believing in an imaginary friend or god

[circuitboardsushi]

he

I just read over the hedge in todays paper

[sanddbox]

Out of body experiences are actually a wide-spread phenomenon. There are near death experiences as well and throughout history various supernormal visitors have been observed and documented. I don't believe there is any kind of psychological treatment for this sort of thing though I think there are support groups. To date none of the experiences have been proven "real" but that doesn't mean there isn't some kind of real force behind it all.

I actually had one.

On Saturdays I would go to this warehouse that would blast Christian Screamo (screaming emo, make fun of me now). We would dance and sign and at the end our ears would ring and we would leave beat but happy for loving god. Sometimes I see one of the more spiritual members lying on the floor. I got the distinct impression that they weren't sleeping. Someone would say they are "god-searching." There was speaking in tongues and all the stuff you might expect from a group of progressive young Christians.

One night after I had danced a very long time and worked myself into a kind of trance I now know is called gnosis. Gnosis is considered one step below an out body experience, the mental state is usually attained with meditation. Dance is considered a dangerous route to gnosis and is generally only practiced in primitive cultures. A medicine or rain dance gets the medicine man into the proper mental state.

As I moved in beat with the music I let my emotions flow. I dropped to my knees in worship of God's glory. I felt the agony of physicality and wanted nothing more than spiritual transcendence into the perfect final form. I felt like a beam of light exploding out of the top of my head. I was on a rocket-ride to a higher plane. I looked down and saw a thin cord connecting me to my physical body (this is a nearly universal to OBE's). What happened next I could never have been prepared for.

Now let me say that I have been having conversations with god since I was five. I have also had conversations with other spiritual beings booth good and bad. I never had a normal imaginary friend, just the spiritual kind. Some people thought I was a little crazy but it seemed natural to me, and I just figured that maybe some people weren't equipped with the same senses I was.

I had a face to face with the master of the universe. He/She was not happy. You see he made it vary clear to people not throw his name around for their causes. Yet people were consistently dragging his name through mud. The descendants of this or that brother claimed that they were the ones chosen by god and decided to wage millennia of holy war on each other until the other agreed or was exterminated. During a peaceful lull when polytheistic fascists dominated the planet his son decided to vacation here only to be crucified and turned into a scapegoat for the guilt complex that people cant seem to deal with, and that actually became the dominate religion of the world. The only earth religious philosophy that was making any sense anymore he told me was atheism. As for particular ethnic groups he couldn't care less.

He was going to be taking a leave of absence from this region of space for while and see how humanity does on its own for a billion years or so. He wanted to thank me for the nice conversations we had all those years. He also wanted me to speak to people on his behalf.

"Tell them that they need to make rational decisions and stop using unseen things to make excuses for their behavior. Tell them not to trust an ancient book or some authority figure but try to figure things out on their own. You cant expect some rapture to uplift you, you must uplift yourselves."

He told me that once the Olympians and various other deities realize that hes gone they will probably swoop in to exploit us again. Human civilization is really the result of a breach of first contact protocol. We never figured fire out on our own due to an interstellarly infamous bloke by the name of Prometheus. Since then its been a series of questionable decisions of the space faring parties involved. To their credit they didn't simply try to erase their mistake but instead tried protect the new intelligent life they "discovered."

Of course the situation quickly became a quagmire with various tribal humans now engaged in a technological arms race for survival and dominance. The supreme being stepped in latter to try to contain the situation but his efforts eventually led to more warfare.

"I need a break from you kids. There are other more promising civilizations out there that need my attention. Be careful of the other races, some of them could con you out of your carbon bodies if you are not careful. Once your civilization is stage I they could get away with it too if you let them. What humanity needs now is a large dose of healthy skepticism. Its a dangerous universe out there but I cant hold your hands to the end of time."

"About these other races...?" I asked.

"Don't worry to much. Light only travels at a measly 2.36x10^12 cubits per hour. The nearest ones are few systems away ,you have some time. I cant guarantee that you won't get wiped out by an asteroid or something. People seem to think I keep track of every giant rock in space.

"Look it's been nice but I am afraid you're out of time. Be my missionary for atheism will you?" God was fading out.

I guess Ill just follow this cord back. I reached for my spiritual naval. Something was very wrong. No cord. I'm in trouble.

The bottom fell out. It was like falling in high gravity. Then I was back on earth in my body. I wasn't moving. Hell I stopped breathing. The retarded music was so loud and the stupid light effects, no one realized that I was dying.

Come on breath dammit. Wake up. This is your consciousness. Remember me? I don't know how long it took for me to resume breathing and regain control of my body. It felt long but I survived.

I read Niche and study evolution now.

