The God slot

It's nine years old ~ I found the magazine in a box while having a "spring" [towards the end of the rainy season, in fact] clear out ~ but I'd be surprised if much is different now.

The complexities of a simple, and almost universal, belief

WHEN Homer Simpson opted out of church once, staying home to watch football and eat waffle-batter, he dreamed that God peeled off the roof of his house and appeared, furious, in the TV room. According to a new survey, 31% of Americans see God that way. He (always he) is wrathful and ever-watchful; He wants his followers to stop sinning, and thinks government should be promoting Him. In the South, 44% of people go in fear of His lightning bolts.

The survey, by Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion in Waco, Texas, via Gallup, found four broad views of God in America. Homer's Authoritarian God is the most popular. There then follow, in descending order of intrusiveness, Benevolent God (23%, rising to 29% in the Midwest), who still gives orders but will forgive, rather than smite; Critical God (16%, but 21% in the relativist East), who watches the world but does not intervene; and lastly Distant God (24% ), a cosmic force without interest in human matters. This God is especially popular in the wide open West, with its huge views of the stars.

Baylor is a Baptist school with a strong evangelical slant, but only 15% of Americans call themselves evangelicals. Many more (47% ) prefer the fervent “Bible-believing”. About 11% profess no religious ties at all; but 63% of those still believe in a higher power, and only 5% dare embrace the title “atheist”. Belief in God, or some equivalent force, comforts more than 90% of the population. And 19% agree that “God favours the United States in international politics”.

http://www.economist.com/node/7912676

In so far as this survey created slots for the American Christians it was aimed at, which one would you see yourself in?

Originally posted by FMF
It's nine years old ~ I found the magazine in a box while having a "spring" [towards the end of the rainy season, in fact] clear out ~ but I'd be surprised if much is different now.

[quote][b]The complexities of a simple, and almost universal, belief

WHEN Homer Simpson opted out of church once, staying home to watch football and eat waffle-batter, he d ...[text shortened]... created slots for the American Christians it was aimed at, which one would you see yourself in?[/b]

Authoritarian God. I've always pictured God like the 'Uncle Sam' poster.....the older man looking angry as ever, with his finger pointed squarely at me....saying "you are a sinner!! You will always be nothing but a sinner, and therefore, you will be spending eternity in hell". And I say back "but God, you made me this way....is there anything I can do to avoid this eternal, flesh eating hell"? Yes He says...."You must love my son Jesus (who is really Me)......and then you will be spared.

If a man came to my door and pointed a gun at my face and said "you will love my daughter and marry her, or I will shoot you dead"........guess who my new wife is.

I am finding it hard to believe that the Creator of the universe is gonna hold a gun to our heads (hell), and force us to love His Son Jesus. It is not really love then. It is not our free will to love Jesus if it's done to avoid an eternity of punishment.

I would like to think that God knew what He was doing when He sent Jesus to die on the cross. That ALL humans would be saved, ALL. Regardless of your faith or belief system. If you knew you were going to Heaven, and loved Jesus anyway.....then that love is real, and freely given. I appreciate what Jesus Christ did for me. I want to be thankful and to love Him because of His sacrifice......not because the threat of hell is looming over my head. That is the only scenario that is beginning to make sense to me, no matter what is in the Bible. God is greater than the words of any Bible.

Originally posted by FMF
It's nine years old ~ I found the magazine in a box while having a "spring" [towards the end of the rainy season, in fact] clear out ~ but I'd be surprised if much is different now.

[quote][b]The complexities of a simple, and almost universal, belief

WHEN Homer Simpson opted out of church once, staying home to watch football and eat waffle-batter, he d ...[text shortened]... created slots for the American Christians it was aimed at, which one would you see yourself in?[/b]

Coincidentally Lemon Lime has asked me in the spectators in hell thread:

"It seems as though you are not a bit concerned over whether or not there actually is a God who is watching and recording this."