God demands nothing and life is not a fight

related thread that may be helpful towards addressing that: a lot of the misunderstandings about Christianity come from a lack of wisdom about human nature

 

Admittedly, I don't have evidence. The presence of a higher power is only the conclusion I've come to by examining the world around me and concluding that there is a sense of order and all is connected. That might just be my own weakness in the need to establish order in chaos (the ink blot experiment), but grasping for straws is all I have to help me get out of bed and make it through every day.

The only thing that sets me apart from many other theists is I don't go around telling people (not even my own children) that there is a very specific formula for their salvation.

I understand your desire to pursue what is true as opposed to what makes one feel good. Thankfully there is not enough good argumentation and evidence to say that the Bible is the complete and inerrant truth.

When I had my existential crisis last year triggered by pandemic lockdown, I felt nothing meant anything and felt my life completely empty in my atheism. I realize that's not everybody's experience, but it was for me. I learned the value in some sort of understanding in a higher purpose.

During my existential crisis, for many days, I felt like not wanting to get out of bed and go through the motions of life. I would feel exactly the same if I knew the God as described in the Bible were true. If I learned that the Bible is the absolute truth, I honestly would consider dropping off a multi-story building.

 

Well, it depends what you would mean by "absolute truth". Why would you consider fatally dropping off a multi-story building?

 

Sometimes we have to live our lives without knowing certainties, even when these things we are uncertain about are probably very important.

You can be assured that, if there is a God, and God wanted you to know something, you would know it. Or it might just not be the right time yet.
Of course you have to make some reasonable effort to find out that truth. Nothing extreme or out of the ordinary though.

 

Dear Moderators: Please delete the last sentence in my previous post if it could be taken out of context.

 

Well I'm glad that you found a theology that didn't require a your jumping out a window. Your may have misunderstood me, though, if you thought that my beliefs come from the Bible. I have been a pantheist, for about the last 35 years, though in the initial stages, it was mixed with some Christian beliefs, from the Catholicism, I'd walked away from. But this was all based on Jesus's parables, which I still hold in great admiration, for their wisdom.

Recently, though, with no congregation, & slowing down in my middle years, so not being involved with other rituals, which I would view through my pantheistic lens, my speculations have become less inspiring, & I have felt much less connected to the Universal Spirit.

Though you may see this as a result of my theology, which views the Creation/universe as being indicative of the nature of the Creator/God. And struggle is intrinsic to it all.

 

A good dose of shrooms or even DMT can be helpful (to some...) for pondering the mysteries of creation.
I'd like to try peyote at some point.

 

As would I. I once bought a kit for growing 'shrooms, but never got around to building the protective box for growing them in, as I didn't have an appropriate spot to keep it. DMT, can apparently be sourced from many legal things, as can harmaline (or harmine?), which greatly prolongs the DMT's effect, & is the combination used in Ayahuasca. I got some seeds for two of the plants that can be used to make an analog: Canary Reed grass, and Syrian Rue. But I never grew them. Again, I didn't really have a good place to do it; but also, in all honesty, I'm not good at getting around to, or especially fond of, projects. As it already is, my days aren't near long enough, to do a day's worth of stuff.

 

If I want shrooms, all I need do is take a short drive in the county with a friend to drive, as parking can draw unwanted attention. Just drop of the mushroom hunter and drive around for a bit. Been many years, in my early 20's I ate them hundreds of times. Maybe some day....? Just in no hurry.

San pedro cacti also contain mascaline and it's a legal cacti (now, extraction would be illegal) but in much lower concentrations than peyote. Nature is slap full of naturally occurring psychedelics.
"licking" certain toads of the Buffo genus...etc

 

DO NOT LICK THE TOAD! The Sonoran Desert Toad's secretions are poisonous. What one need do is "milk," the secretions, dry them, & then smoke them, which destroys the poison. The hallucinogen in it is another form of DMT, though one that I've read can be a more troubling experience. (It's still on my imaginary list of things to try, though).

 

The word "God" is just a title and is meaningless unless it refers to a specific imaginary deity that some con man cooked up to control his superstitious buddies with. All of the biblical Gods were simply the series of emperors and chief priests who controlled the dominant empires in the ancient Middle East area. The last time he was seen or heard from was when the last Babylonian emperor croaked around 530 B.C. He is never, ever, coming back.

BTW, since there are thousands of assorted ethnocentric gods it would be helpful if people used one of their specific names so that we would know which one is being discussed. They are all different.

Who is your favorite biblical God character?
1. I Am
2. Jealous
3. Adonai
4, Yahweh

Or is it Joseph Smith?

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That sure sounds like witchcraft.

 

You sound superstitious.

