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Discussion » Questions » Religion and Spirituality » EGO is short for "edging God out" and it is not a religious statement . Can you understand this? What is your take?
WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH

EGO is short for "edging God out" and it is not a religious statement . Can you understand this? What is your take?

Posted - December 6, 2017
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Responses


  • 10639
    I like that.  


    The more important one appears in their own eyes, the less important they actually are.

      December 6, 2017 1:56 PM MST
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  • 46117
    You watched Oprah!
      December 6, 2017 4:01 PM MST
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  • 10639
    Never!
      December 6, 2017 4:57 PM MST
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  • 13395
    If God is defined as absolute perfection then God cannot exist because if absolute perfection could ever be achieved things would change and then there would continue to be imperfection. If God did create a perfect world that is why it didn't last very long.

    Reason is for EGO.
      December 6, 2017 2:30 PM MST
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  • 46117
    Look things don't change because MAN is holding up the change.

    Things ALWAYS change and if it wasn't for a benevolent God, we would not even be left here to write to each other.  We are screwing up the planet.  God is patient.  Perfection does not decay and perfection can wait out any foible man has.   You see, God is loving and everything He created is Divine and part of the Divine Order.

    Just because you can only see part of the tapestry through your mortal eyeballs, does not mean there is a whole rug to explore that you know nothing of.

    So, how can you judge if God is perfection or not?

    God is Perfection.  And we all have God within.  We are all perfect. Wait till you croak, you will see what I mean.
      December 6, 2017 4:04 PM MST
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  • 13395
    It is demonstrated that we have an invisible force within but not a force that mankind personifies as supernatural God. When I croak i'll be 'home' in the sense as a universal consciousness and not as an individual person. 
      December 6, 2017 4:20 PM MST
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  • 46117
    I wish you knew what I was saying.  But that's okay.

      December 6, 2017 4:30 PM MST
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  • 13395
    Believing in God/supernatural just complicates things but the mythological stories inspired by man's belief in gods are interesting. This post was edited by Kittigate at December 6, 2017 5:37 PM MST
      December 6, 2017 4:56 PM MST
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  • 7280
    "Absolution perfection" means "to be" or "is."  God is "esse."  It is all act and no potency---no "change" in God.  He is already "as good as it can get."  God "is"---there is no perfection in Him which is not totally achieved.

     On the other hand, we created beings possess our being in parts.  In Aristotle's words, there are two principles, one limiting and one perfecting.
    For beings who fulfill their vocation in time, the process of change (moving from potency to act) is ongoing.

    God, who is outside time, does not change---He IS.
      December 6, 2017 4:43 PM MST
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  • 1305
    But isn't our concept of time of mans invention, (only in the mind) to measure himself up against change? I don't see animals with watches, they just know, they live in the here and now and they do better at life than we do, they are in complete harmony with their surroundings and wear no watches.  Therefore, does time exist in of itself? Or just in our mind, just as we can chose to obsess about the past and the future and miss the now.  And if time doesn't exist, where does that leave us with our relationship to God? This post was edited by kjames at December 6, 2017 5:06 PM MST
      December 6, 2017 4:56 PM MST
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  • 7280
    One definition of time is "Time is the measurement of things that change."  It is a construct of man.  It is not essential in and of itself.

    Animals fulfill their destiny whether they die a natural death or become part of the food chain while alive. (Of course, a natural death does benefit certain animals ---in the phylogenetic sense---who feed on dead creatures.)

    I make that distinction because I think that if God exists (and I think He does) then the thing I fail most to understand is the actual role of suffering in creation.

    That leaves us with a relationship with God that exists in this mode of being and which will exist in another mode of being when we die.

    I suspect that other mode of being is very different from this one that leads to it---and that may be why Christ suggested we not try too hard to determine what it will be like there.
      December 9, 2017 2:30 PM MST
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  • 1305
    What if the mode of the way we think about time stops us from experiencing God.
    See time doesn't exist with animals, they live in there here and now, in harmony with that around it,  it is impossible to threaten an animal with future punishment because an animal has no concept of this, the only way to control an animal is through physical punishment. 
    However, humans are much more unique, they don't have a concept of self before age two, and even after this children have difficulty in understanding time which is why NO often means NEVER for them, even in some tribal cultures, when they were imprisoned they had no concept of time and so they died, because they NEVER thought they'd be free, and lack of freedom was something they couldn't live with.
    Hence this shows our idea of time is very different to other humans.  In ancient days, only night and day existed. 

    So again what if it is our thinking about time, is what stops us experiencing God, if time is subjective, and a mere measurement of change or space, then time doesn't really exist in of itself, and therefore God cannot be outside of something that doesn't exist, hence we share the same place in time as God, it is our "thinking" that separates us from him.  

    As for the suffering aspect, in the story of the bible there was no suffering in Eden (bliss), it was only when we wanted to gain a sense of self separate from God (to become like God) that suffering began, as did our death.  The wages of sin is death Romans 6:23 This post was edited by kjames at December 10, 2017 8:14 AM MST
      December 10, 2017 8:08 AM MST
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  • 7280
    We are creatures who fulfill our vocation in time, so change is not something that we should not try to get through as soon as possible.  It is a law of our being.  God created us as beings that change and grow.  We do that in time. Change, growth and time are also present in other animals, even though they don't have the cognitive ability to realize it.

