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I am playing around with a subject for an upcoming video. I would like to know how you would answer the question. What is a personal relationship with God/Jesus really and what would you compare it to? I may use your thoughts in my next video! Thank you fo your help!

DavidLaDeau 8 June 9
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Religion is a like a virus.

Religion hijacks the mind like a virus hijacks the body. Both a virus and religion's goal is to reproduce itself.

Richard Dawkins, author of "The God Delusion."

A much more conprehensive book is called "The God Virus."

To reproduce itself by proselytism, but mostly by breeding.

@QuidamOutrepont Very true, This is why the Bible tells us to kill unborn children and babies, yet Christianity is anti-abortion. They simply want more baby Christians.

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You can't have a "personal relationship" with imaginary entities, unless you have schizophrenia, or have dropped some pretty good acid! But if you could, I imagine it would be like getting repeatedly sodomized/lobotimized by the Demons of your own creation!

Christians do in fact LITERALLY create their own demons.

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A personal relationship with God/Jesus is the same as having a personal relationship with Humpty-Dumpty -- it takes place entirely in one's imagination. It's like a child playing with an imaginary friend. that they insist is real.

It can also be very dangerous.

@DavidLaDeau Anything can be. In the wrong hands a teddy bear can be used to smother someone to death.

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Why ?. It seems that more than a few people on this site although calling themselves atheists are obsessed by religion

I was indoctrinated as a young earth creationist, fundamentalist as a child and that had devastating affects on my life. I now try to help others escape from religion. It is these types of questions that Christians often ask. I seek to give them better answers than they get from their churches. And yes I am obsessed with religion as people often fail to see how poisonous it is. If I don't know their religion better than they do I can not communicate with them or help them.

@DavidLaDeau Sorry, I did not mean to be critical. although I attended Sunday school and church as a youngster it all went right over my head and had no effect on me, so I find it difficult to get in to the mind of someone who believes or has believed . Good luck with your video

@Moravian That is cool! I have annoyed BionicDance more than once asking her what it is like to have never to believed in a god. And even more so when I ask why she cares? She just says don't push your religious garbage on me! That is her motivation to be a YouTube Legend! My words....

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A false safety net? The illusion of safety and protection, which isn't real, and could cause real danger if one thinks that belief in God/Jesus is the only hope, since it prevents one from trying to solve problems on their own?

When I was a child I was told that God was "omniscient" and I was so impressed! Surely God would know what was going on in my house and save me and my siblings. But no. Either God didn't care, didn't think abuse was worth intervening for or wasn't really there. Got me questioning the whole biblical story, since it really didn't make sense to me anyway.

After asking the nuns several questions during catechism, which they couldn't answer for me satisfactorily, I began disbelieving what they were saying altogether. That put me in a category of an infidel and I wasn't made to go to catechism or church any more. 🙂

If God was real, he was so far away from me, out of my reach, and what language did God speak anyway? Oh yeah, "omniscient" so he knows all, or does he... Things didn't add up from what I was told.

If God was real, couldn't he have intervened in my life and helped my brothers and me or somehow proven himself to me? If God doesn't intervene or care, then why pray to him and lavish him with praise and worship?

So, now my relationship with God/Jesus is as a nemesis. He/They get all the credit for things that either just happen naturally, or that have been figured out and solved by human ingenuity, compassion, perseverance, courage and so many wonderful human attributes.

As a Humanist, believing in human values and reasoning, this God of the past which so many people continue to believe in, is like "fake news" that keeps jumping in to take away from the real message and true reality.

God ALWAYS got the credit for the good stuff that I saw people doing, I was always chastised when things did not go well for not believing enough, having sin in my life, or any other excuse that they could come up with. I call it child abuse.

I have always wondered why when a family member or community dies it is god’s will!
When the rest of the family and/or community survived it is god’s will!
Just how can one justify god’s will, when god’s will created the situation they are in!

One wonders how anyone can comprehend such a convoluted relationship as faith!

That's the moment I became an atheist, too. In catechism asking questions from my priest he could not answer.

I asked him how could humans exist if Cain was the only one reproducing. He said after Cain was kicked out of Eden, he wandered around until he found a tribe of Numbians. I was chastised for rolling my eyes at him.

@Katsarecool Yes, I was very confused about where this "Land of Nod" was, if Adam and Eve started the first and only family on Earth, and I was assured there was no incest between siblings, which was kinda my question. (How could I ask such a disgusting question, Sister Mary Michelle barked!)

