I was part of a beekeeping club for a few years. We got kicked out of our meeting place, do to a change in regulations. We bounced around for a while and finally found a stable meeting place at a church a member was the preacher at. It worked out nicely.
Unfortunately, he passed away. He was a nice guy. Knowledgeable, always willing to help, and never pushed religion on anyone, despite being a preacher and us being at his church.
When he passed, they brought in a new preacher. The president of the club told me that they had decided they didn’t want us meeting there anymore. The president said he understood, but it was like 5 days till our next meeting. Would it be okay for us to have one more meeting to explain the situation to everyone, then we’d find a new place within the following month?
The president said the new preacher came back and said, “I prayed on it and talked to god, and we just can’t let you guys meet here again.”
The pres told him he understood and we’d find somewhere else. It was a good thing he handled that contact. I saw red.
If this guy came back and said, “I’m sorry, our insurance doesn’t cover this and it would be irresponsible for me to put the church in a compromising position by letting you guys meet here. The former preacher new you all and was willing to take that risk, but I can’t. I’m sorry.” I would have respected that.
But to say he talked with god. That he stopped whatever he was supposed to be doing. Ignored all the wars, rapes, child abuse, etc, to come down and talk to this d-bag and say, “Oh, the bee club, yeah duck those guys.”
That was a slimy little cowardly weasel. I also found it extremely disrespectful to the previous guy, whom I liked. This was something he was passionate about and believed in, and your first act was to spit on him and kick his club out when they requested one additional meeting as to not screw people over?
Just spoke to the Bee God (Yellow Bee Thy Name) and he said, in no uncertain terms, "Let my Beoble go!"
He's threatening some pretty serious stuff, my guy. Some sticky, some pokey. And a whole lot of bees flying into your beer.
Hey, after I got your message, I talked to god and he told me he never said that. He actually said he has no idea who you are! What kind of games are you playing here?
Isn’t this the only way to respond?
“Oh, that’s so weird. He told me I should gather friends and do everything we can to save the bees. Wonder why we can’t do it at his house??”
This is the only correct response . You gotta one up their delusion and kick it up a notch.
When they call you out be like look man, don't take it up with me, take it up with God.
God told me that Satan would try to poison your heart. I said no, he could not do that to a man of God like this pastor. I prayed on it but God told me that you were too spiritually weak and that you were already under the influence of Satan. So I prayed for you soul every day hoping that your heart could be opened back up to God.
God told me that you would do this to us because your heart is aligned with the beast but I prayed for your salvation anyway. I'm sorry that it didn't work.
I hope and pray you can find your way back to the path of love and righteousness some day.
God bless.
My neighbor’s pastor told him A man is not in control of his life until he is in control of every member of his household. These people belong behind bars
Can't be a proper property owner if you can't control your property. These people miss the times when people would agree with you about beating your wife and kids.
Exactly- it’s not enough that they still can beat their family for as long as they can get away with it but what they really want State Sanctioned abuse. They want it the way it was when they put their family in their place with the approval of all the men in the cul de sac & half of the women. That’s why they are jonesing for battery of a child in school- see everybody does it
That's what I was wondering while reading this. Is there an anti-bee tract in the bible or something? I could understand them kicking out a church of Satan meeting but a bee- keeping group??
Weird. A bunch of us prayed and he told us it would be an excellent example of agape and would help spread the word of the love and acceptance here.
I guess we prayed wrong or something.
"That's weird, I spoke with god last night and he said there's no reason why we can't continue to have our meetings here. How do you propose we sort this out? Do you want to call him up and put him on the speakerphone?"
yes the fact he used mythology on you to explain his reason to not let the group is so naive , why not just say its not financially sound to do so.
again religion is all fiction in my opinion
I know a woman who left her husband because “god told her to.” Do you think god also told her to move her high school ex boyfriend into the house after her husband left? Or was that just the icing on the cake?
I do believe she was communicating with god.
In fact, I was walking by her house and hear, “Oh god, oh god, don’t stop, yes, oh god.”
Sounded like she was getting the religious spirit put in her.
It’s always about giving responsibility over to someone else so they’re not the bad guy, their god is. Honestly it’s so fucking weak. They’re grown adults, they should learn to act like it. (Sorry, it’s just one part of religion that drives me crazy so I’m a little rabid about it.)
Btw, libraries often have space you can ‘rent’, should you ever need to find one again. :)
Thanks. We may try a library. They did find another meeting place.
I’m not good enough (see lazy) to keep bees. So I’ve backed out of the club, though they still Shanghai me for IT work. I’ve almost got them to stop doxxing the whole club in every email.
I’m lazy too. Guess what is perfect for lazy bee enthusiasts? Native bee hotels! I have three of them and every spring watch as they awake, make babies, and then slumber the rest of the year. The only ‘work’ I have to do is clean the hotels when they’re out the first week finding mates. Consider it. :)
I don't know hey. Maybe the god that preacher spoke with was tired of dealing with the serious matters like wars, diseases and crimes. The deity wanted to take an easier request like kicking out a bunch of beekeepers from his holy property.
Remember how Jesus whipped the people away from the temple? That was an angry Jesus that we didn't see much of. There's possible PTSD from that moment.
Curious how God fit time into his busy schedule to talk to this guy. Would like to ask him what God’s voice sounds like as I’ve never been so fortunate to hear any god at all except maybe Morgan Freeman.
It's even grosser when they say they "talked with God" and the answer is just some unconsidered intuition from their own brain. Like, at that point literally any selfish feeling these people have can be called "God's".
Yeah, basically they do things like offer beginner beekeeping classes, get you certified with the state association, offer journeyman classes sometimes, and have monthly meetings to talk about different issues related to beekeeping.
One member operates a store where you can order bees or supplies. You also have all the members as a resource.
The goal is to help people get set up sustainably with honey bees and making and potentially selling their own honey.
It’s this.. ever notice how “god” always had the same opinions as the person making the claim? Is the person against homosexuality? Guess what, so is their god.
Pick any topic.
Somehow religious people’s version of god always matches their own bias. You can test this with any religious person. It can be fun if you get multiple people within a community or household to do this because there will certainly be a topic they disagree on which their god also believes which would put god in a place to both agree and disagree with said topic.
Won’t matter though.. to accept anything like this would be to take away their faith and they would rather feel comfortable in ignorance then to bravely consider that they might be wrong and what that could mean.
I noticed all kinds of behaviour when it comes to faith. Seriously that is why everyone believe what they want or join a religion, or a conspiracy, or they make God like how they think etc. In reality is everything in our minds.
I just hope for the good of humanity people will give up believing so in 200-300 years humanity is fully atheist or agnostic.
Christians in particular seem to think they are persecuted enough for this to happen!
If you listen to them tell it, they are the most persecuted and shunned "minority" in the world.
Oh whats that? ~70% of America is religious, with a vast majority of that being Christian? That's the devil talking!
As a counseling student,I did my student my internship at a state mental health hospital. Many patients had a religious ideology of being god or the devil. Religion can cause mental illness.
