religious quotes on Unity.

[Machjo]

If we consider that those words were written around 1885, they still come across as being quite progressive even for our time.

Man reacheth perfection through good deeds, voluntarily performed, not through good deeds the doing of which was forced upon him. And sharing is a personally chosen righteous act: that is, the rich should extend assistance to the poor, they should expend their substance for the poor, but of their own free will, and not because the poor have gained this end by force. For the harvest of force is turmoil and the ruin of the social order. On the other hand voluntary sharing, the freely-chosen expending of one’s substance, leadeth to society’s comfort and peace. It lighteth up the world; it bestoweth honour upon humankind.
Selections From the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, page 115

 

[Dexter Sinister]

I'm sure we could find quotes from every religion about unity...

I'm sure we can too, they all call for unity one way or another, but ultimately only on their own terms, i.e. you join us, we're not joining you, because you don't have it right. I have a sister who's a Baha'i, I read a lot of the writings 30-something years ago, and continue to discuss these matters with her, but they didn't strike me as any more likely to unify humanity than any of the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic writings I've read. I think religion is a divisive force, not a unifying one.

Why do we have to serve a master?.

There's the key question. Involuntary servitude is bad enough, voluntary servitude strikes me as foolish beyond description.

 

[Cliffy]

We are all members of the human race and all children of the Earth. We are all different, yet all the same. Religion is as divisive as politics. They were designed that way for a reason. Time to tell the designers where they can shove it.

 

[damngrumpy]

I know some who wouldn't want unity anyway there is no money in that. I refer to some of my
friends as peace mongers We hear this stuff all the time masters and pee ons and and
leaders and Presidents and so on, All that achieves is the rulers who ever they are looking
after their self interest.
We will never see peace in our time and that is just the way it is. Already in the west we are
feeding the giant that is going to turn on us and invoke their version of nationalism. I speak of
China. All the same mistakes are being made, as when we didn't confront Germany prior to
WWII,
There is a lot of unfinished business before we can run around talking peace

 

[petros]

No matter where you go on the planet there is a belief in a god/gods/spirits/other worlds. How can that be explained?

 

[Cliffy]

No matter where you go on the planet there is a belief in a god/gods/spirits/other worlds. How can that be explained?

I don't have a problem with those beliefs. The one I have a problem with is lords and masters. It's a patriarchal BS story. Only an insecure tyrant would demand praise, adoration and subjugation. An entity capable of creating the Universe does not need our devotion or help. It is all about insecure egos inventing a god to overcome their feelings of inadequacy. Why would a Creator have any interest in such an insignificant species as humans or planet like Earth?

Nobody is coming to save us. It is up to us. It is our responsibility. We either learn to get along or wipe ourselves out. Our evolution is in our hands.

 

[Spade]

"To hell with Unity!"
-mayor of Wilkie

 

[china]

No matter where you go on the planet there is a belief in a god/gods/spirits/other worlds. How can that be explained?

Believe is a corruption because behind believe and morality hides The Mind , The Self-the self growing big powerful and strong .
We consider believe in God the believe in something , as religion . We consider that to believe is to be religious. If you don`t
believe , you will be considered an atheist and be condemned by society. One society will condemn those who believe in God , and another society will condemn those who do not .They are both the same . So , religion becomes a matter of belief - and believe acts
and has a corresponding influence on the mind ; the mind then can never be free .But it is in freedom that one can find out what is true , what is God , not through any believe , because ones very believe projects what one thinks what ought to be God , what you think ought to be true .

 

[Machjo]

I don't have a problem with those beliefs. The one I have a problem with is lords and masters. It's a patriarchal BS story. Only an insecure tyrant would demand praise, adoration and subjugation. An entity capable of creating the Universe does not need our devotion or help. It is all about insecure egos inventing a god to overcome their feelings of inadequacy. Why would a Creator have any interest in such an insignificant species as humans or planet like Earth?

Nobody is coming to save us. It is up to us. It is our responsibility. We either learn to get along or wipe ourselves out. Our evolution is in our hands.

Of course He doesn't need us.

This reminds me of a Sufi story I'd heard once. I can't remember the details but it went something like this:

God first created souls, and then the world. to put them on, but some stuck around him. Then, thinking they might like heaven, he created heaven. Some went there, but others still stuck around. Exasperated by those that still stuck around and wanting to please them, he created Hell. Suddenly, many from earth all went to heaven, but still some hovered around God.

Finally, He asked them what they wanted, and they answered: we want to be with you.

Looking at it that way, worshipping God can be seen as a privilege, not an oppression, as long as it's a matter of choice of course.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

Re: religious quotes on Unity

No matter where you go on the planet there is a belief in a god/gods/spirits/other worlds. How can that be explained?

Over-active pattern recognition, a tendency to assign agency to things that don't have it, and a need to find explanations for things would be my guess. Those beliefs are simply what Christopher Hitchens called our first and worst attempt to make sense of the world around us. But whatever the explanation is, it is NOT that these god/gods/spirits/other worlds have any reality, otherwise all cultures would have found the same ones.

