Go to BUILDING A NEW RELIGION FROM THE GROUND UP
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hi!
I guess because I had such an odd religious involvement, with a Catholic father, a half Jewish grandmother who practiced soothsaying, hexing, and all such strange things, and who went a little crazy upon arriving in America after losing everything in WWII, and became, of all things, an Evangelical Christian, and a mother who professed only one religion and that being of nature and its teleologic purpose, I never had much trust in text as a purveyor of truth. And deconstructionism aside, I always had a philologic view of the Bible; it was never more than a literature for me and this when I was quite young, perhaps 7 or 8. I always had a strong sense of God, but I would not say that I believed Jesus was God. I always felt that the Christ himself would dispute this, but I never doubted that the Christian message was of God, and I refer only to those passages directly involving Jesus. I'm sorry, but I think Paul made many blunders in creating the dogma that chokes Christianity to this day. But this is what I want to say: I was in a coma once for three days, pronounced brain dead, last rites, the whole bit. And I did have a near death experience. During that exchange, I was suffused with a kind of Buddhist neutrality, and the sense I got of God was that God was universal consciousness. Later, when I related this, people were so disappointed, and I even had it suggested to me that what I was experiencing was Hell. But this neutrality--it was better than love. It was love, if that makes sense. It was like all those hormones that fuel our moods had left me, and I was in a state of absolute clarity. It is difficult to explain, but some things you mentioned reminded me of this. God is fluid in nature and we all come to this earth knowing, at the most primal level, what is grace. So God changes through cultures just as mythology does, even though they are the same stories over and over. And while all my life I was told that God was huge, immense, in my mind God was always tiny, tiny. Quantum tiny. That conception always left alot of room for the kind of pan-religious beliefs I now have. Anyway....Lord, can I go on and on....
posted by
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
on July 22, 2004 at 9:52 PM
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Westwend -
I agree. Great Post! For me, the most salient point is near the end of your post when you state basically that one's relationship with others is what is most important. We move closer toward divinity when we love others like ourselves.
posted by
sannhet
on July 21, 2004 at 7:56 AM
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Hi westwend!
Great post! I believe I am laying a foundation for my children to be independant thinkers too. If they could see themselves the way I see them, they would truly love themselves. I see through the broad strokes the definite outlines of who they will become.
Yeshua or Jesus. I like your thoughts on the reality of who he was. The temptations must have been great for him to abandon his ministry for the safety and comfort of the status quo as a Rabbi of the time. If he wanted to he probably could have stayed in one place and been locally esteemed. He chose to continue. We choose to continue.
posted by
man-boy
on July 19, 2004 at 8:27 AM
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westwend -- you have hit on some very good points here
I especially liked the articulation of your understanding of Kooka's perspective. For some the complete purge of all religious myths from their minds is the only way to understanding. This allows the individual to utlilize the best of all religious teachings and discard the redundant. All the while not being caught up in minor points of specific interpretation that so many seem trapped in.
posted by
gomedome
on July 19, 2004 at 6:41 AM
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