We can agree that it is 'no skin off anyone's nose' about what the other person believes, and you are welcome to your opinion of God, the universe, extra-terrestrial life-forms, me, or anything else. You see nothing but 'cognitive dissonance', and I see spiritual convergence between the animal-consciousness of "meat-bag" man and God through the Christ of God, whom we call 'Jesus'. I said I studied Buddhism, and Hinduism, but I did not say that my investigations through many years ended in them. And, please, relax -- I'm not (NOT) trying to 'convert' you to anything. I have only asked you to ask yourself whether or not you really think that NOTHING and NO ONE created you, and all of what is around you, extending in a limitless expanse as far as any of us can imagine.... In any event, no, I do not "go to church on Sunday", and, I have no plans to do so for the rest of this life....
He doesn't even know me. I could be a serial killer for he knows, and he wouldn't love me then, shirley? Go on, say it . . . 'Don't call me Shirley!'
May I ask Pollycy if you go to church on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath? I did for years...... and I do hope that the time comes when my wife and I are able to attend the Messianic Jewish group in Halifax.
Good points! I think she is scared to even begin to think this possibility through to the rather obvious conclusion: http://www.politicalforum.com/index...begin-in-matter-or-fundamental-energy.465052/ Where did Intelligence begin, in matter or fundamental energy?
Personally...... I am of the belief that the most fundamental energy most ancient intelligences have created actual freedom of choice............ that teaches us that power and responsibility to freely make decisions lead to consequences....... and we humans often learn more from our errors than we do from what we do correctly. http://www.near-death.com/experiences/notable/howard-storm.html#a06 But...... .once we humans act out a number of different scenarios over six or seven millennia G-d turns the earth into a utopia rather simply by pouring out more and more of the Ruach ha Kodesh / Holy Spirit / Love, Light, Truth that pervades the higher energetic space - time dimensions. This is a bit like you turning the dimmer switch in one of the rooms in your home to maximum brightness......... (for four dimensional space - time at least). http://www.near-death.com/experiences/notable/howard-storm.html#a04
While disrespecting nobody here I have to say that my personal experience is that constant attendance at Sunday Church services and people who live by the Beatitudes is almost directly an inverse relationship. Not always but enough that people who don't are the exception not the rule.
I went through a pretty serious philosophical crisis back in 1990..... I had been happy in my belief in the "soul sleep" theory but once I saw evidence that our soul is indeed immortal..... .and there was a higher dimensional prison type environment....... two statements by Rabbi Yeshua - Jesus really annoyed me...... Matthew 22:14 "For many are called, but few are chosen." Matthew 7:13 ΒΆ Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." I eventually did get answers to my philosophical crisis though: http://www.near-death.com/experiences/notable/christian-andreason.html#a04h
A gifted Christian visionary was shown something very much along this line in a visionary dream back in 1995............... http://64.71.77.248/fq-protestant/tfq-en.html
Sorry but I'm an atheist through and through - you've probably already gathered that? If there was this entity of which you speak he wouldn't allow children to get cancer.
There is no hard and set rule but Helen Wambach Ph. D. found that about ninety percent of her volunteer subjects could be hypnotized...... and view past lives. She asked them very simple questions about those past lives in an effort to not lead them at all in their responses. I read two of her books. The second one was of what people experienced BETWEEN these past lives. On average her 1088 volunteers were in higher dimensions of space - time for 52 years between incarnations as a human. Her volunteers reported playing a role in choosing their parents as well as the difficulties in life that would assist them to grow in empathy. G-d is working out a plan that should produce a quite utopian world in about two centuries....... .but our freedom of choice plays a role in how quickly that better world is ushered in. I am of the belief that that utopian world can come much more quickly. In some cases, souls plan to have cancer as a child to gain empathy from a past life as a soldier or somebody who took lives for unethical reasons. But in other cases the child may have no negative karmic debt but just volunteers to play out the role of that child. Near death experiencer Dannion Brinkley was shown that only the most courageous and philosophically advanced spiritual beings would volunteer to incarnate as a child destined to be handicapped or have cancer. https://www.near-death.com/science/research/pre-existence.html
While the Catholic services can be very beautiful with all the ritual and whatnot, I'm not Christian (Wiccan actually) and so do not regularly attend church services. I will see the odd Christmas show at the local Methodist church, but they get the music from the folks who wrote the music for The Trans-Siberian Orchestra and have a very interesting and surprisingly more biblical history and less preachy.
Good point indeed! I wrote up some ideas on this that struck me back during the 1990's when I was rethinking just about everything. http://www.politicalforum.com/index...ll-members-of-the-military-and-police.464405/ An apology to all members of the military and police!
I on the other hand believe Jesus was referring to the healing of a man born blind from birth. I'm not very good at King James English, and I don't talk that way, but it seems I remember the part when Jesus and the disciples were hungry on the sabbath and they threshed grains of wheat in their hands for something to eat.That was considered work. How rediculous could the Pharisees get! But their big concern was obeying the laws which they greatly expounded on. One must be blind to not see their corrupt hearts in favor of the law opposed to how God wants us to perform.
I haven't found a church doesn't teach it's idea of what the bible means. I haven't even found one that does not care about it's parishioners money. I don't want a church which tries to tell me how I should live or what I should believe, I get my own meaning out of the bible. I don't want a church who only cares about the amount of money I can give them, it is none of their business if I am stone poor or filthy rich. God is anywhere 2 or more people are gathered in his name, even my home.
Exactly. I've never understood why worshippers feel the need to congregate in one place - unless it's to show the world and his wife how pious they are, and why on earth would they want to do that?
We attend when invited by friends, for their special events and holidays. The Catholic masses, those that are still held in Latin anyway, are certainly great stuff, the local synagogue here has a excellent group of musicians attending, and so do several of the evangelical sects, and a couple of the latter black evangelical Baptist churches have notable choirs as well. We wouldn't go if they sucked.
We attend when invited by friends, for their special events and holidays. The Catholic masses, those that are still held in Latin anyway, are certainly great stuff, the local synagogue here has a excellent group of musicians attending, and so do several of the evangelical sects, and a couple of the latter black evangelical Baptist churches have notable choirs as well. We wouldn't go if they sucked.
Back in the day when I was young and stupid, I used to go to church for the girls. Then I started listening to the preachers read from the bible and tell the whole congregation it mean something totally different than what it meant to me. I also started to see how the people acted during the week and saw how different they pretended to be during church and I never wanted to do that in my life. I do not need church folk to approve of me in any way. I find my own way to God and do not need a church to show me the path.
