Has any of you seen the 3-part, 6-hour special? http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/tv/ny-ettell5339008aug21,0,5879957.column Regardless of the religion portrayed, it really is not very encouraging. A rose by any other name, eh? If they had their way, then you would live your life based on their beliefs. It's all Taliban to me. If only religion was a matter of personal faith rather than a tool used to control the lives of others, then I, as an atheist, would find it more palatable. As it is, it is abhorrent. The moment it begins to organize, it seeks to control. It is a tumor on the ass of civilization, science and progress.
"God's Warriors" is an oxymoron that can be tossed in with "Holy War", "Smart Bomb" and "Military Intelligence". This is psychosis. Attack is impossible. God cannot be attacked, nor does He attack. Therefore he needs no assistance for what He never does. The world is a psychotic delusion, a mental problem in which beliefs are played out in a physical arena. The battlefield is first made "real" in the mind that believes in it. Then the warriors are sent out to fight on God's side. This is complete and utter psychosis. However, it needs to be looked at to see what drives it. To correct it we must get at the root cause, and change the mind at that crux. The root cause is a belief that it is possible to attack God, that God has been attacked, and that defenses are necessary from an inevitable retaliation from God. When a mind as powerful as the Son of God thinks such things, the results are what you seem to see. The attack belief arises from a belief that the Son of God can withdraw from a union with his Father. The withdraw represents an attack because the Son is the Father's Kingdom and represents His treasure. To withdraw means to rob the Father of his entire treasure. This is tantamount to attack by separation...making for an apartheid. You can see these themes played out on the physical arena. Having believed this, a defense was set up resulting in a world of time, space and form...the opposite of eternity, oneness, and spirit. The world is a virtual shield. It defends an illusion from the intrusion of truth. Seen only in darkness, the world shuns the light. For truth would expose it for what it is, and render it meaningless. Repression and denial rule the day. Forgetfulness becomes a "solution". Nevertheless, it is founded upon a belief in an attack on God. But God cannot be attacked or harmed. So the world is pointless. Pointless, it really has no effects that cannot be overcome by right-thinking. Right-thinking is really the only kind of "righteousness" that will lead one's mind back to reality. Meanwhile, attack is still impossible because there is but one mind that seems to attack itself. Yet all incidents of seeming attack are pre-agreed, and merely played out in the physical arena as if it were unexpected. This perpetuates the idea of injustice and guilt...keeping the whole thing going. In other words, attack is the prime means the mind uses to prove that this world is real, and worth fighting for. Note well that all three Abrahamic religions are intent upon proving that this world is real and God-given. Note well that this world is considered to be the "inheritance" God gave to His Son. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Son's inheritance is equality with his Father, in Spirit. This includes a mind equally as powerful, and creative only when it serves spirit. It is the power of this mind that the Son squanders as his own thoughts conflict with each other. The rest is history. And history is written by the temporal "winners". It's all a fruitless game of blame vs. blame. And it will be over in some millions of years. For the mind that makes it eventually wakes up from its folly. Aspects of this one mind are welcome to wake up any time they choose. Many are called, but few choose to listen. Who in their right mind would choose to remain in a battlefield? Jesus
Perhaps you should watch the telecasts when they next broadcast. Then you will see what the hordes are doing in the name of religion. Psychosis or not, they plan to affect (infect?) the lives of others in the name of their respective religions, whether or not those others are willing.
