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Like all other posters on this and similar subjects, you equate belief with truth. You believe in a god, but you have no proof that one exists.
The idea that returning to God means a loss of individuality is paradoxical, since God is aware of everything that happens and must therefore be aware of the consciousness of each individual. The return of the soul is the return of the image to that which imagined it. The consciousness of the individual - its soul record - could not be destroyed without destroying a part of God. When a soul returns to God it becomes aware of itself not only as a part of God, but as a part of every other soul, and everything. What is lost is the ego - the desire to do other than the desire of God. When the soul returns to God, the ego is voluntarily relinquished. This is the symbology behind the crucifixion of Christ. The plan for the soul included experiencing of all creation, but it did not necessarily mean participating in all forms and substance. Nor did it mean that souls can interfere with the creation. Nor did it mean that souls are to spin their own little worlds, twisting and bending laws to make images of their dreams. But these things could happen. The soul was the greatest thing that God made because it has free will. Once free will was given, God did nothing to curb it. However it acted, it had to act within God's reality. By whatever route, the soul will return to God. The fact that the human body is a speck of dust on a small planet in a universe of galaxies can lead to the illusion that humans are a small creation. But the soul is the unlimited activity of the mind and the grandeur of imagination. At first there was little difference between the consciousness of the new individual (i.e., soul) and its consciousness of identity with God (i.e., spirit). Souls merely watched the flow of the Mind, somewhat as people daydreaming, marveling at its power and versatility. Then souls began to act itself, imitating and paralleling what Mind was doing. Gradually souls acquired experience, becoming a complementary rather than an imitative force. It helped to extend, modify, and regulate creation. Certain souls became aggressive with their own power and began to experiment with it. They mingled with the dust of the stars and the winds of the spheres - feeling them - and becoming part of them. One result of this was an unbalance between the positive and negative forces. To feel things demanded the negative force. To express through things (and directing and managing them) required the positive force. Another result of souls becoming aggressive with their own power was the gradual weakening of the link between the two states of consciousness (i.e., spirit and the soul). Some souls became more concerned with and aware of their own creations rather than God's. This resulted in the fall of certain souls to an even lower consciousness. The Bible allegorically refers to this event as the Fall in the Garden of Eden and the revolt of the angels in the Book of Revelation. This event is also the basis for the cosmology of Christian Gnosticism and Jewish mysticism. To enter into another level of creation and become part of it, the soul had to assume a new, or third consciousness - a physical form. Assuming a physical form is a way of experiencing that level of creation by means of a conscious mind (i.e., the third consciousness). Through the conscious mind, an individual can experience physical consciousness: the physical body, the five senses, the glandular and nervous systems. This transformation of consciousness does not apply everywhere at this level of creation. In other worlds and solar systems, the transformation may differ. One can only imagine the number of these other worlds and the aspects of divine mind which they represent. When a soul enters into another level of creation and its consciousness, it separated itself temporarily from the consciousness of its own soul, and became even further removed from the consciousness of its spirit. Thus, instead of helping to direct the flow of creation and contributing to it, the soul found itself in the stream and drifting along with it. The farther the soul traveled from the shore, the more it succumbed to the pull of the current and the more difficult was the task of getting back to land.
Planets and solar systems became a temptation to souls. Each solar system had its own course and its own plan. Souls moved toward them through the activity of a constant stream of mind. When a soul leaped into the stream (by immersing itself in the system through which the stream was flowing) it had the force of the current to contend with, and its free will was hampered. It was very easy, under these circumstances, to drift with the current. Each solar system also represents an opportunity for development, advancement, and growth toward the ideal of complete companionship with God - the position of co-creator in the vast system of universal mind. Our solar system also attracted souls. Since each solar system is a single expression of the divine, with its planets as integral parts, the Earth came into the path of souls. Each solar system in the universe is like an atom in a universe of worlds. Atoms have quantum levels for electrons to travel around. The sun has "quantum levels" for planets to travel around. The planets of our solar system are physical representations of heavenly dimensions. These levels as a whole are the consciousness of our solar system. There are nine planetary/heavenly dimensions to the consciousness of our solar system. The planet Earth represents the third dimension. Earth represents three-dimensional life in our solar system. The Earth is an expression of Divine Mind with its own laws, its own plan, and its own evolution. Souls, longing to feel the beauty of the seas, the winds, the forest, and the flowers, mixed with them and expressed themselves through them. They also mingled with the animals, and made thought forms in imitation of them. Souls played at creating and imitated God. But this interfered with the evolutionary plan of the Earth. Thus, the stream of mind that was carrying out this plan for the Earth gradually drew souls into its current. Souls had to evolve into the bodies they had themselves created. This entanglement of souls into physical form was a probability from the beginning. But God did not know when it would happen until the souls, of their own free will, had caused it to happen.
Originally posted by InfaRedMan
The god of the bible is clearly not an all knowing being.
Genesis 3:9
"And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where [art] thou?"
Link
Taken from the King James Bible.
IRM
Originally posted by TheOneElectric
Under our rules and understanding, if a Omniscient, Omnipotent god being existed then the idea of free will and choice are more or less fictional ideas; at least in our level of understanding. It takes merely simple logic to question the validity of free will under Omniscience. If such an all knowing being existed, outside of space and time, all of our actions would be known to it. All of choices, before we were even here to make them, are known by our assumed God. This being knows all, it knows when all will be born and when all will die. It knows what a person will choose to have for breakfast and it knows what a person will have for dinner. It knows what route one will take to work, and what route one will take to return home. It knows all. It knows what exact words, down to the awkward verbal punctuation, one will say to their co-workers on that given day. All of our choices were known, thought of, and contemplated long before we existed under this assumed God.
How is free will or choice to be considered valid under an Omniscient God? How can our decisions make a difference to our well being if they were already crafted, like a computer program in play. Are our individual experiences and choices meaningless on a personal level? Are our choices the choices of God, therefore giving more credence to the idea of all of reality just being God experiencing?
Originally posted by InfaRedMan
The god of the bible is clearly not an all knowing being.
Genesis 3:9
"And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where [art] thou?"
Link
Taken from the King James Bible.
IRM
Originally posted by SaberTruth
Originally posted by InfaRedMan
The god of the bible is clearly not an all knowing being.
Genesis 3:9
"And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where [art] thou?"
Link
Taken from the King James Bible.
IRM
If Christians do this sort of thing, we're accused of quote mining.
Originally posted by SaberTruth
This view not only poses a false dilemma by ignoring passages that indicate the opposite,
Originally posted by SaberTruth
it also ignores the use of figures of speech; e.g. "So where ya been, huh? Didn't go near that tree, did ya?"
Originally posted by SavedOne
For someone who contributes so much to ATS this "effort" really falls short of the normal level of expected quality.
Originally posted by InfaRedMan
Irrelevant hand waving...
Sure.. by all means post more bible contradictions... or clumsy authorship. Are you sure that the passages you say indicate the opposite aren't figurative language? If so how can you tell? Is there a hand book or something I can buy?
The christian god uses 'figures of speech'? Slang terms even? Loose language from a perfect being? How odd! I don't remember any such disclaimers or footnotes in the bible claiming either figurative, literal... or slang for that matter. What I find interesting is how the literal turns into the figurative and back again depending on the individual agendas of christians.