel sure that 'God' - whatever that may mean - has got absolutely nothing to do with wars or taking sides. All that rubbish is about humans, of any religion or none, and power.

  I would love to be brave enough to ask you what a devout atheist is so that I'd know if I was one. I am completely fascinated by peoples beliefs systems, the lables they attach to themselves and how they define the terms they use. However I know it's a very sensitive subject, so I won't ask.

• 06/09/2008 @ 12:21 ant said

  

  I am disappointed you won't ask - I say that so that those who knock at my door don't badger me - two words which they seem to fear. It is only sensitive not taboo

• 16/09/2008 @ 21:36 Overseas said

  

  What is a devout atheist ant ?

  I have no problem with people believing in God, as long as they respect me. And that's where the problem lies. Because they are so convinced to know what is right that they try to force you into their way of thinking, which means putting you into a predifined square from which you are not allowed to move out. I've met people who use one of these words - church, religion, God, Jesus, prayer - at almost each sentences. :-/

• 17/09/2008 @ 08:28 ant said

  

  Well it is really a tease about how I adhere to my belief that there is no god - no supreme being - no greater force than that of the order of the world and its environment. I am ernest and sincere in my belief. It's just that putting the two words together seems to unbalance people who prosletyse.

  Actually I have a member of my family who has taken religious orders - and whether the people I love believe in God or another deity doesn't worry me - I am comfortable and respectful of beliefs and strive to never offend them be they Jewish, Christian , Islam or Hindu, Buddhist or whatever. I am entirely comfortable and am neither threatened nor threatening. I was raised a Christian and remember learning by rote that faith is a gift given by God - I just didn't get that gift and I couldn't high jump either!

  I love talking about religion more than politics - especially the context of sociology and religion and how social mores of the day are taken on within the religious beliefs as part of the absolute truth. Like the separation of men and women at prayer in the old Christian and contemporary Islam faiths. And the habits of food preparation and other rituals. I find it really fascinating. ant