God is like a painting of the sky on a window

Discuss arguments for existence of God and faith in general. Any aspect of any orientation toward religion/spirituality, as long as it is based upon a positive open to other people attitude.

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tinythinker
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God is like a painting of the sky on a window

Post by tinythinker » Thu Apr 14, 2011 4:23 pm

"Your Idea of God is like a painting of the sky on a window. To actually see the sky you must wash off the painting. In the same way you must remove your own preconceived ideas of God to actually experience God."
Alan Watts
Adrift in the endless river

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fleetmouse
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Re: God is like a painting of the sky on a window

Post by fleetmouse » Thu Apr 14, 2011 5:35 pm

It's a cute turn of phrase but if it doesn't match your preconceptions how do you know it's God? Maybe by doing away with your ideas about God you're experiencing freedom, nature, the universe. Atheism. :D

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tinythinker
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Re: God is like a painting of the sky on a window

Post by tinythinker » Thu Apr 14, 2011 6:02 pm

fleetmouse wrote:It's a cute turn of phrase but if it doesn't match your preconceptions how do you know it's God? Maybe by doing away with your ideas about God you're experiencing freedom, nature, the universe. Atheism. :D
Atheism is just painting a wall on the window.
Adrift in the endless river

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Re: God is like a painting of the sky on a window

Post by fleetmouse » Thu Apr 14, 2011 6:40 pm

Haha!

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Re: God is like a painting of the sky on a window

Post by moksha » Fri Apr 15, 2011 3:00 am

fleetmouse wrote:It's a cute turn of phrase but if it doesn't match your preconceptions how do you know it's God? Maybe by doing away with your ideas about God you're experiencing freedom, nature, the universe. Atheism. :D
I think Atheism is a preconception.

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fleetmouse
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Re: God is like a painting of the sky on a window

Post by fleetmouse » Fri Apr 15, 2011 7:47 am

Any idea or belief about the world is a preconception once it's held. That's why it's important to challenge ourselves.

Atheists like to challenge themselves. That's why we hang around with Christians. ;)

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Re: God is like a painting of the sky on a window

Post by Metacrock » Fri Apr 15, 2011 10:40 am

tinythinker wrote:
fleetmouse wrote:It's a cute turn of phrase but if it doesn't match your preconceptions how do you know it's God? Maybe by doing away with your ideas about God you're experiencing freedom, nature, the universe. Atheism. :D
Atheism is just painting a wall on the window.
ROTFLOL :mrgreen:

that's Gold Dave, Gold! :!:
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Re: God is like a painting of the sky on a window

Post by Metacrock » Fri Apr 15, 2011 10:44 am

moksha wrote:
fleetmouse wrote:It's a cute turn of phrase but if it doesn't match your preconceptions how do you know it's God? Maybe by doing away with your ideas about God you're experiencing freedom, nature, the universe. Atheism. :D
I think Atheism is a preconception.

Yes that's true. Not to put down Fleet, but the idea expressed sort of based upon the atheist assumption (seems real prevalent) "If I can find a way to question X then X has to be untrue.
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Re: God is like a painting of the sky on a window

Post by Metacrock » Fri Apr 15, 2011 10:46 am

fleetmouse wrote:It's a cute turn of phrase but if it doesn't match your preconceptions how do you know it's God? Maybe by doing away with your ideas about God you're experiencing freedom, nature, the universe. Atheism. :D
He said you have to remove your preconceptions to see the truth, he didn't it correspond to some aspects that are logically and/or universally understood, only that you have to clear them out of the way first.
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Re: God is like a painting of the sky on a window

Post by fleetmouse » Fri Apr 15, 2011 11:32 am

Metacrock wrote:He said you have to remove your preconceptions to see the truth
Ah but the quote isn't about "the truth" in general - it's specifically about an entity referred to with the name God. And my question is, why does this thing we experience after we clear away our preconceptions correspond to the label "God" which we had previously been applying to our preconceptions? Why use that label at all unless some of our preconceptions were at least partially true?

Why not call it Tao, or Nature, or arglebargle?

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