I think there is an amount of serendipity involved too Ambrose - I have often found that things happen at just the right time, yes.
People in my life will pose questions and often the answers benefit more than just the person asking. It can be as simple as observing people in the street.
I dont really know the answer to the looking for a particular kind of person though - they can be as elusive as the old needle in a haystack
I think that maybe if we choose wisely who we surround ourselves with then things will happen - but I dont know about them working to a plan - sometimes, it seems to me that the more we allow ourselves to 'expect' of others, then the more likely we are to be setting ourselves up for a fall
I assure you, there is absolutely no insecurity with my belief structure - none whatsoever - i am a very well read person and have researched issues of spirituality extensively - what I dont like are assumptions that your are right and I am wrong - there simply is no proof either way and I find your attempts to belittle my beliefs somewhat less than charitable.
I wasnt in Christianity to find something I wanted, I was there by nature of my birth - thats all - I was born into Catholicism and my personal hell was finding my way out - but here I am, thankfully on the other side. When people dont know of the struggle I had to preserve my sanity from the dogmas imposed by religion I find it very presumptuous of them to think they automatically know better than me or even worse, to pray for my flipping salvation - I dont want any of it personally.
Anger, yes, I do have anger. Usually this comes to the fore when Im confronted by people suggesting I read their one book, which they assume I havent - or how could I not think the same way - brain taxing stuff hey - but when I suggest that there may just be another way - I am met with somebody trying to belittle my opinions.
I contend that a lot of people have fallen for the biggest brainwashing scam in history - and that I am as entitled to my view as you are to yours - please dont pray for me though - cos I am A1 OK
I still waiting for somebody to provide proof that the god you suggests actually exists.
Im looking forward to buying Fatal Revenant any day now. Its a new one from Steven Donaldson in the Tomas Covenant stories - gripping science fantasy - cant wait to have it in my hands
You assume much in your post of the way I see things - methinks its you who are putting things in boxes - I dont only see god as a tool of opression - I only see the Christian concept of God as a tool of oppression - maybe when you can accept others Gods, they may show a little more understanding towards yours.
Do you think I dont realise that "Many are comforted by striving to achieve the Calvinist work ethic, or the repentances of Lutherism, or performing the stations of the cross. If it brings them closer to God and eases thier mind, it is their concern, not yours" - I simply gave these things as examples of what I was pointing out. I myself spent many hours doing the stations of the cross - alas, to no avail - I simply was asked to make one too many 'leaps of faith' but this didnt make me any less aware of the comfort it brought to many around me - in fact, it heightened this awareness and made me into the vary caring person I am today.
This is all getting so boring now, you see it your way and I see it mine.
Neale Donald Walsch has got this whole thing sussed - Thou Art God - why not treat each other with the reverence reserved for an unproven theory - we would all get along so much better
People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. When you figure out which it is, you know exactly what to do.
When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed outwardly or inwardly. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally, or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend, and they are. They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, without any wrong doing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up or out and force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled; their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and it is now time to move on.
When people come into your life for a SEASON, it is because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn. They may bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it! It is real! But, only for a season.
LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons; those things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person/people (anyway); and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.
oops - hahaha - sorry - I meant to explain that I didnt want to offend anybody by posting this in the christmas thread - well.... maybe i couldnt decide which
from what I can see, what you are saying is pretty accurate. Some Christian sects dont celebrate Christmas for some of the reasons you have found (sorry if you mentioned that already)
I find the whole subject totally hilarious as in my opinion, Christmas has now been well and truly taken over by the merchants - the elegant shopping malls are curiously similar to great cathedrals and the object of their worship................ filthy lucre
well of course you are entitled to your opinion but I reckon there are many, many people who resent words being put into Gods mouth - at the end of the day, words are a man made concept, an aid to communication. All they can ever come close to in describing God is the representation of a 'feeling', a hunch. The rest is man made.
The many interwoven premises which He purportedly represents are nothing more than 'words put into his mouth' by mankind - if you want an example of this have a look at the Calvinist work ethic or the many repentances called for in Lutheranism - all man made forms of population control and constructed in the name of God
in my late teens I went through a period where I couldnt understand Dylan's words too, simply could not get to grips with the things he was saying and didnt even listen for a couple of years then when I was back on track, a little older and wiser, his diction began to make sense once more.
I stopped listening again when he got to his 'search for God' years as I found it difficult to find clarity in a lot of the things he was saying - maybe Im going through another spiritual growth period just now as Im thinking of reviewing all his stuff again as I have the notion that his references to God do not involve monotheism.
A few weeks ago I posted Mark Twains Ultimate Indictment of Christian Hipocracy which speaks of The Long Prayer and in which, one of Gods right hand men comes to listen in to a prayer being said for protection in war - the whole thread was a bit long but I think this excerpt says much ;
O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells;
help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead;
help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain;
help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire;
help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief;
help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee,
Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet!
