Dear Parasocial Deity

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_Meadowchik
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Dear Parasocial Deity

Post by _Meadowchik »

Dear God,

You've always been around. Well, not actually around, but people have always talked about you. You're everywhere and in almost everything. I mean, not you, but the names people call you and the words people say are yours. I guess that's been good sometimes, but I'm absolutely certain it's been bad sometimes.

God, I've been told that I could see you, or more exactly, that I could "feel" and "know" you. I've been introduced to you as being the author of the pleasant, comforting feelings in my infancy. You were supposed to be the happiness and innocence of my childhood. You were supposed to be the love, kindness, and unyielding truth of my maturity.

God, not seeing or knowing you was supposed to be a failing, a loss. But now I am quite certain that saying "I don't know" is much more accurate, and therefore better for me. I am quite sure that believing a person who says they know You, when they cannot know they know You, is much worse.

God, I am supposed to believe you are everywhere, that you are accessible, and that you are also all-knowing and all-powerful. I am supposed to accept Your silence as a direct invitation to my faith in You, and I am supposed to accept everything that does exist as evidence pointing to Your existance, an indirect proof of You, and the fruit of my faith.

But You've never been more to me than what I have also produced without any regard to you. Despite this, I will give you the benefit of the doubt. I'll dismiss the indirect testimonials of others and I'll be here, if you ever want to talk.

See ya when I see ya,
An Agnostic Atheist
_Meadowchik
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Re: Dear Parasocial Deity

Post by _Meadowchik »

From Oxford University Press:

OVERVIEW
parasocial interaction

QUICK REFERENCE
(PSI, para-social interaction)

A term coined by Horton and Wohl in 1956 to refer to a kind of psychological relationship experienced by members of an audience in their mediated encounters with certain performers in the mass media, particularly on television. Regular viewers come to feel that they know familiar television personalities almost as friends. Parasocial relationships psychologically resemble those of face-to-face interaction but they are of course mediated and one-sided. On the rare occasions when we encounter celebrities in the street we may smile involuntarily in recognition that we know them but we are obliged to realize that they do not know us. However, onscreen, skilled television presenters foster the illusion of intimacy, a good example in the UK being Paul O'Grady. We are encouraged to feel that what is being said is being directed to us personally. This is assisted by direct address to the camera. Chat-show hosts tend to adopt the conversational style and gestures of an informal face-to-face gathering. The set is often designed to bear some resemblance to a living-room. Skilled hosts blur the line between themselves and the audience—both the studio audience and the audience at home. Guests on the show are treated as a group of close friends. Horton and Wohl stress that parasocial interaction is not like a process of identification. One-off viewers may choose to be detached, analytical, and even cynical, but regular viewers are more likely to adopt the proffered role.

http://www.participations.org/volume%20 ... onwohl.htm Parasocial interaction: Horton and Wohl


From: parasocial interaction in A Dictionary of Media and Communication »


God is like a celebrity in hiding, a creator who receives attribution for numerous important texts, such that we cannot verify authorship. He's like a distant traveller or shy recluse who people claim to know. They claim to have His messages for us, though we can never prove it.

Remarkably, this invisible, unverified celebrity seems very real to millions of people, who try to speak to and obey Him and influence others to likewise do.
Last edited by Guest on Sun Dec 02, 2018 7:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
_candygal
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Re: Dear Parasocial Deity

Post by _candygal »

In my struggles in trying to keep and observe a God without Mormonism, your words speak to me in many ways. Where is He?? Where is He?? The One who was to comfort me...the hard thing is that it is easier for me to see His Son. But without Him..there is nothing there. How do we rewrite what held us in childhood..the promises..the very innocent love that we thought could be proved. Where is He? In a world that holds so much pain and still called the children of a God.

Thank you for your post.
_Meadowchik
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Re: Dear Parasocial Deity

Post by _Meadowchik »

candygal wrote:In my struggles in trying to keep and observe a God without Mormonism, your words speak to me in many ways. Where is He?? Where is He?? The One who was to comfort me...the hard thing is that it is easier for me to see His Son. But without Him..there is nothing there. How do we rewrite what held us in childhood..the promises..the very innocent love that we thought could be proved. Where is He? In a world that holds so much pain and still called the children of a God.

Thank you for your post.


