What If God Were One Of Us?

Ultimately I think the point of the song is if god was just a guy on the bus, would you get to know him? Or just stick with what the church whichever denomination you identify with tells you?

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Maybe god is alone, nobody calling on the phone, because nobody can be bothered getting to know him anymore. I like your thoughts: This is the best interpretation of the song that I found. Even though this seems like a Christian song, it is equally applicable to other religions if we replace the references to Jesus and Pope with similar instances from other religions.

The central message of the song is: What would you do if God was standing right next to you "a slob like one of us? Just a stranger on the bus Would you just ignore him and go about your everyday life, as many of us would? The greatest saints in every religion, like Mother Teresa, are those who found God in "one of us" and devoted their life to serving this "God" rather than the God in the churches, temples, etc.

According to the Christian faith, Jesus became "one of us" to serve us. Can we do the same for "one of us"? Flag trainwreck on May 07, I love this song. Mainly because of the uplifting lead guitar line but the words are good too. And I like your thoughts. Like you I am an atheist mainly because of the great historic evils like the inquisition which you allude to. But I don't think all Christians are bound to be bad just because they believe. There are some good ones. The crux of this song is the same as the Jesus myth: An impossibility because man is flawed and god is perfect.

This is a really clever ethical paradox and probably the crux of my own belief. I like the idea. Being good or trying to be for me grows out of really perceiving that we are all just human beings: In the song this is the way god is portrayed just a sad lonely guy going home on a bus.

Jesus was that guy. Even Christians have to accept that. So this song at the same time challenges Christians. It criticises the pomposity of the Christian hierarchy saints prophets etc. But at the same time it asks you to feel sympathy for him. Sympathy is a form of love. To a Christian having sympathy for God has to precede having sympathy for a human you cannot love man or yourself without first loving god. But the song seems to put it the other way round.

You are asked to think of god as a man not man as a reflection of god. And the last lines about no-one calling him on the phone except the pope are both poignant and witty. It pokes fun at the same time as inviting sympathy. I would add a little bit to your conclusion.

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I agree that this song is challenging the listener to think how they would treat god if he was just like another guy and they met him on the bus. But it could also be challenging us to query the existence of god himself. Is 'god' actually immanent in humanity? What if god is nothing more than looking with compassion on another human being?

You may well know the saying 'God is love' I have often seen this incorrectly construed as 'Deus est Amor. For me both the soaring music and the tone and sense of the words give rise to feelings of sympathy hope and faith in humanity.

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Because I too am an atheist I find that very uplifting. I also really like that it presents Christians with the conundrum of deciding whether they feel sympathy for the guy because he is human or because he is divine. I can say both. Flag AlanMcG on November 30, General Comment Each person imagines God in a different way. And I know a lot of people think, "If God is so great, how did he let all these wars happen, etc We we're the ones who made the wars, and the inventions, and the hatred, and the love. This is our own outcome. And if God didn't stop the wars Their could have been much more worse outcomes!

We are the ones that have to fix these problems because we created it! If God came to our rescue everytime something bad happened God is making us stronger Thats just my conclusion. We all have our perspectives about this topic, and this song was Joane Osborne's. Plus, listing to this song always makes me wonder all the questions she asks Plus, I'm just a 12 year old kid who to some people dosin't have an opinion at all. If you're like that But this is my feeling towred this topic. Ma3a, the Benevolent A. Jet thwarts them, but realizing what being a User means doesn't do his sanity any favors.

He ends up as a cross of Reluctant Messiah, Self-Denouncer, and The Savior, realizing that as much as he hates the idea of being a User, humans have a responsibility to the Programs and that there's always another guy like Thorne waiting in the wings. While living among humans, and even a bit among his own kind, Thor is a Prince possibly because he literally is one , but becomes a Savior later. Loki is even more twisted, taking delight in killing humans purely because Thor has sworn to protect them, like a bratty kid breaking his brother's favorite toys.

The Lord Ruler of Mistborn combines elements of the Despot and the Prince though he probably sees himself as more of a Reluctant Messiah- and despite being the object of the state religion he's not a real god, just a human with immortality and godlike magical powers. The Twilight Zone episode, and the short story on which it's based, " It's a Good Life ," deal with what would happen if a bratty child were given Reality Warper powers akin to God.

One of the central themes of Exalted is to explore this question. Given that there are several thousand of them, the titular Exalted tend to run the gamut of archetypes presented here, with the possible exception of Obliviousness—Exaltation is hard to miss.

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He considers himself to be a human and thinks humanity should worship themselves rather than any deities. While at first he just guided humanity instead of making his presence known, when the Age of Strife happened he decided to make his presence known since if he didn't there wouldn't have been a humanity left to guide. Mata Nui fits multiple categories during his tenure as the Great Spirit of the Matoran who wasn't explicitly worshiped, but was revered and had the powers of a god.

It's actually a large part of his Character Development over the course of the series. Initially, he was a combination of The Shepherd and The Apathetic, wishing the best for his people but largely ignoring their existence. When he was hijacked from his position by Makuta he firmly became a mixture of The Shepherd and The Savior as he sought to find a way to free the Matoran.

In the process, he helps restore hope to the inhabitants of Bara Magna and reforms their society. After all was said and done read: Citing his apathetic nature to them earlier, he recognized that since then, they'd mostly grown into their own as a self-determining civilization that no longer needed him. This is especially the case since the thing that enabled his godlike abilities—a Humongous Mecha that everyone else lived in—was destroyed.

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So even if he doesn't ignore them any longer, he can't actually help them beyond using the powers of the Mask of Life. Still, in true Shepherd fashion, he promises to answer them if they should ever require his aid. Retrieved September 29, Live at Delta 88 Early Recordings. Retrieved from " https: Views Read Edit View history. This page was last edited on 15 December , at By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

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