    Time, as a measurement of things that change, is not confined to numerical measurement.  Growth---movement from potency to act, the achieving of a greater density of being---occurs in time.  And since Christ is the "final" cause it is through Him that we become the best that we can be as created beings. 

    i don't really think that you meant to say that the only way to control an animal is through physical punishment.  I assume you meant that you cannot threaten an animal with consequences and expect him to want to avoid certain behavior that might ensure such consequences.  If so, I agree.

    Yes we humans do slowly develop a "sense of self"---they are not born with it.  That is an example of growth.  

    You say, "In ancient days, only night and day existed."---That was our earliest concept of time (even though we might not have been fully aware of it).  It was at that stage that we already sensed "time" as the measurement of things that change (night to day to night to day...).

    God is outside evil. He is also outside time. He IS; and He does NOT change. The birth and life of Jesus Christ---divine and human nature in one person---happened in time, as did the Redemption of all mankind.

    What I take from the Genesis Myth (myth---a traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining some natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events) is that man was tempted to disobey God, succumbed to the temptation for whatever reason, and that all men now suffer the consequences to that disobedience.

    His precise motive for the actual disobedience is speculative at best.  Whether man "wanted to gain a sense of self separate from God (to become like God)" and then to suggest that developing a sense of self is a possible continuing fault in man rather than an important marker of growth is not at all persuasive to me. 
      December 10, 2017 11:59 AM MST
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  • 1305

    John 1: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

    John 3:6 Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit

    Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
    "Yet we still say lo here, lo there"  

    Eph 2:22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. 

    1 Cor 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 


      December 10, 2017 1:04 PM MST
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  • 13395
    The previous gods were created in the image of man, woman or beast then when The God came to exist about 6000 years ago the bible story writers turned it around in order to give God the most glory -to say mankind was created in the image of God instead. And people have trouble understanding what 'created in the image of God' means.
      December 6, 2017 5:06 PM MST
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  • 7280
    The retreat master at a retreat I attended some time ago suggested that we think of God as being "at least as good as the best person we know."  That provides an insight.

    As a man in antiquity trying to imagine a god, would I not most likely see him as a man---perhaps similar in physiognomy to the leader of the tribe that just kicked my tribe's butt?  Or perhaps, if I were in a time of peace, might I not see the sun or other natural phenomena that I did not understand as more powerful than me and yet affecting me so greatly as to think "it" might be a "god?"

    And then, when man had attained sufficient sophistication by practicing with all the gods they created, God began to reveal Himself and the real story of creation and His role in creation to men.  And as appropriate over time, He had inspired writers functioning as His instrumental causes writing first the book we call Genesis.

    "Man is made in the image and likeness of God, and that likeness is chiefly in the soul."---(Straight out of the Baltimore Catechism 60+ years ago.)

    "Chiefly in the soul"---at the very least, this implies eternal existence with some interesting implications.

    And since "chiefly" is not synonymous with "only,"  It leaves room for the Hypostatic Union where the Word (second person of the trinity) becomes man as well as God---which has another (staggering) set of implications.

    Why am I a Christian, specifically a Catholic?---Because it tells me of a world of natural and supernatural realities that continue to grow and change and continue to unfold beyond anything wondrous that I could have imagined.

    I performed no edit, but accidentally hit "save changes" instead of "cancel." This post was edited by tom jackson at December 9, 2017 2:57 PM MST
      December 9, 2017 2:55 PM MST
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  • 13395
    All right -thanks. 
      December 9, 2017 5:23 PM MST
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  • 1305
    I did wonder about this because before the fall, man walked with God, he told them not to eat from the tree of knowledge for the day they did they would die, then the "shining one" tempted eve to eat from the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, and become like God, a temptation she gave into because she saw the fruit was good to the eye, she knew it would make her wise, and it was good for eating, and when they eat this fruit, they felt shame at their nakedness, I'm wondering if they gained a sense of self and so was separated from God. For if God is perfect, there can be no intiquity found in him which was now in man.

    However, the results of this eating were as follows:- Shame at nakedness
    To the woman - I will make your pains in childbearing very severe;
        with painful labor you will give birth to children.
    Your desire will be for your husband,
        and he will rule over you.”

    To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

    “Cursed is the ground because of you;
        through painful toil you will eat food from it
        all the days of your life
    It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
        and you will eat the plants of the field.
    By the sweat of your brow
        you will eat your food
    until you return to the ground,
        since from it you were taken;
    for dust you are
        and to dust you will return.”

    Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
    The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.  And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”  So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.  After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side

    These punishments are aimed at the body, eve with painful labour, and adam with toiling the soil.  Funnily enough jewish mysticism use to equate Lilith with a woman's period, and samael with mans wasted ejaculation.  So it suggests that the serpent was somehow more influential on them as a whole.  After this man would only succeed in mortality through having children.  However sin is suggestive to be passed on through this act, as is death.  As the results of sin, is death.

