Faith Alone or and something...

Cliffy

Standing Member
Nov 19, 2008
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I get the biggest kick when a person starts explaining religion to me, like they know any more about it than you or I! -:) They do it just to put you in the subordinate position.
Precisely! Anyone who thinks they can even comprehend the infinite with their finite little minds is beyond hope. We can imagine and we can guess at something so far beyond our grasp, but in the end, this talk of god and salvation is nothing more than the ego trying to justify its own insignificance. There is only one person that can save us from ourselves and that is our Self. heaven and hell are right here in our lives. We decide which one we are in. There is no personal god. Christ is a state of consciousness, a title for an enlightened being. There have been many enlightened beings. Every generation has had them in every part of the world. They are those who have seen beyond the programming of our social conditioning to the truth of who we really are and what we are truly capable of. I believe Jesus eluded to this when he said that when we wake up to our true potential, we would be able to do far more than he did.
 

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
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I believe Catholics are Christian. When I was Catholic, I was a Christian.
Nope. You are Catholic and your Religion is Christian. You can't undo being Catholic but you can cease to practise or believe in the Christian religion.
 

JLM

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 27, 2008
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Nope. You are Catholic and your Religion is Christian. You can't undo being Catholic but you can cease to practise or believe in the Christian religion.

I'll bet a lot of people have quit being Catholic, especially after being buggered by a priest or two!
 

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
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The first time you survived being in a lake without touching bottom and made your way to shore you became a swimmer. Can you unlearn swimming? From that point on it's choice to sink or swim but you're always a swimmer.

Are you saying the damage is permanent? There is no hope for us ex-catholics? You're shyting me!
You aren't ex, you chose to stop practising. How did being Catholic damage you?

You are still a believer Cliffy. When you chose native beliefs nothing changed just the otter became the intermediate just like Jesus was the intermediate when you practised Christianity.

All you did was swap one for the other but the structure is the same.
 

JLM

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 27, 2008
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The first time you survived being in a lake without touching bottom and made your way to shore you became a swimmer. Can you unlearn swimming? From that point on it's choice to sink or swim but you're always a swimmer.


You aren't ex, you chose to stop practising. How did being Catholic damage you?

I never was Catholic (at least Roman Catholic) but I would imagine some of the sh*t they put in your head could damage you. Like remove ability to think rationally.
 

Cliffy

Standing Member
Nov 19, 2008
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The first time you survived being in a lake without touching bottom and made your way to shore you became a swimmer. Can you unlearn swimming? From that point on it's choice to sink or swim but you're always a swimmer.


You aren't ex, you chose to stop practising. How did being Catholic damage you?
I don't have time to write a book here. It took me almost 40 years to undo the damage. Religion makes a person feel small and insignificant. That is not who we are. It is also why I believe that indoctrinating children into religion is child abuse.

Native spirituality was just a stepping stone to where I am now.
 

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
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Who did the damage? People or the Religion?

If you move from a brick house to a wood house you still live in a house.
 

JLM

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 27, 2008
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I don't have time to write a book here. It took me almost 40 years to undo the damage. Religion makes a person feel small and insignificant. That is not who we are. It is also why I believe that indoctrinating children into religion is child abuse.

Native spirituality was just a stepping stone to where I am now.

Nah, it's just scaring the sh*t out of the little buggers so they behave! -:)
 

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
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Nah, it's just scaring the sh*t out of the little buggers so they behave! -:)
Would it be kitten abuse when a mother cat gives here kitten a swat for doing something stupid?

Pain is a teacher that teaches you how to survive and avoid death.

How many burns did it take for you to learn fire is harmful?
 

JLM

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 27, 2008
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How both? Where in the Religion does it say to abuse kids?
"Spare the rod and spoil the child"

Both. The bible is about evil not god. The church is the most corrupt of human institutions. It is all about controlling humans and keeping them from knowing who they really are.

Religion doesn't do anything Cliffy. It's man's interpretation of religion (generally for a selfish end) that does the damage.
 

Cliffy

Standing Member
Nov 19, 2008
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"Spare the rod and spoil the child"
Religion doesn't do anything Cliffy. It's man's interpretation of religion (generally for a selfish end) that does the damage.
What is religion if not a human institution. Life is a solo journey. A friend has a t-shirt that says, "I was born with nothing and I have most of it left." That would be nice if true, but as a child we are indoctrinated into society and religion that takes away the gifts that we were born with. We were born to bring love into the world but it is beaten out of us by well intentioned care givers who were similarly indoctrinated. They do not know that a child is born to teach them, not the other way around.

In the eyes of a child
you will learn how to see
at your world spinning round
and through life you will be
a small part of a hope
of a love that exists
in the eyes of a child
you will see. - The Moody Blues
 

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
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The Corporations are the ones who convinced you there wasn't God so you could spend your money on what you know is wrong without guilt.

They've got you where they want you.

Religion domesticated man. Without it, we'd still be wild beasts.

The more people deny the quicker we slide back to savagery.
 

MHz

Time Out
Mar 16, 2007
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The Corporations are the ones who convinced you there wasn't God so you could spend your money on what you know is wrong without guilt.
Just the artifacts associated with worship is a large industry in the Christian religion but they are not alone by any means. A Christian need one or two other people that want to talk about God before God can hear what is going on with those individuals. Anything more than that is pomp and greed to fleece the flock out of some of their money, a thing that is in short supply even before that demand. The Governments give them tax exemption if they take some of the heat so the Government is never viewed as the biggest threat to man. They get a certain amount of protection in exchange. No criminal prosecution seems to be at the top of the list. The Franklin Affair shows they are just as corrupt anyway.
My favorite living example is Canada and the end of the Indian Wars. The RCC was given a lot of children that ended up being a GITMO for children. When word finally got out it has been in operation for 60 years or so. No mass trials by the Gov for harm to children as long as the local church is the abuser and that protection is shown in the Courts, a lack of action and stalling techniques when there is no valid defense. Then there is the oldest story, the smallpox blankets, the Priest may have handed then out by that is what they were given to hand out. Those Priest may have been victims themselves but the actions were done with full knowledge of the Governments and their rulers, the ones who own the boats and other modes of transportation that are used in a rigged game of supply and demand.
 

petros

The Central Scrutinizer
Nov 21, 2008
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Megs, was the RCC given kids as you put it or were they paid by Govt to do so when nobody else would?