Posts by venus

16

Bible contradictions.

by pleaseresearch in

what are your biggest, funniest, scariest, etc.... wait wt says there are non hahahah.

venus

One place it says we are sinners from birth (Romans 5:12-21), in other places it says repent which means you had freedom to choose, yet you chose wastefully, hence now choose to make U-turn.

35

Either God’s non-existence or His majesty

by venus in

in natural calamities, everyone (despite one’s faith) is affected.

when one denies god’s existence, he experiences no punishment from him.

when one worships him, he receives no special favor from him.

Diogenesister

Although when we say the scriptures of the ancients misrepresent him, are we not doing exACTly what they did and creating a God that fits the image of what we expect of him?

Looking at what God does not do would also reveal some details about God (which is not same as carving “an image of what we expect of Him”). For example, He is the recipient of our worship, says the scripture which is obviously written by humans who are known to put their own thoughts into the mouth of characters. For example, Jesus did not say what is said in John 3:13 where he supposedly said: “he has ascended into heaven” which he did after 3 years. If he has not said John 3:13, what about the famous verse in John 3:16? This shows scripture writers were putting their own thoughts as though dictated by God, hence we find too many human thoughts in the scriptures.

That means God is for receiving our worship is a human concept. But the fact is that He is the giver of worship (not recipient of worship). For example, when a child is born, or when a child grows and accomplishes something parents say (outwardly or inwardly): “Look at him, he is our child.” By saying this parents unwittingly take credit (as though being worshiped) for something which came into existence without them doing any programming. Truth is that parents were only seeking sexual pleasure from each other, and in the process a child came into existence.

Yet, Bible is like a forest where you find both wild animals and mild animals, sweet waters and muddy waters. Similarly, in the Bible too some truths have crept into by chance. For example, Mathew 5:44-48. A careful and impartial reading of those verses show that God, like sun, does not receive anything, but only gives; and He neither wants nor receives worship, but wants us to become worship-worthy by being a giver with no expectation from others.

When I tried that it made me happier than that is in receiving. This is in contrast to what the world understands to be love. For example, we have heard the proverb: “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” And most people would agree with it. But deep down that reveals a commercial attitude! That is not friendship; that is not love. You want to use the other as a means. But the truth is that no man is a means, every man is an end unto himself. One need not be worried about who is a real friend?
The real question has to be: “Am I friendly to people?” Friendship is the highest form of love.

In love, idea of getting something from the other does not exist, and a question of using the other does not arise. You have too much and you would like to share. And whosoever is ready to share your joy with you, your dance, your song, you will be grateful to him, you will feel obliged. Not that he is obliged to you, not that he should feel thankful to you because you have given so much to him. A friend never thinks in that way. A friend always feels grateful to those people who allow him to love them, to give them whatsoever he has got. Similarly, God feels thankful to us because His love has meaning only because we are there as recipients.

Making friendships with the idea of using people is taking a wrong step from the very beginning. Friendship has to be a sharing. If you have something share it and whosoever is ready to share with you is a friend. It is not a question that when you are in danger the friend has to come to your aid. If he comes you are grateful, but if he does not come, it's perfectly okay and he doesn’t automatically cease to be a friend. It is his decision to come or not to come.

You will not say to him, `When I was in need you didn't turn up what kind of friend are you?' Friendship is absolutely human. It has something for which there is no inbuilt mechanism in your biology; it is non-biological. Hence one rises in friendship; one does not fall in friendship. It has a spiritual dimension—something we gleaned from look at the way God acts.

No wonder, in some ancient languages, worship literally means egolessness, living in the now … etc. which means worshipfully engaging in whatever you do with 100% involvement. Those who have done this do not feel time passing as though living in heaven (compare Luke 17:21)

16

Bible contradictions.

by pleaseresearch in

what are your biggest, funniest, scariest, etc.... wait wt says there are non hahahah.

venus

In other words, contradictions mean writers were careless and thoughtless.

This creates another contradiction of writers who are themselves careless asking us to be careful.

This explains why scriptures exert no influence on the lives readers!

35

Either God’s non-existence or His majesty

by venus in

in natural calamities, everyone (despite one’s faith) is affected.

when one denies god’s existence, he experiences no punishment from him.

when one worships him, he receives no special favor from him.

venus

deegee

If God is non-interventionist, this can be interpreted as proof for his non-existence. But it can also be interpreted as His firm confidence in humans who are like Him in qualities. We have shown our abilities many times—for example, when we found that separation is no longer working, Germany went for re-union. This can be tried with regard to countries such as Pakistan & India, South Korean & North Korean … so on, and finally with the whole world. But ego (individual and collective) is the only obstacle. Yet ego is the easiest thing in the world to destroy because ego is just a thought which dies when you no more foster it (which justifies God’s policy of non-intervention). In some language, word for egolessness is construction. This carries the thought that ego means path to destruction/wastefulness, and history has numerous proofs to this effect. It means when one chooses to be egoistic, he knows he has set himself on a path to wastefulness. In other word, man is able to make or mar and free to choose between them—hence God doesn’t have to intervene.

