Beavs, don't you have that backwards? I was blind and now I see....the truth. Faith gives us the eyes to see.
Why are many Christians so intolerant of other religions and spiritual paths?
- Thread starter Cliffy
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Faith compels us to seek truth, this is a practiced fact of ten thousand years. Faith is a tiny little nudge compared to truth.
As you're advising me to follow your path, I will offer you the same advice by reiterating a post I made in another thread (Christianity and Religion in the Christian Discussion forum) 3 weeks ago:
"Okay, as long as you think it's legitimate to cite texts from a superstitious, pre-literate, pre-scientific age in support of your position, try 1 Thessalonians 5:21: Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
If you follow that advice, and understand the rules of evidence and logic, and have the critical thinking tools some of our brightest minds have worked out over the last few centuries for testing the truth content of claims, and you reason honestly, being mindful of the many well known ways human perception and cognition can go astray, you will arrive at the atheist position."
Why don't you join in the conversation? I am certain you'd have something intelligent to say.
you don't have to get all particular, dex.
Besides, my suggestion might get you somewhere.
Would you prefer it if I spoke in vague generalities? I doubt your suggestion will get me anywhere. As I said, I've tried it before, more than once, on the advice of parents, pastors, friends, co-workers, and nothing ever happened. One fellow, a Mormon bishop as it happens, even went so far as to tell me if I do this, "the Holy Spirit will burn a hole through you." Not exactly what I wanted...
I grew up in a very Christian household, there was a time I'd have agreed with your position, but the more I thought about things and tried to make sense of them, the less likely it all seemed, and aided by a good scientific education, which can be pretty corrosive to religious belief, I became apostate. And I prefer it that way, I find it liberating.
I grew up in a very Christian household, there was a time I'd have agreed with your position, but the more I thought about things and tried to make sense of them, the less likely it all seemed, and aided by a good scientific education, which can be pretty corrosive to religious belief, I became apostate. And I prefer it that way, I find it liberating.
lol My definition of "faith" is "the hope that what one wants to believe is true, actually is true".
The "reason" for the suffering is that there are no gods or goblins, just the universe, and it is impersonal and indifferent and has no human characteristics (IE, love, wrath, compassion, etc.) and needs no reasons for what it does.
I agree that posting a vidclip of dogs in a tugofwar to describe atheists is trolling.
cute.
I DO go after gods. Most have fallen by the wayside as being nonsense. I AM persistent and will continue to show the folly of believing imaginary beings as being reality.
For the life of me, I can't imagine why the faithful don't just admit to believing in fairy tales like gods and continue living as they do. It'd be a lot more honest than fighting reality with what they have faith in.
Lenses cause that phenomenon, not gods. F/X videographers make constant use of that effect when filming movie scenes.God
Photographic evidence of God, notice the distinct cross.
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The powers that swirled and swarmed in the abyss of darkness become the nursery of the sun of intellect in the kingdom of man, who is so far the crown of earthly life. The great old giant dragon was simply a type of primordial darkness and chaos. It gave birth to seven powers which fought blindly until they were subdued and synthesized under the last and highest of them, the Christ mind.
This great dragon was pictured with its tail in its mouth. The figure betokened the cycle returning into itself or back to source, or the parent life reabsorbing its own products. Kronos, Father Time, in the great myths devoured his own children.
The Oriental expects his individual consciousness to be drawn back into the universal Nirvana. The dragon of the original abyss later came to be the dragon of mother earth herself, who swallowed up her children one by one as the grave closed over them. Also she swallowed the sun each evening and the stars as they set. Sut, as a later representative of evil, became the opponent of the god both in the physical and the moral order. He waged war with the sun-god and was defeated, but never slain. Horus attacked him and fought with him for three days, and though wounded, he escaped with his life. He suffered rout periodically and perpetually, but was not destroyed, or only figuratively so. He lived to fight again. The sun-god cast a spell on him every day and rendered him powerless for evil. He was chained down for the aeon. All this was the natural expression of the moral conflict in man’s soul, as it is of all other conflict, for life subsists in manifestation only by virtue of the pull, tension or struggle between the two nodal forces. Now one, now the other, is conqueror.
