Calling All Religions: Please Share Your Wisdom

Originally posted by Blue Shift

Originally posted by smyleegrl
How about spirituality instead of religion?

Actually, I kind of dislike that vague, fluffy term for something that is very poorly defined. What does "spirituality" even mean? That you go around feeling all airy and floaty and superior while subtly putting down old school religious folk? Seems awfully self-centered to me. No thanks.

This is a very good way to sum it all up. I enjoy discussing, theorizing, even hoping, but in the end, what you can observe and experience is what you get. People can promise you the most beutiful things, express amazing dreams, promise you heaven or hell, an afterlife, they will tell you about chakras, deities, near death experiences, OOBE's, law of attraction etc... all things that may very well exist, but are ultimately never demonstratable.

It just doesn't seem like the world has changed much with every new breakthrough, or every new book that explores these topics. It is in traversing the ocean of religions and spiritual belief's, and even observing their sometimes incredibly destructive trail, that frustrates many people. If it doesn't do them harm, then at the very least it causes them to waste time, and be disappointed in the end when they realize all those good feelings came from them. The trap in religion and spirituality is that almost every one of them has some terrible consequence for not assimilating.

When I was young, in my teens, I picked on atheists in the name of my Catholicism. In my early 20's, I picked on the religious, because all the sudden I was "spiriitually enlightened" . In my 30's I grew a pair and decided both were not adequate. Sure its lonely to face the universe with no definitive answers, but when you hang there long enough, you get pretty strong, and open-minded.

As I've said in previous posts, the only logical thing I can count on, is to try my best to focus on treating my fellow earthlings with love, as that is the only thing for which I feel some semblence of "spirit", for lack of a better word. I'm not perfect by any means, I can still be ignorant, selfish, misguided and hypocritical, but at least I have a focus to reach for, and there are no laws, penalties, or other remnants of the human need to control. No one will die, or be tricked, be oppressed, suffer eternal damnation, or be unworthy as a result of my philosophy.

If God really is as simple as many people would have you believe, than I will certainly not refuse/reject him or her when and if I am ever called.

hello I have a link for you but it is above top secrets. I did not make that so do not insult me please.

d01.megashares.com...

Originally posted by maes9
hello I have a link for you but it is above top secrets. I did not make that so do not insult me please.

d01.megashares.com...

Can you explain the info? And no insults allowed in this thread.

Star for you...

reply to post by smyleegrl


I read your OP and decided to respond, I respect your decision to seek out faiths and to understand with an open mind.

I also fell out of faith and have spent the last 1 1/2 years exploring and discovering what it is that I believe. I did not grow up in any faith, my parents were not spiritual or religious in any way whatsoever. Although I grew up like this I sensed that there was something more, something unseen, something incomprehensible to anything we experience here on Earth. In my early 20's I found Jesus which ultimately swept me off my feet initially and allowed me to change my life in ways I never thought I could, for the first time ever, I felt pure. But I lost it quickly to the materialism of this world.

I yearned for this sense of purity again, I yearned for a relationship with my Creator, but I had doubts about the Bible, there were things I felt that led me to doubt, so I began to seek other faiths to see if truth could be found.

I found myself in the midst of a journey that I never expected and in fact, I didn't really want anyone to know what I was sensing as truth, because of stereotypes and biases that surround my social environment. Regardless, I have not reach completeness in my journey but have a very clear perspective of God, of Truth, and what my purpose here on Earth is.

Does God Exist? How do you know?

Yes, God exists. But first we need to define what God means:

God
noun
the one Supreme Being, the creator and ruler of the universe.
the Supreme Being considered with reference to a particular attribute: the God of Islam.
( lowercase ) one of several deities, especially a male deity, presiding over some portion of worldly affairs.
( often lowercase ) a supreme being according to some particular conception: the god of mercy.
Christian Science . the Supreme Being, understood as Life, Truth, love, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Princi


