God is an Idea, not a Belief

Society Religion & Philosophy
1

Okay, so I was watching Dogma the other night before sleep…

The 13th deciple’s message (fictional character, people :rolleyes: ) was that mankind got it all wrong when they made God and all the beauty of having faith wrong when they took it in as a “belief”, rather than as an “idea”.

Because a “belief”, people fight over and start wars in the name of. But “ideas”…who fights wars over ideas?

I think the scriptwriter was drunk. What is the difference really between an idea and a belief. A belief is just an idea that you hold to be true, whereas you can acknowledge an idea by itself as true or false.

For example, I have an idea that Florida is likely to be hit by a tsunami. That doesn’t mean that I hold this idea to be true. However, I have a belief in God, and I hold this idea to be true in all cases. Its a necessary truth, but in my opinion only…(although whether that makes it really a necessary truth is another debate).

So, people, I think, would fight over ideas nonetheless. Even if they’re ideas that one doesn’t hold to be true. This is because of the pride factor. For example, you see people out there are all the time with the “idea” that God exists, although they may not hold it necessarily true in their thoughts. But they’ll sure fight over the idea and even go to war over it, because that “idea” came from them or their family or their culture and in virtue of THAT they will go to war over an idea.

Hmm…random thoughts. I just wrote what I thought. I’m sure the above is filled with contradictions left and right.

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..So what’s the arguement here?? I believe people these days don’t even need an idea, a reason or a belief to fight. They fight nonetheless!! :rolleyes:

3

not sure how would u define an idea or belief, and then classify God.

To me, the concept of God is invented because most of us r desperately in need of Him/Her. They are afraid of uncertain events in future. They need support and an insurance of good things to continue and get even better. Even in a predictable and rational socities like USA and Europe, unpredictable events happen like 9/11, loss of job, loss of spouse, etc....things that r beyond the control of a normal human being.

When ppl fight against each other, it has very less to do with religion, and more to do with other factors in life. Religion becomes a motivating and supporting factor, but not the fundamental one.

Iraq war is not because Iraqis r muslims, but because they r 'condemned' to have been blessed with oil. 9/11 did not happen because OBL is fanatic muslim, but because many Saudis and muslims think they have lost the honor. Pakistanis did not rape Bengalis in 1971 because they were hindus, but because they wanted to control East Pakistan.

We may all claim that religion is the most important factor in our lives, but it is a BIG lie.