I don't see hate anywhere on this thread.. Just a dislike in what most Christians preach..


Don, if you don't like it here than go chat with your Christian friends.. While I'll chat with my "New Age Ghetto" friends that you like to call us.. You don't see me going on Christian boards.. I try to stay where I belong... MY threads aren't about starting arguments.. They are about getting stuff off my chest.. Otherwise I'd go to Christian sites and let them know their beliefs are full of fear and judgementalism..

Plus, leave Bruce out of this.. We are big boys and girls and can deal with our own confrontations..

peace

Lol , Darth! Nevertheless, I find him very useful here, because he knows his stuff.  That is, he knows his Christianity.  This is entirely separate from whether you choose to believe it or not.

To explore new territory, to generate new knowledge, you need to get beyond previous dogma.

I'm not sure I'd know where to start figuring out what the 'Christian' God actually is. Depending on which group you ask the possibilities range from a nasty vindictive old man with a long beard who somehow manages to love and at the same time impose the most violent of punishments on man (and that includes those who by an accident of birth never heard of him) to a distributed mind that of its nature manifests everything there is to run on love.

My personal take is that you are dealing with something that is ultimately ineffable - meaning that human traditions can only ever describe the reality in terms limited by language, intellect, state of consciousness and so on.

Which means that these descriptions must inevitably reflect the consciousness of the writer.  And that these descriptions must evolve or at least change as our insight develops....

My love to you Don. Although I do not believe in the Church, I do beleave in God. I don't believe you mean harm in what you said here as I am sure you know you have no right to judge. You know who has that right. From what I have seen of Bruces writings, he also believes in a higher power. The name is not as important as the belief. Be not afraid of us. there is more love of God at this site than in many churchs.
Joe

I don't agree with the below.  It doesn't make sense having arguments against the Bible, without allowing for viewpoints that support.

[quote author=briggsandurlacher3 link=1185762480/30#31 date=1186335936]


Don, if you don't like it here than go chat with your Christian friends.. While I'll chat with my "New Age Ghetto" friends that you like to call us.

I have some very close and longstanding devout evangelical Christian friends with whom I often exchange views - mine coming from a strongly Buddhist/gnostic perspective.

They are great people, and we find ourselves agreeing time and time again on what is required of us in life, and why this may be.

But the factor that  time and again causes some issues is their emphasis on (and my refusal to buy in to)  absolutist belief in place of the application of teachings/intellectual understanding and intuitive insight in life to generate experiential knowledge. They insist on the literal existence of the Devil as a self existent objective reality, on literal interpretation of the Bible as the actual word of God, on the rightness and reality of both divine and civil punishment and retribution, and that to be 'saved' one must regardless of anything else hold certain key beliefs.

I regularly find myself on the receiving end of initiatives which start from the thought that 'it's such a pity that a nice person like you can't be saved while holding those beliefs', 'would you not x,y,z..... I also find that they simply refuse out of a fear of being led astray to read anything that I might offer them with a slightly Buddhist flavour. (I think they justify the 'risk' of talking to me on this stuff on the basis that I need setting straight)

Now they may of course be right, but not so far as I can detect. I find a considerable disjoint between their mostly  enlightened behaviours, and their beliefs. What I find too is that these absolute beliefs are a significant barrier to the exchange of knowledge and insight, and a potential cause of friction if one was to be inclined to get upset about this stuff.

It seems to me that this sort of somewhat fundamentalist insistence on 'our way or the highway' is fairly typical of many Christian groupings (even our local irish protestant rector for example blew his cover by denouncing Buddhism as a cult in a Christmas sermon a few years ago) , and is a big cause of issues such as those that have arisen in this thread.

Point being (at least from my perspective  ). None of us has the right to dictate others' beliefs. God doesn't force anything. We were given free will for a reason. No human tradition or handed down belief system (they to varying degrees contain truths, but none is complete and all require interpretation) comes close to describing the totality of the territory - gnosis (put another way the ability to pilot one's own soul) follows from mixing taught or otherwise accessed knowledge with life experience.

Our task is surely to grope towards insight and light -  the work of road testing spiritual perspectives while progressing along the spiritual path is a key part of this evolution.

We may get it wrong on occasion, but (a) we can rely on forgiveness and love and (b) our own (grace assisted) compass is pretty effective anyway. There are those that decide to ignore the compass, but absolutist beliefs won't help them much anyway.

Which means that we surely stand to gain rather than to lose through the respectful sharing of perspectives between traditions??? Why should this be a cause for offence?

Darth Benedict wrote on Aug 5^th, 2007 at 9:27pm:


yes Darth, you have it right. I submit prayers are in order for this board or invocations of peace. I do like Christians. I met a Christian the other day and he blew my mind. I was out of town when this Christian hit my car bumper, parked in front of my house. such a tiny scratch, I didn't notice. he drove back the next day to inform me of his insurance carriar stating he knew I wouldn't notice the scratch but he was a reborn Christian and felt responsible. I was touched and grateful. so Christians are good people too, the only thing I have against religion is forcing it down someone's throat like cod liver oil tactics.
I just want holy wars to cease. I guess I'm unrealistic.

we are all children of the universe, we have a right to be here, we are all deserving of god's grace and peace that passes understanding. may the gentle force sway your hearts into wisdom.