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i am saying i would rather use scientific method than take someones word for it...that is it...but that is not biased as you claim it is...it is about as open minded as you can get...i just refuse to be handed the information, until it can be proven...but as with anything discovered, it has to be repeatable before it can be definitely counted as true without a doubt...it has to show a clear pattern...that means people must independently repeat the experiment or research to see if they achieve the same results...since subjective things like the afterlife are not able to be easily repeated or proven, then there is no basis for them to be substantiated...we can theorize all we want, but that theory doesn't make the theory a fact...and theories can change with new information...but that new information has got to be substantiated also before it can be taken as fact...
and again, fear is no way to convince anyone that something is true, in fact the opposite becomes obvious...that fear is used to force an untrue idea on those who allow the fear to influence them...
Just curious as to what you believe the relationship between the "unknowing" enlightenment you describe and acts of morality.
I don't know which direction you mean to take this idea, because some settle with a belief that the "unknowing" really is a knowing that inclines one towards proper action (the Christian idea), whereas others mean the unknowing in the most antinomian sense imaginable.
The trick with talking about enlightenment, or "unknowing", is that by even saying so, you turn it into a dogma - into a fixed, finite idea of what "enlightenment" is. Enlightenment may not even be a static thing: it might be conditional and subject to the individual seeking it.
Therefore, in my opinion, it's a vanity of vanities to 'explain' to someone else what (your idea of) enlightenment is.
That of course isn't to say that we can't offer advice from our own experience. That is after all what religion is about. According to the thread starter, biblical religion is worthless, unredeemable, in fact, it is "dangerous". But any level headed, non-bigoted person understands that every tradition deserves respect, including the much reviled Abrahamic religions.
Originally posted by milkyway12
reply to post by greatfriendbadfoe
I do hope for the Son of God to show his face. All those beings willing to bow and be saved and repent of all sin will be removed. All those facing God's wrath are evil, vial, and side with the destruction and chaos of Satan. So yes, may all of you be destroyed during the tribulation that wish only sin.
However, God has given you one of the easiest ways out ... regardless of your sins... i mean, you dont even have to do anything except HOPE and try.
God told you thousands of years ahead of time he will unleash his wrath upon all of the EVIL in the world. All those left on Earth are EVIL and have chosen their side in the war between good and evil. Deny him, and you side with Satan.
This is why you will have no argument at the throne of judgement. YOU have heard the word of God and his warnings. You will die on Earth for his wrath upon evil, and then you will die the second death for eternity and be forgotten in the lake of fire.
----
I mean he has told you thousands and thousands of years in advance what is going to happen and how to avoid it. So all of the GOOD will be removed, only evil will reside. ( Except for the remnant of Jews who are sealed. )
However, once the Tribulation occurs, you'll know what happened, and you can still repent. But you'll probably die during the tribulation for your beliefs. . God tells us many will know what has taken place, but will take the mark of the beast because of their weakness.
-----
No point in viewing the wrath of the old testament, it gets worse in our generation. A lot worse.
People need to stop looking on his wrath in all honesty, he gave you a way out of it ALL. God said you know what .. this is MY creation, i shall send my ONLY Son, innocent of all evil, to die for my creation that has become corrupted. I will suffer for my sinful creation, they will kill me, but i will show them i am Lord of death and Life and arise three days later.
Problem is, you dont want no part of God's salvation. Then the judgement that falls and the pain that tears through will be on your head alone. It is YOUR fault for the suffering you will face, sorry. Sounds personal.
Again, people forget that not ONE SINGLE person has to suffer during the tribulation if all of his creation repented. They would be saved if they just asked, and hoped on their Lord.edit on 27-4-2013 by milkyway12 because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by Xtrozero
reply to post by studythem1
Why do atheists spend so much time studying religion? Its like they need to prove something, look for logic loops, find conspiracies, prove that religions have blended from ancient ones of old etc... for what purpose I don't know, but I think they are wasting their time.
Correct, what ever we say about It, is not It. However, It can be experienced and it is an experience that is prior to the mind, to emotions, to any colorations or illusions.
