Is more death happening or are we just noticing it more? I've wondered myself. Some mystics say that we all give consent to our own death, we just select different methods. For some, I suspect it is a way of dealing with insurmountable problems. I've known people who didn't have the courage to end a unhappy marriage, so they died. Retired military who can't make the adjustment to civilian life have unusally high death rates at early ages. Men especially have high death rates after retirement. I knew a lady who didn't want to live on after her beloved spouse passed on so she willed her own death. It wasn't formal suicide as that was against her religion. Her physician saw it coming. When she checked herself into the hospital I asked him what the problem was. He said that there wasn't any physical problem but opined that she would be dead in three weeks. It turned out to be two weeks. It has been shown that major trauma in one's life such as divorce, loss of a spouse, loss of a job, etc., lowers the immune system and allows disease to get a foothold in the body. My father lost his wife, his mother, his brother and his job all in the space of 10 months. I still don't know how he was able to survive that.
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Why has 2003 seen so much death?
by TresHappy intoday i walked into my office and learned my head boss at the college had died of a heart attack the previous friday night.
absolutely devastated about this.
actually all of us who worked with him weren't fond of him at times, but no one wished bad things upon him.
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A sobering week
by onacruse in.
this last week i've been doing some painting at a care facility.
quadraplegics, schizophrenics, autistics, down's syndrome.. they come out (or look out, or stare out) of their rooms and "talk" with me while i'm working.. i don't really know how to put this into words, but.... i've got a helluvalot to be thankful for, and "god" has a hellovalot to answer for.. craig
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I suspect it may be a bit premature to pin the responsibility on God for the 'less than perfect' conditions described in this thread. Life on this plane is certainly a 'learning experience'. Our teachers come in unusual guises. Pettygudger said it well.
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Roots
by Xena inin speaking with some people the other day i realized i have no roots....no long term frienships....no family connections.
i went to a party and almost all of the people there knew each other from high school or college or family friends.
i felt so out of place.
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Navigator
I'm quoting from memory 'cause I gave away the book so this may not be quite accurate, but the Master's Notebook, contained within Richard Bach's book Illusions, goes something like this:
"The true test of family is not of blood but of respect and joy in each other's lives. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof."
There is a lot of work required in maintaining relationships. No one can do it for you. Cults provide automatic relationships and one gets out of the habit of doing the work. They then have power over you because they "own your roots". The solution: Sink New Roots!
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OFF TO GERMANY
by Yerusalyim inthe us army is sending me to germany today...yea!
anyone in the heidelberg region?.
sorry i haven't been posting much, work and the knights of columbus have kept me quite busy.. back from germany around the 19th, off to indiana to see my daughter after that.
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Be sure and have a schnitzel while you are there along with German potatoes. You will love the food and the beer. The Germans are a lot more friendly if you try to speak their language.
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Good Master
by ClassAvenger inthey asked me why in mark 10:17-18 did jesus did not accept the adjetive "good master" and said "there is none good but one, that is god".
he knows i believe in the trinity and said that if jesus was god, how come he didn't accept this simple adjetive?
he also asked me why if jesus is god and is called the "firstborn" in many verses in the bible such as colossians 1:15, 16, isn't this adjetive applied to the father or the holy spirit, since we believe that firstborn here means having greater rank, preeminence.
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Jesus certainly understood that the basic problem of mankind is the belief in duality; that is, the belief in good and in evil. Jesus understood that there is only one power and one presence and that is God. He was correcting his questioner at the root of his problem. It is just as much a mistake to judge someone good as to judge someone evil. The advice that Jesus gave is "don't judge"!. There is a great book by Walter Starke that deals in detail with this question. It is titled "It's All God".
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A little history on the Bible
by gumby init's always intresting to hear the answers you get from people about how and when the bible was formed.
many minds go only as far as believing it was simply a compilation of god ordained books that we have to this day.
below is just a small bit of information that many may not be familiar with.
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Navigator
hooberus speaks of the "church" as if was a unified thing. The truth is that it was spread out and very fractional. Books that were accepted in one area were not in others. One man's truth was another's heresy. It does seem apparent that the greek writers, although they may have had some common source material, didn't have a very good understanding of aramaic customs and culture. Some "idioms" were translated literally. Some were mistranslated completely. The section translated "easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man........" ignores the fact that the aramaic root word for "hemp" and camel are identical and should have been translated rope instead of camel.. In the wedding at Cana, they have the groom supplying the wine, whereas the custom was for the guests to supply the wine. The authorship of many of the books is highly questionable.
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Quesions about Jehovah
by the real truth ini am not writing these quetions to offend anyone, i am just seeking honest answers.
will you jehovah's witnesses help me in finding answers?
there is only 1 god.
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Navigator
Trying to reconcile the various sections of the bible regarding God and Jesus and their relationship is a fruitless task for the reasons that others have already pointed out. The truth is that All of Us (including Jesus) are "points of consciousness" in the one Universal Mind that God is. Jesus understood this relationship better than anyone else in the "neighborhood" and derived much knowledge and power from it. According to Jesus, we all have that same potential and power, but we have chosen to block it from our minds. "The things that I do, shall ye do also, and greater things shall ye do.........". "........but I say to you, the kingdom of God is within you" "I, of myself, can do nothing. It is Father within that doeth the works...." If you want to find God, don't waste your time looking outside in books and organizations. Look within!
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Pagel's latest "Beyond Belief"
by Panda inelaine pagel's recent work beyond belief, the secret gospel of thomas gives some excellent examples of questioning what we have been taught and looking into all of the interesting historically "hidden" books of christianity.
i especially appreciated her explanations of why so many interesting writings never made it into the sanctioned bible.. what i got from this book was that power is/was the road to acceptance.
the leaders of the church who were accepted by the emperor (read that as constantine) got to manipulate the holy writings into their own form.
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I haven't read the book, but thanks for your very interesting review. I certainly will put it on my reading list. Not having been raised a witness, I am very aware that it is unlikely that any of the apostles wrote anything contained in the bible. I agree that we don't know who wrote the Gospel accounts. I have a copy of the Gnostic Gospels, but was not aware that she had published a second work. Regarding your comment about how the bible was put together: "He who writes the minutes of the meeting gets to say what happened". They certainly left out a lot of good stuff which was circulating as "Writings" at the time the New Testament was cononized.
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Actor Buddy Ebsen dies at 95
by TresHappy ini just heard on the radio that actor/dancer buddy ebsen passed away at the age of 95. what a long career he had, i remember him dancing with shirley temple in some of her early movies.
he was the original actor for the role of the tin woodsman in "the wizard of oz" - but was allergic to the make up and replaced.
but most of us remember him as jed clampett on "the beverly hillbillies.
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He was a really great dancer. I enjoyed his work very much.
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For those who like classical music.
by azaria inyesterday i heard a melody that i had heard before but i never knew who it was written by.
found out it was written by bedrich smetana ( from the 6 symphonic poems ma vlast) called maldau.
its such a pretty melody.
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I have a CD with both Dvorak's New World Symphony(#9) and Smetana's Moldau. It is one of my favorites. My all time favorite, however, is Chopin's Fantasy Impomptu (A section of that became I'm always chasing rainbows).