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Post by Admin on Mar 15, 2020 19:58:37 GMT
You asked what specific teachings I follow. 1. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. 2. Love your neighbor as yourself. 3. Gather together with other believers. 4. Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. 5. Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. If that all works for you & you are happy with it all then great.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 15, 2020 20:04:26 GMT
You asked what specific teachings I follow. 1. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. 2. Love your neighbor as yourself. 3. Gather together with other believers. 4. Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. 5. Walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. If that all works for you & you are happy with it all then great. Thank you.
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Post by Admin on Mar 17, 2020 8:29:34 GMT
Thank you. i was raised strict Church of England & Christian. i have considered deeply what Christianity / religions / Christ / spirituality means to me. i suppose that these things are deeply personal. i do believe that there is a Great Spirit / Source - spiritual realms & realities - the Soul / Psyche. i don't however follow any specific religion / belief system / teacher, & don't see how any specific religion / denomination has any monopoly on the truth. Have also read & studied a lot on Magick / Paganism - am open to look into / read anything on all the World's knowledge / areas / experience. Over recent years i have been reading a lot more on math's & science. My own spirituality has been deeply colored & influenced by 8 episodes of very severe / extreme psychosis - being in addiction in the past & 18 years of sobriety & this schizophrenia diagnosis / condition, & from working with spiritual healers, & training as one for 18 years. Christianity & all the major World religions are here to stay. i wonder what all the World's religions / spirituality / knowledge will evolve into?
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Post by Admin on Mar 17, 2020 10:17:09 GMT
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Post by Admin on Mar 17, 2020 10:22:18 GMT
A lot of universal / highest religious / spiritual teachings discuss Self / God realisation - Gnosis / Samadhi / Moksha / non duality / mystical Union with the Divine - these themes within religion / spirituality are Universal.
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Post by Admin on Mar 17, 2020 10:27:45 GMT
You get people that also use the pretense of the highest ethics / principles in religion, politics & patriotism etc for Evil ends.
To manipulate people for power & control.
On international, National, Local & personal levels.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2020 17:15:14 GMT
Thank you. i was raised strict Church of England & Christian. i have considered deeply what Christianity / religions / Christ / spirituality means to me. i suppose that these things are deeply personal. i do believe that there is a Great Spirit / Source - spiritual realms & realities - the Soul / Psyche. i don't however follow any specific religion / belief system / teacher, & don't see how any specific religion / denomination has any monopoly on the truth. Have also read & studied a lot on Magick / Paganism - am open to look into / read anything on all the World's knowledge / areas / experience. Over recent years i have been reading a lot more on math's & science. My own spirituality has been deeply colored & influenced by 8 episodes of very severe / extreme psychosis - being in addiction in the past & 18 years of sobriety & this schizophrenia diagnosis / condition, & from working with spiritual healers, & training as one for 18 years. Christianity & all the major World religions are here to stay. i wonder what all the World's religions / spirituality / knowledge will evolve into? There's something very special and unique about psychosis. It's also terrifying. I have a theory. Psychosis is similar or the same state shamans and others like them try to induce through substances. I believe it is a state of heightened spiritual awareness--- for better or worse. I believe I experienced the influence of demons, angels, Jesus, and God. I believe that the Bible predicted people would go through this in the book of Joel (Old men see visions and young men dream dreams) etc I think psychosis can accomplish both great good and great evil. I can be both when I'm sick. It's great to have people that have gone through a similar thing. Thank you for sharing your background. In my understanding, the Church of England split from Catholicism over King Henry the VIII's desire to divorce Queen Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn. They have priests, liturgy, candles, incense, bells, and sacraments for worship. That's all I know. As for the exploration, I won't say there isn't wisdom to be found in other religions. If they were all full of garbage, people wouldn't follow them. Psalm 19 and Romans says creation speaks knowledge to all men on its own. However, I believe there's a great danger in dabbling in the occult, witchcraft, and certain pagan practices. I believe demons give power in some cases, at great cost to those who utilize it. Again, thanks for sharing.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2020 17:31:48 GMT