    Romans 5:12
    Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.

    Romans 5:17
    For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive an abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

    Romans 6:23
    For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

    1 Timothy 5:6
    But she who lives for pleasure is dead even while she is still alive.

    James 1:15
    Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.

    However in the NT , man can be born of spirit.

    John 3:5
    Jesus answered "Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

    John 3:66
    Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit.

    James 1:18
    He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we would be a kind of first fruits of His creation.

    1 Peter 1:23
    For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

    1 John 2:29
    If you know that He is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.

    1 John 3:9
    Anyone born of God refuses to practice sin, because God's seed abides in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.

    1 John 5:4
    because everyone born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith.

    Some ask why water? Because we are made of earth, and water is purer than earth it flows, following this is wind or air the holy spirit, and following this it's fire, because it purifies, and burns up the material.

    There are similarities between Genesis and the Epic of Gilgamesh, when Enki brings Me's to Sumer, Enki is also Prometheus, Phosphorous and Lucifer.  Me's give man so called civilisation.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_(mythology)

    In Buddhism one must watch the Me to find out the I.

    Many say Buddhism has no gods but it comes from Hinduism.
    Yoga also means yoking but rarely do people question who they are yoking with.

    Kabbalah has a different take again on the serpent.

    https://www.rabbidavidcooper.com/cooper-print-index/2010/11/7/2364-the-mystical-garden-of-eden.html



    This post was edited by kjames at December 6, 2017 4:09 PM MST
      December 6, 2017 3:55 PM MST
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  • 46117
    Now that I am actually reading YOU, you are quite a good read.  I get put off when there is nothing but bible quotes.  But you are a well-thought out human after all.  (I am a slow learner sometimes about these things)

    Thank you for this. 

    Simply put?  I think we need to stop the addiction of over-thinking and let GOD in through meditation.   We don't have to continually plan and think to get better results.   All we need do, is calm ourselves, not judge, and be present and aware.

    Eve represented desire and temptation and now women are paying for that moniker to this day.  LOL

    Instead of understanding the meaning of the "parable", mankind chose to take the lowest meaning out of this.  Blame others for problems.

    The truth is we are all perfect, but we allowed desire to manifest into our consciousness.  The more we focused toward the physical, the lower and denser we became.


      Man left where he was to seek what he felt he did not have.  Of course God disappeared.   God let us do what we wanted,  because God does not force us, His children, to behave like robots.  He wanted us to see for ourselves that we need to transform and shift from the physical.

    We need to get back to the Garden.  And we don't have to die to do that.  We have to transform.

    There is no pain there.  There is no fear.  There is nothing but trust in God. And when you let go and let God?  Miracles begin to unfold.  So, getting back to the Garden simply means going within and seeing that God is part and parcel of you.   God is everywhere and in everything.  If you shut out the ego and the mind, God appears. 

    Thank you, for your answer.  I liked that.


    This post was edited by WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH at December 6, 2017 4:16 PM MST
      December 6, 2017 4:10 PM MST
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  • 7280
    I've heard it said that "The glory of God is man fully alive."

    So, I'm not a fan of having it stand for "edging God out."

    I find it more useful when used as Latin for "I" (first person singular).

    EGO---PSYCHOANALYSIS
    the part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and the unconscious and is responsible for reality testing and a sense of personal identity.

    EGO---PHILOSOPHY
    (in metaphysics) a conscious thinking subject.

    Being is a higher activity than intellectual activity, but the intellect helps us move from potency to act.

      December 6, 2017 4:51 PM MST
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  • 1393
    Q "EGO is short for "edging God out" and it is not a religious statement . Can you understand this? What is your take?"


    It's clever.

    Don't quite understand how a statement can involve God and yet not be a religious statement.

    I think ego doesn't only edge god out it edges out the possibility of acknowledging that others could have at least a few valid points worth considering. And that aspect of ego affects not only atheists but sadly also those who profess to believe in god.
      December 9, 2017 4:46 PM MST
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  • 7280
    Coming to conclusions after careful consideration of and finding that those other previously categorized "valid points" are actually considerably less than such is a valid and useful function of the ego.

    Aristotle said "the human mind is a machine for coming to conclusions."

    Justice Black once said that "we must act---on peril of our lives---because time is short."
      December 9, 2017 5:08 PM MST
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  • 1393
    Interesting. However, my understanding of ego is that it will make you cling onto them even after "finding that those other previously categorized "valid points" are actually considerably less than such" and the points of someone else, a member of the "them" you don't agree with, are more valid.
      December 10, 2017 4:34 AM MST
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  • 7280
    That's why I quoted Justice Black.  Sooner or later we have to pick a direction and move on.  

    I tend to submit my conclusions to the God that I have come to know and ask Him if I have landed off the fairway. This post was edited by tom jackson at December 10, 2017 1:44 PM MST
      December 10, 2017 12:05 PM MST
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