God as I see it, is the creator and ruler of the universe. NOT as a deity, that floats above us in a humanistic form with a beard and white gown on a thrown. God is the most beneficent, the most merciful, and the cherisher and sustainer of this existence. So what does that mean? God is a force, an energy that is nothing but Good, all Good and nothing less than, because "Good" is an energy and God IS GOODNESS in its most pure form. God is the cherisher, meaning God is the energy that nurtures this world. What does it mean to nurture something? It means to care for and encourage the growth of something. So basically God is the force that keeps us alive and gives us the essential properties to sustain life, like oxygen for example. God is Most merciful meaning that God is the energy that encompasses all compassion and provides us relief. God is the Sustainer meaning that God is the force that upholds and maintains our existence. How does God do this? Through laws which I like to consider the laws of Nature: such as gravity, the way that the earth and all beings and life within in it work together to maintain homeostasis, along with outer space and the orbits and rotations and things.
Some might say that there is no creator, but keep in mind, can something be created out of nothing? Can you drop a glass of water of the ground, make it explode and it magically starts creating its own life being, simply by chance? No. So it makes sense that this existence is the creation of a force unfathomable.
How do I know that God exists?
I know that God exists by what my eyes can see... I can see light energy and I have ears that can decipher sound energy and Touch that when I touch something, it'sl energy touches mine and I can feel it. Can you say that you can see hear and touch too? If you said yes, then that is proof enough that God exists. The energy is all around you.

Enjoy your journey... I hope my post helps you along your way. I owe my understandings to the Holy Quran... I'm not Islamist, I'm not even what I would call a Muslim... I consider myself a Submitter. Anyhow, Peace Be With YOU

d01.megashares.com...

well it is vivid that this film is made by muslims. since at the end you can see the word (in sha allah) that it means (if God wants) and you can see it has persian subtitle. They have some statements from their messengers about the last days and arrival. some of them are about what it is called Dajjal(very deceiver). they mean the Anti_christ by that word exactly. now I mention one of them. they think that it is an ironical statement with the culture and literature of thousands years ago. so I also highlight what they think it refers to.
"""Anti_christ will come from a city that it's name refers to jews""" / maybe refering to Israel /
"""(but he is not a jew) it is written in his forehead the word kafar(atheist) and everyone can read it. Literate ones and Illiterate ones""" / Israel has a military regiment called KFIR and it does not need to know arabic to read that! /
"""most of it's followers are from illegal sex""" / maybe it is the reason how it is advertising in the media. /
"""it's sound can travel from east to west.'''' / well it is the media. is not it!? /
"""it can travel rapidly from east to west""" / well by airplanes! /
"""it says I am your creator, I am the God""" / the statements of Lucifer! /
"""It has one eye and it is located in his forehead""" / this is what you can see all over the film. /
"""It will be killed by hand of a man called (Mahdi) who will pray with Jesus in Jerusalem.""" / Mahdi will be a muslim revolutionary that will come from middleeast and Jesus will unite the world with him. /

this film mainly tries to say that elites are misusing religions no matter christianity or .... and these differences and confrontations are made by hands of human. this is the logic of Quran that calls Moses or Abraham a muslim! because it means submission to God and it considers only one religion in the world and all over the history and that it is Islam (to submit in God) no matter the name. so in this logic they are all versions of only one truth. for example Islam(as a version) newer than christianity and christianity newer than Judaism.

this film claims that so much versions of holy book and especially many gospels are evidences of human altering the truth while the real gospel is prohibited to public. and it claims that this is because wrong jew leaders with the aid of Roman empire has altered the truth in the history. and it claims that Quran has been less vulnerable to altering because it was kept by memorizing it by the public not just by writing it by limited individuals. and you can see only one Quran in the world.

well he is right something is hapenning in this world!

Originally posted by smyleegrl
I feel I should share a little more info about my personal search.

I mentioned I've been searching for a long time; that's true. I actually got my undergrad degree in theology, studied baptist history and theology at Oxford, even had a couple of papers published. So that's my background, one of theological critique and comparative religions.

The hypocrisy I see with ALL religions is very disheartening. At the same time, religions are of man and everything manmade is inherently flawed.

I believe, without a doubt, that if God exists, he is unknowable by our current understanding.

I used to fear death and the "what next"...had five family members die within a couple of years. It was terrible, especially since I no longer had the comfort of heaven to console me. One day I lost it and spent about five hours in tearful entreaty to....something. Was I talking to myself? To God? To those who'd passed on?

I don't know, but afterwards a great feeling of peace came over me. I can't really describe it; just a sense that things were as they should be. It was a relief, that feeling.

