What is our purpose in your religion?

cloudyday2

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As to the relationship between being his image, and male and female, I think these are separate things. Being his image comes before any mention of male and female, and at least in English translation, I read Gen 1:27 as making in his image and male and female as separate statements. To my knowledge, when this was written, no one would have thought that there were separate male and female Gods. The OT vision is sufficiently patriarchal that I don't think it's even likely that would have said that God combined both, though later people did.

There are interesting traditional interpretations. Some Christians, for example, thought that the original humans were one gender, "male and female" being understood as all humans having both male and female characteristics.
My understanding is that this comes from a nit-picky reading of the creation story in Genesis 1 followed by the creation story in Genesis 2. I can't remember the details of their reasoning, but it was popular with Jewish and Christian Gnostics. The first human was a combinations male/female Adam, but God removed the female Eve from Adam leaving him incomplete as a male. Therefore marriage became important to create "one flesh" again.
 
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cloudyday2

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I will tell you when I get there!

Do you agree that fate is not fickle?
Fate seems fickle to me, but I tell myself that there is a purpose to everything. It may seem random, but that is only because I don't know the grand plan of God. That's what I tell myself, but I might be wrong.
 
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Robban

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What's the purpose of life after death then?

Life is so amazing, astonishing, baffling, wonderous, breathtaking,

every detail, from the ant to an elephant, moon, stars.

There is one drawback, time, time is a tyrant,

it waits for no one.

But if the possibility were to go outside of time, beyond time,

Would that not be fantastic?
 
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Tom 1

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There is infant mortality, childhood cancer, etc. Any religion that claims to know the purpose of our lives needs to address the fickleness of fate.

So what is our purpose in your religion?

Be authentic, live life to the full.
 
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cloudyday2

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Life is so amazing, astonishing, baffling, wonderous, breathtaking,

every detail, from the ant to an elephant, moon, stars.

There is one drawback, time, time is a tyrant,

it waits for no one.

But if the possibility were to go outside of time, beyond time,

Would that not be fantastic?
This morning I was praying and I said "God, just take me home." Then I was wondering what I meant by that. Did I mean that I wanted to go back into some happier time in my life? Did I mean I wanted to be dead? I think I meant that I wanted to be dead. Then I was thinking about the future when I might be terminally ill, and I will probably be praying "God, just make me well." LOL. I'm impossible to please.

So I don't know if life outside time would be fantastic. I like the idea of a moth to a flame. I want to see God and then be gone. Everything after would probably seem anticlimactic.
 
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klutedavid

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This morning I was praying and I said "God, just take me home." Then I was wondering what I meant by that. Did I mean that I wanted to go back into some happier time in my life? Did I mean I wanted to be dead? I think I meant that I wanted to be dead. Then I was thinking about the future when I might be terminally ill, and I will probably be praying "God, just make me well." LOL. I'm impossible to please.

So I don't know if life outside time would be fantastic. I like the idea of a moth to a flame. I want to see God and then be gone. Everything after would probably seem anticlimactic.
You may very well get your wish, to see God and then, be gone forever.

To see God and remain, would depend on whether you get a new body, an immortal body. I think a new body and mind would be better, I think I have worn the present one out.
 
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cloudyday2

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You may very well get your wish, to see God and then, be gone forever.

To see God and remain, would depend on whether you get a new body, an immortal body. I think a new body and mind would be better, I think I have worn the present one out.
How about a new android body? Science might be able to provide that for you in a few decades.

There is also a possibility of eliminating aging so you can keep your biological body.
 
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Tom 1

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How about a new android body? Science might be able to provide that for you in a few decades.

There is also a possibility of eliminating aging so you can keep your biological body.

I think those estimates that fly around are pretty optimistic. I reckon we are still a century or more away from anything like that, if it happens at all.
 
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cloudyday2

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I think those estimates that fly around are pretty optimistic. I reckon we are still a century or more away from anything like that, if it happens at all.
The determining factor would be whether the rapid exponential growth in computing power can be leveraged to solve these problems. We will have some amazing solutions in several decades, but will we have amazing solutions to these problems or some other problems?
 
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gentlejah

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This morning I was praying and I said "God, just take me home." Then I was wondering what I meant by that. Did I mean that I wanted to go back into some happier time in my life? Did I mean I wanted to be dead? I think I meant that I wanted to be dead. Then I was thinking about the future when I might be terminally ill, and I will probably be praying "God, just make me well." LOL. I'm impossible to please.

So I don't know if life outside time would be fantastic. I like the idea of a moth to a flame. I want to see God and then be gone. Everything after would probably seem anticlimactic.


I do that often and use the exact same words...'take me home' without really knowing why I say it or exactly what I mean. it's just a certain feeling that comes ever me that is impossible to explain.
 
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Robban

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This morning I was praying and I said "God, just take me home." Then I was wondering what I meant by that. Did I mean that I wanted to go back into some happier time in my life? Did I mean I wanted to be dead? I think I meant that I wanted to be dead. Then I was thinking about the future when I might be terminally ill, and I will probably be praying "God, just make me well." LOL. I'm impossible to please.

So I don't know if life outside time would be fantastic. I like the idea of a moth to a flame. I want to see God and then be gone. Everything after would probably seem anticlimactic.

John Denver too,:)

 
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Robban

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This morning I was praying and I said "God, just take me home." Then I was wondering what I meant by that. Did I mean that I wanted to go back into some happier time in my life? Did I mean I wanted to be dead? I think I meant that I wanted to be dead. Then I was thinking about the future when I might be terminally ill, and I will probably be praying "God, just make me well." LOL. I'm impossible to please.

So I don't know if life outside time would be fantastic. I like the idea of a moth to a flame. I want to see God and then be gone. Everything after would probably seem anticlimactic.

Shabbat is also an "Island in time".

A foretaste?
 
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klutedavid

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How about a new android body? Science might be able to provide that for you in a few decades.

There is also a possibility of eliminating aging so you can keep your biological body.
What an excellent idea.

Though trying to avoid repetition would be impossible. In fact, I think the sheer repetition of everything would drive me insane.
 
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