Then I'm the Vainest SOB on ATS, because I've experienced the state of No 'I' and I shout from the rooftops to everyone on how they can experience it. Because it is a direct experience, not an "Idea Of Enlightenment" like how you propose your premise above.
hang on kiddo, tell me, how god can be a murderer???
Originally posted by studythem1
Originally posted by ivbnu
reply to post by studythem1
Hey that was a really good post. I have been mulling this over in my own mind and your explanation was just what i was looking for.
So do you discount the whole bible? Does the real creator require anything of us?
I would s&f you but I'm new here and haven't figured that out yet ( actually I'm lazy and didn't try)
Anyway I would love to hear more.
no i do not discount the whole bible...it is historical, and people & places have been proven to exist, events also, but not always when and how they are explained in the bible...the ideology of a murdering god is the thing i am most against, not the idea of a creator...psychological tyranny present in the doctrines of the Old Testement, and later expanded on by Constantine, are what i am against... they are completely contradictory to what christ taught, which was why they had to make him appear to contradict himself at times...
i do not think jesus was god incarnate, my definition of god does not coincide with that kind of nonsense, it would not even be possible to contain the vastnes of the universe in one physical human body...the last time something similar happened, (ie the singularity that became the big bang) it was so dense it exploded and created what we see around us...(this is where everything came from and where quantum physics especially resided, in theory everything existed in that moment and still exists in that dimension, thus the reason for the true possibility of heaven existing and being able to see our loved ones after they are dead...they still exist in a place without space and time...but enough on theory)
so it stands to reason the laws of nature would apply in the physical world...except for quantum physics, which is the explanation of why what we can call heaven could actually exist...but not quite as we think it is...its beyond what we can see here, but not impossible...but for jesus to have been able to merge the laws of earth physics to quantum physics, then he could either never have been human to begin with...or there is something to be said for the expansive powers of the mind that have been tapped by some people but not all...and those people are not exactly giving the secret away for people to try it out...
explain how buddhist monks can float on nothing right in front of people? no wires, no hidden posts or mirrors...could it be they have figured out how to expand the power of their minds? to tap into the quantum physical plane? to become one with air molecules? it may be possible...we just dont know for sure...
why are the same monks able to sit in the cold and stay warm like they are near a fire?
this may sound like mystical mumbo jumbo, but im talking from a different perspective...if things like this are possible when the victims of MK ultra were deprogrammed and have found out they have special superhuman abilities, then how possible would it be to learn these things without the torture?
was jesus just such a special kind of person who was born with the ability to use all his brain capacity? who knew how to tap into these special abilities, was he just a natural? could be...but if there was such a teaching, we will never know because it was all but eradicated by the jews and the church itself, in several witch hunts spanning almost from the beginnings of the church and through the inquisition...again the culprit was the establishment...afraid to lose their power...claiming enlightenment by shutting everyone else in the dark...edit on 27-4-2013 by studythem1 because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by therationalisthang on kiddo, tell me, how god can be a murderer???
either you have sub 20 iq or you are a brainwashed self declared free thinker?? which is it??
Originally posted by dominicus
reply to post by studythem1
Religion as esoteric and exoteric aspects. If you dig deep into the esoteric in all of them, you will find blueprints for Enlightenment. Very simple!!!
I don't understand. By definition, by even looking into the "abyss", or the state which precedes being, emotions, thoughts and forms that you speak of, you're still doing so from a position of "I am", that is, as a being subject to definite conditions of being. What you bring from this indeterminate state may in fact differ from what someone else brings back. Hence, my argument that not everyone comes away from this experience with the idea that everything is based on "Love, selflessness, and helping others.".
There is a logical inconsistency in positing an ontological state beyond definition, and associating that state with defined conditions like love, selflessness and helping others.
So, I think if you want to give your morals some "teeth", you have to base it in something more than the indefinable pre-being anomie. In Judaism, for example, morality derives it's basis from man's own inherent sense of right and wrong, which is to say, from learned experience. When things are placed in the "here-now", in the world and its forms, then morality can claim some authority.