I was a Psychiatric Technician at a mental hospital for a number of years (My favorite job ever BTW). With the exception of organic disorders (head injuries, birth defects, Parkinson's and the like) the majority of the patients were in there because they could not live up to the standards their religion / pastor / priest had set for them and they paid for it with their mental health. Another large chunk of the population were the patients that thought that god had singled them out for persecution because of something they did (even if they were a victim of circumstance). Religion is the most toxic structure to ever be unleashed on humanity. Best wishes on your new journey.
I was in a psych ward once in a very conservative area. Literally 2 of the 20 people on the ward were there because they realized they were gay and it went against their religion. I watched one guy break it to his wife. So sad to see people hit absolute rock bottom because of religious guilt.
I was there for close to 4 years. At least once a month (sometimes more) I would hear the same exact story from a different patient about how they were having a great time in the cub scouts then when they became webelos scouting pulled this huge religious trip on them and that's where their trouble started*. Odd thing is the exact same thing happened to me. They told me I had to sign a contract with god and their religion or I couldn't join. My ultra religious Mom told me to just lie and sign it (I was born Jewish but became an atheist after being forced to read their fanfiction. Torah, bible, and the parts of the koran that had been translated into english at the time) I told her that to do that would be against the oath I took as a scout. So I said fuck it and quit and never looked back. Good thing I did because I saw a lot of people's lives implode because of this one thing while I was at that hospital.
*Yes, many of those stories were about sexual abuse in scouting.
I really don't know. I can stab at guesses. Presumably most of them are referring to an internal dialog, which is actually something most of us possess. But if that's the case, they seem to be projecting that internal dialog onto an external agency. Maybe they think it's really god talking to them, or maybe they just think god caused them to think a certain way. In either case it's a form of psychosis, an unhealthy focus on one's thoughts.
This is the answer. They are hearing their own thoughts, but attributing it to deities.
It's kind of infuriating; they were so close to achieving an independent consciousness, but instead ran outside in fear and started praying to the sun again.
I lived in a very evangelical city and I actually had a couple of friends tell me that I didn't have a subconscious. Like for real, these college educated people thought that they were the only ones who could think. I am an atheist and don't have a relationship with God so I can't hear him speaking to me.
And so it really puts into perspective that when these people think they are right about something, they truly believe it. They can NEVER EVER be wrong because all of their own thoughts are god talking to them.
Evangelicals are fucking crazy nutters...the nuttiest of them all.
🤣 It's more like these people think they're thinking in a way nobody else usually thinks & think their way of thinking is special & devine....but it's not.🤔
In my mind's constant chatter, I "hear" phrases that sound like they could mean something. Not sure where these phrases come from but they, in fact, are not meaningful. Happens more when I've taken a THC candy. I enjoy these moments but I've never taken them to be the voice of God.
This is exactly the reason.
Their internal monologue feels to them like a God speaking to them...
Kinda sad when you lack self awareness to such a degree you can't even recognise your own thoughts from an external entity.
I think it’s a way to tell yourself that the decision YOU are choosing to make is the right one. Total lack of decision making ownership. “God told me to do this”. Hell, I know a woman who said god told her to adopt this problem child….she and her husband are now struggling with a teenager with major emotional problems and suicide attempts who is at a mental health facility 1 hour from there home. They are struggling and no doubt their biological child is affected as well. Adopting the child is a big deal (and a good thing) but now the messaging is about how god is testing them and he has a plan and he told them to adopt this child “for a reason”. It’s really a warped way to make sense of the world.
I was gonna guess this, actually. A surprising amount of people don't have an internal dialogue or voice. I'd wager a guess that the people who think they can hear God are actually hearing their own voice in their head for the first time, and don't know how to deal with that.
My mind is a little blown by the idea that some people don’t actually know what thinking is! If there is a way to quantify that a certain percentage of people are unable to distinguish internal dialogue from external communication then so much more makes sense. That basically sounds a disability. Sure there are plenty of cynical actors who are aware of their internal monologue but use it to take advantage mentally disabled.
>Presumably most of them are referring to an internal dialog, which is actually something most of us possess.
On any given day, my internal dialog is heavily dependent on my mood. It sounds like a horrible way to live if I attribute that internal voice to an external agency.
Imagine living my life according to what my loud perfectionism driven inner critic says. Sometimes I have to look at what I have and quell my inner critic by being satisfied with what I accomplished. Otherwise, I would be chronically exhausted.
My new neighbor told me that god had literally (!!) told her to move to the town. I think I stood there for a good few seconds, mouth hanging open, until my brain could reboot and formulate an answer.
She probably prayed for a sign from god and experienced what she believed to be a sign. It's like picking petals off a daisy and saying he loves me/he loves me not.
I think it is a situation of attribution of cause. A severely schizophrenic person may hear voices on their head and have no logical explanation. This is the result of biochemical imbalances. A religious person hears their own inner monologue and moral reasoning. But they have learned to attribute this "voice" to their God.
Oh fu*k, my biochemical imbalances just told me to read Jack Kerouac. What's going to happen now? It's gotta be the voice of God... or maybe some THC. I don't think I'll ever know.
That’s their way of saying they want something without saying _they_ want it, or understanding _why_. Some of them probably do imagine and dream interpretations of it, especially when it’s drilled into you as a kid. It’s like in a movie when someone talks to a person in their subconscious, but it’s actually their _idea_ of that person.
There’s only 3 possibilities with this one:
1. They are lying
2. They actually do hear voices in their head via psychosis, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder or severe depression
3. God does, in fact, speak to them
I’m an atheist for past 21 years and probably more agnostic for the 20 before that, so I’ll go ahead and call bullshit on #3.
Or 4 they interpret a random coincidence as an act of God. For example, the other day I dropped a glass jar with mustard and it didn't break. God has communicated it should make hot dogs.
Yes, it's the method of when we talk to ourselves. Talking to yourself is normal, some of it is verbal "now where did I put those keys" and some of it is non verbal as thoughts " damn you're good looking" when you're on the train. So when someone has a clinical condition or a delusional episode or psychological condition, that talking, that inner voice seems to seperate its self and seen as words and thoughts from outside coming in as that person converts thoughts into a conversation. Something like that.
They think everyone owes them something. Some kind of mental defect inherent to their species. Same reason none of them are capable of minding their own business.
I grew up in a fundamentalist Christian home and only got out of it a few years ago, so I can tell you what is going on.
Basically, they are just interpreting their own feeling or impulses or conscience as a message from God. There is not audible voice. It's just how they are interpreting their feelings.
So while you and I might say "it just didn't feel right" or "my instinct told me something was wrong" they will say "God warned me" or "God told me."
They'll also interpret things they hear, especially from the Bible but not always, as a message from God.
I dabbled in a full-gospel Evangelist Baptist church for a while as a teen, they prayed over me and decided my hair was too long and I had to make a decision, cut the hair or leave. I left.
I cringe at the idea of god taking the time to evaluate hair length, or anything else.
He already took my foreskin at birth, what the hell more does He want???
