[Egor]

Irreligious wrote

Wait a minute. You reserve the right to reject and disdain other people's beliefs but they are, somehow, bound to respect yours?

I don’t disdain anyone’s religion. Have you heard me do that? In fact, I’ve defended others religions by claiming they are worshiping the same God I am, just a different revelation of him.

But it's the doctrine of just one person, the only known Veridican on the planet: You.

Yep. In fact, I’m at a crossroads right now. I have tried in the past to be a traditional Christian, but I have failed each time. This time around, it’s as if God has tricked me back into being a Veridican. I have tried to leave it behind, but I can’t seem to do it. So, I guess it’s my purpose in life to go forward with it.

I have never written down a concise and definite version of Veridicanism, except for the two tenets (God is monistic in nature, and the human purpose is to be Christ.). But where I’m at in my book right now necessitates it. I have been trying to let this cup pass from me, but it won’t go away.

The crossroads is this: I believe everyone should form their own religion from reading the Gospels (that is, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and also Thomas). Everyone should walk their own path. There shouldn’t be 35,000 denominations of Christianity; there should be 6 billion denominations. But I also realize that can be like feeding an infant by setting a can of chili in front of him or her along with a can opener. So I may have to set out a system of belief whether I want to or not.

But I fully expect to be the only Veridican until the day I die. What happens with it after that or how it is forgotten, or worse corrupted, will not be my concern. Apparently, I was born to invent this religion, so I need to get about the business of it. It’s been in formation for the last 19 years. There’s nothing left to discover. It’s just time to do.

Why on earth would you seek to assault 7 billion people with it?

To save them from Hell, of course.

Stargazer wrote

This is not proof of any kind. This is something theists often do in response to this question however. Instead of offering any solid, substantial proof, they tell me I need to stand slack jawed in awe of how complicated life is and somehow conclude that because things are beautiful/complex/there at all that there MUST be a god.

I don’t know what you mean by “Solid, substantial proof.” If you want to see God physically, then you have to look at his physical body, and that is the universe. If you want to connect with God spiritually, then you have to grow closer to him by living out your purpose, which is to become His consciousness within His creation. You don’t meet God; you wake up to God. If you want to feel God’s love for you, then you must be willing to be one with God.

If offered this kind of "proof" in, say, the medical field, you would immediately dismiss it as ridiculous. So why the intellectual disconnect when it comes to God?

I wouldn’t even go there. The medical field is not dominated by atheism. Far, far from it. I have never met an atheist nurse that I know of. All of them have been quite spiritually-minded. Most doctors, I’ve met, quite frankly, are Hindu. My Anatomy and Physiology professor was the one who said, “If you’re not a believer when you start this class; you will be when you finish.” Meaning that the complexity and design of the human body was enough to make anyone believe in God.

Evidence-based care is what nurses are supposed to go by, and we do. In other words, what has been proven to work, we use. That’s why in psychiatry, we assess patients for religious beliefs, because solid religious beliefs can be an asset in their healing. Hyper-religiosity, which is a sign of delusion and psychosis, is not the same thing as true religious belief. There is a huge difference between a patient being able to focus on reading the Bible and a patient who walks around with a Bible to ward off demons.

I know that from the outside, it seems that medicine is this great atheistic research laboratory where people are healed with all the confidence of science, but in truth it’s not that way. There are medicines that work on infections, pain, tumor growth, and the positive symptoms of mental illness. There are procedures you can do to fix the body when it is broke, but people heal on their own. You stich a laceration together, and God takes it from there. You inject epinephrine and atropine and do chest compressions and ventilate a dying man, maybe you apply an electric shock to the heart, but none of that makes a person live. Most people in cardiac arrest will still die.

No one would ever suggest that medicine should be scrapped and faith healing should ensue. God has given us our technological advancement. But there is the illusion of medical science and there is the clinical reality of what it can do. That’s why a lot of people prefer nursing over being a physician. Some of us believe that caring for a patient never fails, whereas medicine, in the long run, always fails—we all die.

This is great and all that, and at least shows that you have something of an imagination, but you are still a theist, and still using all the same basic arguments that they all are. The fact that you apparently could not find a fit in the existing religions and made up your own, however, seems to indicate some kind of deep seated unease with theism, and, I wonder, if you had carried that feeling further is you might have joined the ranks of atheists. To which we would welcome you, by the way.

There are more atheists in traditional religion than anywhere else. That’s my problem with religion. Another is that I cannot tolerate someone being a spiritual authority over me. That just ain’t gunna happen. There are too many people in church saying they believe in God but living as if He didn’t exist.

I am not afraid of the dark. Or the things that lurk in it.

Well said.

orangeitis wrote

That's a mighty set of claims. Do you have empirical evidence prepared to support them?

Funny you should say. I was just talking with God in my prayer journal last night and saying that Veridicanism is the only thing I can fight atheism with. It feeds off of traditional religious notions like AIDS use the immune cells to spread its disease. I can defend the fact that God is the monistic entity of fundamental consciousness and that the Human purpose is to be Christ. I can’t defend Catholic or Protestant theology. Hell, I can’t even understand how Catholicism developed from the teachings of Christ in the first place.