Your personal insights on God, etc.

[cloudyday2]

Just wondering if anybody wanted to share anything you feel you have learned about what God/gods are, what humans are, what this is all about, etc. Hopefully these might be things that you learned through experience that are not biased too much by religious traditions. I hope that makes sense.

 

[Jesse Johnson]

God is love.

 

[Robban]

Just wondering if anybody wanted to share anything you feel you have learned about what God/gods are, what humans are, what this is all about, etc. Hopefully these might be things that you learned through experience that are not biased too much by religious traditions. I hope that makes sense.

Why are we so different?
Why are some kind and good,
some are mean and wicked.

We all have our story, from day one it begins.
Not all souls are the same,

There are kind souls, severe souls and a variety in between.

The books in which our stories are written have different colours.

Red for severe, blue for kind and so on.

Thereafter will we be judged according to what is written.
Example;
A kind soul that does a kind act is hardly a merit,
it is a kind soul.
A severe soul that does a kind act must be seen as a merit.

Do not know if this is what you are asking,
but you said have experienced.

This I have experienced.

One night alone on lookout not thinking of anything in
particular, it did not last long and I never told anyone for years.

I was shown books being opened but was not allowed to peek into them

 

[MehGuy]

When I was a Christian I thought the only purpose in life was suffering. Suffering made the soul more divine. It gave it depth. Something akin to a drawing without shadows compared to one with shadows, the object pops out more. Yet I believe that a person who is just in the form of a soul cannot suffer, they have to be in a physical body within a physical world to experience it. Which explains why God even bothered making a universe and giving us physical bodies. I did believe once we died we'd go to a spiritual afterlife and lose our physical bodies and just inhabit as souls. Yet the experience we suffered while being locked into physical bodies could never be taken away.

In my mind humans were not much different than angels besides this physical aspect that allowed us a pathway to divinity. Angels were forever hollow "lesser" beings.

When I first became an atheist, I had quite fun psychologically digesting such thoughts. Was quite revealing, lol. I do think my past faith had a cool and interesting structure, and it has inspired elements and ideas in stories I like to write today.

 

[Margaret3110]

God has a way of shattering our ideas about him. As C.S. Lewis said, he is the great iconoclast. That shattering can lead one away from a religious tradition, but also deeper into it. Eventually our last most profound idea will be smashed and we will be face to face with him as he is.

As far as what it's all about? Love, kindness, forgiveness, caring for each other. Doing these things even when they are (or we think they are) wasted.

 

[OldWiseGuy]

What I believe is that in time past God created the angels. Then, as did Adam, he found that he had none so like him as to be a 'companion' for himself. So he created a 'special angel' from his own spirit resources, as Eve was created from the resources of Adam.

He went on to create a material home for the angels (earth), also giving them physical bodies with which to enjoy the pleasures and sensations of this first Eden (paradise garden). He placed his close companion, aka Lucifer, over this Eden, granting kingly responsibility, mirroring what he himself held over the greater spiritual kingdom. All was orderly until Lucifer desired equality with God, wanting his rule to extend to all of the angels of God.

There was a confrontation at the heavenly throne of God, and God threw Lucifer and the angels that had joined him back to the earth, destroying the Eden that God had made for them. The beautiful bodies were destroyed and in their place God created hideous beasts of all kinds for these, now demon spirits, to inhabit.

This continued for billions of (our) years until God at last set his hand to fully restore his kingdom so damaged by Lucifer's rebellion.

That story begins with Genesis 1:2.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

All I can say for sure is that God is like a living light and we are like rays or beams coming from this personal source. We are all more connected than we want to think.

 

[cloudyday2]

Why are we so different?
Why are some kind and good,
some are mean and wicked.

We all have our story, from day one it begins.
Not all souls are the same,

There are kind souls, severe souls and a variety in between.

The books in which our stories are written have different colours.

Red for severe, blue for kind and so on.

Thereafter will we be judged according to what is written.
Example;
A kind soul that does a kind act is hardly a merit,
it is a kind soul.
A severe soul that does a kind act must be seen as a merit.

Do not know if this is what you are asking,
but you said have experienced.

This I have experienced.

One night alone on lookout not thinking of anything in
particular, it did not last long and I never told anyone for years.

I was shown books being opened but was not allowed to peek into them

Does it seem the books are already written and we are merely reading them? Maybe we forget that we are only reading the books and begin to feel too attached to the main character and reading becomes unpleasant?

That is what I thought I saw, but maybe it was only my imagination. There were a lot of disturbing ideas in that. I like my cat. I like my friends and family. I think good is better than evil. So I hate to think that none of it is real and none of it matters.

 

[cloudyday2]

I have noticed that something out there occasionally tries to guide me in benevolent directions by appearing as a human with peculiarities of appearance and behavior. Basically this is "angels" and "demons", but it might be a single spiritual entity manifesting in different ways at different times. I suppose it might even be something inside ourselves. Like maybe we know the future at some higher level of consciousness, and we are trying to guide ourselves.

I don't understand why some people experience that and others don't. I haven't experienced it very much - maybe a couple of times. Maybe it is only statistical variations. The difference between a couple of experiences and no experiences can be explained by chance rather than differences in the probability.

 

[Robban]

Does it seem the books are already written and we are merely reading them? Maybe we forget that we are only reading the books and begin to feel too attached to the main character and reading becomes unpleasant?

That is what I thought I saw, but maybe it was only my imagination. There were a lot of disturbing ideas in that. I like my cat. I like my friends and family. I think good is better than evil. So I hate to think that none of it is real and none of it matters.

