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Re: Religion & Spirituality
I think as long as people believe that "the Word of God" points to the set of books called the Bible only, they will devote their lives to the books about God and not the God the books are about. Since a great many things written in these books relate to periods and the people present at the time under those specific circumstances in history that are culturally alien to todays' people, there is a large probability that the written word will be taken out of context and forced into traditionally accepted views. Can't really blame people for that, but we can try to introduce people to the God of the books and our own experience just like the writers of those books did.
posted by
AardigeAfrikaner
on September 3, 2008 at 4:06 PM
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Religion & Spirituality
I agree that many overzealous religious people can drive the truth seekers away. I used to be in a fundamentalist bible group years ago, and saw how mind controlled some of them were. A few believers had the mark of compassion and wisdom, but this was a minority. We do need to embrace all cultures, and their beliefs. Most cultures have a core mystical aspect, which holds true for many belief systems. The mystical aspect transcends the duality that can get caught up in black and white thinking. Unrealized minds stay in dogmatic duality, whereas transcendental minds can embrace it all with compassion and wisdom.
posted by
eve_tara
on September 3, 2008 at 8:05 AM
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Thanks you 3
I grew up in a church that used peoples hatred of others (never consciously or openly admitting to this though, but from my observation pretty much the case) as a means of inflaming their emotions and spurring them on to cooperation. This was not the case with all the pastors, some of them were really very humane and loving, but careful to express their own points of view in the midst of the "wolves" in the congregation. Unfortunately people get "hooked" more easily by clear polar opposites and they seem unable to shake these tendencies of hatred in the disguise of "love for God". They do not interpret godly love as love itself, but as obedience to endless rules. They read about the pharisees and others versed in the laws of the Judaism of Jesus' time that He opposed, yet they act just like them without noticing that they have become what He came to free people from. Very sad state of affairs for me since most of my extended family is thoroughly entrenched in this kind of religion.
posted by
AardigeAfrikaner
on September 3, 2008 at 12:07 AM
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We are all one. We cannot say everyone has to believe our way. Crazy! I think we must embrace all people and all faith. My religion is how I choose to worship God. Living my faith is very important. I really don't care to sit around and say what I am when I can do what I am. sam
posted by
sam444
on September 2, 2008 at 10:14 PM
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Aardige
I think some "fundamentalists" misinterpret the bible and rather than looking at the bigger picture they extract passages - word by word - and twist them to accomodate their narrow thinking.
posted by
Troosha
on September 2, 2008 at 9:10 AM
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No...this is the message they receive from the life and teaching of their
pastors.
posted by
FineYoungSinger
on September 2, 2008 at 5:43 AM
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