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Bob Jones III
A whole lotta in-breeding there.
barnabee
posted by
barnabee
on February 7, 2005 at 10:16 PM
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No, God Doesn't Need In Temporal Terms...
...but without His Creations He would cease to be Himself. He would not be Whole. If any hair on your head is missing, conservation of energy, etcetera.
God does not need illusions. And so in the sense that I think you mean it, I agree...God doesn't need, "us." But in terms of His only begotten son, which is the whole of us, He definitely needs us. Not individual life forms or lives, but the whole of what makes the physical universe. The illusions that we perceive within the physical universe, however, are quite unlike God in that they appear to change over time and space. God could never change and still be wholely Himself.
God would not be loving if He did not have a constant relationship with His Creations.
posted by
Volaar
on February 3, 2005 at 10:35 PM
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your "houston we have a problem..." comment.........................
"...it is a common ploy of contemporary religion to proclaim that a particular set of scriptures are the unerring word of God." This is so important. Yes, I believe the Bible is inspired, and to deem it suitable for teaching Christianity is an understatement. I don't, however, believe it's the end-all to Christian faith. When the words on the pages of a book, no matter how inspired the book may be, become more important than the God that inspired them, we have ourselves an idol. Idolitry is worshipping a god other than The One True God as HE reveals Himself, not as we create Him.
Though I disagree with part of what you say, in that God really does't need us. He doesn't need us to tell Him He is The One True God any more than you need me to tell you that you are breathing.
posted by
Gheeghee
on February 3, 2005 at 7:18 PM
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"absurd rituals and beliefs that leave their laieties vulnerable to just about every confidence game under the Sun." This is exactly the thing. How many people really understand the religions to which they belong? How many people really understand the religions they bash? Doing something "just because" is not faith.
posted by
Gheeghee
on February 3, 2005 at 7:05 PM
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Houston, We Have A Problem...
...it is a common ploy of contemporary religion to proclaim that a particular set of scriptures are the unerring word of God. There are good reasons to, "lock down," scriptures as being, "other worldly." People will be much more careful with sacred words and meanings than they would be with the words and experiences of ordinary mortals. Otherwise above-average intelligence people understand the need for this sort of discpline. Most other folks do not.
The works of the Bible, even the Talmud, are about grasping the idea that any God of any consequence is going to have to be an entity that spans multiple human lifetimes. And so the idea of the scriptures was to catalog, classify and explain the experiences of a race of people across many lifetimes.
When the books of the Talmud -- effectively the Old Testament -- are placed in order, the final book is the book of Job. This is the concluding book, folks, and everything up to this point in the scriptures was to lead up to Job's epiphany.
When this original arrangement of the old Testament books is understood, suddenly the words of Y'Shua jump off the pages of the New Testament when He declares, "I am here to fulfill the old Testament...I am here to offer you a new covenant." Etcetera, etcetera.
Bottom line: rituals, rules and regulations are not what God is about. God is about truth and the creativity that becomes possible once creation is understood for what it is. There are no, "special," people to God because every living thing -- even the things which we do not classify as, "alive," -- are a critical element in the completion of cosmic wholeness. If even one tiny modicum of something were to go missing in the universe, God would be incomplete, and this, by the philosophical works of Philo, Plato, Aristotle and the later thinkers, could not be possible or there would be no God. Conservation of matter and energy in all its forms has to be respected or imperfection reigns supreme.
The Good News is that it would be impossible for imperfection to reign supreme and there still be a universe. By definition that which is perfect is the ultimate survivor. If God is at all, if truth is at all, it must be the case that it survives regardless of circumstances. There can be no circumstances for which God does not have an answer or a solution that reflects back into His/Her perfection. Same with any ultimate truth.
The Bibles are chronicles of our many misguided attempts at defining, or conceptualizing God, and the consequences that follow from the characteristics we project onto God. For example, when we believe that God is unloving, or in some way irrelevant, lo and behold, God is precisely that. When we believe that God is loving and should be held as a sacred superior in all our thoughts and actions, POOF, that is what God becomes for us.