The original mother of life, represented variously as the crocodile dragon, the hippopotamus, cow, sow, lioness, water-horse and finally woman, "the great harlot," who all meet in Kep, or Kefa (Heva, Chavvak, Eve), "the mother of the living," was the gestator of Sut and Horus, who are born twins! They typify the two aspects of life’s expression, activity and passivity, positive and negative force, light and darkness. The story of life is a story of unending conflict between the two "hostile" powers. The legends paint but a single cycle of growth, but the cycles repeat themselves endlessly. Any cycle is emblematic of every other one, and hence of all movement or all truth. If man knows
his own life in its cycle, he knows all. The arcane wisdom exhorted man to know himself.
In Egypt the conflict was first waged between the sun-god Ra and Apap. It was symboled variously by the death and rebirth of sunshine daily and seasonally, by the waxing and waning moon, and by the setting and rising stars. In the realm of spiritual activity it was carried on by Sut and Horus.
Astrologically the Dragon in the northern sky was the good serpent of Ra, or Horus, while the elongated Hydra was the evil serpent of Sut or Satan. Lastly the two were depicted as twin brothers fighting over their birthright! Their conflict took place, be it noted, in Amenta, where they fought upon the mount and were constellated as the Twins contending in Gemini. We shall see them as Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau and other pairs.
This great dragon was pictured with its tail in its mouth. The figure betokened the cycle returning into itself or back to source, or the parent life reabsorbing its own products. Kronos, Father Time, in the great myths devoured his own children.
The Oriental expects his individual consciousness to be drawn back into the universal Nirvana. The dragon of the original abyss later came to be the dragon of mother earth herself, who swallowed up her children one by one as the grave closed over them. Also she swallowed the sun each evening and the stars as they set. Sut, as a later representative of evil, became the opponent of the god both in the physical and the moral order. He waged war with the sun-god and was defeated, but never slain. Horus attacked him and fought with him for three days, and though wounded, he escaped with his life. He suffered rout periodically and perpetually, but was not destroyed, or only figuratively so. He lived to fight again. The sun-god cast a spell on him every day and rendered him powerless for evil. He was chained down for the aeon. All this was the natural expression of the moral conflict in man’s soul, as it is of all other conflict, for life subsists in manifestation only by virtue of the pull, tension or struggle between the two nodal forces. Now one, now the other, is conqueror.
The original mother of life, represented variously as the crocodile dragon, the hippopotamus, cow, sow, lioness, water-horse and finally woman, "the great harlot," who all meet in Kep, or Kefa (Heva, Chavvak, Eve), "the mother of the living," was the gestator of Sut and Horus, who are born twins! They typify the two aspects of life’s expression, activity and passivity, positive and negative force, light and darkness. The story of life is a story of unending conflict between the two "hostile" powers. The legends paint but a single cycle of growth, but the cycles repeat themselves endlessly. Any cycle is emblematic of every other one, and hence of all movement or all truth. If man knows
365
In Egypt the conflict was first waged between the sun-god Ra and Apap. It was symboled variously by the death and rebirth of sunshine daily and seasonally, by the waxing and waning moon, and by the setting and rising stars. In the realm of spiritual activity it was carried on by Sut and Horus.
Astrologically the Dragon in the northern sky was the good serpent of Ra, or Horus, while the elongated Hydra was the evil serpent of Sut or Satan. Lastly the two were depicted as twin brothers fighting over their birthright! Their conflict took place, be it noted, in Amenta, where they fought upon the mount and were constellated as the Twins contending in Gemini. We shall see them as Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau and other pairs.
So we have to start believing in order to believe in this god and his book. Interesting, but don't go there, you'll be right back. IOW, an example of circular reasoning, IE "God directed the writing of the Bible, therefore the Bible is true, therefore God exists and directed the writing of the Bible."