No doubt they do intend this. But they could not do this unless it was agreed that they can infect. Because it is a mutual agreement, no one is to blame. Attack is still impossible because nothing happens by chance, not even in the kingdom of darkness. That's why it is dark, so you cannot see there is none to blame! Ideas gain strength as they are shared. The idea here is to strengthen one version of an unreal world over another. Notice that each group believes that if its idea of how the world should be is made ubiquitous, then God will not attack. Therefore each idea is a defense against the truth...that God never attacks. At root then is the fear of God. The fear is unfounded. It is virtually manufactured in mind and believed in. But it is not possible to believe in anything that is not first desired, ie. wanted. So fear is wanted. Herein are the seeds of terrorism. Terrorism in the name of God is a pre-emptive strike to allay the wrath of God upon the world. It is arrogant because it assigns to God a punishing intent, and then assumes a prerogative to carry out warning strikes. These are merely surface symptoms. The solution does not lie in chasing down symptoms. Rather, we must access the cause. The good news is that by accessing the cause and changing one's own mind at that level, circumstances will change accordingly for the perciever. The cause is in memory. It is remembered as the illusions of injustice are forgiven for what they are...illusions. It is entirely possible to access invulnerability by giving up attack thoughts in every way, shape and form. This is accomplished by denying that you can be attacked, or that you can attack others. When you assign guilt to yourself, you are attacking yourself...so that does not work toward invulnerability. The solution is to accept innocence as your unchangeable reality, regardless of appearances. But this idea must be extended to include all living things, regardless of appearances. The reason is because there is a connection between yourself and all living things. That means for you to be innocent, so must be all. Here then is invulnerablity. Love needs no defense. Love is Self. Perfect love casts out fear. If fear is wanted, it must be wanted by an illusion of Self. The illusions must be castaways. They must reside in hell. Jesus
It's almost funny to listen to atheists squirm about religion wanting to control their lives, as they will no doubt "move on" to the next thread and tell us why the gov't aught to forcibly take away 50% our yearly income. Reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw the other day saying " focus on your own damn family". I wondered where I could get a bumper sticker saying "raise your own damn taxes". Why don't I just vent a little bit here. As long as liberals keep telling us that if you are for the war, then you should be the one to go to war, why don't they raise their own taxes, why don't they give up their own jobs for affirmative action, why don't they pay for universal health care themselves, etc. It could go on and on. The one difference I see is that religion is an option here in the US. All these gov't taxes and regulations from the left are not quite optional, if ya know what I mean.
The left? Your Righteous Wing president spent more money during his presidency than a number of the previous presidents combined. How, exactly, do you propose that all this spending be paid for? Prayer? Your GWB is no better than a teenager with a credit card. Someone else's credit card.
I saw an hour of it last night. What a total joke. the only real reporting that went on was when the legal analyst jeffrey toobin spoke about the supreme court. When Amanpour strung together some footage of abortion bombings, (years ago) and attached the name of terrorists to the christian right, I wanted to pull my hair out. As if there was a big bombing movement and it was not disavowed and not condemned by Christians. Instead of pointing to it as a radical tactic of Christian terrorists she should used it as an illustration of how christians shut down a fringe group. Amanpour is a hack with zero integrity. I wonder if cnn's reporting against Islam is just as slanted.
I agree, she was trying to draw a moral equivalence between the religions where this equivalence does not exist. A couple of Christian abortion bombers denounced and despised by the entire Christendom, a couple of religious jewish terrorist freaks whose activity is limited to a very small geographic area, who are not supported by the Jews, who are banned, arrested, prosecuted and jailed in Israel. And Amanpour tries to equate them to armies of muslim jihadists wrecking havoc and spreading terror all over the world with tacit and often explicit support and encouragement of the so called moderate muslim world.
You guys missed the point of the 6-hour documentary. I believe she was trying to convey that the various religions were trying to exert their influence on secular society, either directly or indirectly, and whether you like it or not. That was the common underlying theme. Admittedly some means are more violent while others are more insidious. However, none is pretty. The religious movement in the US is no less disturbing to me than the Taliban bullshit in the Middle East, although it is fortunately not violent in the main. For now. Even so, religious zealots of all stripes want for the rest of the world to do their bidding, be it a Moral-Majority-like movement, the Taliban, or whatever. Their objective is to impose their will on you. And that is the sum and substance of organized religion.
That's certainly true but please keep in mind that every individual and every organization in every country wants to exert some sort of influence on the society, this is not a news. It's therefore no surprise that all organized religions want to have their concerns taken into account. The real question is what specifically these religions want and what methods they use to achieve their goals and this is where similarities between them end. The religious movement in this country wants abortion ban, school prayer and a couple of other minor things. While I mostly disagree with them comparing these demands with Islam which wants complete domination of all aspects of public and private life, with Sharia law requiring death penalty for marital infidelity or conversion from Islam, with Taliban/Iran stoning girls for flirting etc is not exactly fair and accurate. And of course lest we forget the violence Islam regularly resorts to to exert the influence of the religion of peace on muslim and non-muslim societies.