You have the ability to sense and know a higher truth.

[caine2000]

Someone once asked me what I thought faith was. I said that to me faith is the obsessive compulsion to believe in something despite a complete lack of evidence or preponderance of evidence to the contrary. He asked me if I had faith enough to believe in God. I told him that beliving in God was not nearly as important as understanding why. I

Comments

And another's girl's opinion

[the_ericai]

With this, God is also a man. He has to be. When we look to the Almighty we don't look to Him for nurturing or care. We look to Him to for guidance and limits. We look to Him to be omniscient and omnipotent. We want to know that somewhere, somehow, someone is in control of this haphazard mess we call reality. We call him Father because that is what we want him to be. I must disagree

Re: And another's girl's opinion

[eeeniebean]

it chafes me now when one tries to impose such things upon me
Exactly. We gotta rail against The Man! *realizes I'm going into law* Shit.

When I need guidance or knowledge or boundaries, I get them from myself because I'm the only one who knows what's best for me.
Yes, though I'll hedge to offer that others can certainly offer suggestions and assistance. To take this -too- literally would likely border on the sociopathic (though I know you don't.)

Getting to the male-female discussion, actually, the idea of the all encompassing, accepting female Gaia versus the elevated, judgemental male God is a pretty fruitful discussion.. and brings up the notion of distributed versus centralized authority which is a very common theme in modern Western gender politics.

J. says I don't know how it works for girls, but for boys that concrete, that steel, that bedrock comes from your father.It could just be that I didn't happen to have that from any figure - male or female.. but I wonder about Girls (capitalized to speak to the general) and their

Re: And another's girl's opinion

[the_ericai]

1) Yes, you are right, E. I do not find myself solely believing my own advice and guidance. I do tend to bounce my thoughts off others, first, to make sure I'm taking a good course of action. Although I like to think I'm a sociopath, by the medical definition, I am not. I'm just really self-righteous and egotistical. You and your hedges. :D

I concede the point... that you are a girl. (I've checked)

[caine2000]

I did mention in the post that I didn't know how it works for girls. I'll now follow that line of thought through to the logical conclusion which is "I'm sure it works differently for girls than for guys" as I've gotten a fairly constant "I disagree" responses from girls and "I feel ya" from (some) guys. And one "I concede the point" but we'll let that go... ;) The bulk of my post pertains pretty much exclusively to guys since fathers and daughters have an inherently different relationship. So there you go. On the other hand, I'll tell you that this is how it works between (most) fathers and sons

measuring systems and checking...

[eeeniebean]

"I'm sure it works differently for girls than for guys"
Right, and I'm certainly not trying to derail your recounting of your experience of Father and Son. Really, the details about my difference of experience as Daughter and the Void matter very little (though I love any experience to reminisce about my Grampie, thank you for that). What is relevant to the point is the -room- for maneuvering.

I like the flexibility that I'm hearing (because I like to hear what I want to hear) in your standpoint, which is that the conclusion is a factor of the experience. Since I have both a different experience (no authoritarian figure) -and- conclusion (no belief in God) - it seems clear that our raison d'etre is variable rather than static.

His personification is just an attempt to fill a basic need.Yes, I would say that the concept of a God -is- an attempt to fill a need, but I would argue that it is not basic (read: universal). It is subjective and requisite on experience. If, in someone's life, they find the need to concede authority, seek

I didn't know how to do the lj-cut thing because I'm dumb.

[caine2000]

Also, you're both entitled to your own opinions, which means you're both entitled to be as wrong as you want. I have to run just now but we'll discuss it later. ;)

How can we be wrong? We're never wrong and seldom in doubt.

[the_ericai]

You didn't do the lj-cut thing, not because you're dumb, but because you're male and it is a well-known stereotype that males cannot ask for directions. The "lj-cut thing" and the directions on how it's done, is listed very specifically in the Help section AND it's easy to find.

Do you have to run now because you've offended someone and they're chasing you with an axe?
Just wondering. It seems like the kind of thing that could happen to someone like you.

*remembers to tip hitman*

I lied to make you feel better.

[caine2000]

I didn't do the lj-cut thing because I like it when I take up like 50% of your friends page. What I lack in quantity of posts I make up for in sheer length. It's not a male thing or even a laziness thing; it's an ego thing.

And I had to run because I needed to go kill people. At poker.