Faith

A feeling has opened my eyes wider than ever before to something I have been starring at forever. Why such an emphasis on faith over the years in regards to religion? What is with this word "Faith"?

The four largest religious groups by population, estimated to account for between 5 and 6 billion people, are Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.

Four largest religions ↓ World population 6.8 billion

Figures taken from individual articles:

Christianity 1.9 billion – 2.1 billion 29% – 32% Christianity by country
Islam 1.3 billion – 1.57 billion 19% – 21% Islam by country
Buddhism 500 million – 1.5 billion 7% – 21% Buddhism by country
Hinduism 950 million – 1 billion 14% – 15% Hinduism by country
Total 4.65 billion – 6.17 billion 68.38% – 90.73%

OK so roughly 90% of the entire world practices religious beliefs in some way or another. That's quite a bit I would say. Someone must be onto something? A friend of mine recently told me that when he prayed to Jesus he felt that things just seemed to happen for him. This is a friend I've known well, like a brother, for over 15 years. I have many different beliefs, but I do not believe any mainstream religion as I feel all of them have at one point been misinterpreted for control and manipulation. That being said this friend of mine has many of the same beliefs as me except he is very religious in terms of praying to Jesus...

So I wonder about Jesus. I have for a long time known he was a real entity and for the past 5 years or so have had a strong belief he was not of this world, and by that I mean in an extraterrestrial manner. If you want info on the subject simply search around there is plenty of it. Anyways, long story short I like many have always felt in my heart and mind that Jesus was real and special...

But he was no ordinary man...this much was obvious.

Many people just like my friend pray to Jesus everyday and for them special things seem to happen that makes them keep their faith. Faith. People believe and they just have faith. And things happen. This is not just with Jesus it's with every religion in the world. People have faith and things happen. They know in the past something REAL did occur and there is reason to have faith in the first place. Then they keep believing because like i said they see a cause and effect like REAL result.

So now we shall take a look at Lalibela. This place was a holyground. Filled with cross shaped churches and religious symbolism everywhere. I believe places like Lalibela prove that for a very long time man has showed his faith though symbolic expression such as crosses and churches like found here.

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Lalibela is a town in northern Ethiopia, known for its monolithic churches. Lalibela is one of Ethiopia's holiest cities, second only to Aksum, and is a center of pilgrimage for much of the country. This rural town is known around the world for its churches carved from the living rock, which play an important part in the history of rock-cut architecture. Though the dating of the churches is not well established, most are thought to have been built during the reign of Lalibela, namely during the 12th and 13th centuries.

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Earliest known religious symbolism shown through the use of a cross...(not the pic above, read below)

The Jewish Encyclopedia states: The cross as a Christian symbol or "seal" came into use at least as early as the second century (see "Apost. Const." iii. 17; Epistle of Barnabas, xi.-xii.; Justin, "Apologia," i. 55-60; "Dial. cum Tryph." 85-97); and the marking of a cross upon the forehead and the chest was regarded as a talisman against the powers of demons (Tertullian, "De Corona," iii.; Cyprian, "Testimonies," xi. 21-22; Lactantius, "Divinæ Institutiones," iv. 27, and elsewhere). Accordingly the Christian Fathers had to defend themselves, as early as the second century, against the charge of being worshipers of the cross, as may be learned from Tertullian, "Apologia," xii., xvii., and Minucius Felix, "Octavius," xxix. Christians used to swear by the power of the cross. Although the cross was known to the early Christians, the crucifix did not appear in use until the 5th century.

So is this another thread about Jesus being an alien or trying to prove that religion is false? No I am trying to make a point that something is obviously REAL. Tangible things happen to people.

There are higher powers causing amazing things to happen to people on a daily basis. Is this just luck? Is it just fate? It simply can't be. And even if it is who controls the luck and this so called "fate"? Is it just a chance upon happening created by the randomness of the universe? Is there really no meaning to any of this?

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People have been captivated for the idea and have had such strong faith for so long something must be causing this. I strongly believe that all of the bibles we have access to today and mostly all of the information regarding religion and our history has been in some way manipulated to control us. I feel like man, in his greed, has caused the true stories...our true history to be left to dust.


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But even with the dust..and even with exaggerated stories and falsified prophets one thing remains. Faith.

We know there is a higher power. We can feel it in our hearts and souls. We know no single religion got the story totally correct. Faith is strong in every human...all across the globe for centuries man has believed.

And so like my friend and many others, Faith is the only real proof anyone needs that there is more and a reason to believe.

