I consider myself a theist, but others wouldn't see it as so. I'm no classical theist, because I don't believe in a personal, purpose-driven, with volition god, but isn't theism literally translated as "the belief in god"? Are deists theists then? I think they should, but I wanted to ask you.
Hey all, I know I flaired myself as an INC apologist, so I'll quickly explain my purpose here: My mission is to play devil's advocate regarding evidence and doctrine, not exactly on the political or the current things happening.
Now that we're talking about politics, since my departure from INC, I have not kept track of what has happened. There are just so many things, and I wish to know what happened while I was gone, like, I keep seeing different people show up in this sub and I just can't help but ask why I should care about these people. I know they are important, but I literally can't find the reason because there's just too much.
So, this post serves for me as a checkpoint, seeing what I missed, then I can act accordingly.
Congratulations, r. daa, you made me into a pandeist. That being said, I really still believe in the same basic stuff. Though, you all made me realize that calling myself a theist is insufficient to my true beliefs.
If you want to debate me on matters irrelevant to this post and rather my other posts, now is a good time to do it:
- This means that objects can simultaneously be actual and potent at the same time, which violates the law of non-contradiction. You can't be actual and be potent at the same time.
- This isn't an actual rebuttal, so I can't do anything against this. I wish to debate with someone who actually engages with my ideas.
- Trivia: I used to think like this. Anyways, metaphysics is the underlying reality of everything, it explains the "why". Under the PSR, everything must have a reason, and the reason of God is that it is necessary for us to exist.
- uhh personal preference, also I don't think God has to have a will or a mind, just some aspect of it can have one.
- It's not special pleading: it's something necessary to explain things. God is outside the things in motion and causation, it only caused the first motion. Special pleading is required otherwise we have to accept that infinite regress is a thing.
- Sure, there can be infinite Gods. But, what's the ground for all of 'em? I found someone who called the PSR God, since it's the ground of all things, and I don't believe it just because it seems to easy. Also, there are just some things the PSR just doesn't have a ground for except for it being necessary.
- It's up to you what you do with the information you have been given.
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Now, the actual point of this post: What reconciled me back to "Christianity" (which in reality is just my own interpretation of it)
- The Kingdom of God is within you, it is not found anywhere else. It is within your own reasoning. It is peace. Whether that can be achieved with atheism, I don't know. The answer is within you.
- You are God, we are God, God is you, and God is me. "I and the Father are one" I believe, applies to you. You are the Father, and the Father is you. This is pantheism, basically positive atheism. Just like an artist becomes his art and his art becomes the artist, God becomes His creations, and His creations (the sum of it) is God.
- Technically, I believe it's universalist in a way. I believe non-existence is the final place things go. There is no afterlife, just the peace of nothingness.
- Hell is where we are currently. We can't escape it. We can try, but being at peace is the heaven we crave, and that peace is found after death.
- Jesus' death mimics God's death, and Jesus' revival mimics our indestructible existence.
- As a pandeist, a good model to explain my beliefs is that God once was, but no longer is, and that "was" became everything. In short, God died to create the world. Jesus died to create a new world, one where we can find inner peace, one that mimics the peace we crave which is rest. A world where we can sleep and never wake again. And Jesus rose again because He is human. He is phenomenon.
- When we die in our current states, our individual existence ends but existence continues - and thus suffering continues.
- To escape this, we need to stop willing, we need to stop wanting, we need to continue what God did, for we are gods.
- The reason why this is called pessimistic is because of the conclusion, and that is: the life we live in is hell, and the rest we crave is heaven. Heaven requires extreme suffering to the point where you become an ascetic. The one good news we have received is Jesus, and yet even He died.
I expect no one to care about the latter part, and hopefully my debates will consist of the former, but lemme know if you have questions about my beliefs or see a contradiction.
Welcome everyone to my version of universalism. Bear with me if this thesis is confusing, I will adapt to your guys' questions and try to water it down.
Okay so, this all kinda rests on the dogma of: Non-existence is heaven compared to existence with all its suffering. This is true because, well, simply put, the existence of antinatalism. The mere thought that existence is preferrable to non-existence already proves that existence in itself is pretty bad. And the fact is, desire leads to more desire, it never satisfies.
That is until you no longer exist.
This is where our saviour becomes a saviour: He rescues us from existence. But this also introduces the problem, us existing implies that, we exist. Therefore, God with His infinite wisdom, decides to create us for no apparent reason. This kind of destroys the whole salvation thing, why is God good when He created us? The answer is something so radical that I will surely be attacked by both proponents and opponents:
We wanted to exist. The evidence? The will to life. Something within us is so unbelievably primal that it allows us to live. It is the adrenaline, the fear of death. Then, it begs the question: Why did our Creator not destroy this will to life?
Because it is as strong as God. Simply because (I know this is all hard to keep up with) God doesn't "exist". Not in the atheist way, I mean that God is literally non-existence. Therefore, God doesn't have a will to life, it just is and isn't. God's strength is zero in phenomenal terms.
But, how is He a saviour? Why am I even calling Him a He? (the answer to the latter is just because i find it easier than typing out three whole letters and is more recognizable)
Well, He is a saviour if you accept the dogma at the beginning: That non-existence is the ultimate good.
Isn't nothingness a negation of all things? How can it be good?
Because there is nothing good in this life/hj.