God and Jesus are only as good as your Parent

Taverner

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Fri Sep-12-08 04:00 PM
Original message

God and Jesus are only as good as your Parent

Face it, when a Christian first creates "God" in their mind, they usually base it on their Father or Father-figure in their life.

I am convinced God does not exist, but even the most devout Christian cannot say they have physically "met" God, so they fill in the cracks with what they think God should be like. That usually amounts to their dad.

So my point is, in your own mind, God is only as good as your Parent. When a Christian (such as Stalin Palin) says they know God's will, they are really saying they know their Dad's Will.

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knitter4democracy

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Fri Sep-12-08 04:08 PM
Response to Original message

1. I disagree.

Considering many in the evangelical church I grew up in had terrible fathers, that theory makes no sense. I could see it if you said the father they wish they'd had or an idealized father figure, but to say that it's how their fathers actually were, it doesn't work for me. Many Christians feel God's love and yet never felt love from their real father or guardians.

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Taverner

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Fri Sep-12-08 04:15 PM
Response to Reply #1

2. "Father Figure"

Someone at some point stepped in and became the father they needed.

Of course, if they didn't, then that person has serious daddy issues, and has built "God" out of what they wished their dad was.

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knitter4democracy

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Fri Sep-12-08 04:37 PM
Response to Reply #2

4. I could see the second one.

The father they wished they'd had. I'm still not entirely buying it, but I can see how that argument would work.

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heidler1

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Fri Sep-12-08 04:27 PM
Response to Reply #1

3. I have noticed that many Christians are very angry with their parents, and never get over it.

Edited on Fri Sep-12-08 04:29 PM by heidler1

These people also tended to be quite dogmatic in their beliefs except for not fulfilling that commandment. Also these people that seem this way exemplify the same faults that they bitch about in their parents.

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knitter4democracy

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Fri Sep-12-08 04:38 PM
Response to Reply #3

5. Depends on the Christian.

I know just as many who love their parents and have good relationships all around. I also know atheists who chose that path because of what their parents did to them growing up that they're still angry about. Availability bias goes both ways.

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Taverner

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Fri Sep-12-08 04:52 PM
Response to Reply #5

6. I dunno, ex-Christian here. Atheist now. Parents were 1 Fundy + 1 Lapsed Catholic

Might I mention the Lapsed Catholic (mom) was of Jewish ethnic descent?

I love my parents, disagree like hell with about 90% of their beliefs.

Did I mention I come from a line of Preachers?

Grandpa on Dad's side was a Preacher and Chaplain in the military.

His father (my great-grandpa) was also a Preacher.

So was his dad.

They were Dutch Reformed.

My brother's a Preacher too - Baptist.

He's for Obama, but definitely Evangelical if not Fundamentalist.

You look for dad in your definition of God.

If you didn't have a God-worthy dad, you make one up.

But its all about the Father-Son disconnect or connect.

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knitter4democracy

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Sat Sep-13-08 02:06 PM
Response to Reply #6

8. Again, availability bias.

My dad's a Deist, I grew up evangelical (chose my mom's church, which pissed my dad off something fierce), am now Eastern Orthodox. I can recite my faith-path, too.

I tend to look more to the Bible and the icons of our church for my definition of God. Not everyone comes to faith from the same direction.

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heidler1

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Fri Sep-12-08 05:11 PM
Response to Reply #5

7. An Atheist makes no commitment to the 10 commandment so he/she gets to judge

the validity of their hate whereas a Christian supposedly has a religious responsibility to love, turn the other cheek and follow the 10 commandments. The point is emotion drives hate in both the committed to religion and the uncommitted.

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knitter4democracy

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Sat Sep-13-08 02:09 PM
Response to Reply #7

9. My point is that the thesis is flawed.

Regardless of the "supposed to"s, some Christians come to the faith out of family situations (either because of it or in spite of it), some atheists leave faith for the same reasons, and some find a whole new path for the same reasons. Saying that Christians and all Christians alone come to the faith purely out of a need for a daddy doesn't take real life into account.

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Rabrrrrrr

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Sat Sep-13-08 04:32 PM
Response to Original message

10. Oh, please. If my God was like my father, I'd be an atheist.

Now, maybe there are a lot of emotionally stunted and intellectually challenged Christians out there who do equate God and Jesus with their fathers (clearly there are many, Palin probably being one of them, and I have a strong feeling that she also has a very unrealistic understanding/memory of what her father was like, and also what her husband is like), but not all.

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