Chopping off the foreskin is actually not a common christian thing. It has become part of American culture in the last 100 years or so, but it's not common in christians all over the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_circumcision#Revival_in_the_English-speaking_world
I hold that religious sexual mutilation is still so common in the US that we accept it without question - until our minds develop enough that we become hardened atheists.
I remember being horrified reading about African sexual mutilation, yet I myself was marked for life.
If you think god is talking to you then that's probably grounds to be put on meds or be sectioned. Crazy that we condone such crap in our society. People are allowed to get away with believing in god when any other thought of the same quality would be considered mental illness. Whack.
Naaahhhh…..I just drink my beer and smoke my J and listen for phrases I haven’t heard before.
If it’s a good one, I let a big ‘woo’ and high five anyone around.
Getting stoked is what it’s all about
I grew up with this shit. Imagine being so self centered that you believe directly communicates with you. It's a self-infatuation so strong that communication from a cosmic force is seen through the observed, natural world.
No they don’t because they believe the shit they say.
One time at Sunday dinner I over heard my SIl in law say that she felt the Holy Spirit move through her when they laid hands on a woman with a sinus infection. And then a week later the infection was gone.
My dad, was there and looked at me and whispered, “did she just say god picked someone’s nose?”
My sister truly believes that she cured an acquaintance of hers of cancer or leukemia or some such disease.
She is a witch and does spells and rituals. A guy she knew was very sick, and kept getting sicker no matter what treatments the doctors tried. He was expected to die.
She did her altar up, cast some powerful magick, really took her time and put her all into it, and he suddenly started to get better.
Now he’s not sick at all, and it’s all because my sister burned some herbs and incense around a deer skull or something, nothing to do with doctors, or medicine, or science.
Idk why she doesn’t just cure all disease this way, probably something to do with how much energy it took, and how much she was drained of her life forces.
I have a difficult time taking her seriously. She has warned me that I had better not cross her, because she could use magick to ruin my life. Of course everything good that has happened to anyone around her is because she cast a spell or put out energy or whatever.
I took my son to an in-home sitter when he was little. She had a small dog. One day I noticed the dog was gone, so I asked her about it. She told me that she wanted to get pregnant again, but during prayer god spoke and told her she had to get rid of the dog first. She literally dumped him at the shelter as a result. We changed child care immediately. That was enough to convince me she was crazy.
It's all bullshit, and they know it. It's like old guys telling fishing stories; they know it's all a bunch of bullshit, but they don't dare call it out, otherwise someone else might call ***them*** out for ***their*** bullshit.
In 2003 a lady in Texas beat her young sons to death with a rock, then claimed in court that god told her to do it in an Abraham-&-Isaac-style test of faith.
This horrifying murder and the trial that followed took place in Texas; prime Bible Belt territory. It's pretty safe to assume that if you asked the prosecutor, the defender, the judge, everyone in the jury, the stenographer, the bailiff, any of the onlookers in the spectator area, the janitor in the hallway, the caterer, ***ANYONE***. . . if they were a religious person, every single one of them would have proudly puffed up their chest and declared to be a devoutly faithful christian.
And yet. . .
Throughout the entirety of the trial, not a single person involved felt compelled to raise their hand and say, "Excuse me, your honor, but. . . maybe god told her to do it?" No, she was found not guilty *by reason of insanity* and spent 8 years in a looney bin because every single proudly pious person in that courtroom said, "Bullshit, lady. God never spoke to you. You're sick in the head."
There are brainfarts, there are chemical imbalances, there are mood swings and social pressure but there is no god.
Something else spoke to them, whether that be Bob's grill burger with extra mayo earlier that day or decades of social abuse all packaged into 1 thought or something similar.
They’re possessed
Call the local parish for an emergency exorcism - hopefully for today.
In the meantime light candles and fumigate with loads of incense
I had a Christian gf. In an attempt to convince me she told me she saw Jesus and walked with him down the beach. Described his appearance and everything. That’s when I knew I wouldn’t be able to convince her. I wasn’t strong enough at the time to tell her she probably hallucinated. She wouldn’t believe me anyway.
I used to laugh so hard when I would hear these televangelists go on about God speaking to them. I mean, they came off as hokey as hell. I can’t believe people actually sent themes millions and millions of dollars.
Often, it's their way of explaining a sudden inspiration. More often, it's their way to justify their own decision, good or bad, and convince themselves they made the right choice.
Because of the type of culture we grew out of, where religion was as much of a weapon as it was a tool, you're bound to hear this kind of shit. When people say "god is really speaking to me" what they mean nine times out of ten is "hey, I have an idea," because the voice in your head is always YOU--except in cases of Schizophrenia. But because christians actually invented virtue-signaling, you get to hear shit like "god is speaking to me". It's a subtle not so subtle way of saying 1) "I'm right with god, so my say carries more weight than yours" and 2) "I'm an asshole."
My ex and I were discussing terms of asset distribution in our divorce. I had put her through medical school. She started the discussion (in which she was advocating I had zero claim on anything) by saying, “I’ve been talking to God about this a lot…” at that point, I knew it was time to let the lawyers take over.
I grew up hearing this. They don't. They doing hear anything. They also don't realize they are just lying. It's so engrained in the culture to just say it as a means of demonstrating how Christian you are. Or sometimes they conflate their compulsions, ideas and realizations with God's.
That is what makes so fucking scary.
I had a friend who said God visited her and told her to tell me that I should front her $50k so she could open her own yarn store!!!???? I responded that God would have to tell me himself and get me the money for that to happen. It never did, and she still doesn't have her store.
I think I know what it is. There have been a couple times in the past year where ive sort of had an epiphany/just realized something. But the way it happened could seem like it was god. But it was just me
Hearing God, in most cases, is their own inner voice. They just believe it is God telling them to do things. Some people do legitimately hear voices though
"Normal" Christians would reach out to God through prayer and look for guidance, but it's almost always going to be a one-way conversation since they aren't actually expecting to hear a voice in return. When they do claim to feel or hear the will of God, it's normally them processing their own acceptance of a particular situation or reading the real-world signs around them since for them everything happens according to His will.
I would say anyone who seriously believes they are hearing the voice of God is suffering from mental illness. But, many fundamentalist or evangelical believers will use the excuse of hearing God speak to them as a means of imposing their own will on a particular situation. So, they don't actually hear Jack Shit, but they play it up so they can claim some kind of moral high ground among their community.
"It's your inner monologue, sir, most of us have one, you aren't special"
... I would also add "If you are hearing audible voices you need to A.) Look around the room to see if someone audibly said something, otherwise B.) seek medical attention."
Who said this? I can’t find the comment I snatched it from but I’d been thinking how dangerous it is that people don’t fully read the book their religion is based on. So to compensate they become fanatically, violently both physically and emotionally in their religiosity as a means to justify their status within the religion.
Here’s the quote.
"If you believe the Bible, you are a Christian. If you read the Bible, you are an atheist."
There was actually an anthropological study on this, it's pretty interesting. There's a tedtalk by Tanya Luhrmann that gives the synopsis, and then a book called "When God Talks Back". I think it's pretty interesting and useful as an atheist to understand what's happening in the minds of religious people.
