No Abrahamic traditions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) are truly peaceful. One need only read the various "holy" books involved.
No religion that claims to be uniquely and exclusively THE "way" is truly peaceful. This immediately creates opposition and division, which leads to disagreements and violence; true spirituality unites all human beings.
ANY set of beliefs inculcated in an individual by parents, schools, or society that is not EVER meant to be questioned is called "brainwashing" or "programming."
Various indigenous cultures encouraged their adolescents to seek their own relationship with the Universe through rites of passage, often involving a vision quest.
For some tribes and peoples, the vision quest involves powerful plant medicine - peyote, psilocybin, ayahuasca, iboga. These boundary-dissolving substances dull our perceived separation from the world. Experiences with these plants seem to enable us to real-eyes our oneness with and the integral nature of the Universe.
Religious dogma and programmed inculcation needs to be abandoned for a personal, timeless relationship with the Universe.
acarya π
20160804
I never understood how one religion could think it was the only "correct" one. Religion is tailored to fit one's personal and spiritual needs. It's silly to think that one specific religion/belief system is supposed to work for 7.4 billion people. We're all so diverse.
If there is one Creator who is making the rules, then it's not hard to imagine that there would be only one set of rules.
If it were true that religions are something that humans make up, which most are, then sure why not have Windows and MacOS and Linux...
If a religion is based on direct revelation from God, then it is up to Him whether he wants to give us several options or not.
You can find this out from what God Himself said as Jesus (John 3:16-21):
Simply put. All other religions are things humans made up as how they think they should be able to earn eternal life. God says, no. We can't earn it. I've spent 4000 years letting you prove that. So I'll die to take your punishment so that you can have eternal life anyway. All you have to do is accept that gift.
But I'm only going to do this once!
Under such circumstances, humans rejecting that and continuing to make up their own admission criteria is very offensive to God.
Read the bold lines in the above, very loving but strict, quote.
Ignoring that is what is silly.
Stan, you're just saying "All religions except MINE are wrong", which is absolutely silly.
Surely you can see that.
No. I'm saying why I believe one historical record and why that record precludes all others. It you find something else more believable, that's your affair.
But once I have discoveed what I believe to be authoritative testimony directly from God, the rest of my behavior becomes equally rational: I want to share it! Does that make me a bad person? :o)
Wow. So because one book says this, you just agree? What if every religious text out there claimed to be the ONLY path, as I know some do?
To "prove" something in science, multiple independent studies must be done that corroborate and support the same conclusion.
Quoting the Bible is like quoting someone at the end of a really long "pass it down the alley" game, after orally passing a long story through hundreds of people before it reaches you... Then you stake your life, your "eternal soul," to heresay and twisted words of men from ages past.
Trust one book?
I think not. I have read many more books in all paths, and come to the conclusion they ALL contain truths, but none have it all.
acarya π
20160809
Foolish mortal. It is not just one book. The word Bible means "library". It is a collection of 66 different documents written over a period of 2000+ years by 44 different authors. All conveniently collected together. If there were any other such documents that were deemed authentic, they would have been included in the library.
If someone said to you I have 66 documents preserved from antiquity, you would take them seriously, but bundle them together in one volume and they suddenly become a single source.
Conveniently collected together and put together in one book by the Council of Nicea, where they picked and chose from many other books.
The apocrypha contain more truth and true intention of the authors of the time than any version of the Bible ever has.
We are all a part of something eternal, at least from the evidence I have been able to glean over my 42 years here...
Fools, we ALL are.
I'm afraid not. That's more Dan Brown Fiction from the DaVinci Code novel.
Seven church councils were held over hundreds of years and they debated many things. Those who compiled the canon (list of books in the Bible) were church leaders throughout those ages. The simple test for inclusion in the canon were "does this document have a clear audit trail back to an apostle?" This is called due diligence What would you substitute as a process for deciding which of many candidates were real?
The apocrypha did not have such an audit trail back to an apostle, as hundreds of church leaders agreed each time it was discussed. So it got left out in every meeting of church leaders until the counter reformation when the Catholic church added to answer the Protestant claims that they were making up teachings not found in the Bible as accepted for 1500 years by that time.
And that's just the New Testament. The Old Testament dates back another 2000 years and was substantially complete by 400 BC. It was placed in a cave time capsule around 200 BC and discovered in 1947 proving that it had not changed in over 2000 years.
Hello again!
I agree with your post quite a bit! Do you think plants and chemicals that cause some sort of psychedelic state of mind should be legalized? Currently, in a lot of countries they're illegal because of how dangerous the government says they are.
Do you think that's a good idea, or should plants be accessible to anyone who has the desire to acquire them?
Yes. Cannabis especially, since we have receptors for cannabinoids built into our biology, meaning cannabinoids are probably a necessary nutrient for our systems.
Therefore, I tend to see quite the reverse - it is UNLAWFUL to limit humans access to plants that are beneficial and necessary for health and balanced biological systems.
science does not eliminate God it ask questions and try to find answers to the questions, check this out
Bottom line from my heart-centered awareness:
We are fractals of the Universe. All things, seen and unseen, arise according to sacred geometry, specific mathematical patterns, and can be defined by frequency and vibration.
While it is ONE Universe, the fractal emergence ensures that no two parts are identical. The Universe, of which we are a part, is what human beings have long called "god" by many names.
Creation continues in every moment, in every star being born, in every decision we make.