No,I have no reason to believe they are already written.

When Moses said, if You cannot forgive them then strike
my name out of the book You are writing,

he was not named the rest of that chapter.

Also Malachi 3:16-17.

Further more,
We are not left to our fate, we can plead with the heavens to intervene.

In revelations it speaks of books and a book.

Daniel 7:10 also.

 

[Robban]

I have noticed that something out there occasionally tries to guide me in benevolent directions by appearing as a human with peculiarities of appearance and behavior. Basically this is "angels" and "demons", but it might be a single spiritual entity manifesting in different ways at different times. I suppose it might even be something inside ourselves. Like maybe we know the future at some higher level of consciousness, and we are trying to guide ourselves.

I don't understand why some people experience that and others don't. I haven't experienced it very much - maybe a couple of times. Maybe it is only statistical variations. The difference between a couple of experiences and no experiences can be explained by chance rather than differences in the probability.

I think this is a wonderous song,

It is deep and wonderous, you never when it is your turn,

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

I felt as though I needed to break out of of my Christiandom shell. Too many dogmas, definitions and required beliefs and arguments. God for me is a living light and we are rays or beams of that light. Jesus was fully aware of his nature. We are not. I also find it necessary to see something of God in all the major religions. They all show some facet.

Most of us cannot seem to get passed this sense of division, separateness. But it really does not make much sense to me. What makes more sense to me is something like, God is the clay and we are the cups and bowls.

 

[cloudyday2]

I felt as though I needed to break out of of my Christiandom shell. Too many dogmas, definitions and required beliefs and arguments. God for me is a living light and we are rays or beams of that light. Jesus was fully aware of his nature. We are not. I also find it necessary to see something of God in all the major religions. They all show some facet.

Most of us cannot seem to get passed this sense of division, separateness. But it really does not make much sense to me. What makes more sense to me is something like, God is the clay and we are the cups and bowls.

What I saw once was more like Christian Gnosticism where we have hidden within us a divine spark that God can see but we can't see.

 

[Noxot]

God becomes. He is always being born just as we are. At times he is so fully human that he does not care that he is God. one of the best ways to know God is as a person. This super-personality of God embraces all people for he is like all people as one perfect and divine whole but perfectly matching the situation and who you are as a person.

 

[Noxot]

Souls of people are so nice when you can have some of that divine light through them, whatever is good about them is divine. Same for myself when i find God in me. Though i admit that it would be evil if his people lost themselves, since God loves them even as they sleep. It is funny that you can be imperfect and yet still know God.

 

[Tolworth John]

[QUOTE="cloudyday2, post: 74763939, member: 3115learnt through experience that are not biased too much by religious tradition[/QUOTE]

Learnt by experience or choosen because of personal bias.

What is the difference and how does one explain it.
Then there is the question how does one find a being that exists outside of our dimension ?
Does God reveal himself to us through 'religous experiences' or through mediums like the bible, sermons etc?

How does one test your choice of religion, your choice of what is truth?

I'm a Christian, unfortunately that has to be categorised. A bible believing, evangelical Christian.
Why?
Because the bible is demonstratable accurate( you may not accept the evidence for that, but that does not change that fact.)
It accounts for life, why life is the way it is, it explains humanities need to worship and provides the answers to our need to worship.
How do I get to know/please God?
Answer you can't one has to accept a relationship on Gods terms, we don't dictate to God how we will meet him.

 

[cloudyday2]

Learnt by experience or choosen because of personal bias.

What is the difference and how does one explain it.
Then there is the question how does one find a being that exists outside of our dimension ?
Does God reveal himself to us through 'religous experiences' or through mediums like the bible, sermons etc?

How does one test your choice of religion, your choice of what is truth?

What gives the Bible and a religious tradition credibility? Their credibility relies on the claim that they record the insights from the personal spiritual experiences of others. Unfortunately that is only a claim. There are many religious books and many religious traditions with somewhat differing insights.

At least with my own insights/experiences I can know that they happened. Maybe they happened as hallucinations and imagination, but they aren't fiction. I can't assume that with the Bible or other religious texts. Many of the claims and stories are pretty far out.

I'm a Christian, unfortunately that has to be categorised. A bible believing, evangelical Christian.
Why?
Because the bible is demonstratable accurate( you may not accept the evidence for that, but that does not change that fact.)

If the Bible's accuracy is demonstrable then you ought to be able to demonstrate that to any open-minded person. The academics who study the Bible ought to agree that the Bible is accurate. I don't want to be nasty, but you need to phrase it differently. I don't know what word you might use. Maybe just say that the Bible makes sense to you. I could accept that.

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

If the Bible's accuracy is demonstrable then you ought to be able to demonstrate that to any open-minded person.

It is such a complex anthology that it is difficult to determine even what "accuracy" means. For me it is morality.

 

[cloudyday2]

It is such a complex anthology that it is difficult to determine even what "accuracy" means. For me it is morality.

I suppose @Tolworth John can explain, but I wonder if he meant that his version of Christian theology provides a world view where life has purpose and makes sense to him?

 

[cloudyday2]

Another insight is the Christian theological ideas that recur in my experiences. I don't believe that Jesus of Nazareth died for my sins, and I don't believe that the Bible is any more inspired than any other religious text, but these ideas keep popping-up in my experiences as though they are true, yet I am satisfied that they are not true.

My explanation is that either these spiritual entities communicate to me using Christian ideas because those are deeply ingrained in me, or these experiences are coming entirely out of my own imagination.