I agree that there is a Source to the Universe full of divine love and wisdom. However you and I may disagree because I believe it's a personal Being who desires to be known. I was raised to go to church but at school they taught Darwinian Evolution, multiple religions, and secular humanistic ideals. Feeling that faith in Jesus, couldn't compete with modern ideology, I became agnostic as a young teenager. I wanted to believe because my mother's faith defined her character. But I couldn't intellectually make sense of it all. On entering high school, my English teacher displayed an unusual amount of love and grace towards her student. She would have compassion even on the students who hated her. She loved to say that grace was an undeserved gift. My intellectual doubts were confronted by her behavior. If faith were fake, then how could she rise above the natural human tendency to take revenge and to hate those that mistreat you? The answer was grace. Divine grace. And I knew I needed it. When you're forgiven, you can forgive others. That was the evidence that tipped the scales for me. The uncanny nature of a changed life. From then, I read a lot of books and did a lot of looking into my questions. How could there be just one true religion? What about Darwin? Etc etc. A lot of great Christian thinkers like C.S Lewis influenced me during this time. I began to read the Bible and go to church, falling in love with the book of John in particular. After awhile, even my political ideals began to change. My whole worldview changed. The way I saw people changed. Each person is am Image bearer. That means everyone has value. Everyone is important. I won't carry on too long. I really enjoy it when people are very thoughtful and question things. I don't think of skepticism as an enemy of faith at all. If there's nothing satisfying, why put faith in it? But those who really want the truth will find it. That, I believe.
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Post by Admin on Mar 17, 2020 17:52:17 GMT
There's something very special and unique about psychosis. It's also terrifying. I have a theory. Psychosis is similar or the same state shamans and others like them try to induce through substances. I believe it is a state of heightened spiritual awareness--- for better or worse. I believe I experienced the influence of demons, angels, Jesus, and God. I believe that the Bible predicted people would go through this in the book of Joel (Old men see visions and young men dream dreams) etc I think psychosis can accomplish both great good and great evil. I can be both when I'm sick. It's great to have people that have gone through a similar thing. Thank you for sharing your background. In my understanding, the Church of England split from Catholicism over King Henry the VIII's desire to divorce Queen Catherine and marry Anne Boleyn. They have priests, liturgy, candles, incense, bells, and sacraments for worship. That's all I know. As for the exploration, I won't say there isn't wisdom to be found in other religions. If they were all full of garbage, people wouldn't follow them. Psalm 19 and Romans says creation speaks knowledge to all men on its own. However, I believe there's a great danger in dabbling in the occult, witchcraft, and certain pagan practices. I believe demons give power in some cases, at great cost to those who utilize it. Again, thanks for sharing. Thanks, i do understand where you are coming from. You could be a Hindu & have studied the Vedas & say similar about all of that, or Islamic & the Koran & say similar, or Buddhist texts, or any number of hundreds of other 'Holy' books / Belief systems / religions. If you had been raised within an indigenous culture, a Judaic, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist or other culture - your frames of reference / belief system around it all would be different. i'm not convinced that any of them are the 'ultimate ultimate' / universal & categorical truth. i don't know how much of all of it is based entirely on belief systems / is psychogenic? i don't know how much psychosis / schizophrenia is what psychiatry says it is - a brain condition / severe mental illness. i don't think that anyone really more fully knows with it all, or has categorical answers to it all. With respect, you are going to have certain perspectives / beliefs about it all, based upon your own religion / belief system. i'm not personally convinced by arguments on that basis. i think that the issue is that we simply do not know. i read this recently & it is very well researched & fascinating - www.ianlawton.com/alindex.htmlHowever again with it all, it's very hard to see what is categorically true about it all? It is very easy to create different religious / spiritual Cosmologies / belief systems, however again, how many any of them relate to actual reality i think is a very difficult question, & where i increasingly see the sense in the hard sciences. We know so incredibly little. In another 200 years time maybe Christianity is seen like people generally see older / past religions / mythologies / pantheons - & Christianity takes the same place of Ancient Egyptian / Roman / Aztec / Mayan etc & countless other past mythologies / religions.
