acmilan said:
I dont know about the whol thing about language was invented by humans from a religious perspective, but i do know that God spoke to the first human, so my guess is from a religious view God invented the first language used. Theres not much that God said that we are not allowed to say. The main thing is never to use God's name in vain and never to make vows.
My question is what that and all future languages were designed for. I'd say it was for survival, rather than an accessory that could alter one's destiny. For instance, say you accidentally said something in a language you don't understand that tarnishes god's name. I'm not sure you could call that a sin or anything, especially when the person accidentally said it has been a seeker of god all his/her life. My point is that language is seen like a combination lock, one which would alter/determine your destiny if you got the right/wrong combination(group of words). Which is fine, except the "correct" and "incorrect" combinations are not determined by god-they're determined by priests and the like.
acmilan said:
I dont think the whole "going to church", praying everyday, and saying "thanks" every time you eat something was actually asked of by God, but is the human method of showing they are faithful to him.
I can see that. But why would you need to when you already are a seeker of god and everything else you do already supports that? If god didnt tell you to do it, what makes it (those actions/words) a sign that you have faith? I'd say that regardless of how faithful one is, those actions/words will not further demonstrate or accentuate faith to god.
I dont really belong to any religion, with one of the primary reasons being that most of them literally personify god by comparing god to other humans, whilst at the same time using the facade of language to say stuff like "god is divine, above humans, etc." Praying everyday; saying thanks before meals-in order to show faith to get a decent afterlife...it sounds a bit like when you get sick-i.e take medicine every morning and around meals in order to get better.
It's not as if there's literally a man on the other end of the line saying "Thanks mate, you did your duty today. Here's 5 points for praying today. Once you get to a million points you can come through the pearly gates." Isnt god supposed to be pure? Like the glimmer of hope at the bottom of Pandora's box? The tiny speck of light in the middle of all darkness? I'd think the only thing required in the belief of god is the shedding of all prejudices, values, traditions, ideals, etc in favour of the belief that if you keep yourself open to everything, everntually you'll find that glimmer of light amidst the darkness, so to speak. The fact that there is need of a church and prayer, neither of which were are actually a prerequisite to having faith in god (correct?), suggests to me that more importance has been placed on tradition and "what I know best," rather than an actual search for the creator/god--because let's face it, not many, if any of us knows what/where/ he/she/it is; there's no reason to assume that we do.
The main problem I see is that many religions adopt the "this is what god wants, he is here, and here is what we should do to try to impress him/her," instead of the "we obviously havent found god yet, so let's continue on our lengthy quest" attitude. The former attitude is very celebratory, as if god/allah/the creator has already rid the world of all evil, or at least the fact that with enough prayer and church attendance you have a viable route to paradise after death. The latter attitude suggests that we're all in a bit of a mess right now and should continue a perhaps never-ending quest with the faith that somewhere along that road you might find god.
I'm being over-repetitive here so I'll finish up with one of those "if" stories; If god decided to assume human form and decided to walk into a church in ragged clothing, he may tell them that he/she was god, that he/she never attended church or prayed because he/she was god himself, etc. I can almost guarantee that if he/she did that the more conventional priests would take him/her around and pray for forgiveness or something. I very much doubt any of them would believe a word he/she said. However, if god said the same to a real believer of god on the street, the outcome may be different. Again, I'm trying to illustrate the "I know best" attitude that's being adopted by a lot of the religions.