Still confused at the unsatisfying answer to my questions, later that week, I knocked on the door of the convent to talk to Sister Mary Michelle, my catechism teacher, in private. But when she came to the door, she was just dressed in regular clothes, not her habit, so that really freaked me out and I ran away. (I was in 2nd grade.) I had an aha moment, that she was just a regular person. Poof! All the mystique of the clergy and church kinda melted for me that day.

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It's pretending really hard that your moral compass is someone else.

And that 'someone else' can grant personal favors if you do certain things "Just right".

But you never do things 'just right' because the game is rigged. Apparently. lol

So happy to be Atheist!

You can't win when your imaginary friend won't let you!

@DavidLaDeau Exactly.. Though frankly they were never that friendly? Roman Catholic upbringing... Not a fun playmate. lol

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Umm, you know this is a site literally named agnostic.com, right?

Thats why my fellow apostates can anwer this question and help me to answer questions that Christians have. You know I have a profile you could have looked at complete with bio and link to my YouTube channel right?

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David, you have an oxymoron here. <<<personal relationship with God/Jesus really>>> How can a personal relationship with Jesus be real?

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It is akin to the personal relationship you could form from believing that something that does not exist becomes real in your mind, and you then wallow in this non existent being, and sing crawling songs about him to piss in his pocket, give him at least 10% of your income, get down on your knees and worship this
egotistical fairy tale ghost, and waste the rest of your life in a fantasy dream world.

madmac Level 7 June 12, 2019

So when out Lord said, "I am the truth and the light" or I am the alpha and omega, or I am the light of the world, do you feel this might have been a bit egotistical?

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I have a personal relationship with Geoffrey, my teddy bear. I talk to him, he communicates with me (in his own way). I take him with me, most of the time and he brings me joy.

Of course I can also see Geoffrey! He's not invisible!!

😀

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A personal relationship with God is simply a fantasy -- like Jimmy Stewart's relationship with the fantasy bunny "Harvey." It enables true believers to feel personal support and security that is simply false.

Then they end up here!

@DavidLaDeau hopefully!

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I don't have one. I have a personal relationship with myself. I'm not saying I'm a god but I'm saying to know one's self is the key.

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I would comparebit to having a personal relationship with an imaginary unexisting friend that some children have but eventually abandon when they realuze it ain't real and it ain't there for you at all.

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The same as having a relationship with a tin of Altoids only the Altoids are better.😉

And the altoids exist.

@Emerald quite tasty also 😁

3

I don't have relationships with imaginary creatures -- except of course my unicorn.

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Call by nickname paingod for the lovely times

bobwjr Level 10 June 9, 2019
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Like many have said, I find it hard to believe that an imaginary thing is "personal". That said, I could see some residual good coming out of a belief like that. I could see someone gain in confidence or belief in self because some imaginary friend spurs you on. Unfortunately, from my perspective, this sometimes turns into a kind of megalomania or something like that.

I don't know why this cracks me up but a "personal" imaginary friend?

3

i've never had a relationship with an imaginary thing. when i was a kid i remember other kids (maybe one or two) that had an imaginary friend. i never got it. BUT i have been thinking about how a religious person may not want to be with an atheist because it may jeopardize their personal relationship with god. i've just been thinking how ridiculous it is to have a more important relationship with 'god' as opposed to having one with an actual person. i think maybe they get that tingly feeling when thinking about god. like thinking of jumping off a cliff gives me that tingly feeling. i can think of shit and get a tingly feeling. i'm betting that feeling is what a lot of ppl confuse with feeling god's presence... which is only a mind thing. i digress

That is disturbing, My X-wife treated her God like a God and me like Satan. Her pretend relationship was more important.

@DavidLaDeau yea that IS disturbing that somebody will put an imaginary thingy above a living person. and you seem like a supercool dude (from your videos).

i am told that when i was a very small child i had an invisible friend, possibly a rabbit, and i got upset when someone sat down on the swing next to mine because that person had sat on my invisible rabbit. until i was 15 i had a different invisible friend i called "god," but i wasn't a fanatic about it. this was just someone who witnessed the hardships i was going through. i never expected him to do anything about it. i just wanted a witness (i was an abused child). god wasn't a terribly important part of my life, though, and when i realized what i had suspected all along -- that there was no such personage -- it wasn't especially traumatic.

g

@SeeCanU Thank you! I just try to be real and empathetic. Though i do love a bit of satire!

@genessa I actually thought that God was real. Then I grew out of it.