Everyone experiences the truthfulness of what we all say “I” exist. This “I” exist behind all the details we know. And this “I” is something that feels the full force of my personality and even the voice of “I” within me. Specialty of this “I” is that it can feel self-contented in any situation or greedy if it wants to. This fact too makes God a non-interventionist. If He intervenes we will again accuse Him of reducing us to be mere robots.

There is great beauty in allowing man to run his affairs unhindered. Let him learn from each experience. If he refuses to learn, let him continue to do so till he feels saturated with his refusal.

28

What is sin?

by sinboi in

what do you consider sinful?

okay, i know many of you no longer believe that there is a god.

just bear with me a little, just assumed that there is a creator or god.

venus

There is an indirect way of knowing what sin is—take the opposite of virtue. In some ancient language, virtue means acting agreeable to or in accordance with one’s original nature and to the society. It is like a flower—it is virtue on its part so to say when it gives fragrance and delights you with its beauty, and sin so to say when it gives you bad odor and looks ugly. Bible too alludes to this when it says: “Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.” (Ephesians 4:24) In contrast, when one thinks that his interest comes above all others, it is against his very nature sending bad odor in all directions, hence it is sin. Problem with sin is that it cannot make anyone feel good.

A recent study published in the Journal of Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience supports the above. It was found that people who are in love with themselves have poor connectivity between both regions of the brain—medial prefrontal cortex (which is associated with self-referential thinking) and ventral striatum (which is associated with feeling good). That means the more a person feels more important than others and thus deviates into sin, the less he feels good, because of which he will try harder to deviate further creating a vicious cycle. In contrast, real spirituality primarily benefits one’s self and others secondarily.

28

What is sin?

by sinboi in

what do you consider sinful?

okay, i know many of you no longer believe that there is a god.

just bear with me a little, just assumed that there is a creator or god.

venus

Many have read in various scriptures that we are sinners from birth and heard scriptural characters saying: “The good I wish to do I do not do, but the bad I do not wish to do is what I do. What a wretched person I am!” or “This is the way God has made me” …etc. Reading such things people feel that sin is an inherited tendency—something normal.

But an analytical mind would not agree because he finds an avalanche of proofs against this. We find variety of people acting/reacting differently in same situation: Some do more righteous acts, some do more sinful acts, and others mix them in varying degrees, one-time sinners changing into saints, one-time saints changing into sinners, some very poor people who refuse to steal, and some very wealthy people who steal in various ways… etc. This shows people choose to act the way they like which means they are not sinners from birth—resulting in all sorts of people from sinless to the sinful ones. Interestingly, even Bible makes many references to some sinless persons who lived in the ancient times (Genesis 5:24; Job 1:8; Psalm 18:23; Ezekiel 14:14; Luke 1:6 …etc.) and human capacity to perform righteousness. (Habakkuk 2:4; Hebrews 10:38)

Doing good to the self/others is virtue; doing harm to the self/others is sin, hence it is within the power of any human to do good which they have done many times in their lives which means they can repeat it any number of time if they want.

Everything apostle Paul wrote about sin was his view.

35

Either God’s non-existence or His majesty

by venus in

in natural calamities, everyone (despite one’s faith) is affected.

when one denies god’s existence, he experiences no punishment from him.

when one worships him, he receives no special favor from him.

venus

smiddy3,

I do not know about ETs. I believe God exists and also believe that He has not revealed any details about Him. Philosophers spent lifetimes to decipher nature and the mystery of life. Religious practitioners had focused on life and pronounced prescriptions for happy life. It appears as an unending quest. However, there is excitement in the quest. Methods are different; but the goal is same: happiness. I feel God as Father would enjoy seeing His children becoming worship-worthy by doing selfless service for common good.

16

Bible contradictions.

by pleaseresearch in

what are your biggest, funniest, scariest, etc.... wait wt says there are non hahahah.

venus

In Genesis 3:5, when Serpent exhorted humans to "become like God" it was treated like a rebellion.

Yet, in Mathew 5:48 Jesus too exhorts us to "become like God" and it is treated like height of spirituality.

The practical way of handling such situations is to reject what obviously is wrong and stick to what obviously is right. Here in this situation, Genesis account seems to be of human origin.

35

Either God’s non-existence or His majesty

by venus in

in natural calamities, everyone (despite one’s faith) is affected.

when one denies god’s existence, he experiences no punishment from him.

when one worships him, he receives no special favor from him.

venus

confusedalot,

It is Luke 17:21, not 7:21.

35

Either God’s non-existence or His majesty

by venus in

in natural calamities, everyone (despite one’s faith) is affected.

when one denies god’s existence, he experiences no punishment from him.

when one worships him, he receives no special favor from him.

venus

confusedalot

There is no first step because situation is like this: You are already on a road. There is no point in finding out from where the road started because you will never find it as something always precedes something into eternity.

Now refresh your mind with what I wrote in 4th point: “In some ancient languages, worship literally means egolessness, living in the now … etc. which means worshipfully engaging in whatever you do with 100% involvement. Those who have done this do not feel time passing as though living in heaven (compare Luke 7:21)”

When I practiced this, I found it better than my life in a religious world. That means this suits me.

What suits you may be something else which obviously you need to find out.