Last Commented Religion & Spirituality Blogs (1,493)

I don’t know if this is a case of cause and effect, or one of mere correlation or even coincidence, but I have noticed that the people here with the most fervent religious views, the ones who take it too far, are also among the most unpleasant, vindictive and malicious people here. Is their extreme religiosity a screen, behind which they can hide their obnoxious characters, I wonder.

Hide it from themselves as much as from others?

I'm elated to be meditating again. The more often I do it, the more peaceful the experience. I feel joyous to have added this back into my daily routine. I feel compelled to go longer than 20 minute stretches on the weekends, though. Since I have much more time at my disposal. I think I'll push it to an hour; perhaps even 2 hours, after the first 24 hrs of fasting.

I shall incorporate Nadi Shodhana Pranayama, to enhance the experience.

So, I'm surprised that I wasn't hungry today. Instead my stomach felt sour, as if I ate something that didn't agree with me. Which, I drank some Turmeric Ginger tea, and it nixed that straight away.

I don't get it. I was expecting this to be much more difficult than it is. I can't tell you how many water fast/liquid fast video's I've seen on YouTube, and people are saying day three is the hardest. It's said that, if you can get past day 3, you're on easy street.

Oh well, shit. Saving money on food will be a cake-walk then. Hell!

I'm craving broccoli What a promising change. Usually it's some sort of processed junk food I crave, but this Zeolite mineral supplement must really be pulling out the toxins.

Prayerfully I successfully end the sugar addiction.

So far I've been chanting and meditating daily, followed up by my Yoga.

Feels so great to have my discipline back

The liquid fast will conclude early Tuesday morning; and every week going forward, I'll be fasting 3 days a week - from Saturday thru Monday

https://youtu.be/aU0eU6IirOI


It was in the eighth century that the Church appointed a special date for the feast of All Saints, followed by a day in honor of her soon-to-be saints, the feast of All Souls.

She chose this time of year, it is supposed, because in her part of the world it was the time of barrenness on the earth. The harvest was in, the summer done, the world brown and drab and mindful of death. Snow had not yet descended to comfort and hide the bony trees or blackened fields; so with little effort man could look about and see a meditation on death and life hereafter.

Apparently how you spent the vigil of All Saints depended on where you lived in Christendom. In Brittany the night was solemn and without a trace of merriment. On their "night of the dead" and for forty-eight hours thereafter, the Bretons believed the poor souls were liberated from Purgatory and were free to visit their old homes. The vigil for the souls, as well as the saints, had to be kept on this night because of course the two days were consecutive feasts and a vigil is never kept on a feast.

Breton families prayed by their beloveds' graves during the day, attended church for "black vespers" in the evening and in some parishes proceeded thence to the charnel house in the cemetery to pray by the bones of those not yet buried or for whom no room could be found in the cemetery. Here they sang hymns to call on all Christians to pray for the dead and, speaking for the dead, they asked prayers and more prayers.

The 1904 book "The Worship of the Dead, Or The Origin And Nature Of Pagan Idolatry And It's Bearing Upon The Early History Of Egypt And Babylonia", by John Garnier (London: Chapman & Hall), makes an interesting connection between the holiday Halloween and the Great Flood of Noah’s day.

In Chapter One of his book, pages 3-11, Garnier maintains that the modern-day celebrations for the dead, around November 1, go all the way back to the flood and are meant to memorialize the people who died in the Deluge brought by God on a wicked world.

Garnier prefaces his reasoning by mentioning the ubiquity of flood accounts from traditions around the world ...

Most people have no idea of the evil that dwells within a pumpkin, although any non-American who has eaten pumpkin pie may well have suspected it. Its flesh is that of the Devil, and its seeds are the seeds of damnation. Remember that the next time you come to fill your bird feeder. Never put a pumpkin outside your door, you may forget it's there and trip over it. God hates pumkins: verse something or other somewhere in the Bible clearly tells us that pumpkins are an abomination upon the face of anybody who puts one over their head. Jesus tells us that whenever we encounter a pumpkin, we must cast it down upon the ground with mighty force, and stamp upon it for good measure.

It’s about time we did away with science. People are always wanting to know how things work. Then off they go to their laboratories to do experiments, which lead to discoveries, which lead to more questions and more experiments, and yet more discoveries. We will soon know so much stuff that we won’t have any room left in our brains for it all.

Knowing too much about how the Universe works undermines our appreciation and need for God. At least once every week, people would put on their best clothes and congregate together to thank God for the beautiful flowers and all the birds that sing, but now the processes of biological evolution get all the credit for it. How uplifting is that?

Thank you God for giving us the atom, and all the wonderful particles that dwell within. It just doesn’t sound right, does it? We shouldn’t even know about atoms. It’s not our place to know about atoms.

Medical science is probably the worst. What’s the point of praying for your loved ones when some know-it-all doctor can just come along, prescribe something, and make them better? There was a time when all a doctor could do was scratch his head, attach a few leeches to you, and maybe wrap you in vinegar and brown paper if it was something really serious. All you could do was hope for the best but know not to expect it. Then you would get prayed for, and whatever the outcome, it was fine, because it was God’s will.

Even God’s patience has limits. Every time we figure out how to cure a disease, God has to create another one to take its place. How long before he gets so fed up that he throws the most terrible of incurable diseases at us to teach us a damn good lesson. Just think of all the things that used to kill, disable or disfigure us, that are now no more than a slight inconvenience. Who is going to turn to God and wait for days or weeks to find out how merciful he’s going to be when they can just pop down to the chemist’s -or drug store- and pick up something that will have them right as rain in no time?

We have gone too far; it is time to stop looking to science to fulfil all our wants and needs. Unless we go back to putting all our hopes and wishes into prayer again, and once more learn to live with disappointment, humanity will find itself wandering off into a spiritual wilderness, albeit in a better state of health.

Inspiring Christian worship music for those who wish to be inspired. Contributions must actually contain lyrics (or words) worshiping God the father and or Jesus our savior.

Try as I might, I just can’t come up with a quick and easy way of conjuring up an entity from the underworld. A simple method that doesn’t require loads of paraphernalia and hours of chanting nonsense. That’s all I ask.

It’s not like I want to evoke Satan himself. Some minor, lower ranking demon is all I need for the little job I have in mind. I mean, it costs a fortune just for the candles. Those ordinary thin candles that you get from the supermarket won’t do. No, they have to be great fat red things that look like they’re bleeding as they melt.

Then you have to find a suitable building to perform the ritual, which has to look at least a little bit gothic. There can be Hell to pay if you get that wrong. I remember summoning up something really ugly at home one time, and it was absolutely furious when it realised that I had forced it to materialise in my garden shed. I won’t be doing that again.

Anyway, I’m sorry for using my first post here for letting of steam like this, but I had to get it out of my system.