Ex Nihilo

Ummm...I really dodged a bullet when I told the recruiter no.

Salem, those were amazing experiences. Thanks so much for sharing. You have such a personal connection with your Gods! It's also great to see that your interaction with Cernunnos is facilitating the healing process for you and your relationships with men. Very cool! By way of follow up, would people say it is a common occurrence in Paganism to have these kinds of experiences? Also, early on in my own journey, I would sometimes share how I heard God's voice or saw a vision and I found that, with some Christians at least, they would become very angry or dismissive when I said that and would even, on one occasion, say it was the devil speaking. I quickly learned to stop sharing. Is this a theme in the Pagan community? I have, out of curiosity, visited a few pagan forums and noticed a fair bit of argument on a great number of things. sort of a "no, no, no, you're doing it all wrong" type thing (which certainly isn't exclusive to pagans, I don't even go to Christian forums since it's a little like being thrown into the inquisition). But I can't recall this sort of thing being brought up.

Diggin' it!

Wow, very interesting Gwydion! Did they impart any messages or assist you in a time of need? And thanks for expanding the pool. I meant to write Wiccans and Pagans but my typing on my phone is always a little touch and go.

To all my Wiccan friends, I'm interested in hearing if any of you have ever experienced any direct or physical visions or manifestations of the God and/ or Goddess. How did they appear what was it like?

I sat at the house and tried not to make no footprints...especially of the carbon variety.

Cool

Thanks for posting this FGJ! This is very helpful.

I remember in high school reading in my history book a letter where Marco Polo or someone else first encountered Hindu art in India and he interpreted it to be that Hindus believed in one God with glorified saints and angels attending them. He even thought of them as Christians of a kind. It's all through a lens, isn't it?

I find their evangelistic practices a little annoying. But I gotta hand it to them, they can put up a kingdom hall quicker than I can decide on which hammer I want to use to hang a picture.

....whoa...warn me next time before you pull the rug out like that V

I'm late to this thread so this may have already been addressed, but if Paul's writings were the earliest of the new testament, then how can we know that his message was a deviation from the message of Christ as spelled out in the later gospels and not the other way around? Maybe the conspiracy lies with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John who decided that Paul's version of Christ needed revamping. If we are going to ignore the traditional understanding that the Holy Spirit inspired the bible writers to write all things truthfully, then it would seem to me that the texts closest to the time of Christ's earthly ministry would be the most authentic. After all, most "scholars" believe that at least some of the Paul's letters were actually written by him, whereas there has never been a clear consensus on who actually wrote any of the Gospels. But then maybe I'm wrong.

Looks really great FJG! I really enjoyed the Druidry page, although I'm not a Druid so I can't vouch for its accuracy. It's pretty convincing at any rate. I also enjoyed the Universalism page, which is a subject I'm more at home with. I love the substance, however I would recommend rearranging it so that "What is Universalism" which reads very much like a general intro or overview would go at the top and would be bolded. Then I would suggest moving onto "Christian universalism aka Trinitarian Universalism" and finishing it out with "Unitarian universalism", although the last two could be put in either order. I just like the logical flow of introducing universalism, which you correctly identified as a historically Christian idea that was minimized over the years but is now experiencing a revival and evloultion, then explaining exactly what that Christian universalism entails and then showing how the concept has evolved past the Christian tradition and can be turned into a form of inclusive religious pluralism, which can include all faith traditions. But then that's just me.. Also, I'm not sure if it's accurate to define Universalism as being the opposite of Fundamentalism. The opposite of Fundamentalism is subjectivism or relativism or something along that line, where dogma is either minimized or abandoned altogether. The opposite of universalism is exclusivism, which can include religious fundamentalists but need not do so. But I could just be splitting hairs. Hope this helps...it really is an excellent website. Good luck!

I got my first job at 12 yrs old, I've been paying my own way since then. I guess it depends. I think 18 is as good a number as any.

Your thoughts become YOU.

Happy Easter Suzanne! And may all the forum have a blessed holiday!

Good question. I'll ask them, since they have gone to stopping by every Saturday morning.

Thanks so much AV. I'd love to make it out there one day.

Has anyone ever been to a service at the headquarters??

Hi all, I've always wanted to know how well the headquarters' worship service works. By this I am referring to what its website describes: " Join us every Sunday for church services at 10am. Our in-house Reverend, Andre Hensley, speaks and then offers the pulpit to anyone who is interested. We believe in an open forum so if youre in the area, please stop by and join us!" Do people actually take him up on the open pulpit? If they do, how long do they speak? Do folks sign up in advance? Do folks in the pews listen quietly or do they ask questions or provide color commentary. I tried seeing if any services made it to YouTube but no luck. The reason I ask is because, other than providing wedding services, I'd like to be able to offer weekly meetings but, since I'm pretty private with my worship and generally only do so with my family, and since my theological positions are so erratic that I'm not sure I could offer a congregation the kind of stable spiritual leadership they probably need, I'd like to at least offer a place where people can come share their ideas with each other. I figure a box of donuts, some chairs, and a podium, would make for a pretty cool Sunday experience.

Yall are making me want to enroll

You smell your own butt before anyone else can, what you do with that info is your own business.

I believe there are extraterrestrials. But I believe the visitors that come to earth are probably us from the future travelling back in time.

I'm not a polytheist, but if I was, it'd be the norse gods all the way.. but more to the point, I've heard more than a few polies that they see the gods as manifestations/personifications/aspects of a single unified divine source. Is that accurate?