Tsukino_Rei

Coolhand, if it turned out that your God wasn't all powerful would your love for that god collapse, or would you simply incorporate your new understanding into your relationship? If it worked out that Mary was bonked by a travelling salesman would that make a difference, to you, to the depth and power contained within the philosophies of Christ? What kind of faith is so dependent on the specificities of dogma that all worth and value and meaning implodes in the absence of that dogma? Surely that is no faith at all. Rather it is a foundation of idols demanding that all reason be sacrificed on its altar.

You can't not realize that that was condescending.

Wow Hex! That's some food for thought. And it ain't baby formula! Reading your post it occurs to me that the responsibility to find hope for ourselves is necessary to free-will. If the discovery and wisdom were simply injected unto us with no individual mental or spiritual participation then we'd be robots. It's through our mental processes of internalization that what we learn becomes part of who we are and what we project to the world. It is as Tolkein wrote - we are little creators.

The same predominantly Christian nation (America) also experimented with radiation doses on hospitalized citizens without their knowledge, studied the progression of syphilis without treatment in their own citizens, and practiced forced eugenics. Among other things. Germany was predominantly Christian too. In fact, in some western nations poor moral character was concidered to be a genetic trait. So young women who became pregnant out of wedlock were a target for eugenics, right along with homosexuals. Religion claimed support from science and together they set out to purge evil from humanity and in so doing commited some of the most evil acts of inhumanity. What is the lesson here? Certainly not that any single person or group of people should claim moral authority over others and then enforce that authority.

If being responsible for the death of 6 million Jews is what makes someone flawed, then I'm perfect. Also, it seems odd to me that the existence of imperfect beings would be proof of the existence of a perfect being. Rather, good and evil are human conceptualizations which speak only of the intention and/or result of human action. Hexalpa's argument that hope and truth are created and discovered by ourselves is an accurate one, and it is not a question of co-existence, but of pre-existence. Hope and truth are not something that exist outside of each individual. We each are responsible to learn and study for ourselves, to process the information, internalize it, and through our life experiences turn wisdom into hope. If somebody else studies Physics and gains a Doctorate of Physics, even someone I know, I do not then by proxy become a Physicist. If there existed a book that contained everything about the universe, it's contents would not exist as Truth, or Knowledge, or Hope until a human being picked it up and read it.

You're all unwitting subjects in my sociological experiments! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Also for the stimulating conversation and the opportunity to explore perspectives that I never would have known existed otherwise.

Yes. My wonderful husband and our bouncing baby hamster!

Apple with Blackberry!

The chocolate, whilst mourning the brittle for I have had to abstain from nuts of late.

Boho

Because people who are convinced that they already have all the answers have done so much good for the world? People don't need answers, they need humility, compassion, and love. The answers are irrelevant, it's the questioning that transforms and takes the questioner on the journey.

It's only 'the most accurate source of CRITICAL company and executive information! http://www.onesource.com/ *cheesy grin* Seriously though, I think the idea is that what we understand of the spiritual is understood through symbols. Even the building blocks of language are symbols which represent objects and ideas. Without them there is no cognition. As such, one can only point you towards symbols of the One Source to aid in your cognition. One such symbol, and a common thread through multiple religions, is The World Tree. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_tree

... *deletes what she was going to say and walks away.*

185 people representing 12 countries recorded pieces of this song, composed and conducted by Eric Whittacre, from their PC's and sent the files in to be arranged. This is the result.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S0k18DUask&feature=related Incredible. Absolute beauty. I must buy all that they have now.