Bliss by Harry Bliss for May 20, 2021

“Does your invisible friend promise eternal life in heaven or threaten you with eternal damnation?”

God is like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny for adults.

For approximately 33 years, He was not invisible.

And equally believable.

Clever for a kid, perhaps, but rather dimwitted for an adult. Invisible friends tend to be personal affairs, and usually (though not openly) admitted to be imaginary. Yet I have the same "invisible friend as a billion or more other people, though as with other friends, he is experienced somewhat differently by different people.

But is he imaginary? I really don’t see it. Where did he come from? If you consider the time and place and culture, no one should have imagined him. While he is described in common Ancient Near Eastern terms, it’s fairly clear that the other deities mentioned are merely reference points: “He’s a little like this god, and a bit like that one, but he’s also different in the following respects…”

He didn’t create us to be his slaves (typical in ANE myths of the creation of humans), but as his image-bearers.

He isn’t tribal—he works through a specific people, but in order to bless everyone. (He actually loves us for some reason.)

He keeps his pants zipped. (Other deities are always seducing or raping somebody.)

More generally, he follows a strict moral and ethical code, and he wants us to follow it too, without regard for race, sex, or ethnicity.

There is no superior God in the background, as there typically is for ANE deities. Like other deities, he does have a royal court of other spirit beings, but he created them and is superior to them. He himself has no origin story; he is simply there, and he always has been.

He’s indivisible.

And it makes you no less childish!

Thanks Harry for sn interesting perspective.

Because YOUR invisible friend is IMAGINARY. Contrary to other believe, while God is invisible, he’s not imaginary. Funny, as a kid, my so-called “imaginary friends” weren’t truly imaginary. Mine would be real people but I would just be pretending they were there. Like if my friends were away, I’d pretend they were with me.

⇧ bookworm

until you can produce proof positive of your god’s existence it isn’t any less imaginary than the kid’s invisible friend. and, fervent as your belief may be, you can’t produce that proof. don’t get me wrong – i don’t mean to be mean, just factual…

Notice the assumption that God, if any, would be male. If gendered, it would seem more likely that the “creator of life” would be female. (BTW: I’m male)

That which is cannot come from that which is not. Every thinking person has known since Play-doh that there has to be something beyond time and space.

Just because you don’t see him…

If the kid’s invisible friend is directing her to behave in certain ways, she might have something else going on…

Precocious kid. I like them.

God’s not invisible, we just can’t see Him in our present form

I don’t understand why Christians think so highly of Jesus dying on the cross so we could be forgiven by God for “our sins”. The death and resurrection of this one man is at the very heart of the Christian faith, but if such a being as God existed, he surely could have simply “forgiven us”. What the death of Jesus suggests is that God is not capable of forgiveness without blood and torture and death… which is pretty damn horrible. But hey, He’s all about love, right?…Right??

God does not force Himself on you. If you choose to ask Him to come into your heart as your Personal Savior, you will be rewarded with the Gifts His Holy Spirit brings.

However, if you choose to believe that he is a myth, then He will let you decide that. Most will choose the latter, sadly. We are too prideful to admit that we are all sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God.

He IS real. I pray that you find Him today. You will never regret it.

My god promised to rid the world of ice giants. Your god promised to rid the world of evil people. I don’t see any ice giants.

i lack the faith to be either a theist or an atheist (yes, atheism is a faith, IMHO, and i’ve met some evangelical atheists.)

i call myself a militant agnostic- i don’t know, and you don’t either.

Oh no, not that guy! https://lawcat.berkeley.edu/record/1114881?ln=en

Haha, yup. But the parents’ invisible friend threatens you, judges you, makes you guilty for everything, insists you love him and comes with ridiculous stories. … I used to go along with all that, for some reason. How weird.

Hey, kid, you’re gonna keep on hearing this kind of toss for as long as you’re on Earth, and in ever more convoluted ways! .

“Ouch”. You never outgrow God but most of us do get past the need to talk about it.

Even the Big Bang came from a point of something and continues to expand. I consider that consistent with God’s work of creation.

When she’s right, she’s right and just because you don’t understand something doesn’t make it supernatural.

God, schmog,is the beer cold yet?

Thank goddess I was born and raised Jewish.

To all who posted why they don’t believe in God, Jesus, the Resurrection, etc, etc, feel free to not believe. It IS your choice. All I can tell you is that, having not believed in God just like you and then having been Born Again, there is DEFINITELY a God who sent His only Begotten Son for you.

And trying to tell me that there IS no God, is like trying to tell a Houstonian that there is no Texas just because you’ve never been to Texas. But, I understand your arguments, because I had the same ones.

wow that child got moves bro damm

Of course, even for believers, God IS invisible (“That which is not seen is eternal.” – 2 Cor 4:18). The cartoonist does NOT use the word “imaginary,” possibly intentionally.

More accurately “imaginary invisible friend”.

Good point!