Conversely, when you reference some pre-being state which transcends all form, then it is a logical impossibility to claim that this pre-state condition advises only this course of action, and no other.
If the non-dual is the Absolute truth and all else is illusory, so too does evil, anger, jealousy, sexual perversion, lose it's immediate significance. This, btw, is what allows Thailand to become the world capital for child prostitution. David Carandine, and Buddhists of his ilk, don't believe in the concept of "wrong", There heads are up in the clouds, denying the facts of experience.
And yet it is also subjective. The state itself must be intensely meaningful, but whose to say that that is the raison d'etre of existence? It's purely arbitrary to claim that. And that's my point.
But then again, I also think my connection to a more Jewish epistemology is arbitrary: it satisfies my sense of meaning.
Take the east and the west. I'm of the belief that it is not accidental that the East thinks along more abstract wholistic ways, while the west prefers to see things in a linear, cause-effect way.
I think Judaism - as it is - Christianity, as it is, with it's Helllenistic and Jewish foundations, I think all of this is the design of some mysterious architect.
I find it objectionable to insist that everyone see things from the perspective of the Eastern mystic,
just as it is objectionable to enforce western ways of thinking on easterners; Humility should teach us that not all people think the same way.
Originally posted by maes2
Originally posted by dominicus
reply to post by studythem1
Religion as esoteric and exoteric aspects. If you dig deep into the esoteric in all of them, you will find blueprints for Enlightenment. Very simple!!!
sorry, but I have a question
1- what do you mean by simple. is Enlightenment so simple. I mean putting egos aside may not be so simple.
in nowadays widespread buddhism propaganda (to alter the monotheistic religions) they say that you can do sins daily and then by yoga or some concentration you can become enlightened !
what do you think.
Originally posted by dominicus
1. Ignorance(not knowing yourself, how you operate, God, Enlightenment)
2. The Ego being programmed by the world, selfish, dealing in Illusions.
3. The Body with its testosterone coloring thought, lust enslaving reason, animalistic urges pulling one towards lower useless pursuits.
and the last thing im going to say to you is that this thread does not have the title "hijack this thread" the title is much different...so if you want to make your own thread and take this discussion about something completely off topic from what im trying to share here to another place, then be my guest, but this is not a place to hijack and take over to present your platform
Why the biblical religions are dangerous?
ok so to know yourself you have to not know yourself...sounds a bit oxymoronic or self contradicting...
then the ego is bad but its also good...hmmm
and last but not least...calling the normal functions of the human body the lesser pursuits of the world?
After some elementary math training following the accident, JP also experienced automatic visual imagery in response to certain mathematical formulas.
A friend of mine, a psychologist, brought this to my attention. Before the incident JP's two main interests were women and partying. Now his main passions are mathematics and drawing. In terms of more explicit personality traits, it appears that JP went from extroverted to introverted, from easy-going to neurotic, from careless to high achiever and from flaky to serious.
thats just the age old guilt trip psychology with a different wrapper on it...nothing new
its the things they show us, but misrepresent...not some super secret interpretation of scripture...that to me is just another waste of time...activity for the sake of activity...
i highly disagree...i think the mindless pursuits are the distractions we get from outside ourselves from the institutions of the world telling us that everything human is abnormal...and the guilty parties would also include gnosticism...its just another distraction, telling us we are wrong/sinful for being human when its impossible to be anything else in our current physical form...
i think the real truth lies somewhere in balance, not extremes to one or the other...and in not really giving too much of a flying flippin flap about anything...why worry your whole life about every little thing? that is what makes people unhappy, worrying about keeping up with their neighbors, whether or not they are good enough, or too fat, or ugly according to Hollywood...
problem is we are bombarded with this crap that falsely builds up the ego in the wrong way, instead of the self worth in the right way and then we are told to tear it down again?...thats really idiotic...
how about building self worth right to begin with...how about not worrying about the afterlife...how about not worrying about whether or not normal human bodily functions are sinful or not...
seems to me there is a whole lot of work and wasted time trying to please someone else or follow their prescription for enlightenment...