@DavidLaDeau well, i guess i did too, until age 15, but it just wasn't a big, important part of my life. i don't even know how much i believed that he was watching. it was really more like a game, or a wish.

g

@genessa he knows when you are sleeping... he knows when you're awake...he knows if you've been bad or good and he knows when you've jacked off.... wait that's santa clause.. i hope jacking off is good!! santa skips my house 😟 .. wtf am i doing?????

@DavidLaDeau
Mental illness is more rampant than any one believes!
It is disguise as religious faith!

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I've never had a relationship with any God or religion because I wasn't raised to. By the time I was forced by my grade school to go to church, I already had serious doubts about all religion.

I am happy it went that way for you.

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A bad LSD trip!!???

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Please explain how someone has a personal relationship with a nonmaterial object or being they cannot see or touch, and that they only "hear" within their mind. I believe I may have a more personal relationship with the chair I sit in since I can see it, can touch it, and can hear it when I sit down on it. It is a comfortable chair that attractive given the decor of the room it sits in.

My veiw of the personal relationship with God is influenced by reports of Nicholas Epley's research reported in Discover magazine.
[blogs.discovermagazine.com]

Thank you, i will check it out. The personal relationship with nothing IS in fact ridiculous, the key is making it obvious to those who believe it as i did as a child indoctrinated into fundamentalism.

@DavidLaDeau - I will be interested to see what you come up with on your Youtube channel.

A personnal relationship with something nonmaterial. I suppose those people call that spirituality. To me, it only looks like imagination.

3

No such relationship, pure imagination, & wishful thinking.

Hosh never expected to hear that from the likesnof you! Ha! Ha!

@DavidLaDeau Hmmm, what would you expect of me?

@Lilac-Jade Hey! Look I have hecklers that say I'm a troll, Don't know what site I'm on or just trying to get famous on my YouTube channel! Heck I was scared to talk when I first met you on the other site years ago. How far I have come!

@DavidLaDeau I feel I said something wrong.

@Lilac-Jade Noooooo! Just look at some of the comments! They are actually funny! Your always the best!

@DavidLaDeau Ok, if you say so.

2

Let's establish something here. First, all the attributes given to the Big Guy in the Sky and his Kid came from the minds of the folks writing the books and the ideas in the NT are not new. They originated long before writing came on the scene. Then, when folks learned how to record their ideas, they started putting together stories that bubbled up through the OT to the NT. So, whatever we find in the books has already been adjusted, massaged, and juggled for a few hundred years (maybe even a few thousand).

Now we have all these stories defining the character of the Heavenly Honcho and later his bastard son that came from the minds of men. Naturally, everything we discover about these characters is strangely familiar to us. Somehow this seems magical to us. The folks who were scribbling these ideas down said something on the order of, "Hey, this mystical man of ours has to have super powers, ya know?"

Anyway, all this tinkering around and imagining and puffing up made it so that no one could even begin to relate to these bigger than life, more perfect than perfect critters who can wipe us all out on a whim and have a couple of times. Now we're supposed to have a 'real' personal relationship with them? First they rely on scaring us to death and now they want us to be all lovey dovey.

A lot of messing with the statements in the holy books has transpired to get to that one. In the old days, say back about 70 or 80 years ago and before there was no talk about warm fuzzy relationships. There was a lot of fire and brimstone and spare the rod, spoil the child going on, but cozy relationships were of the world stuff. The most they had managed to do was avoid the stoning stuff. This love and serve is all new from the apologists who have been doing their thing with the writings to suit softer folk.

I'm sorry, what was your question again?

2

Here is the video that I ended up making, I hope you folks like it!

Hyper-religiosity! Yes, more emphasis should be placed in the mental health community for that possibility in those with mental health issues caused by what you describe.

God is a literary character, a metaphor for whatever we can conceive is our creative source. When that literary character is seen as a literal entity, by parents, society, governments, etc., it surely is the basis for what you're describing.

When I was a child, I found the "Emperor Has No Clothes" story to be fascinating, and I think it helped me to have better critical thinking skills, prompting me to be skeptical about religion. (The Emperor's New Clothes - Hans Christian Anderson)

Thanks for sharing your story and hopefully it reaches those still perpetuating harmful beliefs.

@altschmerz Thank You! I hope to use the experience to help others form having to go through it!

@altschmerz, @Julie808 Actually and i'm not kidding, I never heard the story until a few years ago. It was not in the Bible!

2

I can't have a proper relationship with myself and other existing people, let alone if I can have it with someone who, probably, doesn't exist...

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