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Re: Re: cpklapper - "God is Love. Love is God."
Of course, I don't get it, while others do. . . . do you really think that I have not heard that lame argument in the past? Here's the point, if God is love and the majority of our species believes that this being exists, where is this love manifested? Certainly not in how the majority of our species has historically treated their fellow man. From where I sit "God is love, love is God" . . . is nothing more than a catch phrase which relies on the proponents of this notion to proliferate an idea that cannot be substantiated. It most certainly is not evident in the actions of those mouthing these meaningless words.
As for your take on sales, it is as I had mentioned earlier; you are merely articulating your approval or disapproval of certain types of transactions. With only mutually beneficial barter seeming to gain your approval.
posted by
gomedome
on April 2, 2009 at 7:37 AM
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Re: cpklapper - "God is Love. Love is God."
Meaning is in the mind of the listener, "Those who have ears, let them hear", so "God is Love. Love is God." being meaningless to you does not mean that it is meaningless in general. In point of fact it has a great deal of meaning for a great many people throughout the world. What they are getting, and you are not, is that Love is more than an emotion, just as the things we see are more than a perception.
As for sales, it is not the same thing as trade or transactions. When A wants something, a potato for example, and comes across B who has a potato and wants something that A has, say a carrot or money, then they trade, they perform a transaction. However, if B needs to get rid of his potato and comes up to A, trying to convince him that he really needs a potato when A was going to have rice for dinner, that is sales. When B needs to sell the potato because it is getting wrinkly and sprouting leaves, his sales tends towards begging. But if B's potato is a fine potato that would have made a great meal, but he needs what he can get from selling his potato in order to pay the rent, to not get evicted, then his sales tends towards prostitution.
posted by
cpklapper
on April 2, 2009 at 5:42 AM
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cpklapper - "God is Love. Love is God."
. . is nothing more than a meaningless catch phrase. Love is an inherent human emotion, to ascribe it to an imaginary entity, that supposedly is responsible for all of creation, without qualification ignores all of the other inherent human emotions that also must be ascribed to this entity. If God is love, he is also hate, greed, vengeance and malevolence.
It is not that catch phrase induced by social conditioning that I take the most exception to however. It is this: ". . . mostly on account of viewing sales as a cross between begging and prostitution." Some sales techniques could be described as such but sales in general, or more loosely described as trade, is the most important aspect of our corporeal existence. All jobs, careers or vocations directly or indirectly rely entirely on a sales transaction of some sort for justification. There is but one exception; a self sustaining hermit living completely without outside contact.
posted by
gomedome
on April 1, 2009 at 8:52 AM
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Proximity determines practice of religion, politics, sports, games, music,
philosophy, sex, dance, cooking, eating, transportation, housing,... need I go on?
Because the people we live with have such a crucial influence on what we do, it stands to reason that the influence is also key to our default opinions, i.e. our beliefs, in all of these areas. For example, if one grows up in a community where the key events are centered on the television, then the practice of devotion to the glowing tube will influence one's beliefs towards the importance of shows and commercials proclaimed there, with the older faiths of the gospels of CBS, NBC and ABC replaced by the newer gospels of MSNBC, Fox and CNN. For other communities, the focus is on watching sports, practicing the worship of the Yankees or the Red Sox, devotees of the one damning the other. Ask either of these their beliefs with regards to ballet versus modern dance and you will get puzzled stares.
Thus you have in many places of the world local agreement on matters of religion, while there is little of that in communities in the United States, Canada and Europe. Most people in the latter world have grown up with a practice of parents and friend's parents avoiding church or blaming religion for the evils of the world and so that has become their default beliefs about religion. A few have grown up in church-going families and, like Cowboys fans in New York, have clung to the family beliefs against the tide of community opposition.
All of this, however, has nothing whatsoever to do with faith. Since faith is the aim of your titular question, I will, having already addressed the subject of your blog, answer it with my "God salespitch". Bear in mind, though, that I am the world's worst salesperson, mostly on account of viewing sales as a cross between begging and prostitution. With that disclaimer, here goes:
God is Love. Love is God. Wherever you see the one, read the other.
posted by
cpklapper
on March 31, 2009 at 9:18 AM
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hazel_st_cricket - we see testament to this all of the time here on Blogit
For some people; unbelievable whoppers somehow become more true if enough people around them say they believe the same whoppers. This is another universal foible of human nature.
posted by
gomedome
on March 31, 2009 at 9:14 AM
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jesse_jean - Re: you got that right,
Nurturing environment would come a close second in shaping the beliefs of most individuals. When I was growing up we were being conditioned to mindlessly find God's handiwork in everything. This shaping of perspectives did have some qualifiers however. That which was good and wondrous was why we should praise and worship God, natural disasters on the other hand which were also God's handiwork, took place because we didn't fully understand God's masterplan.
posted by
gomedome
on March 31, 2009 at 9:11 AM
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ash_pradhan - Re: Three simple words :)...
That's nothing more than a catch phrase which doesn't mean a whole lot.
posted by
gomedome
on March 31, 2009 at 9:04 AM
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I do agree with you, geography has much to do with what one believes.
If you were born and raised by a cult who believed the dung beetle was the savior, and you had this drilled into your head. of course, you would believe it.
posted by
hazel_st_cricket
on March 31, 2009 at 8:22 AM
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you got that right,
for instance, try believing in reincarnation in what is known as the Southern Bible Belt. It was a given when I was young, you were either, Christian, Protestant or Catholic. No two ways about it, and never ever would you tell a preacher that you believed in another way. If you did, you were going straight to hell. So yeah, I do agree with you, geography has a lot to do with what people are taught, and the way they think.
posted by
jesse_jean
on March 31, 2009 at 8:14 AM
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Three simple words :)...
Good Old Divinity (GOD), peace,
posted by
ash_pradhan
on March 31, 2009 at 8:03 AM
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