Fawzo

I certainly agree with you on that. People over there are even afraid to speak up when someone is getting railroaded out the door. Tolerance is not one of their better points that is for certain.

Well that is one of the nicest things anyone has called me this week lol.......Thank you very much ......in these halls though wise prophets seem common including thineself.

The Ancients had no such vehicles the technology had to be designed, developed and evolved. If we look at the behavior of man when these Ancient Religions were developed, I can clearly decipher that I'm not going to get to where I want to be Spiritually by following any of those paths either. We need to develop a new sophisticated one I do personally believe, that renders the ego useless. Case in point is my personal observations on Wicca. Within the payh of Wicca one becomes aware of the sublime energies within the Universe, but in most the cases I've seen they try to bend these energies to fulfill their own desires instead of learning to have their being within this energy they try to alter it creating more ripples in the sea of consciousness hiding the prefect face of the Divine amidst all the distortions such actions cause.

I think it is what they want though. Blissful happiness. Humans just think they can find this Bliss in an ever changing ego projected environment external to themself when it is hidden in their beggars pocket the whole time.

Try getting to the moon with something old

I would agree and add experience to your list.

Seek ye the Divine in all things.

Wicca is a composite of ancient practices, but the statement made was that it was an Ancient Religion and I was merely pointing out the fact that it is not. I am confident that almost every belief system on the planet can lay claim to being born of Ancient Practices, so that statement does nothing to validate or raise any belief system above any other. In my eyes it would do the opposite.....when I buy a new tool or communication device I want something that is the latest technology, so I can communicate in the most effective manner, not something our primate ancestor banged on trees with. As our ways of communication evolved so did our humanity and as we learn to communicate our emotions and thoughts to others even more effectively in the further we will evolve even further from the unsophisticated brutes that we were and are now. So when communicating with the Divine I want to explore new avenues of direct communication with the Divine and those other sentient beings around me, not tap on rocks with sticks. Does anyone really want to use an "ANCIENT" typewriter to talk with anyone these days?!?!?!!

Yes Witchcraft has been around for awhile but Wicca hasn't.

How is Wicca an ancient religion?!?!?! 1950 isn't that long ago. It is a modern pagan religion developed in England in the 50's and 60's by Gerald Gardner

Their thoughts are in my prayers Al. If it isn't not one thing its another sometimes it feels like I'm strapped to a dartboard and the powers that be are spinning it and playing darts.

Without being filled by the graceful Spirit of Mongi one cannot find him or understand his writings in all of nature which permeates the Universe. His followers are called through grace by faith.

I asked for faith in Mongi and it happened instantly. All Hail Mongi giver of faith and eternal life

Great to hear from you Stormy!!!!

Have you ever said that in front of a mirror

Stormy you know we all miss you, get your tailbone back in here!!!!!

From my standpoint being Christlike and accepting the Bible are two totally different beasts. Marcion who was the first known person to ever create a Canonical lists of Christian Writings, despised the Old Testament and anything associated with it. Wikipedia Notes: Marcion rejected the theology of the Old Testament entirely and regarded the God depicted there as an inferior Being. He claimed that the theology of the Old Testament was incompatible with the teaching of Jesus regarding God and morality. Marcion believed that Jesus had come to liberate mankind from the authority of the God of the Old Testament and to reveal the superior God of goodness and mercy whom he called the Father. Paul and Luke were the only Christian authors to find favour with Marcion, though his versions of these differed from those later accepted by mainstream Christianity. Marcion created a canon, a definite group of books which he regarded as fully authoritative, displacing all others. These comprised ten of the Pauline epistles (without the Pastorals and Hebrews) and Luke's Gospel. It is uncertain whether he edited these books, purging them of what did not accord with his views, or that his versions represented a separate textual tradition.[27] Marcion's gospel, called simply the Gospel of the Lord, differed from the Gospel of Luke by lacking any passages that connected Jesus with the Old Testament. He believed that the god of Israel, who gave the Torah to the Israelites, was an entirely different god from the Supreme God who sent Jesus and inspired the New Testament. Marcion termed his collection of Pauline epistles the Apostolikon. These also differed from the versions accepted by later Christian Orthodoxy. In addition to his Gospel and Apostolikon, he wrote a text called the Antithesis which contrasted the New Testament view of God and morality with the Old Testament view of God and morality, see also Expounding of the Law#Antithesis of the Law. Marcion's canon and theology were rejected as heretical by the early church; however, he forced other Christians to consider which texts were canonical and why. He spread his beliefs widely; they became known as Marcionism. In the introduction to his book "Early Christian Writings", Henry Wace stated: “ A modern divine… could not refuse to discuss the question raised by Marcion, whether there is such opposition between different parts of what he regards as the word of God, that all cannot come from the same author.[28]

Thanks for the heads up my friend! I just read on Wikipedia that the guy is an Holocaust denier. One interesting note there was this though ...."Hoffman supports the Karaites, a Jewish sect who reject the Talmud, as "a group which, historically, has been most hated and severely persecuted by orthodox Jewish rabbinate."[3] According to the back cover of Judaism Discovered, Hoffman contends that Orthodox Judaism has more in common with Babylonian paganism than Israelite Biblicism The idea of Jews who reject the Talmud blows my mind. Isn't that like leopards rejecting their spots lol

Thanks Hyper Real I'll have to get a copy of that. I'm interested in knowing if you read that book prior to your conversion?

