Nice response G, and Penty though you seem to align with my own. Cg... Yeah I know...I wish I didn't but yeah, I know
This is going to be portugaling morbid. Feel free to ignore the hell out of this penty, I wouldn't blame you, I'd probably do the same.
Penty, I'm curious as to if you'd like to believe in God purely because you think that it gives life meaning or if, more like myself that it gives death meaning? I ask not to pry but because it's something I've been really struggling with as suicide feels right around the corner for me about now. As some of the members here will attest (G and cg in particular but others who've looked at various things I've posted), I've been hugely unhappy for a long time, I've got mental illness in some sort of form though classifying it is difficult which is fine by me as I don't like 'boxes' anyway. I really started to look at belief when I got the feeling that these will be my last weeks and I'm frankly terrified of death. Which is why I've changed my stance from 'atheist' to 'I goddamn hope there's a god'.
Not trying to provoke anything here because I know both belief and non-belief is very much personal but I have a question for you G, if you'll permit (and of course you can say no).
Why does a God have to be anything more than one who set everything in motion? And I'd really love it if you could expand on both your personal reason why God has to be either unloving or omnipotent and why 'he' isn't both anyway. Explanation: From what you've written I take it that you see God as *having* to be involved with day to day or even century to century life. In contrast: my personal belief is that God, if there is such a being, lets everything unravel at whatever pace it happens at and that 'he' is playing an impossibly long game where humankind is on course for something we at our current level of knowledge can't imagine yet. Whether that be 'true' immortality, 'true' peace or something else we don't have a name for.
As for my other thing - Loving someone or something takes so many forms wouldn't you agree? Paraphrasing here from quotes I've heard in the mists of time somewhere: to love something you have to set it free; you have to make it your own; you have to give it everything you have; you have to let it make it's own way.... You get my point, it's all pretty contradictory what love means. And to get overly personal, I've had one experience I'd call love and that was between myself and someone who didn't care for anything or anyone Love and omnipotence doesn't necessarily mean doing everything to help them, as far as I can see, though you can argue otherwise of course.
As an aside: this is a subject I am hugely open to discourse (unlike a lot of political stuff (for instance), despite my best efforts: I really do try to look at it from every angle but I'm jaded by my experience and whathaveyou, I know). Probably because I have no real opinions on the matter, the only being: I'd *love* to have full confidence in a God having a master plan for us but I don't quite believe it yet.
This was a really lengthy post, much more than I meant it. I'll stop for now but I'd love it if at least someone would continue this discussion