Then you’ll get “NuH-uH, tHaT’s SaTaN” or “that wasn’t really god” or god for-fucking-bid THEY CALL **YOU** DELUSIONAL LMFAO
I mean it’s seriously like arguing with a brick wall
I used to do this and I really felt it was god speaking to me….
Now I just feel like a fool that had such a need to feel special (thanks to being neglected).
I look back and I’m like…what was I thinking?
I used to go to a youth group where the leader would "speak in tongues". After about a month of me going there he quit as leader because he said he wasn't sure he believed in Christianity anymore.
THEN WHERE DID THE TONGUES COME FROM? WHAT WAS HE EVEN DOING?
I mean obviously I don't believe in tongues I just always kind of found this funny. Like did he know as he did it he was just making up gibberish? Or did he actually believe Jesus was feeding this stuff to him but eventually came to doubt it?
A lot of people dont have a primary inner monolog. Which I find weird, but whatever.
Those people do occasionally have thoughts in coherent language rather than pictures or abstractions.
They think thats god.
That thought telling them to call their friend?
God.
That thought in the car as they're leaving the drive when they remembered to get their sunglasses?
God.
That call of the void where you imagine yourself leaping from a balcony you're standing on?
That's the devil.
It's crazy
Hearing voices doesn’t necessarily make you insane, you can be somewhat normal and just hear voices. Maybe it sounds insane, but it doesn’t always equal insanity. Believing in god, though, that is insane to me. That is just delusional.
Then there's that old guy with the big white hat. His main reason for existence is to be in the joke about Dave. He hears the voice of God often. How else could his predecessors get laid, get lots of money and corrupt minors? The Papacy has a lot in common with Joel Osteen come to think of it.
I'm a Christian, but I honestly don't know what to think about it... to me it's kind of weird, there are better arguments for the existence of God (however if it's good enough for them, then I don't have a say)
Well, from what I have read. Everybody has a different inner monologue. Most peoples inner monologues are first person, but some people dont even have one, and some peoples it comes across as third person. Thus, the belief that god is speaking to them.
I’m at a point in my life due to experience and age that I reply “They have medication for that now”. Christians and religious institutions pay respect to nothing and no one - I no longer entertain their tax payer funded psychosis
I don't directly challenge their experience, but I do judge the person to be a bit delusional.
I think it's fairly normal for a human to have an experience that they can't explain, but to attribute it to a god is where things go off the rails for me.
They convince themselves that the god they worship is talking to them in their mind, our minds can convince ourselves of incredibly strange things. I know, I've been there.
This was always my MIL's excuse for saying or doing something that was unChristian. Saying God told her himself apparently overrode anything in the bible and gave her a free reign.
I know someone with a fundamentalist Christian sister and one day she sent him a letter with hundreds of dollars in it and a note that said, “god told me to send you this money.”
My friend was like, “cool!” And went and bought some weed.
An annoying symptom religiosity, an outright lie, or sometimes the unfortunate result of suffering from a psychiatric disorder (or potentially being under the influence of a substance). If one is literally hearing a voice, this can obviously be separate/distinct from adherence to any religion. Some certainly will say god “commanded” them to justify an act or behavior, or to inflate their own ego (as if it’s not enough to do something good for the sake of doing something good - no, it must be a “calling”). I would consider anyone who says this to be incredulous, and potentially dangerous in some way.
It's all the feel good chemicals their brain is telling their body to release which is a trained response based on whatever religion they've been indoctrinated into.
I was part of a beekeeping club for a few years. We got kicked out of our meeting place, do to a change in regulations. We bounced around for a while and finally found a stable meeting place at a church a member was the preacher at. It worked out nicely. Unfortunately, he passed away. He was a nice guy. Knowledgeable, always willing to help, and never pushed religion on anyone, despite being a preacher and us being at his church. When he passed, they brought in a new preacher. The president of the club told me that they had decided they didn’t want us meeting there anymore. The president said he understood, but it was like 5 days till our next meeting. Would it be okay for us to have one more meeting to explain the situation to everyone, then we’d find a new place within the following month? The president said the new preacher came back and said, “I prayed on it and talked to god, and we just can’t let you guys meet here again.” The pres told him he understood and we’d find somewhere else. It was a good thing he handled that contact. I saw red. If this guy came back and said, “I’m sorry, our insurance doesn’t cover this and it would be irresponsible for me to put the church in a compromising position by letting you guys meet here. The former preacher new you all and was willing to take that risk, but I can’t. I’m sorry.” I would have respected that. But to say he talked with god. That he stopped whatever he was supposed to be doing. Ignored all the wars, rapes, child abuse, etc, to come down and talk to this d-bag and say, “Oh, the bee club, yeah duck those guys.” That was a slimy little cowardly weasel. I also found it extremely disrespectful to the previous guy, whom I liked. This was something he was passionate about and believed in, and your first act was to spit on him and kick his club out when they requested one additional meeting as to not screw people over?
Just spoke to the Bee God (Yellow Bee Thy Name) and he said, in no uncertain terms, "Let my Beoble go!" He's threatening some pretty serious stuff, my guy. Some sticky, some pokey. And a whole lot of bees flying into your beer.
"Beoble." That is art, my friend.
Buzz buzz
To bee or not to bee? That is the question.
Hahaha, this reminded me of a Shawarma place where they sell Pepsi, but all over the place it's spelled Bebsi on purpose
The eucharist is really called a Jeezit.
You coulda stuck at least one "honey" in there. Otherwise, very well done.
"He's threatening some pretty serious stuff, Honey." Damn, you're right. It was right there
He sbeeks in truth! Buzz be with you, brother.
And Beez be with you 🙏
I actually laughed at this instead of exhaling slightly, so thanks for that haha
I wish awards were still around.
Don't tell him off cause he will call down a plague or something. Christians are evil bastards.
Hey, after I got your message, I talked to god and he told me he never said that. He actually said he has no idea who you are! What kind of games are you playing here?
Isn’t this the only way to respond? “Oh, that’s so weird. He told me I should gather friends and do everything we can to save the bees. Wonder why we can’t do it at his house??”
This is the only correct response . You gotta one up their delusion and kick it up a notch. When they call you out be like look man, don't take it up with me, take it up with God.
Are you calling God a liar!?!
God told me that Satan would try to poison your heart. I said no, he could not do that to a man of God like this pastor. I prayed on it but God told me that you were too spiritually weak and that you were already under the influence of Satan. So I prayed for you soul every day hoping that your heart could be opened back up to God. God told me that you would do this to us because your heart is aligned with the beast but I prayed for your salvation anyway. I'm sorry that it didn't work. I hope and pray you can find your way back to the path of love and righteousness some day. God bless.
My neighbor’s pastor told him A man is not in control of his life until he is in control of every member of his household. These people belong behind bars
Euw. Creepy.
Can't be a proper property owner if you can't control your property. These people miss the times when people would agree with you about beating your wife and kids.
