Preparing to meet thy maker?

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Other ideas for preparing to meet one's maker?

The roots of conduct have four aspects: conduct with Allah, conduct with the self, conduct with creation (i.e. people), and conduct with this world. Each of these aspects is based upon seven principles, just as there are seven principles of conduct with Allah: giving Him His due, keeping His limits, being thankful for His gift, being content with His decree, being patient with His trials, glorifying His sanctity, and yearning for Him.

The seven principles of conduct with the self are fear, striving, enduring harm, spiritual discipline, seeking truthfulness and sincerity, withdrawing the self from what it loves, and binding it in poverty (faqr).

The seven principles of conduct with creation are forbearance, forgiveness, humility, generosity, compassion, good counsel, justice and fairness.

The seven principles of conduct with this world are being content with what is at hand, preferring what is available to what is not, abandoning the quest for the elusive, hating overabundance, choosing abstinence (zuhd), knowing the evils of this world and abandoning any desire for it, and negating its dominance.

When all these qualities are found in one person, he is then one of Allah's elite, one of His close bondsman and friends (awliya')


- Imam Jaffar (a)

 

[Wildswanderer]

The answer is without hesitation "No"!

Guilty conscience!

Assuming God is a real entity who will judge thy soul, anyone here ready to meet their maker?

The Bible really doesn't send a consistent message. "Thou shalt not kill" is present in Scripture, then "kill every man, woman, and child, kill adulterers, kill those who work on Sabbath", has caused me to have a bit of an exodus from the bondage of using the Bible as an authority, with so many verses stating the opposite of others.

Follow one's conscience maybe? The golden rule perhaps? I follow coincidences, signs, and dots that connect. That has been very helpful!

Other ideas for preparing to meet one's maker?

Yes, confess and repent of your sins and ask God to forgive you.
Read the gospels to understand how to live.

 

[F1fan]

God didn’t write the Bible, humans did. Then translated it’s various books many times. That doesn’t mean the writers weren’t sincere in their desire to know and transcribe the word of God, nor that they weren’t at times divinely inspired. But they were human, and prone to error; as we are human, and prone to erroneous interpretation.

I was responding to Eyes to See, and his claim that God put a curse on those who changed the Word. What does a change mean? As I noted the Bible is so broad, simplistic, and vague that anybody can interpret it to mean anything they want. God seems OK with all this misunderstanding. God should have inspired a clearer book, right?

Of course if there is a God, His creation, or what little we see of it, is flawed in our eyes; have you seen the world? What does acknowledging this prove?

I'm not sure what exactly you're asking g here, but we can all see enough of the world to not be convinced the Bible came from an actual God, nor that the God depicted is consistent or moral. And that is why we can observe so many Christians behaving immorally and they think they can get away with it.

 

[F1fan]

Yes, confess and repent of your sins and ask God to forgive you.
Read the gospels to understand how to live.

Baptists of the Confederate States of America lived as God commanded. As did the Lutherans and Catholics of the Nazi era in Germany. Do you think these people understood how to live?

If not, what failed that God and the Bible was unclear to them?

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

Baptists of the Confederate States of America lived as God commanded. As did the Lutherans and Catholics of the Nazi era in Germany. Do you think these people understood how to live?

If not, what failed that God and the Bible was unclear to them?

Slavery was legal in the United States for 89 years, and it was legal in the Confederate States of America for four years. There are Christians who passionately insist that America was founded upon Christian principles, and it is still a Christian nation.

Six million Jews died during the Holocaust, and God did nothing to save them. The Jews are allegedly God's chosen people, and he allowed six million of them to be mercilessly slaughtered by the Nazis. That's beyond cruel and sadistic.

 

[Wildswanderer]

Baptists of the Confederate States of America lived as God commanded. As did the Lutherans and Catholics of the Nazi era in Germany. Do you think these people understood how to live?

If not, what failed that God and the Bible was unclear to them?

They were sinners like everyone is and fell into false beliefs. That's on them, not on God.

 

[F1fan]

They were sinners like everyone is and fell into false beliefs. That's on them, not on God.

Really? We aren't talking about a few fringe people here and there, we are talking about whole nations that ended up waging war over ideas that were directly in opposition to what Jesus taught. God couldn't make it clearer for people not to enslave others, or do genocide?

It's actually these ideas in the Bible that God approved of that was the basis of their crimes against humanity. Maybe God should have thought about that.