 

Joseph Smith is a prophet of the Godhead. The Godhead is made up of 3 separate and distinct personages. The Father, Elohim; The Son, Jesus (Jehovah); The Holy Ghost. The Father and Son are glorified men through their own resurrections. Elohim is your spirit's father. Jesus is your spirit brother who was elevated to be part of the Godhead as Jehovah before is coming to Earth in the form of Jesus Christ. There are other angels mentioned in the scriptures but they were not elevated to the Godhead. Michael, the arc angel, came down into the body of Adam. Gabriel came down into the body of Noah.

Yes, "God" is a title like "President" of the United States. We don't have to say Joe Biden. We can just say, "Mr. President. Same with The Father, Son and Holy Ghost as well. The three make up the Godhead. However, The Father has the ultimate authority and power. We call this The Priesthood of God. However, Jesus Christ also holds the Priesthood as well and through the direction of The Father can exercise His authority and they always agree in one purpose. We call the Priesthood after the order of the Son of God, the Melchizedek Priesthood.

 

You seem to believe in magic water and things called "spirits."

 

Melchizedek is the most shadowy character in the biblical fairy tale. His main accomplishment was in getting the murderer Abraham to fork over 10% of his loot to him. There's no record of anything of importance that he ever did. All of the other main characters were far more important than he was.

IMO, the writers threw Mel in as a red herring to get the sheep to fork over at least 10% of their loot every time they went to worship. It still works today. He is also a heretical character because he established a priesthood line outside of the Levites, founded by Moses and headed by his brother Aaron.

 

Like hoots in a leafy canopy, you tease the ether with mystical scratching's to convey meaning. But is it an ask or a tell. A creature so vague stirs suspicion. You were conceived, gestated, and born in blood and flesh into mortality. By and by, that and all your senses overcame and overwhelmed your attention and your spirit, making you a prisoner of the physical. Now you are separate from your true origin by Gods power and authority and your own choices. So it stands to reason that to be freed from imprisonment to mortality and death, one must be reborn, this time of water and spirit by the power of Gods authority, and your own choice. You cannot deny that you, your attention, and your intellect of spirit are a collective prisoner of mortality, blinded to God, heaven and your origin beyond science in both directions.....that place where riders dismount and scratch their heads. But how can the tracks begin from nowhere, having neither beginning nor end but for the short space our eyes see. From whence have we come and to where do we go. How can it even be possible. Is it mightily insightful to say our Parents went bam bam, we were born, and then we die? Or is that what we tell ourselves to placate ourselves and draw a curtain over the suspense. And then mock anything that might disturb the bliss. In all honesty and truth, our consciences whisper the more because conscience is what remains of the former, our relationship with our heavenly Father, whittled to a fine thread....our lifeline to our rescue.

 

Yet, you love the current American government forcing you to fork over as much as 55% of your money in New York and California. You simply have no knowledge of Melchizedek and who he was. And, the murderer Abraham? What are you mumbling now. You are so out in left field. If you understood tithing and what it is for, you wouldn't be so ungodly about your depiction of the oracles of God. Today, we give 10% for the building up of the kingdom of God to fulfill the mission of the Lord's Church. We also give offerings such as fast offerings which go directly to feed and assist the poor and the needy. What do you give? Nothing of course.

 

Yes, note the double standards. These people complain about God doing something and say that it is evil, but they approve of the government doing the exact same sort of thing.

 

And, way worse at that!!! They also support Talibiden Joe.

 

let me know when government does this

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy 22:28-29&version=NIV

 

You're going off-topic. I'm happy to discuss that with you in another thread.
I don't like your pattern of doing that because it tends to derail the thread.

That command was not designed to force the woman to marry the man who had forced himself upon her, but rather the reverse. In those ancient times, it was very often seen as more preferable for the woman to be married to the man who had forced himself upon her. An example of this can be found in 2 Samuel 13:12-16.
If a young woman had lost her virginity in that culture, her future marriage prospects would be very bad, and it would be very shameful to both her and any new husband that might marry her (the new man would be seen as having got the "leftovers").

This side conversation ends now and I'm going to refuse to further address this off-topic issue in this thread.

 

Didn't you just say that I give up to 55% of my money in taxes? If America the world's superpower, why don't you want to support it so that it will be attractive like #1 should be? Do you think your fellow citizens should have to sleep on the sidewalks and crap in the streets? The only people who really benefit from your church donations are the con men who run it. That goes back to Moses and his band of religious thugs. How do you think they got their fully-paid retirement when everyone else had to work till they died?

 

Haven't you ever read of the meeting between the sex pervert/ murderer Abraham and the heretic Melchizedek? Read Genesis chapter 14 when you get some time.

 

You give nothing to the poor and the needy. See, I give to the Government as well as tithing and offerings. What do you give? Nothing.