At issue is not WHO or WHAT God is, but who or what it is that we wish to be. Our deepest natures, because we are created by God, is to be like His image. God is a survivor, so must we be. And so the characteristics we choose for God must be those characteristics that allow us to go forward as a species, PERIOD.
The dinosaurs roamed this planet, in all their anger, for a very, very long time. Human beings have been here a relatively short period of time as compared to them. And yet it is clear that we were favored over the dinosaurs for reasons that are fast becoming plain. The spirit which breathed life into the dinosaurs is not giving itself over to integration with us without a serious fight. Our task must be to integrate the spirit of the ancient reptiles into our spirit, and cast away those aspects that lead to their ultimate destruction and extinction in the first place.
If atheism actually lead us to live with one another in peace, then it would be atheism that we should select as the nature of God. Our god, then, would forever doubt its own existence or relevance. Like it or not, this nature comes closest to establishing our relationship with God as we understand Him than any of the major religions. But this relationship is insufficient to encompass all aspects of our relationship with our Creator. Overlooking our connection with God does not lead to peace but to self destruction as we deny our own reality, truth and relevance.
God needs us, all of us, in order to know that He exists and that He can create. We need God in order for us to remember where we came from and why we are here. We are all expressions of the joy of Creation and all laws in the universe are reflections of perfection and of the joy of Creation.
So, if we ain't happy, we ain't doin' it right. We have to find a bigger God, in other words, and this process takes place in ever single living thing on this planet all the time. It is a sacred relationship and one that every single religion on the planet has made a point to violate in one way or another. And it is this violation of what God has deemed sacred and sacrosanct that causes all doings of mankind to become undone.
posted by
Volaar
on January 31, 2005 at 2:44 PM
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History Books
I believe the Bibles are a history book of those who walked before. Many books are history books. The Bible states what God Almighty says in which is good to know. But man also gives his personal interprtaion of things. I believe God created man and what God puts into man he will mature to what God Almighty wants us to become eventually. Maturing the soul. I believe we are not all here for the same job. But whatever Gods wants us to be will be.
Please visit my blogs and give me your comments. Thank You
posted by
Experience
on January 31, 2005 at 10:47 AM
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thank you for commenting on me
you did see where I told you that you were absolutely right?
and I agree that as Christians we should get along together
I think that as a world we should be doing that.
this happens to be the only world we have.
posted by
Xeno-x
on January 31, 2005 at 10:28 AM
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When The Times Are Pointing True North...
...the righteous align themselves accordingly.
When the times are pointing South, they usually do so in opposition to what is true. Repulsion. Fear. Distrust of truth. The righteous seem to fall behind during these times. The underachievers take over and scramble for what they believe is the top of the heap. But their top is really just a bottom.
King Shit on Turd Mountain. Whoopee.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it. It's certainly helped me get through three years of terminal under employment and the fear that goes along with that. I resent those among me who have to be hit over the head with a 2 by 4 of their own stupidity before they wake up to whose been holding the board all along. But I've never been comfortable under the beer-bellied portion of the bell-shaped curve for very long, if ever, so perhaps my lesson is to learn how not to resent myself.
And resent myself I do. In a hostile, almost homicidal, way.
posted by
Volaar
on January 29, 2005 at 3:24 PM
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People like Bob Jones scare the hell out of me.
Doesn't it make you wonder how people like that can get where they are today without someone realizing that they have a screw loose and putting them somewhere where they can't hurt themselves or anyone else?
posted by
RAME
on January 29, 2005 at 12:43 PM
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here try this
BEYOND THE EDIFICE-SEARCHING FOR NEW CHRISTIANITY - 2 hours ago
THE UNFORGIVEABLE SIN!!!!! EUREKA!!!!! I'VE GOT IT - IF KOOKA WERE TO
it's my blog and the latest post.
doesn't matter what religion or denomination
what matters if that you believe.
posted by
Xeno-x
on January 27, 2005 at 5:08 PM
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Yshua, welcome to blogit! I will keep reading.
posted by
kingmi
on January 22, 2005 at 7:40 PM
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