I still feel that way...like there's a purpose to everything and no matter what we go through here, in the end it really will be okay.

I wish I knew why I felt that way.

well as I said monotheistic religions(Judaism, Christianity and Islam) can be altered partly by misusers and wrong clerics but still we can find many similar truths among them. I do not believe they are manmade. because it is contrary to monotheism. so if God exists and has created us, he is so wise to tell us some informations that we can not find them only by the help of our wisdom and other tools. as our ear and eyes can not hear and see many frequencies and waves so can we say they do not exist. but we can reveal them by some tools. monotheistic religions can be used to reveal the truths that we can not get them only by the help of our wisdom or our feelings and dreams. all of them are our tools we do not have to choose only one of them. real monotheistic religions and our wisdom, science, and feelings, dreams all are our tools.
believe or not, we are living in an odd era, THE LAST DAYS , the border of right and wrong is thinner than hair, do not limit yourself to any specific source.

d01.megashares.com...

in the first part of this film you can see the idea about the sunday(sun-day) and not(son-day) when christians go to church. and about the birth of sun at 25 dec and that southern cross. it claims that the wrong christian clerics wanted to show that Jesus is like the sun. and then gradualy this idea diverted to worship of sun! how?
once I asked some of my christian friends that was Jesus the God or the Lord or something else. the best answer was that "Jesus is the son of God". there are some christians that have a vague idea about the God. or what they call it father. some really think that they are worshipping Jesus. remember that sun-day so they are worshiping the sun! I know that there are many conscious christians but some really think they are worshiping Jesus. So this is how satan deceives human to alter the truth gradually.
Quran criticizes such ideas:

"""O followers of the Book(christians and jews)! do not exceed the limits in your religion, and do not speak against God, but (speak) the truth; the Messiah, Jesus son of Maryam is only an apostle of God and His Word which He communicated to Maryam and a spirit from Him; believe therefore in God and His apostles, and say not, Three. Desist, it is better for you; God is only one God; far be It from His glory that He should have a son, whatever is in the heavens and whatever is in the earth is His, and God is sufficient for a Protector."""

now how satan has altered Islam by human hands?

well there is a belief that Quran remains intact. because the main arabic words always are kept. and muslims have always published Quran by the main words and translations beneath them.
like christianity there are many different thinkings in Islam like shia, sunni, .. the idea about God and his prophets is intact in Islam. their differences is so little for example about how to pray and so on.. but take a look at media how many titles can you find about making confrontations between them. this is the satanic rule of making differences and ruling over them. the saudies radical islamists are allies of USA and their mission is to influence in Islam and to show it as a wrong wild illogical religion.

all differences are manmade. so should we throw out the religions? no we should use it to reveal the truth and unite the humanity. secularity is a lie. the religion of seculars is secularity and it is manmade. and Jesus will return and use these similarities to unite the humanity.

d01.megashares.com... Arrivals pt.17 (War on Terror).rar

you may think this is not relevant to the issue but think of a one creature that is leadering a process from past to now. and diverting the path of monotheism. study the history of religions and masonism. then what you would find is a systematic process as it has a one unique leader. well is it Lucifer and his soldiers!? do you have any evidence that he is not? we can find in all of monotheistic religions that he promised God to deceive human and to confront God. so do we have any evidence to not to believe that? I do not mean that Bush and others are soldiers of satan or something else no noway they are just some low rank masons.(God blesses president Kennedy). this is just the apex of the iceberg. Lucifer and it's soldiers can not do anything just temptation by excuse of power, money, sex or even many things that we think they are good. just faithful ones can withstand it. What is the new world order. this order is on behalf of who. can not this be the evidence of legitimacy of monotheistic religions.

in the Bible, in the psalm 37 we can read ""The wicked plot against the righteous, and gnash their teeth at them, but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming, The wicked draw the sword, and bend the bow, to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright, But their swords will pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken.""

certainly satan is weak and Jesus is alive and will return.

well I appreciate this great site. but there is something that makes me to think. I do not want to say that it has any meaning but we are living in an odd era.
just scroll up see how they have written the letter A and that square and compass!(Masonic symbols). would you see them? well may be this site, itself is abovetopsecrets!
anyhow I love this site.