(for life subsists in manifestation only by virtue of the pull, tension or struggle between the two nodal forces. Now one, now the other, is conqueror. )
And this is why earth is hell and evil and death are actually your friends and best advisors and anyone who tells you they want to and can eliminate evil is an idiot and a saint at the same time, the war between good and evil makes life
And this is why earth is hell and evil and death are actually your friends and best advisors and anyone who tells you they want to and can eliminate evil is an idiot and a saint at the same time, the war between good and evil makes life
8O did that model die of cancer...just wondering, lol...you show up to a shoot and they want to place radio active ingredients on your face....how much is the pay? hm, what to do!
I imagine no where on the cold cream label was the word radium. Her faith in the product may have been engendered by news reels just before the feature. But did she investigate the wonderful promise of beauty in a bottle or did she take the hook and the line for material reasons? Did her vanity lead her astray? Mine did, lots of times and continues to pop up now and then but now mirrors are cruel crushing things and my hideous reflection drives me to tears. My cat still thinks I'm beautiful, she tells me the treats don't really matter, and I believe her.
lmao... I am certain you are not that bad looking...but yeah aren't cats wonderful with their unconditional love.I imagine no where on the cold cream label was the word radium. Her faith in the product may have been engendered by news reels just before the feature. But did she investigate the wonderful promise of beauty in a bottle or did she take the hook and the line for material reasons? Did her vanity lead her astray? Mine did, lots of times and continues to pop up now and then but now mirrors are cruel crushing things and my hideous reflection drives me to tears. My cat still thinks I'm beautiful, she tells me the treats don't really matter, and I believe her.
My take on the whole commercial thing was a tad different than yours...my take was; the model showed up to the shoot and they wanted to put radio-active ingredients on her face. Why you may ask? Well use a geiger counter to prove it removes radiation. If it can remove radiation it can remove your makeup and thus it is the cure all. (proof geiger counter that indicates radio active material by beeping). Then they use the wonderful miraculous cream on her fact which..........voila...........removes radiation.... conclusion.......nothing beats our facial cream.
Now I sit me down in school
Where praying is against the rule
For this great nation under God
Finds mention of Him very odd. If Scripture now the class recites,
It violates the Bill of Rights.
And anytime my head I bow
Becomes a Federal matter now.
Our hair can be purple, orange or green,
That's no offense; it's a freedom scene.
The law is specific, the law is precise.
Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.
For praying in a public hall
Might offend someone with no faith at all.
In silence alone we must meditate,
God's name is prohibited by the state.
We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.
They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.
To quote the Good Book makes me liable.
We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,
And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.
It's 'inappropriate' to teach right from wrong,
We're taught that such 'judgments' do not
belong. We can get our condoms and birth controls,
Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.
But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,
No word of God must reach this crowd.
It's scary here I must confess,
When chaos reigns the school's a mess.
So, Lord, this silent plea I make:
Should I be shot; My soul please take!
Amen
tolerance???? Baah anything but christians
Where praying is against the rule
For this great nation under God
Finds mention of Him very odd. If Scripture now the class recites,
It violates the Bill of Rights.
And anytime my head I bow
Becomes a Federal matter now.
Our hair can be purple, orange or green,
That's no offense; it's a freedom scene.
The law is specific, the law is precise.
Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.
For praying in a public hall
Might offend someone with no faith at all.
In silence alone we must meditate,
God's name is prohibited by the state.
We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.
They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.
To quote the Good Book makes me liable.
We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,
And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.
It's 'inappropriate' to teach right from wrong,
We're taught that such 'judgments' do not
belong. We can get our condoms and birth controls,
Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.
But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,
No word of God must reach this crowd.
It's scary here I must confess,
When chaos reigns the school's a mess.
So, Lord, this silent plea I make:
Should I be shot; My soul please take!
Amen
tolerance???? Baah anything but christians
Atheists/Bible thumpers....two sides of the same coin......... both as useless as teats on a bull........
Well, really, if you have to ask, the explanation's going to be difficult, if not incomprehensible. It frees me from having to believe unsupportable claims and trying to model my life around them and their implications, from having to accept an absolute unbending authority, from having to believe I'm a miserable sinner of no particular merit and doomed for all time unless I believe certain things and behave certain ways... In its simplest terms, it allows me to do my own thinking, and to know that it falls to us, and only to us, to make the world a better place.