 

[Segev Moran]

The answer is without hesitation "No"!

It can never happen, but I'll assume you mean... "are you ready to be judged" kind of a phrase?

Guilty conscience!
Assuming God is a real entity who will judge thy soul, anyone here ready to meet their maker?

God is not literally judging your soul.
I am ready to "meet him", but I really don't want to. I really love living.

The Bible really doesn't send a consistent message.

It is without a doubt.

"Thou shalt not kill" is present in Scripture

Indeed.
It is almost one of the most important "moral" ideas.

, then "kill every man, woman, and child, kill adulterers, kill those who work on Sabbath",

This was far in the future from the original idea.
It is clear that this concept of death is an unfortunate message and not a cheerfully sent message.
It was followed by an important history that one needs to understand in order to understand WHY it was written as it was.
Killing others, is, without a doubt, not a positive concept in the OT regarding humans and animals alike.

has caused me to have a bit of an exodus from the bondage of using the Bible as an authority, with so many verses stating the opposite of others.

I think no book should be an authority.
I think the OT is clearly one of the most important books of humanity.

Follow one's conscience maybe? The golden rule perhaps?

Start by learning as much as you can about yourself.

I follow coincidences

With caution, I hope.

, signs,

Very important.
The hard thing is to understand what you define as a "sign"

and dots that connect.

It's awesome when dots connect.
The more amazing part is, the farthest we go back in history, the dots connect even more and more until it is all just one dot.

That has been very helpful!

Regardless of what not, I wish everyone to meet their maker as far in the future as possible.

Other ideas for preparing to meet one's maker?

Start by meeting yourself first

 

[Neuropteron]

The answer is without hesitation "No"!

Guilty conscience!

Assuming God is a real entity who will judge thy soul, anyone here ready to meet their maker?

The Bible really doesn't send a consistent message. "Thou shalt not kill" is present in Scripture, then "kill every man, woman, and child, kill adulterers, kill those who work on Sabbath", has caused me to have a bit of an exodus from the bondage of using the Bible as an authority, with so many verses stating the opposite of others.

Follow one's conscience maybe? The golden rule perhaps? I follow coincidences, signs, and dots that connect. That has been very helpful!

Other ideas for preparing to meet one's maker?

Hi,
"Thou shalt not kill" is not the proper translation for this text.
The proper translation is " you should not "murder""

Murder is the act of killing without the authorisation of the proper authorities. Killing is taking the life of another human or animal, and may be legitimate in some cases.
It would make absolutely no sense to order manking no to kill, but to permit the eating of animals.

For example:
Killing perpretated by soldiers in a war will not stand trial for murder since their Government permited the killing of the ennemies.
I can see why many are confused.

 

[Wildswanderer]

Really? We aren't talking about a few fringe people here and there, we are talking about whole nations that ended up waging war over ideas that were directly in opposition to what Jesus taught. God couldn't make it clearer for people not to enslave others, or do genocide?

It's actually these ideas in the Bible that God approved of that was the basis of their crimes against humanity. Maybe God should have thought about that.

So you want God to be responsible for man's actions? Ok, then you must eliminate freedom of any kind. You are ok with being only a cog in God's wheel? Because if free actions are allowed there's always room for disobedience.

 

[F1fan]

So you want God to be responsible for man's actions?

The God we are talking about is cobbled together from religious lore. So, if Christians and Muslims are going to claim their God is what they say it is then I expect it to have created humans both emotionally and intellectually capable of following the rules it sets. It did so inconsistently, so many incapable humans make mistakes, and that is on God. Also I expect the God to provide rules that are clear and consist over time. The God failed to do this with two Testaments, and then the Quran. The Quran has remained fairly stable but the Bible hasn't. That's on God.

Ok, then you must eliminate freedom of any kind.

No you don't. If Jim raises his kids well and they understand his rules and are obedient that doesn't mean they are robots. George's kids are not well raised and his rules are inconsistent, and they get into all sort of trouble. They even get Jim's kids in trouble sometimes. God is more like George. Jews and Christians and Muslims should design better Gods. At least Jews are more like Jim's kids and have raised themselves pretty well.

You are ok with being only a cog in God's wheel? Because if free actions are allowed there's always room for disobedience.

It's a false option.