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Post by Admin on Mar 17, 2020 18:05:40 GMT
I agree that there is a Source to the Universe full of divine love and wisdom. However you and I may disagree because I believe it's a personal Being who desires to be known. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GodPeople have different understandings, experiences, conceptions, beliefs about who / what God is. i don't see a Source / Great Spirit as being defined / categorised by any of it. what makes most sense for me from a religious perspective is the mystical understanding, especially the Ancient Vedic - that all is Atman / Brahman. & this is where we get into the argument / debate. To my understanding the highest spiritual teachings all seem to pretty much say the same thing - www.allisnow.com/blog/spiritual-principles/Humanity always has & does argue over what truth & reality is, & probably always will do. i do think that there is a danger in believing that my truth / religion / belief system etc is the ultimate truth - it has caused no end of violence, hatred & wars.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2020 18:30:21 GMT
I agree that there is a Source to the Universe full of divine love and wisdom. However you and I may disagree because I believe it's a personal Being who desires to be known. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GodPeople have different understandings, experiences, conceptions, beliefs about who / what God is. i don't see a Source / Great Spirit as being defined / categorised by any of it. what makes most sense for me from a religious perspective is the mystical understanding, especially the Ancient Vedic - that all is Atman / Brahman. & this is where we get into the argument / debate. To my understanding the highest spiritual teachings all seem to pretty much say the same thing - www.allisnow.com/blog/spiritual-principles/Humanity always has & does argue over what truth & reality is, & probably always will do. i do think that there is a danger in believing that my truth / religion / belief system etc is the ultimate truth - it has caused no end of violence, hatred & wars. I agree with the first sentence. However, I think we humans have an agenda that prevents us from seeing truth. The agenda is not wanting to acknowledge any authority to submit to outside of ourselves. We want to live our life as we see fit. Aka sin. For that reason, I believe humans are endlessly coming up with ideologies and philosophies to defend themselves from having to acknowledge objective truth or even worse, a rightfully authoritative Creator. I believe Darwinian Evolution is just an example. Darwin was a Christian for most of his life. But the loss of his daughter changed his tune on that. You said that belief in an ultimate truth has caused endless violence and wars. That is true. But that doesn't mean there is no truth, but speaks to the fact that we can be very cruel and violent when we believe we have just cause. I don't fear that in following Jesus because His truth is also the definition of love. Only compassion towards enemies will do. I didn't agree with the whole Bible overnight. What I discovered first was that the camp of unbelief we're not as objective and impartial as they first appeared.
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Post by Admin on Mar 17, 2020 18:44:16 GMT
I agree with the first sentence. However, I think we humans have an agenda that prevents us from seeing truth. The agenda is not wanting to acknowledge any authority to submit to outside of ourselves. We want to live our life as we see fit. Aka sin. For that reason, I believe humans are endlessly coming up with ideologies and philosophies to defend themselves from having to acknowledge objective truth or even worse, a rightfully authoritative Creator. I believe Darwinian Evolution is just an example. Darwin was a Christian for most of his life. But the loss of his daughter changed his tune on that. You said that belief in an ultimate truth has caused endless violence and wars. That is true. But that doesn't mean there is no truth, but speaks to the fact that we can be very cruel and violent when we believe we have just cause. I don't fear that in following Jesus because His truth is also the definition of love. Only compassion towards enemies will do. I didn't agree with the whole Bible overnight. What I discovered first was that the camp of unbelief we're not as objective and impartial as they first appeared. It's up to you what you believe - i don't see what i understand Great Spirit to be (all that is - infinite love, wisdom & perfection - Atman / Brahman), as being defined by any 'Holy' book / religion / person / belief system etc. i don't find the Bible to be a very good or authentic book. i question everything that tries to define / categorise what the whole of / ultimate truth & reality / all that is - is. i agree with certain aspects of Christianity - other aspects i don't, however i agree with certain aspects of 'everything'. As to what the entirety of the whole of objective truth is? To conclude the Christian religion has it all wrapped up, i don't agree with. i think the hard sciences has given us & is our best shot at a fuller understanding of reality.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2020 18:57:55 GMT
