Hi Jaffacake
Please call me Nate. It's informal and I like it informality.
For myself, I returned to the Christian Mythos purely from cultural motivation. I'm an American of European descent, and Christianity is the background of our spirituality. I got tired of playing oriental. I'm not an oriental, and I enjoy my own culture very much. Far more so than I did when I was young and enamored of anything foreign just because it was different. I would rather be part of the leaven that changes Christianity from within than simply junk it.
I'm pleased to read that you take an intelligent approach to the Bible. I don't have a problem with any religion, except in its fundamentalist form. I dislike fundamentalist Buddhism (Theravada/Hinayana) as much as I dislike Fundamentalist Islam, Christianity, or Judaism. Your own approach to the Bible and Christianity sounds promising. I hop whatever condition you and I share that causes us to reject fundamentalism catches on.
I wrote Jehovah Unmasked as my personal slap in the face to fundamentalism. http://www.lulu.com/content/167431
To force them to see just how subhuman their god is, as well as to force them to see the glaring contradictions between the several gods presented to us in the Bible (if interpreted literally). Also, as an attempt to free people from the deep-seated guilt they imbibed from youth by having the Eden allegory pounded deep into their psyche. I was raised by atheists, so was spared that.
Jehovah Unmasked presents an alternative interpretation of the Eden Myth, one that makes more sense with the text as it reads, and also takes the onus of guilt for the condition of the Cosmos off of our narrow shoulders and places it directly where it belongs: on the shoulders of the "God" who made this universe.
Of course, I don't literally believe in any such god or in creation, but hopefully I'll manage to make some people question their literal Bible and they'll seek a nonliteral understanding of the Bible.
As far as the weaknesses of science, I don't think science itself has any weaknesses except that it cannot tell us if there is any point or purpose to life, or whether there is a a Final Reality or an afterlife. I'm of the opinion such questions will remain forever outside the realm of science.
What is problematic is the way certain types of humans apply scientific knowledge by using it to invent destructive technologies. As soon as a scientifc advance is made the military coconuts of the world try turning it into a WMD. I cannot resonate at all with military types. They might as well be plankton.
Most of all I'm glad as hell we're both out of Watchtower religion. Good for us!
Thanks for taking the time to post Jaffacake. Have a great weekend.
Nate
Are Most Folks Here Agnostics and Atheists?
by Nate Merit 73 Replies latest jw friends
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Nate Merit
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Midget-Sasquatch
However, I would encourage you to take up the practice of meditation sans any accompanying dogma.
There are CD's available that synchronise with your brain waves using binaural signals. These signals casue your brain to relax into deep meditative states that would take you years to acheive unaided. If you're interested, let me know via PM.
Hi Nate,
What I'd love to be able to try out, is Professor Micheal Persinger's setup that uses varying magnetic fields to induce mystical experiences and visions in just about anyone. I'd be curious to find out what I'd "see and hear".
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Nate Merit
Hi mt1
You wrote:
"My sense of divinity/spirituality, when it occurs, is in conjunction with numinous landscape and geography, numinous trance music like Dead Can Dance, and the tickle of eureka (Present perfect "I have discovered"), the dopamine of learning unknown knowledge, and anagnorisis, the dopamine of re-learning known knowledge."
I've never heard the trance music you're mentioning, but I'll bet it has an effect similar to traditional Hindu/Buddhist chanting, which I enjoy a great deal. A great natural high.
I love how everyone is so different now even though we used to be from the same cookie-cutter.
All the best to you mt1
Nate -
Nate Merit
Hi Midget Sasquatch
Hey, keep me posted via PM is you do give the EMF field experiment a try. I'd love to find out what happens.
Prolly the CD's would be a lot cheaper though. ;)
Gotta go now.
Nate