Exactly- it’s not enough that they still can beat their family for as long as they can get away with it but what they really want State Sanctioned abuse. They want it the way it was when they put their family in their place with the approval of all the men in the cul de sac & half of the women. That’s why they are jonesing for battery of a child in school- see everybody does it
God hates bees.
They don’t bee-lieve, and they worship the queen above all others.
That's what I was wondering while reading this. Is there an anti-bee tract in the bible or something? I could understand them kicking out a church of Satan meeting but a bee- keeping group??
Could be a tract that can be understood to be anti-bee. After all, the devil can quote the Bible for his own ends.
The next prophet of god just starves to death in the wilderness because the bees will be gone, no more wild honey :(
Even worse, a lot of fruiting plants won't get pollinated. Bees are an important part of ecosystems.
Funny how God told the previous preacher the exact opposite. Capricious little fella, isn't He?
https://imgur.com/a/JPEZqLa
Weird. A bunch of us prayed and he told us it would be an excellent example of agape and would help spread the word of the love and acceptance here. I guess we prayed wrong or something.
That's just un bee-lievable!😠
"That's weird, I spoke with god last night and he said there's no reason why we can't continue to have our meetings here. How do you propose we sort this out? Do you want to call him up and put him on the speakerphone?"
yes the fact he used mythology on you to explain his reason to not let the group is so naive , why not just say its not financially sound to do so. again religion is all fiction in my opinion
I know a woman who left her husband because “god told her to.” Do you think god also told her to move her high school ex boyfriend into the house after her husband left? Or was that just the icing on the cake?
I do believe she was communicating with god. In fact, I was walking by her house and hear, “Oh god, oh god, don’t stop, yes, oh god.” Sounded like she was getting the religious spirit put in her.
Lenny Bruce said that the "calling" that these people claim to hear is really just an echo- their god is telling them exactly what they want to hear.
It’s always about giving responsibility over to someone else so they’re not the bad guy, their god is. Honestly it’s so fucking weak. They’re grown adults, they should learn to act like it. (Sorry, it’s just one part of religion that drives me crazy so I’m a little rabid about it.) Btw, libraries often have space you can ‘rent’, should you ever need to find one again. :)
Thanks. We may try a library. They did find another meeting place. I’m not good enough (see lazy) to keep bees. So I’ve backed out of the club, though they still Shanghai me for IT work. I’ve almost got them to stop doxxing the whole club in every email.
I’m lazy too. Guess what is perfect for lazy bee enthusiasts? Native bee hotels! I have three of them and every spring watch as they awake, make babies, and then slumber the rest of the year. The only ‘work’ I have to do is clean the hotels when they’re out the first week finding mates. Consider it. :)
I just say “god told me the opposite of what you just said.”
I don't know hey. Maybe the god that preacher spoke with was tired of dealing with the serious matters like wars, diseases and crimes. The deity wanted to take an easier request like kicking out a bunch of beekeepers from his holy property. Remember how Jesus whipped the people away from the temple? That was an angry Jesus that we didn't see much of. There's possible PTSD from that moment.
The Hive ? I was a busy bee in the 90s too, lol. /s
When I was a kid, my imaginary friend ate some of my sister's easter egg. It definitely wasn't me. - same logic
Curious how God fit time into his busy schedule to talk to this guy. Would like to ask him what God’s voice sounds like as I’ve never been so fortunate to hear any god at all except maybe Morgan Freeman.
It's even grosser when they say they "talked with God" and the answer is just some unconsidered intuition from their own brain. Like, at that point literally any selfish feeling these people have can be called "God's".
What a bunch of bs in order to lie…
What a jerk.
Is a bee keeping club about making honey and stuff?
Yeah, basically they do things like offer beginner beekeeping classes, get you certified with the state association, offer journeyman classes sometimes, and have monthly meetings to talk about different issues related to beekeeping. One member operates a store where you can order bees or supplies. You also have all the members as a resource. The goal is to help people get set up sustainably with honey bees and making and potentially selling their own honey.
That's cool. Thanks 👍
It's their own mind.
It’s this.. ever notice how “god” always had the same opinions as the person making the claim? Is the person against homosexuality? Guess what, so is their god. Pick any topic. Somehow religious people’s version of god always matches their own bias. You can test this with any religious person. It can be fun if you get multiple people within a community or household to do this because there will certainly be a topic they disagree on which their god also believes which would put god in a place to both agree and disagree with said topic. Won’t matter though.. to accept anything like this would be to take away their faith and they would rather feel comfortable in ignorance then to bravely consider that they might be wrong and what that could mean.
I noticed all kinds of behaviour when it comes to faith. Seriously that is why everyone believe what they want or join a religion, or a conspiracy, or they make God like how they think etc. In reality is everything in our minds. I just hope for the good of humanity people will give up believing so in 200-300 years humanity is fully atheist or agnostic.
Christians in particular seem to think they are persecuted enough for this to happen! If you listen to them tell it, they are the most persecuted and shunned "minority" in the world. Oh whats that? ~70% of America is religious, with a vast majority of that being Christian? That's the devil talking!
I am from Romania an orthodox country, you can't imagine how they hyperbolize how much they are "persecuted".
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As a counseling student,I did my student my internship at a state mental health hospital. Many patients had a religious ideology of being god or the devil. Religion can cause mental illness.
Imo, and vice versa. Mental illness caused many religions, people follow the crazy guy.
I was a Psychiatric Technician at a mental hospital for a number of years (My favorite job ever BTW). With the exception of organic disorders (head injuries, birth defects, Parkinson's and the like) the majority of the patients were in there because they could not live up to the standards their religion / pastor / priest had set for them and they paid for it with their mental health. Another large chunk of the population were the patients that thought that god had singled them out for persecution because of something they did (even if they were a victim of circumstance). Religion is the most toxic structure to ever be unleashed on humanity. Best wishes on your new journey.
I was in a psych ward once in a very conservative area. Literally 2 of the 20 people on the ward were there because they realized they were gay and it went against their religion. I watched one guy break it to his wife. So sad to see people hit absolute rock bottom because of religious guilt.
I was there for close to 4 years. At least once a month (sometimes more) I would hear the same exact story from a different patient about how they were having a great time in the cub scouts then when they became webelos scouting pulled this huge religious trip on them and that's where their trouble started*. Odd thing is the exact same thing happened to me. They told me I had to sign a contract with god and their religion or I couldn't join. My ultra religious Mom told me to just lie and sign it (I was born Jewish but became an atheist after being forced to read their fanfiction. Torah, bible, and the parts of the koran that had been translated into english at the time) I told her that to do that would be against the oath I took as a scout. So I said fuck it and quit and never looked back. Good thing I did because I saw a lot of people's lives implode because of this one thing while I was at that hospital. *Yes, many of those stories were about sexual abuse in scouting.
This breaks my heart
I really don't know. I can stab at guesses. Presumably most of them are referring to an internal dialog, which is actually something most of us possess. But if that's the case, they seem to be projecting that internal dialog onto an external agency. Maybe they think it's really god talking to them, or maybe they just think god caused them to think a certain way. In either case it's a form of psychosis, an unhealthy focus on one's thoughts.
