Yes, but I think you may be missing something here. Religion is supposed to be a personal thing. A bond between man and his God. It is supposed to be spiritual and individual. However, when such people aggregate to exert political pressure, I think they overstep their bounds. It is especially troubling because the fundamentalists of any religion begin indoctrinating their children at an early age. At its extreme, such people don't have their own moral compass, they get it from a book. A book that can be interpreted in pretty much any way that a manipulating influence may choose. As for your reference to Sharia law, what about the various christian demands to have the 10 commandments in courts of law? Should religion really find itself in the legal system, however tangential? I'm roman catholic by birth, but atheist by choice. However, I can imagine how someone of a different religion may feel having to deal with the courts that display the commandments of a religion other than their own. I'm not being politically correct here. I just have trouble accepting matters of "faith" and mythology when they edge their way into any legal system. The legal system is for thinking, critical men, not praying men of faith. A person can be both, I suppose, but not at the same time. Yes, there is the valid question of degree that you bring up. However, make no mistake. Both groups are trying to accomplish essentially similar goals. They are just going about it in a different fashion.
Like many of you, I'm sure, I get the occasional knock on the door from a person who wishes to talk about the glory of their religion. I give them the thanks but no thanks spiel as quickly as possible, and they all go on their merry way to the next door. None of them - Mormon, Unificaition Church, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc. have ever threatened me, my loved ones, or my country with violence for not converting to their faith. There is but one religion on earth that has millions of adherents who DO want to harm me, my loved ones, and my country, and tens of millions more supposedly moderate adherents whom I am convinced would stand idly by and not interfere with their fanatical brothers' deadly work if they were given the opportunity. When Mormons, Jews, Buddhists, Taoists, et al start strapping bombs to themselves and blow up American school buses, movie theaters, and restaurants and hijack airplanes and fly them into sky scrapers, I'll add them to my "Wants to See Me Dead" list to share space with a good chunk of the Muslims, much of Europe, and a healthy portion of my very own country's moonbats.
Your point is well taken. I am no less concerned about potential violence at the hands of "jihadists" than you are. However, the documentary was about more than that. It is the manner in which religion is insidiously creeping back more and more into secular society. "Intelligent Design" in the science classes of a first world country?! Because evolution contradicts Genesis?! Are we back in the Dark Ages again? Lobbying for laws to be amended to coincide with fundamentalist interpretations of the bible on matters such as abortion and gay marriage and who knows what else to follow? The lobbying for the 10 commandments to be displayed in court houses? These are all steps in the direction of our own version of Sharia law. One baby step at a time. As I noted in an earlier post, religion is man's attempt at "spirituality." It is a personal thing. I'm not a believer myself, but I'm all for that sort of thing for those who seek it. I am perfectly willing to accept anyone's right OF religion if they will equally respect my right FROM religion. Does that make any sense at all to you?
Yes, they seem to be misguided by separating the condition of the world from the conditions in their minds. And then, by trying to fix the conditions outside before looking at what is inside, they waste time. Perhaps you could help me get this message across to them. After all, you seem to know what religion ought to be about, yes? That way, you could teach them a way of thinking that won't bother you any more. That way they would simply leave, and go back to One Spirit, leaving you to rest in peace. That way, you could have hell all to yourself to fix up any way you like. Sound like a plan? Jesus
They're all getting high on the record opium we're growing in Afghanistan. A few more years of this, and they won't be much of a threat at all. <embed src="http://vidmax.com/img/vidmax_player.swf" width="450" height="447" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" flashvars="xml=http://vidmax.com/index.php/videos/playlist/&id=3166&autoPlay=true&bg=http://vidmax.com/img/back.jpg" scale="showall" name="index" />
Absolutely, and I agree with it. Unfortunately, it does not make sense to millions of Muslims. To them people like you are damned as you would be unwilling to convert to Islam, and therefore you must die. Yeah, there are Americans who want Christianity to become more entwined with our laws and society at large. But they're not promoting and carrying out killing innocent civilians if their demands aren't met.
So, Salem means nothing to you then..... Or the wholesale persecution of "heathen" indians....... Or blacks, which in case you didnt notice , was based largely on negroes, being considered "inferior" due to the bible not having been revealed to them, specifically.
Uh, hello Ac, I am talking about the here and now. To the best of my knowledge, there are no pockets of Christianity in the USA where women are being accused of being witches and burned alive anymore. Was it horrific? Of course.... The history of the US government's treatment (murder, incarceration, transplanting of entire tribes, etc.) of Native American Indians is of course shameful. Slavery, of course, was inhumane on all levels. Is that clear enough to you? Why do you assume that simply because I recognize the current threat of radical Islam, that I am not only ignorant of the shameful episodes in my country's history but have no sympathy for the victims?
in this time frame on earth? Is earth in the fourth dimension moving in the fifth dimesnion? I love all life. Can photon energy be used in this timeframe on earth to change the power structure of the world? I believe fear is an illusion. Certain religious teaching have spoke about false prophets? Dogma? Is there a concept of duality ? Questions. A healing prayer of love to all life.
Think of time as a holograph. Picture an apple for example. And "you" seem to be worming your way through it, this way and that way, relative to decisions you make. And there is more or less pain along the way as you decide. There are worlds, dimensions, consciousness zones...each having their own big bang origin. There are levels, differences, changes, cycles...all very confusing. There seem to be unlimited numbers of choice-decisions to make. But no matter what path you take through it, it is a finite, closed system going nowhere. And if you are moving through it in a linear mode, it is because you value past and future. Guilt is the consciousness mechanism that maintains a linear experience of past and future. It sets up a frame of mind in which a "crime" must have been committed in the past, requiring a state of future expectation of reprisal-punishment. Therefore to worm through the apple as an individual entity, you must somehow hold on to a sense of guilt, even if it's buried at deep unconscious - "rotton" - levels of mind. And all paths will eventually lead to some kind of "punishment" as expected. It may come in the form of a car crash, or a financial loss. All seem unexpected as if by chance. But the system is closed, and all outcomes are pre-scripted. As this relates to script.earth and it's legions of inhabitants, there will be wars, and rumors of wars. Nation will rise up against nation. Civilizations will come and go. The experience will differ somewhat as the collective decision making worms it's way through a pre-scripted array of cycles, seasons, ages and various changes. 2012 is said to be the end of something. It will just be the end of a cycle and the beginning of a new. Technology will be developed and refined as it was in the days of Atlantis. Time will end only for those who accept universal innocence. All will inevitably accept it, ending the apple entirely. Relative states of acceptance may correspond to more "enlightened" consciousness zones and experiences. Civilization will seem to rise. Experience of the trans-temporal mind that makes the holograph of time will be sought, tapped, and seen as a source of physical healing, psychic strength and technological advance. But then, this type of thing has been going on for a long time, even on the face of the earth. These are cycles. It's carrot and stick. Along with the great leaps of seeming advancement, there will be great declines and catastrophe. Solutions will be invented, to be followed by yet more problems cropping up. The trend in this cycle is toward bigger, badder, faster, more, better, flashier...offset with equally deep downsides and side-effects. In other words, more extreme. Headlines will continue to be shocking. New energy sources will be developed. What eludes discovery for those who value its gifts, is that energy is a form of fear. It is the thought of fear projected. All form is made up of energy. Thus, form is concretized fear. And because fear is an illusion, so must be all form that is built upon it. If form were to to be real, then there would be a duality in which both form and spirit coexisted. But because only one of these stands forever unchanged and unshakable, there is really no duality. The natural state of creation is pure, non-dual formless spirit. This is where perfection is found. A false prophet is merely one who uses the pre-scripted nature of form to perpetuate duality because that is what he values. Valuing duality he must value a split mind, valuing both darkness and Light, Love and fear. A false prophet does not see or lead beyond the apple, or beyond the various dream scenarios within it. These are distinguished by a high valuation of form, as if to spiritualize form and make it sacred, permanent, worth worshipping, worth fixing the problems associated with it, worth mastering, or worth fighting for. Some of those solutions have to do with regional or global type of unity. This is a substitute for the reality of oneness of Spirit. The latter brings peace, while the former brings an illusion of peace. A true prophet would use the pre-scripted nature of form to dissuade it's participants from continuing with a game of carrot and stick. This kind of prophet leads the worms out of the apple, so-to-speak, back to the timeless eternal, back to the non-duality of Spirit. But both the false and the true can be used for learning purposes to a mind that is willing to perceive correctly and seek the truth with Help. The false wastes time, the true saves time. So long as there seems to be time, there will be pain as the punishment for perceived guilt catches up to one's experience of duality...which is separateness. A dual mind experiences illusions because a split mind is an illusion. Thus, duality robs you of the experience of your natural state of being...so really it's not a dual experience. The experience is of a home away from home, scrapping for every piece of bread to put on the table. The most creative vocation in this environment is to be a healer. Healing is always for the mind, and for wholeness of mind. So it has much to do with fear reduction. You would do well in this department. When fear is gone, there is only love. Jesus