 

[Cliffy]

 

[Ludlow]

Haven't seen much unity in my day. In times of community distress people seem to come together and display teamwork but other than that, most everyone wants things their own way by in large. Unity is a fine word though. Utopia is another fine word. Both of which are pipe dreams.

 

[Motar]

I've decided to create a thread including quotes on the topic of unity.

"Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?

But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it." (1 Corinthians 12:12-26 NIV)

A timely topic (unity), Machjo. Partisanship and sectarianism seem to be the way of the world today.

 

[El Barto]

It is the laziness of the human mind to want everything as black and white , right and left. To place things in simple lists. One must be careful to the meaning of Unity for it may really mean conformity.
And conformity meaning your chosen place given to you.
There will never be Unity under religion

 

[Motar]

There will never be Unity under religion

Agree, EB. Faith is another matter entirely.

 

[Cliffy]

Agree, EB. Faith is another matter entirely.

If your faith is based in the writings of others, it is not faith. You cannot know anything by reading the ruminations of others. You can only interpret what they have written or spoken through the filters of your own bias. Faith can only come from a direct connection to Source and through our personal experiences in Life. "Religion is the belief in someone else's experience. Spirituality is having your own experience." Faith is a spiritual experience. Religion is a belief system. Belief in the written word is a belief system (religion), not spirituality.

 

[Motar]

If your faith is based in the writings of others, it is not faith. You cannot know anything by reading the ruminations of others. You can only interpret what they have written or spoken through the filters of your own bias. Faith can only come from a direct connection to Source and through our personal experiences in Life. "Religion is the belief in someone else's experience. Spirituality is having your own experience." Faith is a spiritual experience. Religion is a belief system. Belief in the written word is a belief system (religion), not spirituality.

Confidence in the art both precedes and follows confidence in the Artist, Cliffy. They are one : )

 

[MHz]

Some things are best done alone.
Ec:3:20:
All go unto one place;
all are of the dust,
and all turn to dust again.

 

[Cliffy]

Confidence in the art both precedes and follows confidence in the Artist, Cliffy. They are one : )

You are the artist of your own life. Nobody is pulling your strings or demanding anything of you. You are not going to be punished for making mistakes because that is the way you learn. Wake up to your own divinity. There is nothing out there that will educate you. You life is the lesson. "The Kingdom is within." Look to yourself, your connection to the Source, for everything you need to know.

 

[MHz]

Re: religious quotes on Unity

our first and worst attempt to make sense of the world around us..

Only modern science can convince the public to give them even more money when revering what they used to teach is now included under the term 'progress'. The good news is the science is still 'wrong' but the cgi has gotten much better and the narrators are starting to all sound alike. All in documentaries are still more factual than the daily news.

Dex, two possibilities lie ahead. One small group will lead the way and they will 'advance' to live longer than 1,000 years (a lot, lot longer) and in that time they remain 'single' and gaining in knowledge all the time so that at some point they transition to follow where the current angels will ascend to once they have completed their training. Men were created with a lot of compassion for other living things but a very fragile body. Heavenly beings (which is what some ascent to being) are strong in body but lack compassion and that is why their rule before the flood didn't work. When the angels that did not sin ascend to their promised heaven they are in the place that God, the Holy Spirit, and Christ are. At that point they are called perfected and would be equal in all respects once they pair off and get married and have one child. There is no progression from that 'level'. The new earth will be our earth and universe and the ones alive for the 1,000 years are not given in marriage and they live in New Jerusalem and are the 'instructors' for the rest of mankind that do marry and have 100 children before they are given a glorified body and a perfected heart. If the ones in the city are equal toi the angels of our heaven then they are on their way to being perfected and their knowledge will always be 1,000 years ahead of the rest of mankind and at some point they will follow the angels as they gained that same wisdom that allowed some to enter the 3rd heaven and remain there, as perfected beings. By waiting until then to have a child the child is born perfected. By not giving them in marriage God prevented any 'children' from ending up in the fiery lake. When the new earth comes up for judgment the first group will be seen as being perfected and they can enter and stay in the 3rd heaven. Being perfected they could then be given in marriage and they wouyld have one child that was born perfected while the rest of mankind have 100 children that would become to be perfected the same way the angels above do, they are taught over billions of years.

That makes the Bible a story about progression of the same 'species' from being 'new' to being 'fully experienced'. I doubt any writers or the flock back in the day could get all that on the first talk around the fire when some shepherd spouts up, 'While watching the flock at the water-hole I . . . '

You are the artist of your own life. Nobody is pulling your strings or demanding anything of you. You are not going to be punished for making mistakes because that is the way you learn. Wake up to your own divinity. There is nothing out there that will educate you. You life is the lesson. "The Kingdom is within." Look to yourself, your connection to the Source, for everything you need to know.

Shoo doesn't always work against something dangerous.