Wednesday 27 March 2013


 I find that the Golden rule [ which may have started in Greek, Egyptian or Persian philosophy ] helps me when applied to people's imagined gods.
 Like Isaac Asimov's "rules for robots " we could do with rules for gods :
 " The gods shall treat humans as they would wish to be treated if they were humans ",
 " The gods shall do no harm to humans, nor by inaction let suffering befall humans ".
 " The gods shall not judge that they be not judged "
I think that Jesus is mostly fictional but how would Jesus have a judgment day if he said do not judge that you be not judged, it would be completely hypocritical.
The N.T. runs two different ideas about it's gods. There is a skeleton of best internal principles Matt 7v12-golden rule and Romans 13v10- love does no harm, which you could say was the bones of a loving figure then there is the external storyline which is a phantom of a Judgment day god like Osiris or Hades. The two ideas completely contradict and are incompatible but are mixed throughout the N.T.
The storyline of the N.T. fiction has been written in a way which is not consistent with the Golden Rule. People just need to take the best bits of the bible and, like a mirror, shine them back at the imagined gods and they will disintegrate. The best ethical bits can dispel the fantasy of supernaturalism.- how come the angels don't give new antibiotic technology- cause they are imaginary.
I agree with Victor J Stenger, " Cosmic God is a failed hypothesis "
But I like the idea of wisdom commons- the focus on moral core - imagining best practice.
If you realize that " God " is just a projection of yourself then you can modify it to be a model of how you would like to live.
"Trusting doubt " lists the mentions of Golden rule in each religion

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