This article reminds us of the challenge which we feel when our rational mind adopts atheism as an answer. The immediate uneasiness with a rational answer in a world which increasingly proves, to us, its irrationality, persists until we privately adopt an irrational, and workable attitude.

Eventually we realise that it is not God in which we do not believe, but the institutional presentation of God, with which it has been confused all of our lives.

We are not anti Christian, just anti a current presentation of Christianity, which we cannot accept.

Jung was asked,”Dr. Jung, do you think there is a God.”. He laughed and said,”I do not think; I know.”

He said:”Why do we debate the existence of God, when the Unconscious behaves exactly as Gods are reputed to behave?” Of course, some debate the existence of the Unconscious, so this is no help to them.

For many of us, the nearest we are able to come to communication with God, is to love every human being. Beyond that, for us, God is unfathomable.

Thank you, Stephen, for a valuable communication of your most private self.

as the..body..of your/words
are just..repeating other/thoughts
i feel a correction..is in..order...[re..'god does insist']

oh a-thiest desist..
you know not..what/that you resist

god..the/good..doth not insist

know you not..he has begotten for-you..
a will of your own

that/with..the good/god..enthroned within your/living beating heart
you were never...alone

know that ye do/did..to evem/the least..you did
[or did..or not/do..for the most]

for within..each..of us..living..
resides our/own private..[god..of the most]..[our/own..holy-host]

god is all grace/all mercyfull..
he alone..will never judge[allways..from him;love]

no matter how much..we may begrudge..or fudge,..
his love/grace/mercy..comes to us/all

darn..i didnt..want to/write this in verse
but god gives..hope..even to/the worst

he loves..a repentant heart
god[good]..has refined love to/an art

[a reminder to all...
he resides in your heart]..emmanuel..[god with-in]

good/god is the light...but by his love of freewill...he allows us to reject..his radiance..even/to dwell..in..the darker than night

but he loves our repenting..
[our/seeing..the light]..will make-it/right

recall the..parrable..of the long/lost..one

simply by yearning for repenting..we begin to/right/that we-got wrong

god is..the long-lost servant..
serving even the most-vile..to live

those who lie..and say he must/will..judge us...clearly have gotten..the good/of god...totally wrong

jesus came..to reveal..the lie...of dead/being...dead
just as he/has..arisen..so for-us/all..get this..into your head
he born/of woman..was huh-man..just like you

there is no end-time judgment-day..we just/all go..where we belong
for..thyne..fathers-house..has many/rooms[;jc]

see those..who love the light/love/logic..go there
those who..reject the..light..know/that darkness..is there

[yet even/those..stuck..in the darkest of hell
soon must realise..inside..them/
there..
even the wholly/good..[god]..too must dwell]

im getting..sick of/this verse
even worse...those who claim to see..the light
yet chose*..to dwell in the darkness..some call hell

if only they knew..god gifts/ALL-us..our will..freely
those who..love the dark/vile..have their own/dwelling
as jesus did tell...

[good/god was/is..in his heart...too]

anyhow i/must..get rid of this rhyming
just know..in your heart
lives the love/light/logic..forever

even..when you/chose..to reject/his light..and sink/into hell

KNOW...dead aint dead..we all/are..but eternal/spirits..having..a life-experience

building...here..our soul..
leaerning/here..to-know..from good/love/light/logic/mercy..and such...

KNOW-more shall/be given..
much/more..than we could..ever know

but/from me..thats all

dont reject..the-good..
the god..you never..sought..to know

Jon J - there are people in this world who take the risk of sharing their beliefs and opinions with an audience, and thank god (whoever or whatever your concept of that is) that they do, because otherwise we'd be living in an intolerably dull world, with nothing interesting to read and argue about.

Instead of bagging people who take these risks (and the risks are considerable, as I know only too well from being on the receiving end of abuses and rebukes when I've published on OLO) why don't you save your scorn for something in the public realm that really deserves it, and either engage with the article intelligently, or zippy zip and move on.

If writing about your beliefs would embarrass you, then don't do it, nobody's going to make you. But why take cheap shots at those of us who do stick our necks out and give you something to think about and discuss, whether you agree with it or not?

God does not exist. This is true as long as we continue to apply the best human paradigms against which we talk about God. None of the raves and rants come anywhere near the truth.This is a fact given God cannot be reduced to the limitations of humanity.
It is true to say God is, without qualifying it.
This is a truth that was arrived at over 2000 years ago when ancient Jewish wandering shepherds thought hard and long just as we are doing today about God and the nayure of God and what the relationship is between God and man. We are the 21st century shepherds and we arent doing any better despite all our sophistication. All the usual outpourings have similar mistakes. The ancients came closest when they invented the tetragrammaton YHWH to speak about God.

God was, is and forever will be and everything including human beings have their existence in God. The rantings of atheists make no difference nor do the half-baked retaliations by arrogant theists.

Love Comes To Here In Time,
and Numbers All the Things
of Beauty In the House.
Only Light Itself Is Come
-- A Merest Touch of Brightness
Neither Mind Nor Body Can Deny.
It Is the Heart's Explanation of Reality.
It Is Reality, Plain Spoken To the Heart
-- and By the Heart Alone.
It Is The Beautiful Itself.

I grew up in that time period too. Instead of the usual incredibly boring Christian apologists or "theologians" I came across the iconoclastic Jiddu Krishnamurti, Alan Watts, and the magnificent trickster Timothy Leary via The Politics of Ecstasy.

Ecstasy was NOT in any way part of the vocabulary of all the buttoned down dreadfully sane Christian propaganda hacks of the time, NOR of Protestant Christianity altogether.

All the Christians I knew were incredibly boring.

And of course Jesus was not a social worker, nor did he preach or demonstrate a Social Gospel. His Wisdom Teaching was much more profound than that:

http://www.beezone.com/up/secretsofkingdomofgod.html

Meanwhile the Heart always has a question - which must be satisfied.

http://www.dabase.org/tfrbkyml.htm

Also

http://www.beezone.com/AdiDa/not_elsewhere.html

http://www.dabase.org/dht7.htm

The point is, are we capable of making this a better world for us rather smarmy whites, without some sort of God, whether it be the God of the written Bible, some sort of Great Architect or Grand Geometrician.

Certainly we need some sort of God to stop us whites calling most coloureds simply just low life, as we do to our Aborigines, and even to Arab nations, preferring the Jews as the US has done by unlawfully allowing them to go militarily atomic.

It is so interesting that Thomas Aquinas was made a Saint not as just a Preacher but as a philosopher who with a very worried mind believed that a conceptual and continual knowledge of history and science was the only way to make our world a safer and better place.