"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Suppose you have never seen a tiger cub. You were born and brought up in a city, while spending most of your time in education and in preparation for your future career. Your only interest is in softwares and in technology.
One of your close friends comes back from 'the Tiger Temple', which is in Thailand. He has fallen in love with tigers and tiger cubs. He shows you the pictures that he took there. His eyes brighten up whenever he speaks about them. You realize an unspeakable love that has grown within him for these creatures. Now here is the thing: Whenever you hear him sounding the word "tiger cubs" ~ the only image that pops up in your mind is that of some vicious and moving 'multicolored balls of fur' (tiger cubs). You even start to consider your friend a bit mad because he seems to appreciate something which is completely 'invisible' to you ~ in the young members of a brutal species (tigers).
You advise your friend that he should consult a psychiatrist. Hearing this, your friend advises you to visit the Tiger Temple of Thailand.
You spend the first few days observing these little creatures. You ask: 'What is so special about these animals?'. But one day, one of these tiger cubs come to you and fall asleep in your lap. That day, a change takes place inside you. You discover something that you didn't know before. You too fall in love with tiger cubs.
I'm trying to convey a point here. Most people who do not like "God" ~ or dislike the whose issue of the reality of "Its" existence when they hear the word "God" ~ do not perceive the reality that stands behind and connected to that word. "God" is merely a word. But there is a reality behind it, just as there is a reality behind the word "tiger cubs".
It is true that we do not know about this entity ("God") in detail, yet. But it is equally true that human beings are capable of perceiving it up-to a certain extent.
Unfortunately, there is no "temple tiger" and not even a "Thialand". There is no cub to fall asleep in your lap. The whole thing is an imaginative but photoshopped picture designed to elicit an emotional reaction in the viewer.
I trust you see the point; there is nothing real about the whole god thing, at least nothing you can show anyone. You can't even produce that photoshopped picture, but must rely on words and manipulation to convince anyone your god is real. You cannot show any reality behind the notion, and no one can veritably perceive or experience it - just the emotions you have manipulated them to produce. What you experience - up to a point - is nothing but your own emotions that ascribe to a god and endeavor to raise in others as well.
There is nothing real about the love between a human being and a tiger. In the sense that you can't convince anyone about it when they do not want to be convinced about it.
I hope that you see the point: the existence of the 'Temple tiger', or the existence of 'Thailand', or the reality of 'a tiger cub falling asleep in your lap' ~ doesn't necessarily convince someone of the love and intimate relationship between a person and a tiger cub.
Oh, I don't know; both you and the tiger are quite visible, as are your reactions to each other. Reactions which indicate love.
But do note that I did not reference your love, just the existence of a make believe entity from another universe. One person can love another, or an animal, or themselves, or the memory of one that has died, and even an imaginary being. Love thus isn't in question; just the existence of a god and the claim that it can be experienced or perceived.
"Oh, I don't know; both you and the tiger are quite visible, as are your reactions to each other. Reactions which indicate love."
~ How do 'reactions' indicate love?
I would imagine a person of faith wouldnt have to ask that question.
A new surprise every day...
Sight Required To Believe?
"I read a question earlier today that for some unknown reason compared "God" and "Wind". The poster of the question asked that if people do not believe in god because they cannot see him, why do they believe in wind if they cannot see it?
First of all, I do not need to see wind in order to know it exists because I can feel it. As it turns out however, I CAN see wind, but only under certain conditions (such as a tornado). I can also see the effects of wind on trees, skyscrapers, grass, etc. Even better, I can create wind myself by flapping my hands or waving a small plate back and forth. So even if I were not able to sometimes see wind, I can still see its effects and can even make some myself, but technically I shouldn't think it exists because I cannot see it. That is akin to saying human beings do not exist to blind people because blind people cannot see anything, even though they can clearly feel and hear other people."
http://link10103.hubpages.com/hub/Seein … To-Believe
Wonder if HP would find it a legitimate cause for reporting someone on the grounds of advertising other people's hubs without permission, especially when it has nothing to do with what is being said.
by hecate-horus 12 years ago
Don't you think it's silly to debate about the existance of God?It's called Faith people! You either have it or you don't. I'm sick of seeing all these questions and forums about proofing the existance of a Supreme Being. It's a waste of time and effort.
by SirDent 10 years ago
Truth? or not?
by Chasuk 12 years ago
Specifically, the existence of Yahweh as he is typically conceived: the omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, omnibenevolent Creator of the universe?Note: When I say "empirically," I am asking whether you believe that his existence can be proved _without_ resorting to faith.
by Stump Parrish 10 years ago
I refuse to prove that I exist, says God, for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.But," says Man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway isn't it? It proves you exist, and so therefore, you don't," "Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and...
by The Grey Wolf 14 years ago
I feel I need to ask these questions just to see what you all think and maybe get a good discusion going.What is the meaning of life? Why are we here? Why are things the way they are? Where did god come from? He can't always have been there. Are there more of him? If so where are they? Does the...
by Neil Coulson 11 years ago
Is it wrong NOT to believe in God?For every positive there is a negative, so if you do not believe in God, there would be no Devil. If there is no Devil, would this world be a better place?
Copyright © 2024 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2024 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |