Yes, but there is a part of us (our spirit) that always knows; we also call it our conscience. I was listening to a report recently on some admitted genocidal killers from Bosnia (or Serbia, I don't remember exactly). They said that when the order to begin killing the group with their rifles was given, they were reluctant and afraid. Then, after they killed one, they felt bad, but that killing the second one was easier. And so on. He said that after awhile it was no problem at all.
The key is that at first we all know, and we will be judged because we all *do* know, no matter how deep we bury it.
How do you define ill-will or malice? A cat can attack other cats, is that ill-will?
No, it's survival. Too many cats in one area mean not enough food, or too much possibility for disease. It's pure instinct to survive. We human beings have another level of potential, that is, to rise above such animal instincts and embrace love and service.
religions which had human sacrifice
The examples you gave are simply people creating a bunch of dumb laws and then *calling* it a religion. A real religion comes from God and has love as its guiding principle. Without love, what a person is doing is definitely *not* religion.
Reincarnation, as I specifically said in Buddhism, need not be into a human form
Well, as I understand it, the point of reincarnation was that the human form was the highest form and that any sin committed as a human had to be then later experienced as a receiver *in human form*. In any event, if you think that you're going to return as a bug, you're believing the same type of nonsense that you criticized in your previous section. And any religion that says that your life's decisions don't count, or can be forgiven after your dead, is wasting their life.
show most humans simply cannot comprehend the fact that their lives are utterly meaningless
Well, I understand my "mote"-ness. But I also respect the miracle of 70ish trillion cells working in electrical and chemical harmony to be the me that I have.
There is a great Sufi story about a Sufi holy man who was challenged to a debate with a scientific atheist. It was due to begin at 7pm and it was raining terribly. At 8pm the Sufi shows up late and the atheist asks him why he was late. The Sufi says that because of the rain the river was flooded and he couldn't ford it and the nearest bridge was 20 miles away. Then, he said, as he was standing there, the trees started cutting themselves down, started turning their branches into rope and started shaping itself into a bridge, and that he crossed over on that bridge.
The atheist said to the Sufi, "What do you take me for, a fool? Trees cannot turn themselves into a bridge." To which the Sufi replies, "And so your unbelievably complex body didn't have a designer and builder?"
Now, explain to me how your fucking god is so damn compassionate?
The reason a person burns in hell is not because they reject Him - it's because that to reject Him is to reject His Command to love everyone. The people who reject Him cause incomprehensible pain and mischief in the world because they are the pawn of the devil. There is no coasting here, you're either getting better or getting worse. And those who never seek Him spend their lives chasing pleasure at the maximal level while risking societal rejection on whatever level they deem acceptible. It is terrible, I know, because I wandered for many years.
You have to understand that God wants everyone to go to heaven and to be happy for their entire lives here. This system is designed as such. The thing is, tho, He gave us the free will to choose to ignore the system. He gave us this life and He placed no strings on it, except that we are accountable for how we treat people. If he just made this a place where everyone could only do good, it wouldn't have much allure, would it? Think about a movie that doesn't have a bad guy or some tension: no one's gonna see it. Choice is interesting and valuable and he gave it to us with a set of rules. It's quite amazing and every choice counts.
The only religion is the religion of love, both for God and for all the earth. That's not doctrine, that's the way to make a perfect society, the kind that I wish as part of instead of The United Corporations of America (though I love most of my fellow Americans).
And I think of Michael Jordan, who at 6'6" was an incredibly gifted athlete for a man that tall, with all the mental characteristics that gave him the drive to succeed. Now, imagine that my 5'6" had the same drive - it just doesn't matter, because I don't have the same tools to achieve what he did, no matter my love for the game (and forget my white man's jumping ability:-) Anyway, the prophets are the same. They are gifted in their creation to be able to get the answers to how we should live; and they are all universally gifted with love, whether it's Buddha, Christ, Confucious, Muhammed or Guru Nanak. We have to respect their acheivements just as we watched Jordan - with jaws dropping at the unbelievability of it. It's all quite impressive, as everything is in this wonderful creation.
The empirical evidence would suggest that religion (in general) doesn't make people any happier. One need only look at all the religious wars to realize that.
You are mistaking people who call themselves religious with people who are truly religious. Those of us (and we exist as a minority within all of the religions of the world) who are truly practicing religion never participate in a war of religious bigotry. We also are trying to manifest the traits that all the prophets and messengers of God have taught us to manifest, be they Buddha, Muhammed, Christ, Abraham, Moses, Confucious,... the list goes on and on, for in every country in every language the message is being broadcast:
Seek to reach your Lord spiritually with all your heart and you will be honoring His Design and He will subsequently honor you.
Those that accept the invitation can manifest all the qualities of sainthood if they persevere upon the path, regardless of whether it's within a Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim - or any so-called religion's - context. This manifestation includes the most sublime and permanent peace and happiness. So, find a real man or woman of God and you will find someone whose happiness and peace are unflappable.
Just because your relgion is about promoting peace and happiness doesn't mean all religions are. If you really believe that I'd suggest a bit more study of world religions.
You don't understand; there is just one religion at the core of all religions, but the devil perverts them only a few generations after the messenger or prophet has died. Then, they fall into decay, which usually involves religious & racial bigotry-inspired violence. The Spanish Inquisition was the same pattern as is in evidence in today's Muslims. Yet neither of these two groups of hateful people were/are really practicing religion. They were simply grafting the name of religion onto their mammalian urge to dominate.
A true practitioner of religion behaves with the same level of goodness (when he/she is behaving rightly, for purification takes a long time, granted the person has the perseverance to tread all the way to the end of the path.) as is taught by Buddha or Christ. It is merely the same religion clothed in different garments; yet, with all the esoteric differences, the resultant effects upon the truly-seeking human being are the same.
So, I bid you read other posts I have made in this topic, for you will see much that many people who claim to be "religious" do not know. Of course, the drum-banging, noise-making people always get the press.
And, yes, I have studied much, including meeting a primary disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda, and shaking the Dalai Lama's hand. I previously met a Sufi Sheikh, and now study under a Sufi Murshid, of which all this information is sourced. I am merely relaying what I have learned, and all the studying that I did before I met my Murshid was worthless compared to the volumes that I have learned under him.
In summary, do not confuse what human beings have done to corrupt religion with what religion really is and what its effects upon a human being will be. And this is a deadly serious matter, for the purpose of why we are here is at the heart of religion. To neglect it is worse than forgetting to eat or drink or breathe.
You are technically correct, for all people go to hell, though the ones who will go to heaven will merely have a fly-by as an opportunity to see what their service and the graciousness of our Lord have saved them from.
But before you are so flippant consider this:
We are given a brand-new energy body (somewhere between 18-33 years old, approx) for our eternal life. This body does not decay or change and is reconstituted immediately if any damage is dealt to it.
The Qur'an says that the dwellers of the hellfire will *themselves* be the fuel of the fire, with the stones. This is because as their flesh burns off them and falls into the fire, it adds to the flames; of course, their flesh has re-generated and the cycle of torment is repeated.
All you must do is wish to reach God spiritually within your lifetime (as a heartfelt and verbal prayer). Do this and salvation can be yours, should you persist upon the path. Happiness and peace will be yours both here and then in the hereafter.
All praise be to God. He is The Compassionate and The Merciful. His Design is perfect and wondrous and we are built to live a life of perfect happiness, regardless of the circumstances.
That's one way of looking at it, but if you understood why He created us and what he created us for you would see it as such:
He wants us to ask Him because He is beyond lonely. The Creator of time itself! Physics, chemistry, and the 70 trillion cells working together electrically that called called a human being -- these are all His creations, yet there is nothing in the universe like Him, so He created human beings. We have the cognitive and mystical abilities to experience Him as fully as any creation can. That is why we are special.
The clincher here is that the greatest gift He gave us was the free will to ignore Him. Why? IMO, I liken it to this situation:
Say you are single and a beautiful woman comes up to you and says, "My father has commanded me to marry you and love and serve you in every way." How would that compare to meeting a girl, getting to know her, and then her *choosing* to love you, marry you and serve you. I don't know about you, but I would choose the latter.
You see, God has already created legions of angels who do nothing but sing His praises, but they have no comparison to a human being who eschews all the trappings of the Garden of Eden to choose to love Him. That is love, indeed. That is why there is the reward of an eternity of doing whatever your imagination can come up with. Furthermore, that is why there has to be a hell. The "Hakk" aspect of our Creator is His Divine and Perfect Righteousness. We've got life, fantastic abilities and the ability to choose, and we will be judged for what we do with it.
The most essential prayer that every human can make is mentioned in my other posts within this topic numerous times. As well, there is a great deal of other information as to the nature of human existence and the world we live in.
Believe it or not, we are created to be happy. To submit to God is to submit to a loving father-figure who only wants our happiness. He makes us unhappy as a negative reinforcement so that we will realize that we were screwing up. No, we cannot add a jot to His Magnificence; we seek Him and serve Him for our own benefit, and it is a mighty reward, both here in and in the hereafter. It is His Design, and it is the purpose of this universe.
Seek Him with all your heart, and happiness will be yours (tho with its share of struggle, as our vices are tough to overcome.) Every person was created to be a saint of God, and He will give you such help as you ask for and are worthy for.
I have questioned everything, and then I asked my Creator for the answers and He gave me more than I could have imagined.
It is in the design specs of the human being to be able to query God directly and receive the information immediately and directly, but a person must accept His invitation before that can become possible.
Make a deep and heartfelt prayer (out loud) to have God take your spirit into Himself within your lifetime so that you may reach Him and see Him.
This is the key to life itself.
There are many more details strewn about in my posts in this topic, but you only need to make that prayer (and then follow the path that ensues) to experience lasting peace and happiness.
If you read my other responses to various posters in this topic, you can receive the entire picture, but the essense of why we can be such bastards is that there is no sainthood without evilhood. It all makes the releasing of the imagination for an eternity in heaven mean something, because of what had to be overcome.
We live in a world of polarities, and in the human dimension, our free will lives having to constantly choose between good and evil. Good is found in honoring our Creator's intent for creating the human beings, summed up most succinctly in Acts of the Apostles 17:24-27:
"to seek Him, perhaps reach out for Him, and find Him."
You are correct, God not only created the devil, but gave him the ability to tempt human beings into evil, but God did not give the devil any power to make us do anything. He can only suggest. We have the real power, which is the power of free will, which is simply the power to choose good over evil.
Without the possibly to choose evil, a good choice has no meaning. Without the possibility of the punishment of hell, the reward of paradise is without merit. And such a reward it is! To live a veritable eternity where your every imagining is immediately, physically granted is the pinnacle of gifts, IMHO.
That reward does not come cheaply, nor does it come without sweat and the striving in the face of great resistence, both from the energy beings (called Jinn, the basis for the word Genie) and from the human beings who ignore the message and follow their own vain desires, creating mischief on their way.
Yet the path is filled with unbelievable love and peace. Read the poems of Jelallidin Rumi if you wish to know what it's like. His words are extraordinary and show the fulfillment of God's greatest commandment, as so said by Jesus,
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30)
I am a Sufi Muslim, but know that there are people in all faiths of the world that are rightly called "Muslim" (meaning one who submits to the Divine Will), whether they call themselves Hindi, Buddhist, Taoist, Jewish, Christian,...
We are human beings. We seek to reach God with our spirit and thereafter see Him spiritually. This is the essense of human life and the message of the prophets and messengers of God.
Human beings are divided basically into two groups: those who make the deep, heartfelt wish to reach God spiritually before dying, and those who don't and live for the life of this world. What God calls them to do after they make that wish is not of our concern, but it is guaranteed that that person will manifest all the traits of Buddha, Christ, Abraham, Confucious - whoever - after making that wish (with the caveat that they must struggle to the end of the path, where they have with the help of the Lord transmuted all their vices into virtues.)
Those who don't make that wish have our love and help, but they are not quite functioning humans because they tend to the mammalian behaviors such as pack mentality (racism, nationalism, religious bigotry,...) and alpha-dominance seeking (domination over the weak, belittling others,...).
We are all human beings, yet the laws of the universe dictate that certain changes happen to a human being that makes the "Wish to reach Allah" within his/her lifetime. A different set of changes happen to the human beings who ignore the message (which is delivered to all human beings in their own language) or, worse yet, treat the message with animosity.
We live the results of our choices and the choice to love and serve God brings truly unbelievable peace and happiness. I wish that all these unhappy people I see driving and barely subsisting here in America could have what I have been given. Of course, they can, but they must accept the invitation. A lot of bullsh*t has to be jettisoned to accept the simple truth of life - you can obviously see that bs in what all these so-called Muslims are doing with such vehemence.
They do not know that unless one wages the big Jihad that is waged within our own hearts against our own vices, they can never fight a righteous war, which we are rarely called upon for. What we are constantly called upon for, however, is to love and serve humanity, and to bring the example that all the messengers bring, which says to "Love thy enemies", and "that which you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, that you do unto me."
Human beings who don't seek to reach their Creator spiritually in their lifetime so as to escape the yoke of Satan.
They span all human races, cultures, religions and genders. It is a purely human potential, just as being a saint is also a purely human potential, available to everyone who seeks for such a thing.
The Qur'an is no different in its practical teachings than the Old Testament (Torah), New Testament, or Confucian writings to give a small number of examples. The message is clear and simple and the rise to sainthood is what all Messengers of God teach, and they come to all peoples in all nations in all languages. This all part of the design of our Creator, praise be to Him.
Love, kindness, selflessness, prayerfulness; there is no room for hatred or bigotry after a human being fills themselves with them.
With strength of heart and out loud, make the wish to reach God spiritually within your lifetime and you will cross the threshold whereupon true happiness begins.
What the white people have done to the earth's peoples for the hundreds of years since the first ocean-going ships is in no-uncertain-terms evil. But it is not confined to white people. It is one of the potentials of human vice and is not limited to any group of humans, whether you divide them by race, culture, or gender.
The reason that the this evil of the past 4-5 centuries seems so horrible is that the technology used to manifest it is so far beyond what was available before it. And, really, it's just another story of the strong preying upon the weak, which was happening in every nation on a much smaller scale before the white man took it to a whole other level.
Humans have both the capacity for evil and the capacity for good. When we act like animals, we use our vastly superior cognitive abilities to create horror upon the earth. In acting like animals, I mean exhibiting mammalian traits such as the pack mentality (racism, gangsterism and the domination of inferior groups/individuals) and the ever-present fight to be the alpha-male/female, we become the one-and-only creators of evil in the universe.
All human beings are capable of rising above the mammalian instincts and becoming truly human, with having compassion without regard to "type" of human being as a hallmark of such a one. This is what all the messengers and prophets of God have come to Earth to bring, because it is only through seeking this human ideal that we can live in peace, harmony, safety, health and abundance.
Imagine what the earth would be like if all military budgets were reallocated to humanitarian endeavors, without regard to race or country borders. Imagine if all the religions realized that religion is between one person and God and is not to be pushed upon another. That would be the realization of the human ideal.
May we all survive the ruckus to see that beautiful day.
You have to understand the nature, purpose and context of our creation.
Our nature is that we have a vice-filled soul, a virtue-filled incorruptable spirit, and a free will which uses the mind to make choices and then command the physical body.
Our purpose is to transmute all the vices in our soul so that our soul becomes like our spirit: filled with only virtues. This process is the basis of religion, though the details of how to achieve this purification are always mostly lost / forgotten / covered-up.
Our context is to have an enemy we can't see (the devil and his legions) that can give impulses to our soul's vices which make us want (by giving us feelings and thoughts/reasons) to act selfishlessly / wrongly. It is this being that constantly works to pervert humankind's true purpose.
Now, after our life (and we only get one, you reincarnation people) our actions are judged (with an 'intention' multiplier) for the purpose of rewarding the worthy with an almost-eternal energy body whose imagination becomes real. So, you see, the test of this earth and its travails is for our imagination to be set free for an apparent eternity (it fill feel like eternity for a human being, but really only our Creator is truly eternal.)
Praise be to God, that's human life in a nutshell.
BTW, I take no credit for this information; I have a Murshid (teacher, spiritual guide) who has taught me all of this. I am merely passing along the combination of theoretical knowledge and real experience.
No. Free will is the ability to differentiate between good and evil. No animal ever commits an evil act. Pissing in your toaster is only his way of getting fed. Nothing more. He only knows that that's going to get him his result. If he got a better result from cleaning your house, he'd do that instead. It's all a somewhat calculated expectation of reaction from given action - all to satisfy a need.
Human beings live in the world of choice between good and evil. Of course there is an enormous amount of gray area where such distinctions are not obvious, yet we are always moving towards one or the other. Regardless, if we choose to pull over and help the woman change her tire, or choose to keep the wallet we just saw the guy drop, these choices reside within a different realm: the realm of the choice between good and evil. Each person must explain to God what they used their magnificent gifts of free will, intellect and free time for.
There is no excuse for anyone, for we all receive the message:
Choose to reach our Creator in your lifetime or suffer the result of not living according to the purpose of your design.
Within our universe, the Law of Conservation of Mass, the Law of Conservation of Energy and Einstein's Law E=mc^2 are proven *Laws*. Yet there is an enormous amount of matter and energy. Explain where it came from.
You can't. No human being can fathom how it came to be. No human being can fathom the nature of such a Being Who could create such a fast and perfect system.
Your logic has reached a cold dead-end. If you are at-all logical and truthful you must admit that something beyond your comprehension created this universe as a self-contained and self-consistent and unchangeable in its total amount of content system.
Nothing here is ever created. Nothing here is ever destroyed. Figure it out.
That's not true. We have far greater capabilities; specifically, we have the capability to differentiate, and therefore choose, between good and evil. Nothing an animal ever does is evil; it is only for their survival or needs-of-the-moment, never with ill-will or malice.
Which religion's system of Karma is this?
This is a universal law and resides within all religions, though with varying degrees of comprehension. "As ye sow so shall ye reap". The laws that govern what a human being receives for its actions are independent of any one religion; they are like the Law of Universal Gravitation when experienced on different planets.
after being reincarnated
Reincarnation is a trick of the devil to make human beings believe that their life means nothing ~ there is no do-over. It's one and out. Think about it logically: where are all these human souls coming from, seeing as how there were only 50 million people on earth 2000 years ago? It doesn't make sense. We get one shot, and everything counts. You think this beautiful creation that is our body and its cognitive senses are an accident? We all have a purpose, and the universe itself is designed both as the means to help us attain that information and as an obstacle to achieiving our potential. It is all up to our choices and desires.
No, I do not follow the teachings of Satan, because the evidence is quite simple:
"You shall know them by their fruits"
Now, that is not to say that I am beyond sinning. Nosir. But I am seeking to achieve that level of development; it is a tough struggle, and it is the basis for the word "jihad". The real jihad is the internal struggle from the good impulse and the bad impulse.
My knowledge of this struggle, my experiences with both the good, the bad and the perfect (only two, maybe three) human beings I have encountered have proven this to me. My happiness and peace prove it to me. And, the efforts Satan still puts forth to corrupt me show me every day.
The Qur'an says quite simply how to know: Does the person lead you to God? I do. I say "Seek to reach Him spiritually within your lifetime". I have lived the experience of happiness (and struggle) that occurs when this wish is made. I know the company of those who are in various stages of this struggle. Weak as I am, I do not council others badly.
So I *know*. Not *think*. *Know*. I understand (on a basic level) the premise of the Old Testament, New Testament and Qur'an. I am in the midst of the personal struggle to transmute my vices into their corresponding virtues. I succeed some and I fail some, but I know the teachings of the Lord, our Creator. Whether I am made of enough strength to not fall off the path is for my Lord to decide, but I will at least go to my end having learned what I at least *should have* done.
Every human being is made to understand why we are here and what we are to do.
My cat knows the difference between being cold and wet...
That's not appreciating the beauty of creation, that's appreciating being in a comfortable situation.
Humans are simply animals.
They are if they don't ask why they're here. The Qur'an even puts it as such:
They have eyes that don't see, ears that don't hear and hearts that don't understand. They are like animals - no they are worse than the animals.
The reason such humans are worse is because they use our advanced reasoning and imagining capabilities to act as animals, actually, more like mammals: pack behavior (gangs, racism and always seeking to be the alpha male/female) especially.
but there is zero evidence that we are different in any other way that makes any difference at all.
Well, we use language to discuss concepts and use local experiments to propose theorems that apply to the fabric of space-time itself.
Specifically, though, the difference is that we have a free will and, as such, we fall under the Law of Karma while living, and, after death, get judged for what we have done with our tremendous human abilities.
Personally, I take religion (...) as evidence we're not nearly as smart as we'd like to think we are.
Well, the Devil has done his work well within the religions, so I agree with you here, kinda. The fact is that all the atrocities being committed in the name of religion can in no way be put on their founders who are long dead.
It would be more proper to call evil the result, not of stupidity, but of human susceptibility to evil impulse. In the end though, we all choose either right or wrong, to seek our greater purpose (to find God Himself) or to live in the lesser purposes of the worldly life.
Could you explain the Conservation of Mass, Conservation of Energy, Einstein's formula e=mc^2 in relation to the *ginormous* amount of matter and energy in the universe?
But then again, I can't really explain it either except to say that God created it. That's what He does: creates. (And maintains).
And for all the big bang theorists around here, even those scientists know for a fact that we can't understand what was going on at like 10^-33 sec after the big bang. Castaneda would call that region the Unknowable.
b) God gave us free will. He does not give like the white men who landed in North America (who have the audacity to call it "Indian giving"); He gave it and even He will not impinge on it, unless *we ask*. Beyond that He created us within this magnificent universe and He gave us means to make things either really nice for ourselves, or really horrible.
I do ask and He does what He Wills. I try to accept that, and I try to try harder. I suggest that you make a few prayers; you would be happier. One caveat: be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.
BTW, God has never done anything bad to anyone; all our ills are the result of bad human choices.
No, we can only blame ourself, if we are honest. Read carefully, it says that the Devil gives us the urge, it is our human free will that he is trying to corrupt, yet it is always us who makes the choice to act upon the urge.
And, no, God is not supernatural, He is out of time, the Creator of time itself, the Creator of physics and the Setter of all cosmological constants and relationships. Remember E=mc^2 means nothing gets created and nothing gets destroyed, but there's a sh*t load of stuff here? Does anyone you know have a physics principle for where it all came from? How about why doesn't everything just implode into a big friggin black hole? Where'd all that kinetic energy come from?
And yes, you are right: Bin Laden and Bin Robertson are two sides of the same stank-ass coin. Devil's mighty proud of them two boys.
And yes, your statement three is excellent but I can add that also no person would be hungry, without clothes or shelter, or sick. How? If only the military budgets of the world were spent solely on humanitarian effort.
First, thanks for the Cthulhu reference, real lol.
Seriously, though, if there was obvious evidence, we'd all be really committed to that fight, wouldn't we? It would so scare the living crap out of us that nothing else would matter.
Now, consider this: that it was the Devil himself that planted your question in you, and it will be him who says, "see, I knew bmac was full of sh*t", because I can't give you lab-style proof; yet I will give you a strong demonstration (no pun intended) if you can bear with me for a bit. You see, he speaks to us in the same voice as we, ourselves, speak to ourself. You could say that he just plants thoughts in us at just the right time to divert us from goodness.
Now, consider this: that this universe was created for our complete and total use. Further, we are designed in such a way as to be able to be in a conversation with our Creator (after much work) such that we can learn as much as we can hold within our puny lifetime. We are created for this purpose, yet we have been given a powerful adversary who will ensure that those who reach that level are indeed worthy and will not use such information for, say, "astral projection into the women's locker room":-)
So, I ask you, could *you* be wrong? Could bmac really understand the purpose of human life (I do not take credit for this knowledge, I am only passing along what I learned from truly great men), and could living life without that knowledge be a waste of the greatest gift in this universe: human consciousness?
I have now realized that I do, indeed, have proof of Satan, for by asking you to do one thing you will feel the full exertion of his strength to thwart you. After I ask you to do this (which follows), you will, if you observe your thoughts and feelings carefully, notice a great external force put upon you to prevent you from doing this simple act. Know that I am asking nothing for myself; that I in no way am soliciting anyone to become Muslim or any specific religion for that matter; I am only asking you to make contact with your Creator.
If you make the following prayer with all your heart and out loud at the same time, you will end your servitude to Satan and begin living life with new eyes, ears and heart:
Lord, I beg of You to take my spirit to Yourself while I live that I may no longer be a servant to Satan.
This prayer is the key to the universe. Satan's manipulation of humanity from generation to generation is the only reason that this information is consistently buried beneath lies and obfuscation.
Still, it remains in the holy books. See Acts of the Apostles 17:24-27 for the purpose of human life:
"to seek Him, perhaps reach out for Him, and to find Him."
It is in the Qur'an but the Muslims don't believe in the truth of what their own book says.
And, of course, it says in the Torah "except those who sought their Lord's Face with all their heart."
Now, consider making that prayer, what thoughts come to your mind? What feelings? That is your enemy, my friend; the enemy of happiness, the enemy of humankind. He works from within us and he keeps us at each other's throats so that we don't realize that *he* is our real enemy.
Actually the 'smack' is the built-in system that let's us know when we're f*cking up. Happiness and unhappiness are the result of the Law of Karma, which is as much a law as Conservation of Mass or Universal Gravitation, just it's only operable on the human level, because we are the only beings with free will.
Religion is rules of how to deal with other human beings. Its purpose is to promote study, peace and the creation of more and more happy human beings. Why? To have more consciousness, because we are the only beings who can appreciate this marvelous creation.
Many of the ideas published focus on science overcoming religion, or visa versa.
Proper religion is both the gateway to science, and is then inevitably reinforced by the successes it has. Remember our favorites like 'algorithm' and 'algebra' come from arabic words back from when Islam was filled with love.
BTW, religion (and the mysticism that goes with it) is the gateway to science because this universe's Creator created it to be accessible to us. Our human mind is designed to interact with its Creator. No, we cannot quite fathom It, but there's so much to learn about the universe itself that we couldn't discover a tenth of it in ten lifetimes.
Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and the door shall be opened.
This isn't just about spiritual pursuits, it's about knowledge itself.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, but there is a part of us (our spirit) that always knows; we also call it our
conscience. I was listening to a report recently on some admitted genocidal killers
from Bosnia (or Serbia, I don't remember exactly). They said that when the order to
begin killing the group with their rifles was given, they were reluctant and afraid.
Then, after they killed one, they felt bad, but that killing the second one was easier.
And so on. He said that after awhile it was no problem at all.
The key is that at first we all know, and we will be judged because we all *do* know,
no matter how deep we bury it.
Peace be with you,
bmac
How do you define ill-will or malice? A cat can attack other cats, is that ill-will?
No, it's survival. Too many cats in one area mean not enough food, or too much possibility
for disease. It's pure instinct to survive. We human beings have another level of
potential, that is, to rise above such animal instincts and embrace love and service.
religions which had human sacrifice
The examples you gave are simply people creating a bunch of dumb laws and then *calling*
it a religion. A real religion comes from God and has love as its guiding principle.
Without love, what a person is doing is definitely *not* religion.
Reincarnation, as I specifically said in Buddhism, need not be into a human form
Well, as I understand it, the point of reincarnation was that the human form was the
highest form and that any sin committed as a human had to be then later experienced
as a receiver *in human form*. In any event, if you think that you're going to return
as a bug, you're believing the same type of nonsense that you criticized in your previous
section. And any religion that says that your life's decisions don't count, or can be
forgiven after your dead, is wasting their life.
show most humans simply cannot comprehend the fact that their lives are utterly meaningless
Well, I understand my "mote"-ness. But I also respect the miracle of 70ish trillion cells working
in electrical and chemical harmony to be the me that I have.
There is a great Sufi story about a Sufi holy man who was challenged to a debate with a scientific
atheist. It was due to begin at 7pm and it was raining terribly. At 8pm the Sufi shows up
late and the atheist asks him why he was late. The Sufi says that because of the rain the
river was flooded and he couldn't ford it and the nearest bridge was 20 miles away. Then, he
said, as he was standing there, the trees started cutting themselves down, started turning their
branches into rope and started shaping itself into a bridge, and that he crossed over on that
bridge.
The atheist said to the Sufi, "What do you take me for, a fool? Trees cannot turn themselves
into a bridge." To which the Sufi replies, "And so your unbelievably complex body didn't have
a designer and builder?"
Peace be with you,
bmac
Now, explain to me how your fucking god is so damn compassionate?
:-) Anyway, the prophets are the same. They are gifted
The reason a person burns in hell is not because they reject Him - it's because that
to reject Him is to reject His Command to love everyone. The people who reject Him
cause incomprehensible pain and mischief in the world because they are the pawn
of the devil. There is no coasting here, you're either getting better or getting
worse. And those who never seek Him spend their lives chasing pleasure at the
maximal level while risking societal rejection on whatever level they deem acceptible.
It is terrible, I know, because I wandered for many years.
You have to understand that God wants everyone to go to heaven and to be happy for
their entire lives here. This system is designed as such. The thing is, tho, He gave
us the free will to choose to ignore the system. He gave us this life and He placed
no strings on it, except that we are accountable for how we treat people. If he just
made this a place where everyone could only do good, it wouldn't have much allure,
would it? Think about a movie that doesn't have a bad guy or some tension: no one's
gonna see it. Choice is interesting and valuable and he gave it to us with a set of
rules. It's quite amazing and every choice counts.
The only religion is the religion of love, both for God and for all the earth. That's
not doctrine, that's the way to make a perfect society, the kind that I wish as part
of instead of The United Corporations of America (though I love most of my fellow
Americans).
And I think of Michael Jordan, who at 6'6" was an incredibly gifted athlete for a man
that tall, with all the mental characteristics that gave him the drive to succeed.
Now, imagine that my 5'6" had the same drive - it just doesn't matter, because I don't
have the same tools to achieve what he did, no matter my love for the game (and forget
my white man's jumping ability
in their creation to be able to get the answers to how we should live; and they are all
universally gifted with love, whether it's Buddha, Christ, Confucious, Muhammed or
Guru Nanak. We have to respect their acheivements just as we watched Jordan - with jaws
dropping at the unbelievability of it. It's all quite impressive, as everything is in
this wonderful creation.
I wish you all peace and happiness.
bmac
The empirical evidence would suggest that religion (in general) doesn't make people
... the list goes on and on, for in every country in
any happier. One need only look at all the religious wars to realize that.
You are mistaking people who call themselves religious with people who are truly
religious. Those of us (and we exist as a minority within all of the religions of
the world) who are truly practicing religion never participate in a war of religious
bigotry. We also are trying to manifest the traits that all the prophets and
messengers of God have taught us to manifest, be they Buddha, Muhammed, Christ,
Abraham, Moses, Confucious,
every language the message is being broadcast:
Seek to reach your Lord spiritually with all your heart and you will be honoring
His Design and He will subsequently honor you.
Those that accept the invitation can manifest all the qualities of sainthood if they
persevere upon the path, regardless of whether it's within a Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim -
or any so-called religion's - context. This manifestation includes the most sublime
and permanent peace and happiness. So, find a real man or woman of God and you will
find someone whose happiness and peace are unflappable.
Just because your relgion is about promoting peace and happiness doesn't mean all
religions are. If you really believe that I'd suggest a bit more study of world religions.
You don't understand; there is just one religion at the core of all religions, but the devil
perverts them only a few generations after the messenger or prophet has died. Then, they
fall into decay, which usually involves religious & racial bigotry-inspired violence. The
Spanish Inquisition was the same pattern as is in evidence in today's Muslims. Yet neither
of these two groups of hateful people were/are really practicing religion. They were simply
grafting the name of religion onto their mammalian urge to dominate.
A true practitioner of religion behaves with the same level of goodness (when he/she is
behaving rightly, for purification takes a long time, granted the person has the perseverance
to tread all the way to the end of the path.) as is taught by Buddha or Christ. It is merely
the same religion clothed in different garments; yet, with all the esoteric differences, the
resultant effects upon the truly-seeking human being are the same.
So, I bid you read other posts I have made in this topic, for you will see much that many
people who claim to be "religious" do not know. Of course, the drum-banging, noise-making
people always get the press.
And, yes, I have studied much, including meeting a primary disciple of Paramahansa Yogananda,
and shaking the Dalai Lama's hand. I previously met a Sufi Sheikh, and now study under a
Sufi Murshid, of which all this information is sourced. I am merely relaying what I have
learned, and all the studying that I did before I met my Murshid was worthless compared to
the volumes that I have learned under him.
In summary, do not confuse what human beings have done to corrupt religion with what religion
really is and what its effects upon a human being will be. And this is a deadly serious
matter, for the purpose of why we are here is at the heart of religion. To neglect it is
worse than forgetting to eat or drink or breathe.
Peace be with you,
bmac
You are technically correct, for all people go to hell, though the ones who will go
to heaven will merely have a fly-by as an opportunity to see what their service and
the graciousness of our Lord have saved them from.
But before you are so flippant consider this:
We are given a brand-new energy body (somewhere between 18-33 years old, approx) for
our eternal life. This body does not decay or change and is reconstituted immediately
if any damage is dealt to it.
The Qur'an says that the dwellers of the hellfire will *themselves* be the fuel of
the fire, with the stones. This is because as their flesh burns off them and falls
into the fire, it adds to the flames; of course, their flesh has re-generated and the
cycle of torment is repeated.
All you must do is wish to reach God spiritually within your lifetime (as a heartfelt
and verbal prayer). Do this and salvation can be yours, should you persist upon the
path. Happiness and peace will be yours both here and then in the hereafter.
All praise be to God. He is The Compassionate and The Merciful. His Design is perfect
and wondrous and we are built to live a life of perfect happiness, regardless of the
circumstances.
I wish all this and more for you.
Peace be with you,
bmac
That's one way of looking at it, but if you understood why He created us and what
he created us for you would see it as such:
He wants us to ask Him because He is beyond lonely. The Creator of time itself!
Physics, chemistry, and the 70 trillion cells working together electrically that
called called a human being -- these are all His creations, yet there is nothing in
the universe like Him, so He created human beings. We have the cognitive and
mystical abilities to experience Him as fully as any creation can. That is why we
are special.
The clincher here is that the greatest gift He gave us was the free will to ignore
Him. Why? IMO, I liken it to this situation:
Say you are single and a beautiful woman comes up to you and says, "My father has
commanded me to marry you and love and serve you in every way." How would that
compare to meeting a girl, getting to know her, and then her *choosing* to love
you, marry you and serve you. I don't know about you, but I would choose the latter.
You see, God has already created legions of angels who do nothing but sing His praises,
but they have no comparison to a human being who eschews all the trappings of the
Garden of Eden to choose to love Him. That is love, indeed. That is why there is the
reward of an eternity of doing whatever your imagination can come up with. Furthermore,
that is why there has to be a hell. The "Hakk" aspect of our Creator is His Divine and
Perfect Righteousness. We've got life, fantastic abilities and the ability to choose,
and we will be judged for what we do with it.
The most essential prayer that every human can make is mentioned in my other posts
within this topic numerous times. As well, there is a great deal of other information
as to the nature of human existence and the world we live in.
Believe it or not, we are created to be happy. To submit to God is to submit to a loving
father-figure who only wants our happiness. He makes us unhappy as a negative reinforcement
so that we will realize that we were screwing up. No, we cannot add a jot to His Magnificence;
we seek Him and serve Him for our own benefit, and it is a mighty reward, both here in and
in the hereafter. It is His Design, and it is the purpose of this universe.
Seek Him with all your heart, and happiness will be yours (tho with its share of struggle,
as our vices are tough to overcome.) Every person was created to be a saint of God, and He
will give you such help as you ask for and are worthy for.
Peace be with you,
bmac
I have questioned everything, and then I asked my Creator for the answers and He
gave me more than I could have imagined.
It is in the design specs of the human being to be able to query God directly
and receive the information immediately and directly, but a person must accept His
invitation before that can become possible.
Make a deep and heartfelt prayer (out loud) to have God take your spirit into
Himself within your lifetime so that you may reach Him and see Him.
This is the key to life itself.
There are many more details strewn about in my posts in this topic, but you only
need to make that prayer (and then follow the path that ensues) to experience lasting
peace and happiness.
Peace be with you,
bmac
If you read my other responses to various posters in this topic, you can receive
the entire picture, but the essense of why we can be such bastards is that there
is no sainthood without evilhood. It all makes the releasing of the imagination
for an eternity in heaven mean something, because of what had to be overcome.
See my other posts.
Peace be with you,
bmac
Yeah, I kinda realized it, but my intent was to speak to the utter incomprehensibility
of the Creator of all that we exist within.
Supernatural just seems kinda weak.
Yeah, I know I'm splitting hairs.
Peace be with you,
bmac
Without darkness, light has no meaning.
We live in a world of polarities, and in the human dimension, our free will
lives having to constantly choose between good and evil. Good is found in
honoring our Creator's intent for creating the human beings, summed up most
succinctly in Acts of the Apostles 17:24-27:
"to seek Him, perhaps reach out for Him, and find Him."
You are correct, God not only created the devil, but gave him the ability
to tempt human beings into evil, but God did not give the devil any power
to make us do anything. He can only suggest. We have the real
power, which is the power of free will, which is simply the power to choose
good over evil.
Without the possibly to choose evil, a good choice has no meaning. Without
the possibility of the punishment of hell, the reward of paradise is without
merit. And such a reward it is! To live a veritable eternity where your every
imagining is immediately, physically granted is the pinnacle of gifts, IMHO.
That reward does not come cheaply, nor does it come without sweat and the
striving in the face of great resistence, both from the energy beings (called
Jinn, the basis for the word Genie) and from the human beings who ignore the
message and follow their own vain desires, creating mischief on their way.
Yet the path is filled with unbelievable love and peace. Read the poems of
Jelallidin Rumi if you wish to know what it's like. His words are extraordinary
and show the fulfillment of God's greatest commandment, as so said by Jesus,
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your mind and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30)
Peace be with you,
bmac
I am a Sufi Muslim, but know that there are people in all faiths of the world ...
...) and alpha-dominance ...).
that are rightly called "Muslim" (meaning one who submits to the Divine Will),
whether they call themselves Hindi, Buddhist, Taoist, Jewish, Christian,
We are human beings. We seek to reach God with our spirit and thereafter see
Him spiritually. This is the essense of human life and the message of the
prophets and messengers of God.
Human beings are divided basically into two groups: those who make the deep,
heartfelt wish to reach God spiritually before dying, and those who don't and
live for the life of this world. What God calls them to do after they make
that wish is not of our concern, but it is guaranteed that that person will
manifest all the traits of Buddha, Christ, Abraham, Confucious - whoever -
after making that wish (with the caveat that they must struggle to the end
of the path, where they have with the help of the Lord transmuted all their
vices into virtues.)
Those who don't make that wish have our love and help, but they are not quite
functioning humans because they tend to the mammalian behaviors such as pack
mentality (racism, nationalism, religious bigotry,
seeking (domination over the weak, belittling others,
We are all human beings, yet the laws of the universe dictate that certain
changes happen to a human being that makes the "Wish to reach Allah" within
his/her lifetime. A different set of changes happen to the human beings who
ignore the message (which is delivered to all human beings in their own
language) or, worse yet, treat the message with animosity.
We live the results of our choices and the choice to love and serve God brings
truly unbelievable peace and happiness. I wish that all these unhappy people
I see driving and barely subsisting here in America could have what I have
been given. Of course, they can, but they must accept the invitation. A lot
of bullsh*t has to be jettisoned to accept the simple truth of life - you can
obviously see that bs in what all these so-called Muslims are doing with
such vehemence.
They do not know that unless one wages the big Jihad that is waged within our
own hearts against our own vices, they can never fight a righteous war, which we
are rarely called upon for. What we are constantly called upon for, however, is
to love and serve humanity, and to bring the example that all the messengers bring,
which says to "Love thy enemies", and "that which you do to the least of my
brothers and sisters, that you do unto me."
Peace be with you,
bmac
Who ... ?
Human beings who don't seek to reach their Creator spiritually in their lifetime
so as to escape the yoke of Satan.
They span all human races, cultures, religions and genders. It is a purely human
potential, just as being a saint is also a purely human potential, available to
everyone who seeks for such a thing.
The Qur'an is no different in its practical teachings than the Old Testament (Torah),
New Testament, or Confucian writings to give a small number of examples. The message
is clear and simple and the rise to sainthood is what all Messengers of God teach,
and they come to all peoples in all nations in all languages. This all part of the
design of our Creator, praise be to Him.
Love, kindness, selflessness, prayerfulness; there is no room for hatred or bigotry
after a human being fills themselves with them.
With strength of heart and out loud, make the wish to reach God spiritually within
your lifetime and you will cross the threshold whereupon true happiness begins.
Peace be with you,
bmac
What the white people have done to the earth's peoples for the hundreds of years since
the first ocean-going ships is in no-uncertain-terms evil. But it is not confined to
white people. It is one of the potentials of human vice and is not limited to any
group of humans, whether you divide them by race, culture, or gender.
The reason that the this evil of the past 4-5 centuries seems so horrible is that
the technology used to manifest it is so far beyond what was available before it.
And, really, it's just another story of the strong preying upon the weak, which was
happening in every nation on a much smaller scale before the white man took it to a
whole other level.
Humans have both the capacity for evil and the capacity for good. When we act like
animals, we use our vastly superior cognitive abilities to create horror upon the
earth. In acting like animals, I mean exhibiting mammalian traits such as the pack
mentality (racism, gangsterism and the domination of inferior groups/individuals) and
the ever-present fight to be the alpha-male/female, we become the one-and-only creators
of evil in the universe.
All human beings are capable of rising above the mammalian instincts and becoming truly
human, with having compassion without regard to "type" of human being as a hallmark of such
a one. This is what all the messengers and prophets of God have come to Earth to bring,
because it is only through seeking this human ideal that we can live in peace, harmony,
safety, health and abundance.
Imagine what the earth would be like if all military budgets were reallocated to
humanitarian endeavors, without regard to race or country borders. Imagine if all the
religions realized that religion is between one person and God and is not to be pushed
upon another. That would be the realization of the human ideal.
May we all survive the ruckus to see that beautiful day.
Peace be with us all,
bmac
You have to understand the nature, purpose and context of our creation.
Our nature is that we have a vice-filled soul, a virtue-filled incorruptable
spirit, and a free will which uses the mind to make choices and then
command the physical body.
Our purpose is to transmute all the vices in our soul so that our soul becomes
like our spirit: filled with only virtues. This process is the basis of
religion, though the details of how to achieve this purification are always
mostly lost / forgotten / covered-up.
Our context is to have an enemy we can't see (the devil and his legions) that
can give impulses to our soul's vices which make us want (by giving us feelings
and thoughts/reasons) to act selfishlessly / wrongly. It is this being that
constantly works to pervert humankind's true purpose.
Now, after our life (and we only get one, you reincarnation people) our actions
are judged (with an 'intention' multiplier) for the purpose of rewarding the
worthy with an almost-eternal energy body whose imagination becomes real. So,
you see, the test of this earth and its travails is for our imagination to be
set free for an apparent eternity (it fill feel like eternity for a human being,
but really only our Creator is truly eternal.)
Praise be to God, that's human life in a nutshell.
BTW, I take no credit for this information; I have a Murshid (teacher, spiritual
guide) who has taught me all of this. I am merely passing along the combination
of theoretical knowledge and real experience.
Peace be with us all,
bmac
Classic free will is what every animal has.
No. Free will is the ability to differentiate between good and evil. No
animal ever commits an evil act. Pissing in your toaster is only his way
of getting fed. Nothing more. He only knows that that's going to get him
his result. If he got a better result from cleaning your house, he'd do
that instead. It's all a somewhat calculated expectation of reaction from
given action - all to satisfy a need.
Human beings live in the world of choice between good and evil. Of course
there is an enormous amount of gray area where such distinctions are not
obvious, yet we are always moving towards one or the other. Regardless, if
we choose to pull over and help the woman change her tire, or choose to keep
the wallet we just saw the guy drop, these choices reside within a different
realm: the realm of the choice between good and evil. Each person must
explain to God what they used their magnificent gifts of free will, intellect
and free time for.
There is no excuse for anyone, for we all receive the message:
Choose to reach our Creator in your lifetime or suffer the result of not living
according to the purpose of your design.
Good luck,
bmac
Within our universe, the Law of Conservation of Mass, the Law of Conservation
of Energy and Einstein's Law E=mc^2 are proven *Laws*. Yet there is an
enormous amount of matter and energy. Explain where it came from.
You can't. No human being can fathom how it came to be. No human being can
fathom the nature of such a Being Who could create such a fast and perfect
system.
Your logic has reached a cold dead-end. If you are at-all logical and truthful
you must admit that something beyond your comprehension created this universe
as a self-contained and self-consistent and unchangeable in its total amount of
content system.
Nothing here is ever created. Nothing here is ever destroyed. Figure it out.
So does a cat, at least as much as a human.
That's not true. We have far greater capabilities; specifically, we have
the capability to differentiate, and therefore choose, between good and
evil. Nothing an animal ever does is evil; it is only for their survival
or needs-of-the-moment, never with ill-will or malice.
Which religion's system of Karma is this?
This is a universal law and resides within all religions, though with varying
degrees of comprehension. "As ye sow so shall ye reap". The laws that govern
what a human being receives for its actions are independent of any one religion;
they are like the Law of Universal Gravitation when experienced on different
planets.
after being reincarnated
Reincarnation is a trick of the devil to make human beings believe that their
life means nothing ~ there is no do-over. It's one and out. Think about it
logically: where are all these human souls coming from, seeing as how there
were only 50 million people on earth 2000 years ago? It doesn't make sense.
We get one shot, and everything counts. You think this beautiful creation that
is our body and its cognitive senses are an accident? We all have a purpose,
and the universe itself is designed both as the means to help us attain that
information and as an obstacle to achieiving our potential. It is all up to
our choices and desires.
Peace be with us all,
bmac
No, I do not follow the teachings of Satan, because the evidence is
quite simple:
"You shall know them by their fruits"
Now, that is not to say that I am beyond sinning. Nosir. But I am seeking
to achieve that level of development; it is a tough struggle, and it is the
basis for the word "jihad". The real jihad is the internal struggle from the
good impulse and the bad impulse.
My knowledge of this struggle, my experiences with both the good, the bad
and the perfect (only two, maybe three) human beings I have encountered have
proven this to me. My happiness and peace prove it to me. And, the efforts
Satan still puts forth to corrupt me show me every day.
The Qur'an says quite simply how to know: Does the person lead you to God?
I do. I say "Seek to reach Him spiritually within your lifetime". I have lived
the experience of happiness (and struggle) that occurs when this wish is made.
I know the company of those who are in various stages of this struggle. Weak as
I am, I do not council others badly.
So I *know*. Not *think*. *Know*. I understand (on a basic level) the premise
of the Old Testament, New Testament and Qur'an. I am in the midst of the personal
struggle to transmute my vices into their corresponding virtues. I succeed some
and I fail some, but I know the teachings of the Lord, our Creator. Whether I am
made of enough strength to not fall off the path is for my Lord to decide, but I
will at least go to my end having learned what I at least *should have* done.
Every human being is made to understand why we are here and what we are to do.
May peace be with us all.
bmac
My cat knows the difference between being cold and wet...
That's not appreciating the beauty of creation, that's appreciating
being in a comfortable situation.
Humans are simply animals.
They are if they don't ask why they're here. The Qur'an even puts
it as such:
They have eyes that don't see, ears that don't hear and hearts that
don't understand. They are like animals - no they are worse than
the animals.