We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen. (After a pause.)
"Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!"
oh goody, Dylan is my favourite! and I believe he did go through the finding God stage, as many do. I have no idea where he stands on the issue today though but maybe somebody reading this has more current info.
However, the song below is widely considered to be one of his best.
Oh my name it is nothin' My age it means less The country I come from Is called the Midwest I's taught and brought up there The laws to abide And that land that I live in Has God on its side.
Oh the history books tell it They tell it so well The cavalries charged The Indians fell The cavalries charged The Indians died Oh the country was young With God on its side.
Oh the Spanish-American War had its day And the Civil War too Was soon laid away And the names of the heroes I's made to memorize With guns in their hands And God on their side.
Oh the First World War, boys It closed out its fate The reason for fighting I never got straight But I learned to accept it Accept it with pride For you don't count the dead When God's on your side.
When the Second World War Came to an end We forgave the Germans And we were friends Though they murdered six million In the ovens they fried The Germans now too Have God on their side.
I've learned to hate Russians All through my whole life If another war starts It's them we must fight To hate them and fear them To run and to hide And accept it all bravely With God on my side.
But now we got weapons Of the chemical dust If fire them we're forced to Then fire them we must One push of the button And a shot the world wide And you never ask questions When God's on your side.
In a many dark hour I've been thinkin' about this That Jesus Christ Was betrayed by a kiss But I can't think for you You'll have to decide Whether Judas Iscariot Had God on his side.
So now as I'm leavin' I'm weary as Hell The confusion I'm feelin' Ain't no tongue can tell The words fill my head And fall to the floor If God's on our side He'll stop the next war.
Hi, no, not so much the moral code as I think there are many commendable facets evident in basic moralities.
What I dont get is, despite many contradictions in the Bible (500 or so was my last info), as a youngster, whenever I dared question aloud any of my musings, I would be assured that a 'leap of faith' was what I had to make in order to 'get it' - as an adult I realised that what was being asked of me was not so much a leap of faith as 'blind faith'. I leave you to answer the morality issues inherrent in this matter.
The issue of Jesus and Karl Marx as the spearheads of their ideologies, well yes, I see both as good guys who's teachings, both, were corrupted by ruling classes. What Marx said wasnt quite as mundane os 'the opiate of the masses' his words held much more depth
"Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions".
Karl Marx, Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right
I think my favourite part of the above quotation is the bit which refers to 'the illusory nature of religion'. Once somebody can come back at some of us 'doubters' with 'acceptable' refutations of words such as these then I would gladly refer to a bible passage of their choice but when sarcastic digs and personal insults rule the day - nah, you are welcome to it - I want no part of perpetuating bad feelings
thats brilliand Kitty, well done to your son and to you too who mustve helped a lot along the way
it wasnt till last yr that i was assessed by an ed psych. so it had gone undetected for 52yrs - most odd i think - i was good at english at school so I think there must be stuff around the organisational skills area I need to look at.
I am dyslexic but I can spell (haha, sometimes) - does anybody else have this kind of dyslexia? or any other kind of dyslexia for that matter - how does it affect you?
It hits me sometimes when Im trying to organise lots of information into a readable format and I just have to down tools for a while - and giving somebody directions is a nightmare - one time, after a car with a man asking directions had pulled away, I realised that I had been saying left and pointing right - I think it was the screeching of tyres that gave it away
thanks for asking - Im living and learning as ever and will be so glad when all this academic stuff is over and done with - but it has been an amazing, if somewhat steep, learning curve
How is the refurb going - is it all completed now and your role established?
morals have been here for as long as people have been getting itchy backs - as in, you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours - all the reasoning which we take for granted and the niceties of manners werent there in the first place, they have all gone through their own processes of evolution or refinement.
The child who doesnt conform in a group situation is soon left on the sidelines until it learns that hitting (or whatever) isnt accepted. Once the niceties become a norm for any group they start to move on - behaviour evolves as people learn what and what isnt acceptable - on a larger scale, such as society, it takes longer because more variables are entered into the equation.
You can see it in lovers, giving their best to the object of their desire - the desired outcome is harmony with that person and if both people have learned the correct behaviour its 'hey presto' success - there are lots of little nuances and refinements too but its all been learned over time from the need for the pay off - whether this is on a one to one basis or a larger scale, people eventually learn right from wrong.
trish123 Forum Posts (13,724)
RE: Your favorite book?
Arent those books brilliant - he is such a gripping writer, I think I have read most of his suff but there are I few to go yet.Yep, the leprosy stuff is well explained and what about the fear of heights stuff - I found those descriptions terrifying