Brother Kaman

Now, now, Atwater Vitki, we are speaking of real events, not hopeful fantasies. From my point of view, the greatest event in history was my birth. Without it, nothing else would have mattered to me.

So, God's only purpose is to ferret out offenses and forgive them?

Surely a God - One Source or whatever you wish to call it can have a purpose beyond ferreting out offenses and forgiving them.

Now this just sounds like God built a board game for His entertainment and we are the game pieces. If your God is a know all, see all, be all, then it stands that He knew that giving man free will would screw up the machinery. And, if the All Powerful God knew this, then it was his intention that it happen.

And this is where "God is on our side," fits into the matrix of war. We are killing the most so God is on our side for destroying all those nasty sinners for him. Yeah, right.

Then when good things happen to you and you survive catastrophes that others do not, you cannot say that God blessed you. After all, God doesn't interfere with us, does he?

Amen.

I will hold her close in my thoughts and meditations.

I was a member of the AMORC for a period of years. I suppose I still am, although inactive. I believe I just outgrew it.

Are you or were you a member of the AMORC?

I will keep you close in my thoughts and meditations, RabbiO.

I will hold her close in my thoughts and meditations.

So when did the Discovery Channel find Jesus' birth certificate? Singing praises and worshiping is useless unless one does it on the right day?

Christmas has been a lot easier for me to swallow once I realized, years ago, that the whole season wasn't about Christ's birth at all, rather, it was about Santa Claus and marketing. Since I realized the true nature of Christmas, I am able to enjoy the season without illusions.

I clicked on the Members tab a couple of days ago and saw member after member, after member, date joined and 0 posts. I got to page 46 or 47 and gave up. Obviously people join and quickly find out that this is not the forum for them. I was a bit intimidated by those active members that site reference after reference to bolster their points and tend to say disparaging remarks to those of us that do not. Maybe newcomers think it is too highbrow for them. I know from experience that people who use wikipedia as reference are often thought of to have an intellect lower than a snake's belly. Although I cannot cite the exact post, there were words to the effect that If you cannot back up your post with references, you may as well not waste your time posting. I, personally, continue to muddle along and ignore a lot of folks here and do what I do no matter if I am lower than a snakes belly or considered too lazy to look past wiki but I know there are other who are surely put off by that attitude. We had a member here in the not too distant past who was such an extreme Christian fundamentalist, that rather than just saying that he had the right to his beliefs and opinions then disengage, he was attacked at every turn and after a short time left the forum. I know the forum cannot be everything for everybody but there is a real private club feeling to it.

I personally don't care what is done with my dead body. Dog food, people food, who cares? I will be dead at the time so I sure won't care. The question, if I formed it right, was, is the spiritual belief behind cannibalism of your enemy ok and acceptable and due all the respect of any other spiritual beliefs?

Thank you for your well thought out response. It would seem that (were it legal) human sacrifice would be ok if the one being sacrificed was informed and good with it. Am I correct?

Let us close our eyes and imagine the ULC existing in a time before cannibalism was outlawed. What would our response be? Would their belief be supported? It was outlawed because it was considered too gross to be legal. The people were already dead. Enemy casualties of war. It was not just because your neighbor was fat and you were hungry and killed him specifically to eat him.

There has been a lot of talk and discussion about respecting others opinions and whether or not it is right to say someone else's beliefs are wrong. At one time or another cannibalism was practiced in many parts of the world. Those practitioners often BELIEVED that by eating certain parts of their enemy's body, that they would gain their enemy's courage and strength. This can be inferred to be a spiritual belief. Are there any here among us who would defend these beliefs in our "all encompassing" Universal Life Church or would we say that that is just wrong and indefensible. I think that if it is wrong and indefensible, it is only so because OUR beliefs on the subject are so strong as to override our "all encompassing" Universal acceptance of other's beliefs. Furthermore, if any can accept cannibalisms spiritual foundations as wrong and should not be allowed, then why cannot any of us say that any other belief is wrong and should not be accepted? Just how accepting are we, really, of other's beliefs and spiritual paths?

I wholeheartedly disagree with much that is written in the threads of this forum but I also wholeheartedly respect everyone's right to what they say in the threads of this forum. I will never understand why people believe the way they do so I am a long way from the "understanding" of other's beliefs. I do not think that any of that matters a bit as long as we remain respectful with our discussions.

Agreed.

Now I think (not meaning to anger anyone) you are speaking mumbo-jumbo. You keep coming back to the Christian theme. If I reject the bible then I am also rejecting original sin, Adam and Eve, Christ, Jehovah (or whatever you choose to call your god) and the need for a savior. If I am being saved for something, it is probably fertilizer or worm food. I don't think I am being saved from anything except perhaps extreme old age. Sin only exists in SOME religious contexts. Sin is otherwise miss behavior within a societal group.

So what you are saying is that you pick and choose those parts of other paths that work for you and combine them into an eclectic personal belief?

Hey! I was going to say that, or words to that effect. The whole idea of salvation and the need for a savior is a Christian concept as far as I know and you cannot go around placing Christian concepts on non Christian beliefs.

We cannot, any of us, own God. We are God.