That was similar to my experience. In mine, I was sleeping, when all the sudden I woke up. Before me was God, dressed in only a thong and pink bunny slippers. His mouth didn't move, yet I could hear him talking in my mind (in fact, he and the other voices were having a nice chat). He told me that I had to become an atheist to prevent catholics from raping young boys.

The end.

[dark159123]

*extremely long story*

why should this be real? have you ever seen "The Matrix"? lets imagine we were all linked up to a giant computer which run a realistic fictional world, this computer is linked up to our brain and blocking every other signal then those transmitted by this computer. so when your nose is sending, let's say 101010 as electrical impulses because it can smell the semi toxic liquid you're lying in, the computer overrides this neural input with, let's say 010101 which the brain interprets as a big juicy beef, this would be real, because this is what you sense...

so for you this happened, no matter if it's real or not.
i guess that paradox is the best way to explain what i wanted to say

[Dredric1]

---

"them as in the humans will be destroyed and not tortured"

and

"yes fire comes down from heaven and destroys the people not tortures them in hell"

Please see:

"They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever."

And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

the devil the beast and the false prophet are the only ones to be tormented day and night for ever and ever and they are not humans

[Vulpine]

---

"them as in the humans will be destroyed and not tortured"

and

"yes fire comes down from heaven and destroys the people not tortures them in hell"

Please see:

"They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever."

And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

the devil the beast and the false prophet are the only ones to be tormented day and night for ever and ever and they are not humans

And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Rev 14:11

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. Revelation 21:8

You can split hairs with biblical interpretations all day...

[Dredric1]

And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. Rev 14:11

it just says that the smoke will ascendeth up for ever and ever and never says that they will have no rest forever and ever
just saying that when they are alive that there will be no rest as in they will be slaves.

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. Revelation 21:8

it clearly says which is the second death as in they are dead because of the fire and brimstone
and fire and brimstone is the fire that come down from heaven

[dark50killer]

I would hardly disagree with you guys believing in god is the right thing why?
Look around and tell me ,who created all this? George W.Bush?Hitler?.
No so stop that many people use the god is imaginary tag just to dont enter religions and just to dont make a 5minute a day pray.
So people open your slut of eyes and dont be lazzy.
Well maybe somebody like me are down in their own lifes and would like to suicide but you should remember something is soul is owned by god and gave it to you to give it back safe not to waste it by your own hands.
But still i believe in god.
thanks for respecting my Opinion but its true.

[Vulpine]

thanks for respecting my Opinion but its true.

If opinions were true, they wouldn't be called opinions. Your faith is what is called subjective. It has no truth value, and is incapable of having any.

[sanddbox]

I would hardly disagree with you guys believing in god is the right thing why?
Look around and tell me ,who created all this? George W.Bush?Hitler?.
No so stop that many people use the god is imaginary tag just to dont enter religions and just to dont make a 5minute a day pray.
So people open your slut of eyes and dont be lazzy.
Well maybe somebody like me are down in their own lifes and would like to suicide but you should remember something is soul is owned by god and gave it to you to give it back safe not to waste it by your own hands.
But still i believe in god.
thanks for respecting my Opinion but its true.

I had a seizure reading that paragraph. If your thoughts aren't going to be coherent and understandable/readable, don't post them.

Also, your argument depends on the assumption that someone made the earth and that it somehow has to be your god.

[clrkbar]

personally i agree with goatboy, but i would like some religious people to answer this too, as it is important to get the yes sayers to answer the hard questions

I'll be one of those "religious" people for you. In my opinion it comes down to evidence. There is no external evidence for an imaginary friend. There is external evidence for God, at least the Christian God. I suppose the primary source would be the Bible which is historically accurate and bibliographically accurate. But if you don't like that history book, then history has recorded lots of events that mention miracles and God's people and their history. Then there's the creation around us. And the records of Jesus' life and his claims to be God.

A kid might imagine that his imaginary friend created a spaceship in his back yard and he might go tell his parents to have them come see it, but it's not there. It's just in the kid's mind. But God has claimed to do all this stuff and even non-believers have testified to its existence (although they normally disagree on where it came from).

-- Wed Jun 09, 2010 2:07 pm --

I would hardly disagree with you guys believing in god is the right thing why?
Look around and tell me ,who created all this? George W.Bush?Hitler?.
No so stop that many people use the god is imaginary tag just to dont enter religions and just to dont make a 5minute a day pray.
So people open your slut of eyes and dont be lazzy.
Well maybe somebody like me are down in their own lifes and would like to suicide but you should remember something is soul is owned by god and gave it to you to give it back safe not to waste it by your own hands.
But still i believe in god.
thanks for respecting my Opinion but its true.

I hope you are not calling yourself a Christian, because you are making us look bad.
First, your username is dark killer....
Second, as others have said, you aren't making any sense.
Third, saying "thanks for respecting my Opinion but its true" makes you sound like a person that just insists that he is right without giving any evidence.