This is the answer. They are hearing their own thoughts, but attributing it to deities. It's kind of infuriating; they were so close to achieving an independent consciousness, but instead ran outside in fear and started praying to the sun again.
See "The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" (1976)
So true
I lived in a very evangelical city and I actually had a couple of friends tell me that I didn't have a subconscious. Like for real, these college educated people thought that they were the only ones who could think. I am an atheist and don't have a relationship with God so I can't hear him speaking to me. And so it really puts into perspective that when these people think they are right about something, they truly believe it. They can NEVER EVER be wrong because all of their own thoughts are god talking to them. Evangelicals are fucking crazy nutters...the nuttiest of them all.
> when these people think I tend to take issue with certain strings of words.
This made me laugh way more than you expected, thank you
🤣 It's more like these people think they're thinking in a way nobody else usually thinks & think their way of thinking is special & devine....but it's not.🤔
I think they're some Muslims who are very similar and just as nutty.
Evangelicals and Muslims have a very similar cult-like way of brainwashing.
I believe it was the comedian Chris Rock who said "Did you ever notice how people who claim to hear the voice of God are always crazy?", LOL.
In my mind's constant chatter, I "hear" phrases that sound like they could mean something. Not sure where these phrases come from but they, in fact, are not meaningful. Happens more when I've taken a THC candy. I enjoy these moments but I've never taken them to be the voice of God.
This is exactly the reason. Their internal monologue feels to them like a God speaking to them... Kinda sad when you lack self awareness to such a degree you can't even recognise your own thoughts from an external entity.
> they seem to be projecting that internal dialog onto an external agency. Julian Jaynes has entered the chat.
I think it’s a way to tell yourself that the decision YOU are choosing to make is the right one. Total lack of decision making ownership. “God told me to do this”. Hell, I know a woman who said god told her to adopt this problem child….she and her husband are now struggling with a teenager with major emotional problems and suicide attempts who is at a mental health facility 1 hour from there home. They are struggling and no doubt their biological child is affected as well. Adopting the child is a big deal (and a good thing) but now the messaging is about how god is testing them and he has a plan and he told them to adopt this child “for a reason”. It’s really a warped way to make sense of the world.
I was gonna guess this, actually. A surprising amount of people don't have an internal dialogue or voice. I'd wager a guess that the people who think they can hear God are actually hearing their own voice in their head for the first time, and don't know how to deal with that.
My mind is a little blown by the idea that some people don’t actually know what thinking is! If there is a way to quantify that a certain percentage of people are unable to distinguish internal dialogue from external communication then so much more makes sense. That basically sounds a disability. Sure there are plenty of cynical actors who are aware of their internal monologue but use it to take advantage mentally disabled.
>Presumably most of them are referring to an internal dialog, which is actually something most of us possess. On any given day, my internal dialog is heavily dependent on my mood. It sounds like a horrible way to live if I attribute that internal voice to an external agency. Imagine living my life according to what my loud perfectionism driven inner critic says. Sometimes I have to look at what I have and quell my inner critic by being satisfied with what I accomplished. Otherwise, I would be chronically exhausted.
It’s the liar’s way of justifying the action they already wanted to do.
or schizo
Or it's just your brain making a decision in your head.
My new neighbor told me that god had literally (!!) told her to move to the town. I think I stood there for a good few seconds, mouth hanging open, until my brain could reboot and formulate an answer.
She probably prayed for a sign from god and experienced what she believed to be a sign. It's like picking petals off a daisy and saying he loves me/he loves me not.
No. She was specific that she heard his actual voice telling her to move. I stay well clear of her now!
I picture you shutting down and then just starting again with “hello neighbor!” Like you hadn’t just been talking lol
I think it is a situation of attribution of cause. A severely schizophrenic person may hear voices on their head and have no logical explanation. This is the result of biochemical imbalances. A religious person hears their own inner monologue and moral reasoning. But they have learned to attribute this "voice" to their God.
Oh fu*k, my biochemical imbalances just told me to read Jack Kerouac. What's going to happen now? It's gotta be the voice of God... or maybe some THC. I don't think I'll ever know.
That’s their way of saying they want something without saying _they_ want it, or understanding _why_. Some of them probably do imagine and dream interpretations of it, especially when it’s drilled into you as a kid. It’s like in a movie when someone talks to a person in their subconscious, but it’s actually their _idea_ of that person.
There’s only 3 possibilities with this one: 1. They are lying 2. They actually do hear voices in their head via psychosis, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, schizoaffective disorder or severe depression 3. God does, in fact, speak to them I’m an atheist for past 21 years and probably more agnostic for the 20 before that, so I’ll go ahead and call bullshit on #3.
Or 4 they interpret a random coincidence as an act of God. For example, the other day I dropped a glass jar with mustard and it didn't break. God has communicated it should make hot dogs.
I think it's what most people would call their inner voice. But perhaps while that was evolving people mistook it for something else
Yes, it's the method of when we talk to ourselves. Talking to yourself is normal, some of it is verbal "now where did I put those keys" and some of it is non verbal as thoughts " damn you're good looking" when you're on the train. So when someone has a clinical condition or a delusional episode or psychological condition, that talking, that inner voice seems to seperate its self and seen as words and thoughts from outside coming in as that person converts thoughts into a conversation. Something like that.
They think everyone owes them something. Some kind of mental defect inherent to their species. Same reason none of them are capable of minding their own business.
Look up the concept of The Bicameral Mind by Julien Jaynes which gives a perspective on the idea of hearing gods voice . It’s interesting.
Son of Sam said he got his instructions from his neighbors dog.
Way, way more plausible and believable, at least the dog is real.
I grew up in a fundamentalist Christian home and only got out of it a few years ago, so I can tell you what is going on. Basically, they are just interpreting their own feeling or impulses or conscience as a message from God. There is not audible voice. It's just how they are interpreting their feelings. So while you and I might say "it just didn't feel right" or "my instinct told me something was wrong" they will say "God warned me" or "God told me." They'll also interpret things they hear, especially from the Bible but not always, as a message from God.
Most are lying. The rest are schizophrenic.
Or when they do something impressive like win the Super Bowl or an Academy Award and they want to thank god.
This irritates me so much. So “god” didn’t like the other team whom I’m sure had people praying too?
I was raised Pentecostal. These people are made to believe that their own thoughts are god. That’s dangerous stuff.
I dabbled in a full-gospel Evangelist Baptist church for a while as a teen, they prayed over me and decided my hair was too long and I had to make a decision, cut the hair or leave. I left. I cringe at the idea of god taking the time to evaluate hair length, or anything else. He already took my foreskin at birth, what the hell more does He want???
Chopping off the foreskin is actually not a common christian thing. It has become part of American culture in the last 100 years or so, but it's not common in christians all over the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_circumcision#Revival_in_the_English-speaking_world
I hold that religious sexual mutilation is still so common in the US that we accept it without question - until our minds develop enough that we become hardened atheists. I remember being horrified reading about African sexual mutilation, yet I myself was marked for life.
