You sound as if you’re pretty sincere in your beliefs which is nice. So let me ask you - is your god a boy? You refer to it using He, himself, etc. That implies it’s a male.
Beowulf the movie? Oh yes it was a great mythological epic. Beowulf has many battles with monsters. Just look at the movie stars playing the prime characters.Excellent! I'll try to watch it sometime. Unfortunately, it's not on Netflix here in Canada. Or, at the very least, I'll read the poem in its entirety. :)
You sound as if you’re pretty sincere in your beliefs which is nice. So let me ask you – is your god a boy? You refer to it using He, himself, etc. That implies it’s a male.Thanks! I see him as a male in this particular story. In Caleb's he's a male, but also a gender-fluid spirit (i.e. the Holy Spirit). And the reason I see him as male, is mainly because I was brought up imagining him as a male. I'm not trying to insult other religions that view him as female, two-spirit, asexual, etc.
Since the publication of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell’s theory has been consciously applied by a wide variety of modern writers and artists. Filmmaker George Lucas acknowledged Campbell’s theory in mythology, and its influence on the Star Wars films.[1]
I just watched the Youtube clip and wow. The Hero’s journey is literally my life described to a T! Only difference is that I almost died twice instead of just once. I guess the final “battle” will be whether or not I succeed in completing this website in 2022!
Ok, I finished writing it but the moderators here keep marking it as spam and deleting it. -- yonkeyI'm not that fast on the spam key. We don't have 24/7 moderators. We do have an automated spam filter, and it can be unfair and downright brutal. It sometimes leaves things where I can restore them, unspam them, but sometimes I can only see it in a log but it's gone.
In your case, I have to make a guess, you’re new and it’s let you post a lot of links, which is unusual, but it might be adding that up, and then looking at the length of that post and not liking it. Also, now that you’ve posted it and got filtered, it might be comparing the versions and seeing too much similarity and knocking it out for that. WordPress and Akismet don’t release this kind of information.
If you post something I don’t like, I will comment in blue. There is a rule against anyone else using blue for that reason. I think I’m pretty good at making myself my clear, so you’ll know why.
The first two times I posted the text directly (no links). I assumed it was a spam filter because they were getting auto-deleted almost immediately. Maybe some text filter was triggering it?
Sorry I missed something. Are you describing your personal beliefs, or are you discussing a story you wrote under the name Caleb? Or are you disguising your personal beliefs in a blog under the name Caleb, kinda like when someone says “see, I have a friend who thinks xyz…”.
I asked if you thought your god was male. And you replied something about Caleb, distinct from you.
I have 6 distinct views of what/who God is. Those 6 views are represented through the eyes of 6 characters: Caleb, Dylan, Kenna, Zola, Neil and Death.
So far, I’ve only defined God under Caleb and Zola.
Ok, let’s do Kenna’s viewpoint next. Here’s the backstory:
Hers is the closest to an atheist viewpoint. She doesn’t “worship” God, but she respects his energy life-force, qi.
She considers herself the fiery yang to God’s cool-tempered yin.
She’s also God’s biggest critic — analyzing the imagery used in the Adam and Eve tale and questioning the use of a “talking snake”.
In her culture (Eastern), a serpent or dragon is highly respected and almost equivalent to God.
Any thoughts before I write hers up?
I have 6 distinct views of what/who God is. -- yonkeyThat is one of the more interesting things I've heard about this project. Of course, if it's just all a cover for some version of God that will be revealed in the end, then I'll be bummed that I spent my time.
It’s not a cover. I’m here to develop each “instance” of God, and will be releasing the writing for each as is, in 2022, after each one has been discussed and fleshed out.
I’ll do Neil second last, because my personal view of God is that he is my conscience; or scientifically, he’s my superego. But after explaining some psychology background, I’ll explain the website: my inspiration, role models, aspirations.
Still interested?
So, are there any objections to me focusing Kenna’s viewpoint on dualism: Yin and yang - Wikipedia ?
Still interested?Barely. This is the kind of thing that really interests me. I heard a quote the other, I could source it if you'd like, "I'm less interested in what god people believe in and more interested in why people believe in god."
Well… I could tell you exactly why I believe in God and how he “communicates” with me… but I’d come across as insane, or “schizophrenic”. 
That’s why I’m not publicizing that part of the story.
But enough about me. I’m actually interested in the opposite: why non-believers don’t believe in God? I know you gave me your answer, but I’d like to hear others. That way I can address them in the Kenna perspective.
I know one major point of concern is the whole “burning in Hell” aspect. I can work with that and possibly come up with a workaround. But I need to know the true origin of atheism in people first in order to understand and write from that perspective.
One thing I can share is that I went through an atheist phase in my life about 15 years ago, after viewing some YouTube video on Richard Dawkins’ new book at the time “The God Delusion”.
Let’s just say, as a rational person, everything he said made sense… and I went into a dark phase in my life… I’m not sure if other atheists experienced something similar or not but I’d assume so. It wasn’t until 2010 that I saw a YouTube video called “The 10th Dimension”, which suddenly gave me a glimmer of hope. Check it out, it’s trippy!
After that, God started showing me more and more, which made me “connect-the-dots” on every aspect of life. I was Googling and Wikipeding like there’s no tomorrow. It was literally like biting into an apple from the “Tree of Knowledge”.
Unfortunately, it got a little too overwhelming… and… well, there’s a reason why I only post blog entries once a month, and am only planning on releasing this final set in 2022. If I don’t pace myself, this “vocation” will destroy me (in every sense of the word).
That’s why I decided to do this as an “avocation” or a hobby. Just start slow, casually, build piece-by-piece, using my own tone of voice & style. Surprisingly, it worked!
I decided to return to this community again after 15 years. Determined to get the answers I need, but this time, to survive the “darkness”.
It’s not surprising that you have some experience that is behind your belief in God. I just posted something in the philosophy thread about how we put a lot of stock in facts and logic for the reason for our beliefs, but really, it’s more about our whole history and moments in that life.
I’m glad you are asking the question of why atheists are atheists, there are a lot of answers to that.
That you call your years as a non-believer “dark”, says a lot. And that “God started showing me…”
Yeah, I mean it’s one thing to shout something out into space, but another thing when you actually get a response. Then another, and another, etc. Basically it felt like a fountain of unlimited inspiration. It still feels that way but like a lesser, more controlled “faucet”.
Thanks! I’ll check out the Philosophy thread.
Well… I could tell you exactly why I believe in God and how he “communicates” with me… but I’d come across as insane, or “schizophrenic”. That’s why I’m not publicizing that part of the story.If you know that you might come across as benignly insane or schizophrenic, it appears that you are in serious doubt about your own ability to communicate with God. How are we to know what you are even talking about, if you don't dare reveal how you are talking with God?
The point is, how are we to believe anything you do not say, but need place our faith in your ability which you yourself seem to be unsure about.
In science nothing is assumed to be true unless proven or at least hypothesized with some axiomatic mechanism. It is up to the person posing the theory to at least explain the theory.
How are we to know what you are even talking about, if you don’t dare reveal how you are talking with God?It's not really "talking" as revealing through pseudorandomness, inspiration/new ideas, random things people say that resonate, random songs lyrics that speak to my soul, etc.
So, nothing groundbreaking, and I doubt it’s unique to me. But yeah, that’s how he “communicates”.
Me talking to him however, that I will discuss in the Neil entry. Most believers pray, I conversate/debate with him. ?