I care a lot about quite of the few people here like they are my family. Two of those who I know my opinions rile at times and I respect deeply are RevRainbow and RabbiO. My quest is not to prove or disprove whether or not their G_d is real, but to convey that what I have experienced from personal experiences is that God is so much more sophisticated and loving then what their religious texts describe G_d to be. I also actually believe that they both have experienced the same thing themselves personally. I too think the whole message of Yeshua got twisted in the politics. Both he and the John the Baptists were offering redemption of sins for free without the need of killing any of God's innocent creations in the process, simply by Symbolically Baptizing people in water. This would have overhauled the whole Temple System and the guilt complex it had created. He taught forgive others as God has forgiven you. If you have ought against a brother get your mind right because to do so means you don't recognize the Christ in others and to not to forgive them means you have ought against God himself and since you are both extensions of God that ought you are projecting onto God projects non-forgiveness into your mindset focus as well. Of course he had it dumbed down for the sophistication level of the general masses, and instead of the church understanding completely what he was trying to convey, they were steeped in the whole sacrificial mindset being of Hebrew descent and merely substituted Yeshua as the ultimate Sacrifice to replace all others and faith in this deed became the basis for Faith in God. It was a step and maybe even a necessary step in the right direction away from the whole sacrificlal, sin, death and guilt mindset but with our expanded awareness of our Universe and the interconnectedness of all things including our thoughts and actions, it is time we Bronze those Bronze Age Baby Shoes and Put on some Nikes.

Exactly what I believe as well. The only way one could view them as heroes is if one has no regard for life. Even though I am not a vegan the slaughter of all those animals was just as egregious and barbaric. They were not heroes in my eyes. The men who gave their lives to protect their land and families from destruction and rape from this band of displaced barbarians were the real heroes in the story. It would shame me to worship any deity who would give forth such commands. The One whom I serve that bears all, endures and never fails anyone has it not in his nature to do such. Only ignorant men who have become so dense as to forget their true nature would command and do such. It is the writing of such men that we see in these BIblical Instances and not the writing of any sophisticated deity I DO BELIEVE and know in my heart of hearts. It is the fearful hearts of men exhibited in the writing of the Bible that has us owning slaves, murdering our non-believing neighbor and discriminating against one another in all forms of unsophisticated behaviors. Does God inspire men to create and write and sing and dance and evolve in love and understanding, surely he does in my mind. Did he inspire men to kill their brothers and rape their women and enslave their children, of course not. I recognize the fearful hand that penned such stories and the ego of man looking through a glass DARKLY that is clearly the culprit. Just my opinion and personal observations, take them for what they are worth. Just as when one approaches any Sacred Text, the words only have the meaning that you give to them. One mans Holy Bible is another mans rubbish.

Yeshua's death was an abomination unto God.....think again.......he also considers it such an abomination that he has the gall to tempt Abraham to do the same thing with his child and stands by and allows Jepthah to make smores out of the young lady. I do agree though their are scriptures where he does speak against it, for me it is just more stuff to heap on the mountainous pile of contradictions in the Bible.

God certainly had no problems killing children during the flood, the first born of Egypt, the kids at Sodom and Gomorrah, the little ones Joshua slayed and the 42 rend to pieces by she bears for mocking Elisha just to name a few. Since when does God condemn human sacrifice, he loves it...remember Jesus. 'Nevertheless, anything which a man sets apart to the LORD out of all that he has, of man or animal or of the fields of his own property, shall not be sold or redeemed. Anything devoted to destruction is most holy to the LORD. 29 'No one who may have been set apart among men shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death. Lev 27:28-29 (NASB77) And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword. Josh 6:21 (NKJV)

And twice before Dan you have been shown clearly that your assumptions are highly unlikely. RabbiO even gave you some information from the Midrash last time you made that claim. How likely is it that the women of the village went every year to memorialize the event if they were only lamenting the girl giving herself to the temple. That would be something to celebrate not lament and did they go every day of the year for all the young women who offered themself to the temple, of course not that idea is preposterous, they went and lamented becuase the girl was burned dead by her father. Dan if something was morally wrong in the eyes of God then it should be morally wrong in the eyes of God now, since accoding to you he never changes, but your very words above show that he does change. One would hope God's level of sophistication highly exceds that of we humans who are evolving and becoming more sophisticated and more aware of just how morally corrupt some actions are. The action is described as Righteous, what signifies that something is Righteous is that it pleases God. The action is deemed as pleasing to God and within the parameters of his will. THAT IS THE POINT PERIOD.

Think for one moment how silence and looking the other way allowed the Holocaust to occur and lets here you roar. Careful though we don't want anything to happen to our beloved Rabbi and his less then perfect health.