Faith provides a sense of direction and guidance to social order. There is a lot of good wisdom in many of the religions and being raised a Christian, Jesus seams cool. But when the talk starts with him dying for our sins it comes across as a cope out from our responsibilities. With other stuff I just don't get organised religion and gave up.

With the mess of the world I am looking towards Scientism as a faith. By using our integrity, reason, honesty and understanding it will give us a chance to get on top of some of the deep, complex and messy problems. I know there is still a lot of debate and uncertainty in the scientific community but is has created a strong foundation in knowledge and common sense.

The main law I am guided by is 'If you cannot be honest about it you should not do it'. All these lies are masking too many of the problems and something needs to be done to resolve it. With my faith I hope man is smart enough to save himself.

Your faith is very admirable and something that a lot of people including me would love to have. I came across William Bramley's book Gods of Eden and was surprised by his revelations. The book does go into the subject that aliens have had an impact in our past starting with the ancient Sumerian texts in which the Sumerians write about how the gods became tired of mining on their own and created a new species by putting a god to death and mixing it with clay, a process that was possibly genetic engineering. The end result was homo sapien sapiens, a byproduct of the gods and the original homo sapiens. The original homo sapiens or homo sapien neanderthalensis also disappeared at the same time homo sapiens sapiens appeared suggesting that the gods might have exterminated the original homo sapiens to make room for the new slave race. Ancient tablets credit one god in particular EA as being creator of the slave race. EA is described as being sympathetic to his creation fighting for them to gain spiritual knowledge in contrast to his half-brother Enlil who wanted them to suffer and would call for famines and plagues when they got too noisy. Eventually Enlil called for a great flood to wipe out the homo sapiens. It seems to be agreed that many archeologists believe there was a great flood in the near east thousands of years ago. The Epic of Gilgamesh claims how a Babylonian named Utnapishtim was approached by EA and told that a wipe out of homo sapiens sapiens was planned. He was instructed to gather his family and livestock and build a ship to survive the flood which they did. This story is strikingly similar to Noah's ark as is the story of Adam and Eve. The god or lord god of the bible's Adam and Eve can be translated as the original god of earth. The story which is entirely symbolic says how Adam who is first man, was created by god from the dust of ground an idea reflected from the older belief that people were created partly with clay. Adam's wife Eve was also created artificially and they lived in the Garden of Eden where they were told that all of their physical needs would be met as long as they obeyed their masters and stayed in the garden. They were also told never to eat fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil which symbolizes an understanding of ethics and justice or the tree of life which represents how to retain one's spiritual identity and immortality. A snake convinces them to eat fruit from the tree and become like the gods. The gods did not want mankind to be able to spiritually recover as it would be difficult to make people who maintained their integrity and sense of ethics slaves and even harder when those same individuals are undowed by physical threats because of a reawakened grasp of their spiritual immortality. The gods wanted to permanently attach the spiritual beings to their bodies so they used the flaming sword to prevent them from gaining spiritual knowledge and never rising above material existence. A common misconception is that Adam and Eve were embarrassed about being naked as they ate from the tree of knowledge but it was not being naked that shamed them it was what nakedness represented. Ancient Mesopotamian records depict human beings as being naked while working while the gods were fully clothed. The implication is that Adam and Eve were degraded by their nakedness because it was the sign of their enslavement not that being naked in itself is bad. The brotherhood of the snake was created by EA and was devoted in the beginning to helping humans achieve spiritual salvation however were incapable to do so much like the snake in the Adam and Eve. EA was villonized his title changed from Prince of Earth to Prince of darkness and was labeled Satan or the mortal enenmy of a supreme being and keeper of hell. The brotherhood of the snake created a group of one god religions that such as Islam,Christianity, and Judiasm to keep people divided and created apocalyptic beliefs that constant final battles are necessary to achieve a new period of spiritual salvation. In my personal opinion and I may be wrong but it appears today most religions including Christianity and Islam call for final battles with Christianity warning of an Antichrist that will lead people to one other religion and one government, things that would probably be beneficial in a sense of being united but things the 'gods' don't want. Interestingly many of Jesus's beliefs are similar to Buddhism notably the "Serman on the Mount. Jesus supposedly did not want to be called the messiah as he knew that it was untrue and wanted to bring a real spiritual science to Palestine but the brotherhood forced the title on him leading the Romans to crucify him because of his political pretensions and paved the way for his name to be used to implant the very judgement day prophecies he opposed.