 

[Wildswanderer]

No you don't. If Jim raises his kids well and they understand his rules and are obedient that doesn't mean they are robots. George's kids are not well raised and his rules are inconsistent, and they get into all sort of trouble. They even get Jim's kids in trouble sometimes. God is more like George. Jews and Christians and Muslims should design better Gods. At least Jews are more like Jim's kids and have raised themselves pretty well.

All your designations are pretty well and poor are purely arbitrary in a godless universe.

 

[F1fan]

All your designations are pretty well and poor are purely arbitrary in a godless universe.

I'm not sure what you are trying to say here.

 

[Spiderman]

The God we are talking about is cobbled together from religious lore. So, if Christians and Muslims are going to claim their God is what they say it is then I expect it to have created humans both emotionally and intellectually capable of following the rules it sets. It did so inconsistently, so many incapable humans make mistakes, and that is on God. Also I expect the God to provide rules that are clear and consist over time. The God failed to do this with two Testaments, and then the Quran. The Quran has remained fairly stable but the Bible hasn't. That's on God.


No you don't. If Jim raises his kids well and they understand his rules and are obedient that doesn't mean they are robots. George's kids are not well raised and his rules are inconsistent, and they get into all sort of trouble. They even get Jim's kids in trouble sometimes. God is more like George. Jews and Christians and Muslims should design better Gods. At least Jews are more like Jim's kids and have raised themselves pretty well.


It's a false option.

The Quran isn't really stable though!

It speaks of protection of Idolaters in one verse and another verse says "slay the Idolater wherever you find one"

There are words of love and also words of torture for infidels, crucifixion, cutting off hands and feet, boiling water poured on faces of infidels, burning of infidels, and some hate and graphic violence and mutilation, that if I wrote a letter like that to my Psychiatrist, I would be labeled "psychopathic" , a threat to society, and likely committed to a facility.

If I was preaching such things to a group of followers, FBI would be worried I might be another leader whose teachings accomplish something like what Charles Manson's teachings caused.

I love my Muslim brethren, and I love the Prophet, and especially love his virtuous daughter Fatima, and I love much of what is in the Quran.

But I'm simply presenting facts! It's a very unclear message in the Quran, that stirs up violence, oppression, fanaticism, misogyny, harsh rigid policies, judgements, jihad, and terrorism in my lifetime.

There is no possible way to interpret some of the Quran as being anything other than hateful and bigoted, with many calls to war, persecution, and violence!

Most of the book is fine, but if it is okay to point out hate speech, then we should not make exceptions with the Quran.

I hope you understand that I say that with love?

 

[F1fan]

The Quran isn't really stable though!

It speaks of protection of Idolaters in one verse and another verse says "slay the Idolater wherever you find one"

There are words of love and also words of torture for infidels, crucifixion, cutting off hands and feet, boiling water poured on faces of infidels, burning of infidels, and some hate and graphic violence and mutilation, that if I wrote a letter like that to my Psychiatrist, I would be labeled "psychopathic" , a threat to society, and likely committed to a facility.

If I was preaching such things to a group of followers, FBI would be worried I might be another leader whose teachings accomplish something like what Charles Manson's teachings caused.

I love my Muslim brethren, and I love the Prophet, and especially love his virtuous daughter Fatima, and I love much of what is in the Quran.

But I'm simply presenting facts! It's a very unclear message in the Quran, that stirs up violence, oppression, fanaticism, misogyny, harsh rigid policies, judgements, jihad, and terrorism in my lifetime.

There is no possible way to interpret some of the Quran as being anything other than hateful and bigoted, with many calls to war, persecution, and violence!

Most of the book is fine, but if it is okay to point out hate speech, then we should not make exceptions with the Quran.

I hope you understand that I say that with love?

I agree.

I meant that as a written book it hasn't been changed over time like the Bible has been. It's still original as far as I understand it.

There is plenty of dubious content in the Quran for people to question as good moral advice. Your points illustrate that if these books were written by a God it isn't a God that is any more capable and moral than the average human. Believers will disagree, but of course they have to disagree, they can't be allowed to question the books that are their moral guidelines. So who are the robots?

 

[Wildswanderer]

I'm not sure what you are trying to say here.

Your judgement of who is doing good or bad is purely arbitrary in a godless universe.

 

[F1fan]

Your judgement of who is doing good or bad is purely arbitrary in a godless universe.

