When the sage points at the moon, the fool looks at the finger

>When the sage points at the moon, the fool looks at the finger
~ Chinese proverb

Religion is NOT about worshipping a conscious, human-like deity. Those who look at religion, and see an old dude in the sky, are fools.
God is a metahphore for the idea of a transcedent truth, some kind of a universal wisdom. Notice how we personify God as an old man? It's because they are stereotyped as the wisest of people.
This is why early Buddhism, and Islam to this day (pic related), forbid making depictions of God. They don't want to create a finger for the fool to look at.

Consider how in "Romeo and Juliet", Romeo calls Juliet "his sun".
Mainstream debate between theists and atheitsts is akin to that:
>I believe that Juliet is a ginormous ball of hydrogen fusing into helium
>I DON'T believe that Juliet is a ginormous ball of hydrogen fusing into helium
Both are missing the point, just in opposite directions.

Wait do christians think god is man, an old one at that?

Of course not, but Christian God is often presented in art as an old man.
Evenutally fools started to think that theism means worshipping a magical old man in the sky, and an ever-lasting debate was sparked between two groups of people, of which both miss the point.

>do people have varying opinions

>chinese proverb
its a device from Zen lol and has nothing to do with god at all or transcendental reality

Only atheists believe this.

The Gospel of John clearly defines Jesus as the spoken word of God. Truth incarnate.

Art is the manifestation of an epiphany.

The books of the bible are much the same.

We believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
begotten from the Father before all ages,
God from God,
Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made;
of the same essence as the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary,
and was made human.
He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered and was buried.
The third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again with glory
to judge the living and the dead.
His kingdom will never end.
And we believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Lord, the giver of life.
He proceeds from the Father and the Son,
and with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified.
He spoke through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church.
We affirm one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look forward to the resurrection of the dead,
and to life in the world to come. Amen.

Is the Nicene Creed a "corrupted" form of Christianity then? Was there some primal, true version when it wasn't taken seriously that God exists? When would this hypothetical Christianity have taken place?

I wouldn't concern myself too much with Chrisitianity. It's just a Jewish mind trick to make the world believe they are the God's Chosen
People.

Other religions are garbage though. Christianity is a continuation of greek philosophy and directly led to the invention of formalized logic, naturalist metaphysics and modernity itself. I can't pretend to believe in some eastern claptrap that isn't even based on Aristotle.

I agree with this, I used to be a militant atheist because the idea of a sky man with magical powers that defied all scientific laws was absolutely absurd. As I read more I gradually came to understand that wasn't what God was. I believe in God now, if only in the role of the cosmological creator.

>Christianity is a continuation of greek philosophy and directly led to the invention of formalized logic, naturalist metaphysics and modernity itself.
1. Christian thinkers just developed on a rich ancient Greco-Roman tradition
2. Just because many thinkers and mathematicians lived in predominantly-Christian countries, doesn't mean their achievements can be ascrbied to Christianity

> I can't pretend to believe in some eastern claptrap
To me Christianity is "eastern claptrap". Is Israel not considered eastern anymore?

You are nothing but a modification of God's attributes expressing themselves out of the necessity of their being.

Roman philosophy was shit lol.
The real developments on the Greeks were all literally achieved by Catholic monks.

this is true, all post-culture stage philosophy (AKA Magian Rome) is useless

The first treatise on formal logic, mathematics and geometry was made by Euclid in 3rd century BC.
Aristotle died in 322 BC, Plato in 347 BC.
The atomic theory comes from the greek word "atomos" and was first proposed by Leucippus in 5th century BC.
If I wanted to follow your logic, I could say >Greco-Roman paganism is the relgiion - it birthed science and philosophy as we know them
and I would actually be right.

This is something the Church Fathers had to grapple with. It was obvious the pagan philosophers had done some good stuff, but they didn't worship the Abrahamic God, the source of all wisdom. It was reconciled by saying that God partially revealed truth to the pagans and partially to the jews, with Jesus being the ultimate fulfillment of both systems.

Christians quite literally worship a man. They claim that a man is God. They claim God - the Creator above every created being - is both father and son. There's a reason why God is depicted as an old man in the West - because the Christian pagans have made Him an old man.

of course you describe god with metaphors, thats what metas for

Early buddhism doesn't have a god.

>god is a metaphor for truth
For xou that may be but when people discuss god they generally discuss a personal sentiment being. You either ignoring or not understanding that doesn't make you look superior but inferior.

>Early buddhism doesn't have a god.
Yes, they forbid making depictions of Buddha. I allowed myself to make such a simplification. Hope it doesn't offend you.

>when people discuss god they generally discuss a personal sentient being.
I know, I've addressed that in the OP.

I don't quite understand what you're getting at. Christians worship Jesus, who they believe to have been kind of an incarnation of the omnipresent, eternal, omnipotent Creator God. They hardly worship a "man".

How did jesus die if hes god? How can he be his own father. Did jesus create adam then? Did jesus create his own mother who birth him whilst being his own father. Did he tell gabriel to tell mary that shes pregnant with himself?

Jesus is a man, and is seperate from God. Trinitarianism is polytheism.

>Christians worship Jesus, who they believe to have been kind of an incarnation of the omnipresent, eternal, omnipotent Creator God. They hardly worship a "man".
They believe him to be both fully divine and fully human. So no matter how you look at it, yes, they worship a man.
>b-but it's a man who is also God!
Yeah, that's what everyone who worships a man says.

God is not transcendent. Fuck off, gnostic.
Nope. Fuck off, pagan.

Oh look, a whole bunch of garbage. Off yourself please.