I do definite God differently than most people do. As I've mentioned I am not religious, I'm spiritual. So I don't follow a religion, I follow my own values and morals. I developed these beliefs through many years of examining life and the world around me and determining what feels right and true to me. I also had a spiritual teacher for a few years.
To me, and people like us, God is bigger than all of us, and this world, God is not petty nor does God submit to anger, he is all love and forgivness. God loves everybody equally, and we are all God's children. I believe that God has a plan for us as a whole, but not for each one of us individually, but that all he asks of us is to better and evolve our souls through serving others.
I do believe in heaven, reincarnation and souls. Especially in souls, I believe we all have the power in our souls to split the sky in two and let the face of God shine trough, through must spiritual training and growth. I believe we all have many lives and grow and evolve through each one of them, all leading up to something- Unknown to all of us for a good reason.
I do believe in hell, but it isn't a firey pit where the devil sits on a throne, more an absence of God. I also believe we put ourselves there, by straying down a dark path, God does not send people to hell or punish us. God is merciful and ever forgiving.
Overall, God is very important to me and I am so very grateful for His love and forgiveness, and my beliefs are very important to me.
People always find my view of God either very interesting, very perfect, or very different! Does anyone else have the same views? Or similar?
I hope you don't mind but I wrote a paper a few years ago when someone was questioning whether there was a god and the validity of the Bible. Tell me what you think.
Take away the Bible and you've removed a book. The fact that you have removed one thing won't change whether people have a connection to "something spiritual". Banning the church in communist countries didn't destroy religion. Peoples all over the world believe in some form or other of a spiritual connection. The name doesn't make a difference. The thing that most people rebel about religion isn't actually God but the Church. Originally, it was supposed to be a place for believers to gather to have support and learn. Unfortunately, as with many groups, people who wanted power took control and started making rules that came from god.
Well, now we bring up the Bible. The Bible isn't the word of God. It is man trying to put into words history, laws, culture, and their understanding of how life worked. If the Bible is the word of God, dictated by God; then there are thousands of books published today that God told people to write. What we consider the Bible was written and rewritten hundreds of times, influenced by the men and groups that wrote them. Think of how many things that have even been written about, in the last hundred years or so that need explanation to understand today. Words and phrases we use today have no relationship to their original meanings. Everything is in interpretation. The plagues of Exodus have been explained scientifically, how one thing lead to the next. Who caused it? I don't know, but it the fact that science can verify not that it happened but that the way it is described is possible, gives it some believability. The world being created in seven days? If you understand cosmic time, all of recorded time is just the blink of an eye. All depends on who's keeping time. It is interesting that the sequence of evolution pretty much matches the "beginning". Oh, by the way, "man came from dirt?"; that actually true. Ask almost any scientist and they'll tell you that everything is made of "stardust". The same elements found throughout the universe is in the Earth, the dirt and us.
No one can say without a doubt it never happened. The bible is some part, does recount history. Is it the absolute truth? I wouldn't depend on that. If a story is told that happened thousands of years ago and scientists say that the sequence is valid, I wouldn't completely discount it. Many or most myths are based in fact. That doesn't mean that the story you hear is the absolute truth, it means that something happened that needed to be put into context for the listeners at that time. There are still hundreds(thousands?)that still don't believe that we landed men on the Moon.
As I said, everything is in interpretation. The water turns to blood - have you never heard of a red tide? Did you know that if you gave someone, in the middle east, a glass of white wine, two thousand years ago, they would believe you turned water into wine. White wine was unknown then, in that part of the world. I don't care if you wish to believe there is a god or not. I certainly don't condone any killing or wars because someone decided they wanted wealth or more control and power over people. I was only suggesting that being open minded is usually the attitude to have. I, my self, cannot stand liver and onions, I've tried many times to eat it. I have even tried when I didn't know what I was eating. I can't stand it. But I do understand that just because I would rather not eat than have liver and onions doesn't mean that millions of people around the world that love it, are wrong.
" we know of no case of a disembodied conscious intelligence ever existing" ; science is finding things they thought were impossible, as being fact, all the time. History is full of "stories" of people that said they received their information from "a disembodied consciousness". It makes no difference what you call this source. To deny any possibility is to deny all scientific progress. Almost everything we know today was at one time deemed impossible.
Scientists have the same problem explaining electricity. You don't have to understand anything about water to use it. The same can be said about electricity. Science is still trying to understand it, they know how to use it. Please do your research. They are still trying to understand energy. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/energy-can-neither-be-created-nor-destroyed/
THAT is the whole point. Science is learning all the time. To flat out say something is impossible is shortsighted now adays. When I was growing up, the vast majority of scientists were sure WE were the only beings in the universe. That Earth was the only planet where life could exist. Every day they are finding more and more earth-like planets that they thing could support life as we know it, I have forgotten whether it was in the hundreds or thousands. The position you have taken puts you in the same category as those who say God is real because I say so.
You are on the right path. I've studied astrology and metaphysics for 30+ years. I've found that we all come into this physical plane to perfect our spirits, learn lessons that can not be understood on the spiritual plane. Something like trying to teach someone about swimming and never being in water. We all have paths that lead us from A to B, with many ways of getting there. We are free to choose which path we wish. None are wrong, but some will not get us where we want to go. I could go on and on.
There is evil, a darkness that does not let in the light of truth and healing. But the persona of the devil is only a boogieman our ancestors created to give power to their teachings. The Bible is more of a history book, telling of generations of struggle and laws. Or at least the Old Testament is. The New Testament is another question. Written many years after those in the story were gone and written and rewritten to tell the story that the Church wanted to tell, at that time.
Your paper is full of logic and wisdom, Sir! I liked it very much, good job and thank you for sharing with me. :) You should post that as a story here so other people can be influenced.
I agree with you, BC. And I got my information from my heart and my spiritual teacher. No, I do not believe in the Bible but I do believe in evil and the devil.