False. Most social behaviors in social animals are evolved traits, including humans. There is an innate advantage to animals cooperating to some degree as individuals do not have as good a chance to survive on their own. Social animals, including humans, benefitted from cooperating and these individuals passed on their genes.

Gods came about in humans as we had evolved a large brain capable of abstract thinking. When societies got bigger and settlements became permanent that meant more time to develop rituals and culture. Gods came about given humans had little knowledge to explain the universe. Plus Gods gave those in leadership the ultimate authority to rule over the growing, primitive tribes. Strict rules and harsh punishments became the way order was kept.

Laws in the USA are secular, so how do you suppose they happen? You don't think we mortals can reason our way to good, cooperative behavior?

And remember many of the "godly" laws in ancient times would be crimes today.

So you were saying?

 

[Nakosis]

The answer is without hesitation "No"!

Guilty conscience!

Assuming God is a real entity who will judge thy soul, anyone here ready to meet their maker?

The Bible really doesn't send a consistent message. "Thou shalt not kill" is present in Scripture, then "kill every man, woman, and child, kill adulterers, kill those who work on Sabbath", has caused me to have a bit of an exodus from the bondage of using the Bible as an authority, with so many verses stating the opposite of others.

Follow one's conscience maybe? The golden rule perhaps? I follow coincidences, signs, and dots that connect. That has been very helpful!

Other ideas for preparing to meet one's maker?

Well, first, I don't do guilt. Second, since I don't invest in any beliefs about any Gods, I'd have no idea what preparations would be necessary.
I suspect any preparations one would want to make would likely be wrong. Whatever I am is what I am and that will be good enough or it wont.

 

[Wildswanderer]

False. Most social behaviors in social animals are evolved traits, including humans. There is an innate advantage to animals cooperating to some degree as individuals do not have as good a chance to survive on their own. Social animals, including humans, benefitted from cooperating and these individuals passed on their genes.

Gods came about in humans as we had evolved a large brain capable of abstract thinking. When societies got bigger and settlements became permanent that meant more time to develop rituals and culture. Gods came about given humans had little knowledge to explain the universe. Plus Gods gave those in leadership the ultimate authority to rule over the growing, primitive tribes. Strict rules and harsh punishments became the way order was kept.

Laws in the USA are secular, so how do you suppose they happen? You don't think we mortals can reason our way to good, cooperative behavior?

And remember many of the "godly" laws in ancient times would be crimes today.

So you were saying?

Your argument is totally unconvincing. You say the best way to survive is to cooperate. I don't really agree. If you are in a plane wreck the best way to survive may be to kill everyone else and eat them. Not the moral way, but the most convenient way for you. We have always worshiped because we always recognized that there's something or someone bigger than us out there who created all this. Only modern humans are stupid enough to think they got here by accident.

 

[F1fan]

Your argument is totally unconvincing. You say the best way to survive is to cooperate. I don't really agree.

It's irrelevant that you believe or not. And I didn't say the best way to survive is to cooperate. I noted that experts in science have looked at the facts and data and conclude that cooperation for humans and other animals as an advantage for survival. Even today we individuals rely on many others for our survival. Could you break off from society and live totally off the land without any help from others? Even if you could, what happens when you get sick or injured?

If you are in a plane wreck the best way to survive may be to kill everyone else and eat them. Not the moral way, but the most convenient way for you.

There have been those scenarios and even every case the humans did eat other people unless they died by natural causes. So even people facing starvation together don't get to a point where they will kill another. Look up Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and you will see that food and safety comes before social cohesion, but something is driving these people to some moral obligation.

Now before you insist this is God I want to know why the God didn't just prevent the plane crash if it cares so much. And if this God isn't intervening to prevent a plane crash why would it intervene to stop humans from killing each other for food? Many theists do kill others just for the sake of their ideology and beliefs, what's up with them?

We have always worshiped because we always recognized that there's something or someone bigger than us out there who created all this.

Yup, biology.

That primitive people didn't know any better and created gods to explain how nature works is no reason for modern people like you to carry on that intellectual blunder.

Only modern humans are stupid enough to think they got here by accident.

Which is not an educated thing to say, so irony.

This is a creationist statement, as science does not say humans evolved by accident. To say "accident" suggests there was some other path for evolution and the emergence of humans deviated from this path. This is nonsense that creations came up with to push their claim that humans are a special creation by a God. There is no evidence to suggest this, and much that shows we evolved. So get you science right, then argue your religious beliefs.