I was reading your post on visions and was wondering if you have read Heschel's seminal work titled The Prophets? I'm sure you'd enjoy it. Incidentally, I ended up finding that book due to a dream I had. It was definitely one of my more memorable dreams. That book has become my Bible during...
As far as church dogma goes, I believe that it is the drive to mold uniform minds based on someone's definition of what is acceptable that drives dogmatic thought-and this applies not just to religion. Science has become quite dogmatic in this repect, in my opinion. My own definition for dogma...
As far as Biblical prophesy goes, that is always up for interpretation. Revelations should be a book of interest for any truly modern person today, but you could read it merely as a highly poetic and imaginative work if you chose to. I think any thinking person can not fail to ackowledge the...
There was a famous Rabbi when asked which should be greater-the fear of God or the fear of flesh and blood-he replied that to be fearful of flesh and blood is enough. That is because when we commit a bad deed we think to ourselves, "I hope that no one can see me."
"But I almost think we are all of us Ghosts, Pastor Manders. It is not only what we have inherited from our father and mother that 'walks' in us. It is all sorts of dead ideas and lifeless old beliefs, and so forth. They have no vitality, but they cling to us all the same, and we can't get...
The only problem with this is that it sounds dangerously close to the dictums of church dogma which it sounds like you were advising us to escape from in order to embrace a more 'rational' Jesus. There is evidence for a rational Jesus in the Gospels, (In the beginning there was the...
I think taken from a cosmic scope the inference can be made that our minds are not the only form of intelligence around. The Greek word for demon or daimones means literally alien intelligence. Taken from an historical perspective starting from Zoroaster there have been many people that viewed...
I think this presupposes that one actually knows themselves well enough to be true in the first place, which I think is very rare. I think most people do not know themselves for what they truly are, and so they are true to a false image which they hold of themselves. If you get past this...
And then you have H.P. Lovecraft and his Necronomicon. You still find this book in the non-fiction or occult section of the bookstore to this day even though Lovecraft admitted it was his 'fictional attempt' at creating a religion. Considering his popularity today, I'd say that he did a good...
Seven countries in five years? Iraq has already eclipsed the time spent in Vietnam and WWII. It won't be long before we have spent more time in Iraq than both of these wars combined. If this plan is really on the table, then the 'seven countries in five years' really typifies how this Iraq...
Ben Franklin thought it unwise to spend any time in 'vain, ignorant and ill-conceived dispute', so he tried to avoid any conversations that led to it. Of course, he also said that procrastination was the thief of time, early to bed, early to rise, etc. etc. Come to think of it, I never did...
Sadhu Singh, the Christian mystic from India was invited to America and left within days. He was horrified by the gross materialism and declared that he had never been to a country steeped in more blindness. Of course, he was an ascetic. The values of a greater society usually tend to run...
It would be more accurate to state that this country was founded on Freemasonry. All of the signers of the Declaration of Independence except for 1 were masons. All the freedoms granted by the Constitution were taken from the ideals and bylaws of the Masons. Masons even prophesied about...
I would give 5:1 odds that any person from the 'Dark Ages' who had a chance to look in on us 'Enlightened Ones' of the modern age would be happy to return to their own plight. History is written by the winners. We can impose any refaction we choose on something that happened in the distant past.
As you get older the pressing needs of duty only increase. This world makes many demands on your time. To displace the stress of this 'duty' when freedom is available often means seeking pleasure at any cost. Like your duties, the stakes will go up in this area as well. I don't think wants are...
Some more on Newton's strange religiosity. Newton believed himself to have been divinely appointed to interpret the book of Daniel. I believe it was Newton who began a theological interpretation of the book of Revelations that entails the coming of Christ's Kingdom through a series of human...
Idealism beats the hell out of cynicism any day-perhaps you can add realism to that. The final chapter of Don Quioxte shows our hero on his deathbed recanting all of his adventures and telling his loyal side kick (who warned him every step of the way about his foolishness) that he was right. It...
Exactly. Because those crazy hippies were trying to create a complete alternative to the society they were born into. The only real reaction to this could be to strengthen the already overpowering arm of the establishment. Like Dr. Evil said, "Freedom failed.":shrug:
Newton was a 33rd degree Mason. He was not a product of the enlightenment, but something closer to an alchemist from the Middle Ages. For him there was no conflict whatsoever between science and religion, faith and reason. Also, they found many different versions of the Book of Revelations on...