There is no separation between me and you, the land and sky - it is one system, interrelated to such a degree that everything is intrinsically realted to everything else.
It is ALL "god" - but not in the sense we have been taught by various religious dogmas to believe.
acarya π
20160809
Quran was revealed, 1400 yr ago, and contains a lot of facts, science have only started to discover this facts, a decade or two, and some only in the 20 and 21 century, but yet all of this was in the Quran, 1400 yrs ago, do ur own research, knowledge is power.
I would say both of you need to take a step back and think about what you're saying.
Both of you are talking about quite esoteric stuff. Religious cults and pseudo-science non-sense. Be skeptical.
ALL religious books have some of the answers, but nearly all also have some form of secrecy to the rest of the knowledge and secret sects and societies within the structure of that particular religion.
I am a scientific minded inquirer who recognizes that science has a lot to work on in the realm of unseen phenomena that too many of us have experienced to leave to religions to explain.
Until then, in my mind and heart-centered awareness, it is all "GOD."
That's good that u believe in science, like I said science, looks for answers, and we have been encouraged, to ask questions and seek knowledge in Islam, there are no secret in Islam, one Quran, never changed for 1400yr and contains a lot of facts, scientificly, proven by evidence. go and do ur own research, I will tell u what the government don't want u to know, how many doctors and scientists are converting to Islam not to mention, Christians, atheist, people from different faith, and believes, are all converting to Islam, and that is the main reasons government and many hate groups are hating Islam, the world biggest and fastest growing religion. go and search the the facts for it self.
Search under science and Islam and s compare the facts.
I have read sources or books from the following perspectives:
Christianity (lutheran, UCC), Judaism, Wicca, Witta, Norse/Greek/Roman mythologies, Taoism, Shintoism, Tibetan/Mahayana/Zen Buddhism, Indigenous and shamanic traditions, Gnosis, various new age perspectives, as well as astrophysics and quantum physics and all natural sciences.
Why you insist on a certain path has to do with the beliefs you were given or offered by your parents and society at large...
Look bigger?
acarya π
You are certainly more diversely well-read than me. I have indeed been biased by my upbringing and only know something about half as many systems as you do.
But that's not how I arrived at where I am. I did not go through every belief system picking and choosing which ideas personally appealed to me.
When I grew old enough to question why I believed what I believed, it was all about evaluating the credibility of the historical record I was studying.
Now, if any of the other belief systems you mention can make it through such a credibility establishing process, I would be obligated to study them in detail too. Any that survived that filter would have to be compared and, if they contradicted each other, one would have to be selected over the others as the most likely historical testimony of what God has communicated to man.
So far, I've found nothing that compares to the pedigree of Christianity. Can you point to any others in the same league at all?
@stan: Had you grown up in Tibet, you would have come to the same conclusions about Tibetan Buddhism. Had you grown up in an indigenous culture, chances are, their wisdom would have made the most sense. Had you been taught the Yogic Philosophy and Ayurveda health and wellness system, you would probably be a yogi. In this same thread I had someone else tell me about Islam going back 1400 years and being very on target with our sciences...
When we step outside what we have been taught, we real-eyes that ALL the religions contain truths... But each path contradicts itself in its own sutras, verses, dogma.
Once this is comprehended, the only thing left to do is compare notes among what you have studied, study some more, and seek in your own heart for confirmation of truths, while letting the hate, contradictions, unlawful dogmatic laws and beliefs, and dissonant aspects fall away...
Observation of the processes and relationships of the natural world cannot be overlooked as a source of knowledge and wisdom...
One real-eyeses that one is an integral part of the Universe, as is everyone else, making us ALL ONE, independent of what we believe.
Ultimate ONENESS is the foundation of the truth of our being. We are the Universe in constant motion.
acarya π
Except when God shows up in person and says how He wants things to be, it becomes clear that "abandoning" what He wants in favor of a "personal timeless relationship" of our own devising with what He created instead of with Him is a recipe for disaster.
All human devised methods are destined for failure because God says plainly he will accept none of them.
Did God show up in person, or did a human lie and say he was god, and then perform a few charismatic magic tricks in front of primitive villagers?
The "miracles" may have been real, it is just that Christ may have intuitively known how to heal people using the energy fields of our energy body... A man before his time who was killed before he could pass it on to too many people. Then, his actions and words were canonized into a religion to entrap humanity.
I doubt it.
I don't think any of those miracles or magical healing stuff can be real.
It's a lot more realistic to just think that Jesus was a guy like any other, and he tried his best to convince people to accept his ideas, and was successful.
That's much more realistic than thinking some guy is actually doing magic.
The miracles Jesus did had plenty of witnesses and were impossible for the technology of His day or ours. (Well, except the water to wine part. David Copperfield could probably manage that one.)
Could it all be a lie? Sure. Is it probably a lie given what we know about all those eyewitnesses and how heroically they lived, suffered and died? Not likely.
The beautiful thing about God's plan is that it sorts all men into keepers or rejects by their own willingness to round off the uncertainty in God's favor or not.
Cannabis oil, rubbed on the gums of a seizing human, will stop the seizures within minutes. Miracle? No. Science.
For the person racked by seizures most of their life, it may be a miracle.
By that quote, I feel in MY heart-centered awareness, that he knew HE was a sentient, sovereign being, and that the path within EACH of us - each sentient, sovereign being - is the WAY.
"Seek within yourself, and you will find divinity" - Kurdish Proverb.