When I was TBM, I was actually afraid of God. I was afraid I would be punished for the slightest "transgression" (or a loved one would suffer due to my transgression). When I first left the church, I kind of cringed for awhile, waiting for the shoe to drop and punishment to befall me for leaving. When nothing happened, I slowly began to see God much more as a friend than a judging, punishing being. Prayers, in the form that I offer them now, come much easier to me. I don't believe we need all the formality - we can just talk to Him, like a friend.

I don't believe God cares about all of the picky things Mormons care about. I am not sure exactly what I believe, but I doubt God cares which church you go to, what you drink, how you address him, what kind of underwear you have or any of the other things Mormons care about.

I don't know if God exists or not, but if there is a Supreme Power, I doubt he/she/it cares very much about petty little things like religion.

I disagree. IF a god exists, and it went through the trouble of creating us it must have had its reasons for doing so. (Unless it's a machine)

If it had its reasons for creating us it wouldn't make sense for it suddenly not to care about our actions, world views, church attendance, underwear, etc.

I agree that it probably wouldn't punish or reward us based on those things, but it would certainly take notice. Don't you think?

I picture God a little more along the lines of the Force in Star Wars. A creative force is not necessarily aware of us at all.
If we're talking about God as a human-like Father figure, it makes sense that God would at least notice what we do, but not necessarily care one way or the other, the same way you would notice what your kid's favorite color is without feeling the need to punish them for choosing red instead of yellow.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2011 10:09AM by sexismyreligion.

When I was TBM, I saw God as this loving father who cared about every little detail of my life and was constantly working things for my good. That was the message that was always taught, and along with it was the attitude that you didn't want to disappoint THAT god. Your faithfulness was the difference between you getting what you needed or not, but he would always be quick to help you IF you humbled yourself.

This view of god is part of why I lost my faith. I became disillusioned by answers and help that weren't coming, and by trying to make sense of the challenges we'd been given. I did "my part," but he didn't seem to be doing his.

Now I see god as our creator, but one who ultimately is not all that concerned about our lives. I kinda feel like we are just ants in his giant ant farm, here for observation. Sure, he shakes the cage from time to time to see what we'll do, but otherwise, I think we're on our own here.

Just for my own understanding: you think a being capable of creating ants is also incapable of knowing what the ants will do when he shakes the cage?

Sometimes I view god as a petulant child and we're his oft abused pets. Perhaps this is just because I'm mad at him. I've been mad for a while now...

So I suppose in my ant farm scenario, it's less that he doesn't know what will happen when he shakes the cage, but more that he wants to see what we'll do with what he gives us.

If god knows beforehand what we are going to do, why bother doing it? Or why do something that he knows will have poor results. These are the things I never quite understood about the omnipotent god concept. I guess it's all supposed to work out in the end--which for many people equates to the next life. My feeling is, I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE NEXT LIFE--and isn't it unfair anyway to have our entire eternity based on this brief mortality where our minds are veiled and we have limited understanding. Again, I have issues with god (the reason I won't give him a capital G. He's lost proper noun worthiness in my eyes).

To be clear I have stopped trying to determine the nature of a being that has presented no evidence of it's existence. However if you chose to take a deist point of view, that God created everything but now is uninterested. Than you must consider the possibility that this being who is capable of creating everything did it on accident and it has been kicking its self ever since.

I was indoctrinated my whole life to fear/respect/love/honor/obey the Mormon concept of god, but I never saw him once. I imagined that I was influenced by him a few times. I gave him credit for several happy coincidences. I prayed to him but never got any answers that weren't self manufactured. Still, I've never seen him and I'm very wary of anybody who claims they have. I stay far away from people that claim to speak for him now too.

My conception of God (if there is a God) has totally changed from what is was as a Mormon. It's a lot closer to the 'god of the philosophers' that the LDS so love to mock. In Mormonism God is viewed as some kind of super being, perhaps the most powerful being in the universe, but still just one entity along side other intelligences and matter. For me the only God that would be worthy of that name would have to be the source of all other existence, the whole First Cause thing. The most fundamental characteristic of God, what would make God God, would be aseity. God would be the end of the explanatory chain. This quote captures the meaning of that term for me:

"Essentially, aesity means self-existence. Aesity explains the metaphysical nature of God as a purely self-existent being that exists in complete actuality. God is not a being that is created by another god; neither does God create himself into existence. Rather, God has always existed as an unchanging, completely actualized being. God is his own existence as well as his own essence. God has his Being of himself and to himself such that he is absolute being and the definition of existence. Since God’s essence is his nature and God’s existence is the same as his essence it follows that God is existence."

This sort of God may or may not have anything to do with the God of traditional religions like Christianity or Judaism. It's entirely possible to be a theist/deist and not subscribe to any conventional religion or to rely on supernatural revelation. The philosopher David Conway in his book 'The Rediscovery of Wisdom' argues for this kind of philosophical theism that relies on reason rather revelation for understanding God and the world. In his view it is important to disconnect theism from what he sees as the discredited myths of revealed religions and restore it to its proper place in philosophical discourse. I disagree with some of his analysis, but he still makes some interesting points in my opinion.

The God of Mormonism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc. is a mean vengeful double talking contradicting being that I decided long ago I wanted nothing to do with. In my journey out of the morg I did a lot of study and thinking about the God in the books these religions consider holy and that God was not a very pleasant being.

For me, if there is a God, that God is nothing like the one described in most monotheistic religions. My view point is this. I have 4 kids and I love them more than I have words to express. I don't care what they do I will always love them period. My kids have done stupid things, even so bad as DUIs and one even caused my youngest to lose his hand because he was driving drunk. Even with all the things my kids have done I have never stopped loving them or wanting to be with them. Sure, I have been disappointed with them at times, but never have they done something that would make me want to cast them out of my life forever. Now, if I am just a simple man and I love my kids like this, how can one expect a perfect being like God to love us any less?