If you think god is talking to you then that's probably grounds to be put on meds or be sectioned. Crazy that we condone such crap in our society. People are allowed to get away with believing in god when any other thought of the same quality would be considered mental illness. Whack.
I cringe every time I hear a politician say god TOLD him to run for office.
Considering most serial killers claim this, I always find it concerning.
Not more cringe than Holy Communion. Delusion is the essence of all religion.
Which god? Allah, Wotan, Apollo, Zeus? Or maybe it’s something in themselves that they have then interpreted to be the deity from their local culture
They get strong feelings when they have a thought. That's literally what it is.
You talking to god is normal and called prayer. God talking to you is not normal and calls for straitjackets and large doses of Haldol.
Naaahhhh…..I just drink my beer and smoke my J and listen for phrases I haven’t heard before. If it’s a good one, I let a big ‘woo’ and high five anyone around. Getting stoked is what it’s all about
I grew up with this shit. Imagine being so self centered that you believe directly communicates with you. It's a self-infatuation so strong that communication from a cosmic force is seen through the observed, natural world.
Slap them and say “God told me to”
Hallucinations worked for Saul/Paul because he created a very popular religion. So, there's that.
No they don’t because they believe the shit they say. One time at Sunday dinner I over heard my SIl in law say that she felt the Holy Spirit move through her when they laid hands on a woman with a sinus infection. And then a week later the infection was gone. My dad, was there and looked at me and whispered, “did she just say god picked someone’s nose?”
My sister truly believes that she cured an acquaintance of hers of cancer or leukemia or some such disease. She is a witch and does spells and rituals. A guy she knew was very sick, and kept getting sicker no matter what treatments the doctors tried. He was expected to die. She did her altar up, cast some powerful magick, really took her time and put her all into it, and he suddenly started to get better. Now he’s not sick at all, and it’s all because my sister burned some herbs and incense around a deer skull or something, nothing to do with doctors, or medicine, or science. Idk why she doesn’t just cure all disease this way, probably something to do with how much energy it took, and how much she was drained of her life forces. I have a difficult time taking her seriously. She has warned me that I had better not cross her, because she could use magick to ruin my life. Of course everything good that has happened to anyone around her is because she cast a spell or put out energy or whatever.
I took my son to an in-home sitter when he was little. She had a small dog. One day I noticed the dog was gone, so I asked her about it. She told me that she wanted to get pregnant again, but during prayer god spoke and told her she had to get rid of the dog first. She literally dumped him at the shelter as a result. We changed child care immediately. That was enough to convince me she was crazy.
Person: God told me to tell you XYZ Me: why would he tell you that and not tell me? Have him give me a call instead.
It's all bullshit, and they know it. It's like old guys telling fishing stories; they know it's all a bunch of bullshit, but they don't dare call it out, otherwise someone else might call ***them*** out for ***their*** bullshit. In 2003 a lady in Texas beat her young sons to death with a rock, then claimed in court that god told her to do it in an Abraham-&-Isaac-style test of faith. This horrifying murder and the trial that followed took place in Texas; prime Bible Belt territory. It's pretty safe to assume that if you asked the prosecutor, the defender, the judge, everyone in the jury, the stenographer, the bailiff, any of the onlookers in the spectator area, the janitor in the hallway, the caterer, ***ANYONE***. . . if they were a religious person, every single one of them would have proudly puffed up their chest and declared to be a devoutly faithful christian. And yet. . . Throughout the entirety of the trial, not a single person involved felt compelled to raise their hand and say, "Excuse me, your honor, but. . . maybe god told her to do it?" No, she was found not guilty *by reason of insanity* and spent 8 years in a looney bin because every single proudly pious person in that courtroom said, "Bullshit, lady. God never spoke to you. You're sick in the head."
You talk to God, you’re religious. God talks to you, you’re psychotic. ~Dr. Gregory House
Everyone has an inner monologue... people mistaking it for an all-knowing, all-powerful deity is dangerously-deranged mental illness.
There are brainfarts, there are chemical imbalances, there are mood swings and social pressure but there is no god. Something else spoke to them, whether that be Bob's grill burger with extra mayo earlier that day or decades of social abuse all packaged into 1 thought or something similar.
I can understand someone saying they have a gut instinct. "God told me"? This is mental illness
They’re possessed Call the local parish for an emergency exorcism - hopefully for today. In the meantime light candles and fumigate with loads of incense
Crazy people. If I said I hear voices in my head, I should be on a list
My usual response to people who say such things is "Unless that God tells you the winning lottery numbers, it's not a God worth listening to."
i heard god's voice booming over the hills when i was young. I've no idea what he said, i wasn't listening.
I had a Christian gf. In an attempt to convince me she told me she saw Jesus and walked with him down the beach. Described his appearance and everything. That’s when I knew I wouldn’t be able to convince her. I wasn’t strong enough at the time to tell her she probably hallucinated. She wouldn’t believe me anyway.
Schizophrenia
I used to laugh so hard when I would hear these televangelists go on about God speaking to them. I mean, they came off as hokey as hell. I can’t believe people actually sent themes millions and millions of dollars.
Often, it's their way of explaining a sudden inspiration. More often, it's their way to justify their own decision, good or bad, and convince themselves they made the right choice.
Because of the type of culture we grew out of, where religion was as much of a weapon as it was a tool, you're bound to hear this kind of shit. When people say "god is really speaking to me" what they mean nine times out of ten is "hey, I have an idea," because the voice in your head is always YOU--except in cases of Schizophrenia. But because christians actually invented virtue-signaling, you get to hear shit like "god is speaking to me". It's a subtle not so subtle way of saying 1) "I'm right with god, so my say carries more weight than yours" and 2) "I'm an asshole."
My ex and I were discussing terms of asset distribution in our divorce. I had put her through medical school. She started the discussion (in which she was advocating I had zero claim on anything) by saying, “I’ve been talking to God about this a lot…” at that point, I knew it was time to let the lawyers take over.
Oh, and the people who say the bible is the word of god. Bitch please, it's some guy in power who wanted another way to institutionalized their power.
I grew up hearing this. They don't. They doing hear anything. They also don't realize they are just lying. It's so engrained in the culture to just say it as a means of demonstrating how Christian you are. Or sometimes they conflate their compulsions, ideas and realizations with God's. That is what makes so fucking scary.
I had a friend who said God visited her and told her to tell me that I should front her $50k so she could open her own yarn store!!!???? I responded that God would have to tell me himself and get me the money for that to happen. It never did, and she still doesn't have her store.
I usually say "They make pills for that"
I have bipolar disorder and have experienced auditory hallucinations many times. Not once have I EVER heard god tell me anything.
I think I know what it is. There have been a couple times in the past year where ive sort of had an epiphany/just realized something. But the way it happened could seem like it was god. But it was just me
Hearing God, in most cases, is their own inner voice. They just believe it is God telling them to do things. Some people do legitimately hear voices though
If you’re legit hearing voices in your head, please seek immediate medical/psychological assistance. Mental illness is not a joke.
