I think that is a disastrous idea; it will have you floating between religions for the rest of your life, never learning the deeper lessons that come from dedication maintained through difficulties. All disciplines, engaged in fully, eventually require a sacrifice of the disciple who has...
What Christian says that? It is the grace of god that saves; the Christian does not "make" it to heaven, she is invited. Protestants believe that the invitation is a free one that need only be accepted, other variants require a reciprocal response. But having the correct belief is not, in any...
Well, I don't read conservative sites, I was just going by the meaning of the words as I understood them.
I note that your definition of intersectionality is seemingly very different from the one we use in the social sciences, also.
I voted for the "equality of outcomes" one, but interpreted it differently I guess than some are here; I meant this more in the sense that equal work should receive equal pay, an equal qualification should correspond to an equal position/honor, an equal tax should apply to everyone who is in a...
Most monotheistic traditions have more than just one supernatural entity, or are capable of comprehending different aspects/names/roles for that deity. Christianity has its saints and angels, but it is far from alone on the angelic count, and those saints know who their own praise is due to at...
Hello! There isn't necessarily a difference, as there have been many animist religions and certainly some that you would call "organized"; Shinto, in Japan, or Vodun, in West Africa, might be good examples of essentially animist traditions that nevertheless had organized priesthoods. Most...
I have long felt that such "wishing" is hopeless without a willingness to actually put work into achieving your goals. There is a principle of equivalency and balance in the world also, and frankly if your desire is not reflected anywhere in the world except your private altar, it is not so much...
Looks like perhaps you are playing the fundamentalist's role here, telling people how "faithful" they need to be to a particular interpretation of their faith. There are a lot of perspectives on Muslim life, and I don't see it as anyone's business but their own how "pious" they are.
I note that...
Hogwash. I have many fine Muslim students. Both genders, many different traditions. They are doing fine.
Now, blind prejudice and the academy, though often paired, are not good companions in my opinion.
Only in the sense that I find it a rather awkward anglicization. What's wrong with the much more common name of Joshua? If one must anglicize, might as well do it consistently.
No, but only because I never acknowledged their moral authority in the first place. There was always something deeply off there, even if it is being unmasked in new ways of late.
I was a (very much closeted) teenager when Matthew Shepard was killed. And I remember quite clearly the response of...
Nope! Magick alters your relationship with the material world; enlightenment is an attempt to liberate oneself from it. Magick is a craft; enlightenment a state of mind.
No. A slave is someone who labors without reward, or someone whose will does not belong to them. I do not feel that either are true of myself. It is true that Jesus had much counsel to give on moral behavior, but there is no punishment for disobeying rules, only natural consequences for doing...
Religion to me is a framework through which one interprets their encounters with the numinous. The experience itself is beyond words, until a cultural model comes along to help you make sense of it.
Hopefully in a satisfying way, that doesn't carry more baggage than luggage.
Depends on who you trust to define "tradition" for you. My views are a bit unorthodox, certainly, but I never swore fealty to Rome as best as I can recall. My full perspective falls fairly close to Origenism in basic shape, a heresy but not a new one.
To ruthlessly plagiarize Ian Stewart, if God were so simple that a human mind could comprehend him, he would not be capable of creating a mind. Why imagine that the source of every infinite complexity of this universe would ever be in fully in our grasp?
But there is much joy in the attempt...
Perhaps the beginning of the story? I do not think this means the universe, as the next verse is clear that both space and matter already existed ("Spirit of God was hovering over the waters"). God organized and defined it, but it says nothing about his creating it.