I agree with the first sentence. However, I think we humans have an agenda that prevents us from seeing truth. The agenda is not wanting to acknowledge any authority to submit to outside of ourselves. We want to live our life as we see fit. Aka sin. For that reason, I believe humans are endlessly coming up with ideologies and philosophies to defend themselves from having to acknowledge objective truth or even worse, a rightfully authoritative Creator. I believe Darwinian Evolution is just an example. Darwin was a Christian for most of his life. But the loss of his daughter changed his tune on that. You said that belief in an ultimate truth has caused endless violence and wars. That is true. But that doesn't mean there is no truth, but speaks to the fact that we can be very cruel and violent when we believe we have just cause. I don't fear that in following Jesus because His truth is also the definition of love. Only compassion towards enemies will do. I didn't agree with the whole Bible overnight. What I discovered first was that the camp of unbelief we're not as objective and impartial as they first appeared. It's up to you what you believe - i don't see what i understand Great Spirit to be (all that is - infinite love, wisdom & perfection - Atman / Brahman), as being defined by any 'Holy' book / religion / person / belief system etc. i don't find the Bible to be a very good or authentic book. i question everything that tries to define / categorise what the whole of / ultimate truth & reality / all that is - is. i agree with certain aspects of Christianity - other aspects i don't, however i agree with certain aspects of 'everything'. As to what the entirety of the whole of objective truth is? To conclude the Christian religion has it all wrapped up, i don't agree with. i think the hard sciences has given us & is our best shot at a fuller understanding of reality. When you say the hard sciences, do you mean like physics? Astronomy? Biology? Christianity is not anti-science at all. Many famous scientists like Isaac Newton were also Christian. Scientists were men just like the writers of the Bible. Are they objective simply because they are scientists? Scientists have agendas too. To be sure, I have an agenda. I have bias. Everyone does. But I am up front about it. Many political agendas also hide behind 'science'.
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Post by Admin on Mar 17, 2020 19:18:45 GMT
When you say the hard sciences, do you mean like physics? Astronomy? Biology? Yes en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_and_soft_scienceMany scientists have also been of every religious denomination & none. You can make philosophical arguments about maths & science but you can't argue about it all in the same way as religions. Take all science / philosophy / religions & spirituality - take everything - all human knowledge / wisdom / experience - there is still so much that we do not categorically know about the whole of truth & reality.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2020 19:27:45 GMT
When you say the hard sciences, do you mean like physics? Astronomy? Biology? Yes en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_and_soft_scienceMany scientists have also been of every religious denomination & none. You can make philosophical arguments about maths & science but you can't argue about it all in the same way as religions. Take all science / philosophy / religions & spirituality - take everything - all human knowledge / wisdom / experience - there is still so much that we do not categorically know about the whole of truth & reality. We can talk about science. I'm open to learning more. After all, I only have a public school science education to fall back on. I'll read articles and get back to you. But can we talk? Many people use science as a smokescreen when it comes to their actual beliefs. Not saying you are, but I'm thinking of an old neighbor. He was rather enraptured by a modern professor who had mastered Darwinian Evolution and evolutionary biology I went back and studies this guy's writings, discovering in the process that this man made it his mission to try to debunk all religion. Still, I focused on his theories. But when I raised objections to the theories, my neighbor shifted the subject and it went no where. Now I suspect that his disbelief really had nothing to do with science at all. Science was just a smokescreen for him. I suspect the real reason was his anger. Anger in the idea of a loving God when he had suffered so much abuse as a child from his own father. If I could go back, I'd explain that God is not an abusive Dad. In this world, there is much evil and none of us will live very long without suffering. We will all suffer, some of in ways that seem beyond reason. But God cares. I believe He provided a solution. Namely Jesus. Still, I could use more science. It's good to have knowledge about how the world works.
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