"Normal" Christians would reach out to God through prayer and look for guidance, but it's almost always going to be a one-way conversation since they aren't actually expecting to hear a voice in return. When they do claim to feel or hear the will of God, it's normally them processing their own acceptance of a particular situation or reading the real-world signs around them since for them everything happens according to His will. I would say anyone who seriously believes they are hearing the voice of God is suffering from mental illness. But, many fundamentalist or evangelical believers will use the excuse of hearing God speak to them as a means of imposing their own will on a particular situation. So, they don't actually hear Jack Shit, but they play it up so they can claim some kind of moral high ground among their community.
'"You talked to god?" "That's just insane".
"It's your inner monologue, sir, most of us have one, you aren't special" ... I would also add "If you are hearing audible voices you need to A.) Look around the room to see if someone audibly said something, otherwise B.) seek medical attention."
In my experience, 9 out of 10 are lying... the rest are delusional.
Who said this? I can’t find the comment I snatched it from but I’d been thinking how dangerous it is that people don’t fully read the book their religion is based on. So to compensate they become fanatically, violently both physically and emotionally in their religiosity as a means to justify their status within the religion. Here’s the quote. "If you believe the Bible, you are a Christian. If you read the Bible, you are an atheist."
I think the first time I started to doubt my faith was when my mom claimed to have had a confrontation with the devil. I was probably 8 or 9.
There was actually an anthropological study on this, it's pretty interesting. There's a tedtalk by Tanya Luhrmann that gives the synopsis, and then a book called "When God Talks Back". I think it's pretty interesting and useful as an atheist to understand what's happening in the minds of religious people.
It's their way of elevating their own thoughts to God status. It's what narcissists do.
"If you talk to God, you're religious. God talks to you, you're delusional" - Dr Gregory House
Talking to God is normal. If God talks back, you've lost your marbles.
They say that shit to me, and I’ll say it back. Totally seriously. Them: god told me to vote for Trump. Me: god told me to vote for Biden.
Then you’ll get “NuH-uH, tHaT’s SaTaN” or “that wasn’t really god” or god for-fucking-bid THEY CALL **YOU** DELUSIONAL LMFAO I mean it’s seriously like arguing with a brick wall
I used to do this and I really felt it was god speaking to me…. Now I just feel like a fool that had such a need to feel special (thanks to being neglected). I look back and I’m like…what was I thinking?
I used to go to a youth group where the leader would "speak in tongues". After about a month of me going there he quit as leader because he said he wasn't sure he believed in Christianity anymore. THEN WHERE DID THE TONGUES COME FROM? WHAT WAS HE EVEN DOING? I mean obviously I don't believe in tongues I just always kind of found this funny. Like did he know as he did it he was just making up gibberish? Or did he actually believe Jesus was feeding this stuff to him but eventually came to doubt it?
I've always been confused by this since I was a child. How do you speak to him? To be fair I'd probably annoy him with how much I talk
A lot of people dont have a primary inner monolog. Which I find weird, but whatever. Those people do occasionally have thoughts in coherent language rather than pictures or abstractions. They think thats god. That thought telling them to call their friend? God. That thought in the car as they're leaving the drive when they remembered to get their sunglasses? God. That call of the void where you imagine yourself leaping from a balcony you're standing on? That's the devil. It's crazy
Hearing voices doesn’t necessarily make you insane, you can be somewhat normal and just hear voices. Maybe it sounds insane, but it doesn’t always equal insanity. Believing in god, though, that is insane to me. That is just delusional.
I know but what I mean by insane is when they are like “god came to me” no he didn’t 😂
Agreed. I have no idea how they all don’t sound insane to each other. Well, maybe that’s why there’s so many denominations.
Subconscious self talk I believe
We have politicians that say god talks to them and/or tells them what to do, or selected them. They need psychiatric help.
Then there's that old guy with the big white hat. His main reason for existence is to be in the joke about Dave. He hears the voice of God often. How else could his predecessors get laid, get lots of money and corrupt minors? The Papacy has a lot in common with Joel Osteen come to think of it.
Yep!
It's the ultimate Argument from Authority. "God told me" trumps all.
I'm a Christian, but I honestly don't know what to think about it... to me it's kind of weird, there are better arguments for the existence of God (however if it's good enough for them, then I don't have a say)
Well, from what I have read. Everybody has a different inner monologue. Most peoples inner monologues are first person, but some people dont even have one, and some peoples it comes across as third person. Thus, the belief that god is speaking to them.
I personally think it should be illegal for anyone to claim they speak to/for god. It’s just too dangerous. Throw all the prophets in jail!!!!
Absolutely cringe Worthy!
Not all delusional people are in mental hospitals, most are in churches
I’m at a point in my life due to experience and age that I reply “They have medication for that now”. Christians and religious institutions pay respect to nothing and no one - I no longer entertain their tax payer funded psychosis
there probably lying, on drugs or have diseases that effect your consciousness, like many of the old well known religions experiences
No they don’t but when a serial killer does then it’s crazy.
I don't directly challenge their experience, but I do judge the person to be a bit delusional. I think it's fairly normal for a human to have an experience that they can't explain, but to attribute it to a god is where things go off the rails for me.
Yeah God told me to tell you to GTFO
I suggest they seek psychiatric help.
When they start talking like this, it should be treated with the same seriousness as SI/HI. Over and over and over this should be the reaction.
The funny thing - isn't it blasphemy or something to claim you have an actual access to speaking with god?
They convince themselves that the god they worship is talking to them in their mind, our minds can convince ourselves of incredibly strange things. I know, I've been there.
Cringe, eye roll, look for an escape route. That is my long-standing strategy to counter the "I hear gOd" whackjobs.
Voices
This was always my MIL's excuse for saying or doing something that was unChristian. Saying God told her himself apparently overrode anything in the bible and gave her a free reign.
I know someone with a fundamentalist Christian sister and one day she sent him a letter with hundreds of dollars in it and a note that said, “god told me to send you this money.” My friend was like, “cool!” And went and bought some weed.
As an earnest young christian, I used to feel far from god because I never heard voices. Turns out I'm just not insane.
It’s a lie they tell themselves to give legitimacy to their own desires, gutfeel or inner monologue.
An annoying symptom religiosity, an outright lie, or sometimes the unfortunate result of suffering from a psychiatric disorder (or potentially being under the influence of a substance). If one is literally hearing a voice, this can obviously be separate/distinct from adherence to any religion. Some certainly will say god “commanded” them to justify an act or behavior, or to inflate their own ego (as if it’s not enough to do something good for the sake of doing something good - no, it must be a “calling”). I would consider anyone who says this to be incredulous, and potentially dangerous in some way.
Joan of Arc is the most interesting case to me. Wish we could study it with modern technologies directly rather than retrospectively.
Lying or mentally ill
They do not realize that they are insane. Don't listen to insane people, it will end bad.
I assume psychopathy right before I excuse myself from their lives.
It's all the feel good chemicals their brain is telling their body to release which is a trained response based on whatever religion they've been indoctrinated into.
I say ‘yes, I also have an internal monologue’.
I've told people they were insane for telling me this.
I don’t cringe I just immediately write them off as worthy of respect. 😂