by Oubliette 54 Replies latest watchtower bible
I live in awe of the magnitude and beauty of the cosmos and of the staggering diversity and complexity of living things.
I can appreciate music and art and literature as profoundly as anybody.
I am certain there is no reality of any kind beyond the physical.
I couldn't care less about semantics.
Spirit can mean consciousness. It can also mean attitude — so I disagree, and I maintain that I'm a spiritual atheist.
That's it... all the rest are semantics.
Religions: some embrace spirituality more than others, but most embrace it to some degree.
Spirituality: one of the most powerful forms spirituality takes, is in lighting candles or fires. I light them at home. If I, on occasion, visit a high Episcopal Church or a Roman Catholic one, I always light candles for my loved ones. Sometimes I light them for me. Sometimes I light them for the sense of connection they give.
There is a quiet power, awe, joy, strength and reverence in lighting candles. My favorite thing about Christmas, as a child, was to go Midnight Mass, where each of us would be given a candle. At the end of the service, I remember we would kneel and the acolytes or altar boys would come and light everyone's candles while we sang O Holy Night or Silent Night while the lights would be turned down very low in the church. We'd carry the candles out into the night with us. Very, very moving and spiritual experience, even for my atheist grandson. "Oh fall on your knees, hear the angel voices...." Try that one Christmas Eve. Very lovely and spiritually moving. The smell of melting candle wax, especially in a church with lots of wood, it's very moving.
marked
Candle light vigils, when people die, give survivors connection and ground them during times so deeply painful, to make them bearable.
Believer or atheist, I challenge you to listen to this and not be moved spiritually:
Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)
by
Melanie with The Edwin Hawkins Singers
About her experience at Woodstock, the real one in 1969
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=530Hqoamf3Q
LYRICS TO CANDLES IN THE RAIN
Little sisters of the sun lit
candles in the rain,
fed the world on oats and raisins
candles in the rain
li the fire to the soul
who never knew his friend
meher baba lives again
candles in the rain
to be there is to remember
lay it down again
lay down
lay down
lay it down again
men can live as brothers
candles in the rain....
LYRICS TO LAY DOWN (CANDLES IN THE RAIN)
CHORUS
lay down lay down, let it all down
let your white birds smile up at the ones who stand and frown
lay down lay down, let it all down
let your white birds smile up at the ones who stand and frown
we were so close, there was no room
we bled inside each others wounds
we had caught the same disease
and we all sang songs of peace
CHORUS
so raise the candles high cause if you
don't we could stay black against the night
oh raise them higher again and if you
do we could stay dry against the rain
CHORUS
we were so close there was no room
we bled inside each others wounds
we had caught the same disease
and we all sang songs of peace
some came to sing, some came to pray
some came to keep the dark away
so raise the candles high
cause if you don't we could stay
black against the sky
oh oh raise them higher again
and if you do we could stay dry against the rain
CHORUS
I think religion, especially JW since that's the only one I've been a part of, tries to use religious practices and regulations to measure spirituality. But spirituality cant be measured, its deeply personal.
Trying to use religion to measure spirtuality is like trying to measure air pressure with a tape measure.
I maintain that I'm a spiritual atheist.-braincleaned
That's an interesting ID of yourself. I think a lot of people who call themselves atheists are deep thinkers and are well read especially in reading the Bible. Very interesting concept.
I wasn't there. But, from everything that i have read, heard and seen, for many at woodstock 1969, it was a spiritual experience. They transcended the mud and rain and felt a deeper connection to nature and eachother.
S
I wasn't there. But, from everything that i have read, heard and seen, for many at woodstock 1969, it was a spiritual experience. They transcended the mud and rain and felt a deeper connection to nature and eachother.
Just thinking of that whole era, even living through it as a child still in grammar school, it was moving and spiritual. To see people get out and protest for civil rights and peace, all to such a once in many life times soundtrack? AMAZING.