The reason such humans are worse is because they use our advanced
reasoning and imagining capabilities to act as animals, actually,
more like mammals: pack behavior (gangs, racism and always seeking
to be the alpha male/female) especially.
but there is zero evidence that we are different in any other way that
makes any difference at all.
Well, we use language to discuss concepts and use local experiments to
propose theorems that apply to the fabric of space-time itself.
Specifically, though, the difference is that we have a free will and,
as such, we fall under the Law of Karma while living, and, after death,
get judged for what we have done with our tremendous human abilities.
Personally, I take religion (...) as evidence we're not nearly as smart as
we'd like to think we are.
Well, the Devil has done his work well within the religions, so I agree with
you here, kinda. The fact is that all the atrocities being committed in the
name of religion can in no way be put on their founders who are long dead.
It would be more proper to call evil the result, not of stupidity, but of human
susceptibility to evil impulse. In the end though, we all choose either right
or wrong, to seek our greater purpose (to find God Himself) or to live in the
lesser purposes of the worldly life.
In any event, peace be with you.
bmac
Could you explain the Conservation of Mass, Conservation of Energy,
Einstein's formula e=mc^2 in relation to the *ginormous* amount of
matter and energy in the universe?
But then again, I can't really explain it either except to say that
God created it. That's what He does: creates. (And maintains).
And for all the big bang theorists around here, even those scientists
know for a fact that we can't understand what was going on at like
10^-33 sec after the big bang. Castaneda would call that region
the Unknowable.
Peace be with you,
bmac
a) Suicide is an immediate ticket to hell.
b) God gave us free will. He does not give like the white men
who landed in North America (who have the audacity to call it
"Indian giving"); He gave it and even He will not impinge on
it, unless *we ask*. Beyond that He created us within this
magnificent universe and He gave us means to make things either
really nice for ourselves, or really horrible.
I do ask and He does what He Wills. I try to accept that, and I try to
try harder. I suggest that you make a few prayers; you would be
happier. One caveat: be careful what you wish for, you just might get
it.
BTW, God has never done anything bad to anyone; all our ills are the
result of bad human choices.
Peace be with you,
bmac
No, we can only blame ourself, if we are honest. Read carefully, it says that
the Devil gives us the urge, it is our human free will that he is trying
to corrupt, yet it is always us who makes the choice to act upon the urge.
And, no, God is not supernatural, He is out of time, the Creator of time
itself, the Creator of physics and the Setter of all cosmological constants and
relationships. Remember E=mc^2 means nothing gets created and nothing gets
destroyed, but there's a sh*t load of stuff here? Does anyone you know have a
physics principle for where it all came from? How about why doesn't everything
just implode into a big friggin black hole? Where'd all that kinetic energy
come from?
And yes, you are right: Bin Laden and Bin Robertson are two sides of the same
stank-ass coin. Devil's mighty proud of them two boys.
And yes, your statement three is excellent but I can add that also no person
would be hungry, without clothes or shelter, or sick. How? If only the
military budgets of the world were spent solely on humanitarian effort.
May we all live to see the day!
Peace be with us all,
bmac
First, thanks for the Cthulhu reference, real lol.
:-)
Seriously, though, if there was obvious evidence, we'd all be
really committed to that fight, wouldn't we? It would so scare
the living crap out of us that nothing else would matter.
Now, consider this: that it was the Devil himself that planted your
question in you, and it will be him who says, "see, I knew bmac was
full of sh*t", because I can't give you lab-style proof; yet I will
give you a strong demonstration (no pun intended) if you can bear
with me for a bit. You see, he speaks to us in the same voice as we,
ourselves, speak to ourself. You could say that he just plants thoughts
in us at just the right time to divert us from goodness.
Now, consider this: that this universe was created for our complete
and total use. Further, we are designed in such a way as to be able
to be in a conversation with our Creator (after much work) such that
we can learn as much as we can hold within our puny lifetime. We are
created for this purpose, yet we have been given a powerful adversary
who will ensure that those who reach that level are indeed worthy and
will not use such information for, say, "astral projection into the
women's locker room"
So, I ask you, could *you* be wrong? Could bmac really understand the
purpose of human life (I do not take credit for this knowledge, I am
only passing along what I learned from truly great men), and could
living life without that knowledge be a waste of the greatest gift in this
universe: human consciousness?
I have now realized that I do, indeed, have proof of Satan, for by asking
you to do one thing you will feel the full exertion of his strength to
thwart you. After I ask you to do this (which follows), you will, if you
observe your thoughts and feelings carefully, notice a great external
force put upon you to prevent you from doing this simple act. Know that
I am asking nothing for myself; that I in no way am soliciting anyone to
become Muslim or any specific religion for that matter; I am only asking
you to make contact with your Creator.
If you make the following prayer with all your heart and out loud
at the same time, you will end your servitude to Satan and begin living
life with new eyes, ears and heart:
Lord, I beg of You to take my spirit to Yourself while I
live that I may no longer be a servant to Satan.
This prayer is the key to the universe. Satan's manipulation
of humanity from generation to generation is the only
reason that this information is consistently buried beneath
lies and obfuscation.
Still, it remains in the holy books. See Acts of the
Apostles 17:24-27 for the purpose of human life:
"to seek Him, perhaps reach out for Him, and to find Him."
It is in the Qur'an but the Muslims don't believe in the
truth of what their own book says.
And, of course, it says in the Torah "except those who
sought their Lord's Face with all their heart."
Now, consider making that prayer, what thoughts come to
your mind? What feelings? That is your enemy, my friend;
the enemy of happiness, the enemy of humankind. He works
from within us and he keeps us at each other's throats
so that we don't realize that *he* is our real enemy.
Thank you for this opportunity to serve you.
May all human beings have peace & happiness.
bmac
Actually the 'smack' is the built-in system that let's us know when
we're f*cking up. Happiness and unhappiness are the result of the
Law of Karma, which is as much a law as Conservation of Mass or
Universal Gravitation, just it's only operable on the human level,
because we are the only beings with free will.
Religion is rules of how to deal with other human beings. Its
purpose is to promote study, peace and the creation of more and more
happy human beings. Why? To have more consciousness, because we
are the only beings who can appreciate this marvelous creation.
Peace & Blessings,
bmac
Many of the ideas published focus on science overcoming religion, or visa versa.
Proper religion is both the gateway to science, and is then inevitably reinforced
by the successes it has. Remember our favorites like 'algorithm' and 'algebra' come from
arabic words back from when Islam was filled with love.
BTW, religion (and the mysticism that goes with it) is the gateway to science because
this universe's Creator created it to be accessible to us. Our human mind is designed to
interact with its Creator. No, we cannot quite fathom It, but there's so much to learn
about the universe itself that we couldn't discover a tenth of it in ten lifetimes.
Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and the door shall be opened.
This isn't just about spiritual pursuits, it's about knowledge itself.
Peace & Blessings,
bmac