I relate to that feeling of closeness to Jesus but more distance with God the Father. There is so very little distinction between Father and Son, except in their roles, to make the Father seem like a redundant figure.
_cwald
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Re: Dear Parasocial Deity

Post by _cwald »

Great OP.

Is God a real person? I just haven't found any evidence or logical reasoning to support such a claim.


To be honest, I use to hope God was real, but the more I live the more I hope not. The Christian and the Mormon version of "God" is a deplorable being and kind of a douche bag. I wouldn't want him as neighbor.
"Jesus gave us the gospel, but Satan invented church. It takes serious evil to formalize faith into something tedious and then pile guilt on anyone who doesn’t participate enthusiastically." - Robert Kirby

Beer makes you feel the way you ought to feel without beer. -- Henry Lawson
_Meadowchik
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Re: Dear Parasocial Deity

Post by _Meadowchik »

cwald wrote:Great OP.

Is God a real person? I just haven't found any evidence or logical reasoning to support such a claim.


The most compelling information that stuck for me was stories of the afterlife viw NDEs. A friend's mother had one and told me about it in her living room. It led her to the church. But our brains are amazing. I know dreams can seem real, therefore I'd say that a dying brain might do something extraordinary, too.


To be honest, I use to hope God was real, but the more I live the more I hope not. The Christian and the Mormon version of "God" is a deplorable being and kind of a douche bag. I wouldn't want him as neighbor.


Yes, I agree. It's nice to hope that there is something beyond. A hope, a meaning, a future. But hoping won't make that happen, will it?

This agnostic proposition in the OP is, I guess, a different version of Pascal's Wager. One lives the best life they can regardless of there being a Higher Power, because what reveals more about a person who lives without any assurance of further reward?
_cwald
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Re: Dear Parasocial Deity

Post by _cwald »

Meadowchik wrote:This agnostic proposition in the OP is, I guess, a different version of Pascal's Wager. One lives the best life they can regardless of there being a Higher Power, because what reveals more about a person who lives without any assurance of further reward?

Think of all the times you heard someone say that without the church they might be a raving immoral criminal lunatic.

Really?
"Jesus gave us the gospel, but Satan invented church. It takes serious evil to formalize faith into something tedious and then pile guilt on anyone who doesn’t participate enthusiastically." - Robert Kirby

Beer makes you feel the way you ought to feel without beer. -- Henry Lawson
_Meadowchik
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Re: Dear Parasocial Deity

Post by _Meadowchik »

cwald wrote:Think of all the times you heard someone say that without the church they might be a raving immoral criminal lunatic.

Really?

I assumed that could be true. After all, I was to believe that we are all one fiery Satan's dart away from any number of grievous sins.

Psychologically, there would be a point where I'd feel an unmeasured potential in myself, a dangerous one. As a believer, I didn't follow it enough to know how far it led.

But, here's the interesting thing. After I left, I allowed my mind to walk through plenty of dangerous, forbidden scenarios, I allowed myself to consider them, rather than be afraid of what would happen when I allowed myself to think them. And in my mind, I realised that I really did not want to do bad things, to hurt or exploit people.

What a shock! My unbelieving, bitter apostate heart had no lingering desire for sin, debauchery, fraud, violence, or dishonesty. What a deeply satisfying feeling that is.
_Gadianton
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Re: Dear Parasocial Deity

Post by _Gadianton »

Meadowchik,

Because of what you just said, Lou Midgley is not impressed by any Christmas lights you decorate your house with on Christmas. I figured it best to appraise you of this so you at least know about it, on the chance you weren't aware.
Lou Midgley 08/20/2020: "...meat wad," and "cockroach" are pithy descriptions of human beings used by gemli? They were not fashioned by Professor Peterson.

LM 11/23/2018: one can explain away the soul of human beings...as...a Meat Unit, to use Professor Peterson's clever derogatory description of gemli's ideology.
_Meadowchik
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Re: Dear Parasocial Deity

Post by _Meadowchik »

Gadianton wrote:Meadowchik,

Because of what you just said, Lou Midgley is not impressed by any Christmas lights you decorate your house with on Christmas. I figured it best to appraise you of this so you at least know about it, on the chance you weren't aware.


Fortunately, having not developed a parasocial relationship with Mr. Midgely, my feelings are spared from this cutting revelation.
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