Samwise Ganja

Im a Unitarian Universalist, love and peace to all

__________________
I live for the nights i won't remeber with the friends i'll never forget

Genesis 3:18 "... thou shalt eat the herb of the field."


Proverbs 15:17 "Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith."[1]


Psalms 104:14 "He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man."

Green-Lantern

Do you think love and peace to all are in the instincts of a human being? Look at us when we're babies, we're completely selfish, and not until we're taught to act another way do those insticts go away.

__________________

Triklino

Yeah, but Jesus' teaching's take up like... 1/3 of the entire bible, since it's just New Testament.

Green-Lantern

Alright fair enough, but the point is that there is so much contradiction in the bible and it is supposedly a message from the divine. Doesn't matter who wrote the bible, it says whoever wrote each part of the bible got sent messages from god or jesus. A divine being wouldn't send contradicting messages, a divine being is flawless. IT'S A SCAM!! AHHHHH.

Triklino

Yeah, point taken. I in no way agree with the majority of the shit the bible says, but I am a huge fan of Jesus. Whether or not there was a real Jesus is up for speculation, and I'm going to be interpreting the stories written about him as pure fiction. That being said, the story OF jesus is a great one. Through all the adversity that he was shown, he stuck to his guns. When times were tough, he showed his natural human side and even questioned his father (god). That is what makes jesus such a likeable person for me, personally. I could do without all the preachings and shit like that, I just think the dude lived a solid, ethical and moral life. I think went on a tangent there, sorry .

But yeah, everything contradicting itself is what makes me hate the book and the religion.

Green-Lantern

The story of jesus is a great story. I'll be sure to read it to my future kids during bed time. But I'm not gunna tell them to live by it and believe every word of it.

Logos

The new testament story of Jesus is quite limited in scope,a nd misses out on a HUGE chunk of his life. For a much more detailed biography of his "theoretical" life, check out the Aquarian Gospel in my signature. You can read the whole thing free on the internet, or used copies of the book sell at amazon for a buck fifty plus shipping.

Judge for yourself the truthfulness of the message Jesus gave to the world.

Peace and Love,

__________________
Brother Logos
The more I learn, the less I know. | Truth doesn't change, only our perception of it does.
THC Ministry | The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ | The Reluctant Messenger of Science and Religion
True religion is real living, living with all one's soul, with all ones goodness and righteousness. --Albert Einstein

bigfatpothead

I was raised pentacostal and grew to hate religion. I was into science and provable truths. I eventually became what I believed was an atheist. Then, My mother died. I was very distraught and prayed to God asking "If there is anything to this life after we die, then why isn't there a 'Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy' for humans?"
within 10 minutes a guy on the radio ( I listened to a lot of talk radio as a young man), WLW in Cincinnati, named Randy Michaels, said "I just finished reading a book caled the Urantia book, It seems to be some sort of Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy for humans" I was floored, I had just asked God for a friggin' Hitchhikers guide and then this guy on the radio tells me the book is out there! It was too much, I wrote it down but I spelled it wrong, I wrote "Yerancha", I couldn't find that book anywhere, I called all the book stores and becasue I spelled it wrong, no one could find it. I did however acquire a new belief in the afterlife just because the guy on the radio used my exact words. I studied all different religions. I decided to study the "Black Arts" and moved to Atlanta, Let me be the one to warn you, If you go to Atlanta, the "Black Arts Festival" has nothing to do with witchcraft!
Anyway I was in Atlanta when I happened upon an Encyclopedia of the Unexplained, under U I read the word Urantia, and I realized my stupid mistake in hunting the book. I called the first bookstore in the directory and they had six copies, $40 each. I told my roommate the whole story I just told you and the next day when he came home from work he had a copy of the Urantia book, still in the box. He tossed it to me and said when you get the money you can pay me for it! I was floored again, I never asked him to buy it, never even hinted that he buy it. After reading the forward and a couple of pages of contents (this took me a couple of days) I decide I needed to be alone to read this book. Then I got a phone call from my acid dealer and he had a gift for me. He brings me a ten sheets of Acid all on one page and the ten sheets together were a big picture of jesus with a glowing heart.. 2 days later I packed up everything I owned and headed for albany Ga. where I found an Apt for $200 a month. I paid 6 months in advance , got my cable tv turned on and 3 days later, Albany Ga. FLOODS. The water came to within 6 feet of my door. I went to the nearest store and stocked up on food and Mt. dews. before the rush of people emptied the stores. I was doing acid and reading the Urantia bookand the coincidences were abound. My favorite is this one then I will end my story. I was reading in the Urantia book about Melchizedek sending a teaching mission around the globe teaching a condensed version of the 10 commandments. I said outloud while I was tripping, "If they did that there would be some kind of physical proof !!" and son of a gun if The TV didn't just up and answer me. CNN said, within 5 minutes of me saying that, "Scientists have uncovered a large stone in Los Lunas New Mexico that has a condensed version of the 10 commandments written on it in ancient hebrew, scientists say the writing is over 5000 years old"
That was the point in which I decided to believe the Urantia book was for real and a true "revelation from God"

Logos

That is an awesome story, thanks so much for sharing it. It's hard to doubt in the face of all of that eh?

Coincidentally, just last night I was reading in The Aquarian Gospel the following:

I may be taking this a bit out of context, but to state simply, he who reads what you write knows not, but you know, for you have experienced for yourself. Each of us must know for ourselves, or else we really don't know.

Wayne Dwyer is fond of saying there is no such thing as a coincidence, The Tenth Insight (book 2 of The Celestine Prophecy) points to the idea that coincidence is the universe's way of helping us along the path we have chosen before we came into this lifetime.

I could recite many such coincidences regarding what you speak of. Either it is God's way of reaching us, or it is mere fancy. All I truly know is that each of us is on our own journey, and no one journey is quite like another.

To each their own...

Peace and Love

IGemini

I'll expand on my original post since I have some time.

As I said, I was raised Catholic, and was fairly proactive. Was singing in the choirs for a long time, was an altar server for eight years, a lector for three, and instructed catechism for two. A lot of people suggested (and sometimes assumed, unfairly) that I would be going to seminary to practice in the faith. Even though as a child I had no real plan of what I was going to do beyond high school, I was too set on getting married and having children of my own someday.

Around the time I was getting set for college, I was starting to really process the doctrine and the perceptions of the Church for myself, and I wasn't liking where it was going. The history was nothing stellar, and this was around the time when pastoral pedophilia really came to light. I questioned the morality of the leadership and really became distanced from the Church altogether.

Later during my time at university I found that religion, in many forms, is an exceptionally strong part in the grieving process. Around this time, I came to the conclusion that I just have problems with a lot of the dogma dealing with people have to conduct themselves during life. But I can't say I know anything about the afterlife. The current theory I've been considering is what I might describe as religious determinism. In so many words, what you believe also determines what you experience in death. I'm still not entirely sure what I believe for myself yet, though.