I am willing to concede the existence of God. My only question would be, What is the lesson to be learned from dying children? I read in the bible the God struck down 42 children for calling a priest, baldy. Funny, until you spend a day in busy ED, or a bad day in the Neonatal ICU. If some things I have witnessed are a testament to God's "love", well.....how about a few medical examples. Bone Cancer Pancreatic Cancer ALS MS Altzheimer's disease(which is particularly cruel to the families) It seems to me a loving God would find better ways to cull the population. Should we question this? Absolutely. Otherwise God would have given us the brains of a lizard. But, being all knowing and everything, he would have to had known that questions like these would be asked, right? So, In giving us the ability to think, he is giving us implied authority to question the world around us.
Atheist actually simply have questions about a story and a book so full of holes that a first year lit professor would fail the writers for lack of coherence. So God sends a human sacrifice so save the humans that he made from sins that he knew would be committed. He could have stopped all of that by simply not planting that tree in the garden. In fact, God tells us that he is going to send himself to die for everyone's sin. Except that he can't die, because he is God. So, for Jesus to die on the cross would be rather decietful, don't you think? After all, Jesus knew that he could not die, otherwise he could not be God, unless God is hiding his death from himself. :eek:
Kg.2:23-24 2:23 And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. 2:24 And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.
Where exactly in the verses you quote does it say God killed them? It looks to me like it says a bear killed them.
I'm in the helping professions. Questions are good. pre-Judgements are something else. Questions move toward knowledge and solutions. pre-Judgments shut down consciousness, preventing solutions. Solutions exist. Questions find them, pre-conclusions hide them. Let your compassion guide you. Already it has led you to question the thinking process. That is good. Do not underestimate the power of the heart to bring forth a higher intelligence, a higher awareness and greater solutions to existence than you would ever have anticipated. This is why so many times people will experience a miracle of healing in the face of death; They think, 'I only have six weeks to live', and then let go of external demands. The mind loses all importance, and loved ones become dearer than ever. All of a sudden the heart-fire burns brightly, whether through grief, joy, contentment, or resignation. Only then, through the fire of the heart, is a miracle possible. Most people facing death go ahead and die to the world of structure, and then at last they really live. Because when you live in the heart, you live immortally; you live eternally. The issues of life are like a broken points in a circle of wholeness. They are very specific in nature and can be repaired only with correct assessment. From the beginning of consciousness, man has searched for the "Grand Plan", in hopes that he would discover some holistic imprint for all existence and then learn to administer it as a technology. If such could be done, then the ultimate panacea --the cure for all ills -- could simply be laid upon the Earth like a golden blanket, and no more problems! If such a thing existed, it surely would be the most valuable commodity upon the earth! There is a holistic imprint. But it cannot be summarized in a blueprint, nor monopolized by technology. That imprint is love. There is no matrix, gridwork, or blueprint large enough to catch it all! Still there are no panaceas. Even love must be given and nurtured with respect for particulars of reality and restored at the points where it has been broken. It is the nature of holistic reality that any fracture or disruption of order is very particular in kind and occurrence, yet the contributing factors may be many or varied. The very idea of a panacea is a misconception of workability. It is characteristic of the naive, the desperate, or the mercenary to gravitate toward archetypal concepts which can be represented as panaceas. The hope is to cover all bases with a generality that promises to correct hidden ills without ever acknowledging or delving into them. When I said long ago that a man couldn't be redeemed from his ills without confessing them, I was not being accusative or invasive. Actually that was a very scientific statement for those days and times. It means that you must be subject specific in your handling of life! You may break a circle at any place you choose, but I assure you that it can be rejoined only at the very place of the fracture. There are no magic circles that descend in polite generalities and repair problems without exposure and clarification of them. Nor can you handle one problem by polishing something else which was not broken. If the foundation of a house is cracked, you are not going to fix it with a new roof or camouflage it with landscaping. The same is true of broken relationships, broken plans, and broken hearts. Find out where the break really occurred. Fix it there...or not. The critical mass today in all technologies is not with the science itself, but in human expectations about it. For example, the field of high-tech medicine has brought countless blessings to mankind --answers that were only dreamed of a hundred years ago. Its accomplishments, however, have been so dazzling as to suggest a new panacea for all human ills. This is a more dangerous illusion than you might think, because whenever anything is regarded as a panacea then unrelated injuries will transfer their symptoms to that domain. Let's consider, for example, a man who has suffered financial failure. Instead of confronting and handling it in a subject-specific way, he may have a heart attack. That way a panacea, which he believes in -- medicine --, might come to the rescue and give him the new lease on life he needs. Chemical medication, in general, has come to be regarded as a panacea, even though many human ailments are not chemical in nature. Now a world full of distress is transferring its symptoms into chemical dependency. It is the nature of all panaceas to illicit transference. Eventually they fail to provide all the solutions promised, but in the meantime they become a magnet for ills that need to be dealt with in other ways. You should be careful to understand that any problem will transfer its symptoms to whatever it believes contains the solution, but the eternal truth is that solutions will be found only in relation to actual causes. Respect for this should be ingrained in any scientific procedure. this is an infinitely workable universe, but you cannot make it work by avoiding its issues or by hiding behind generalities that promise you a rainbow for breakfast. These phenomenon are not limited to physical health. Any panacea is a dangerous illusion. Eventually all panaceas will self-destruct. Education, for example, is very beneficial, but general education enforced by public regulation is not the panacea for social ills that is was believed to be. Now all the ills that it cannot handle have transferred their symptoms into the public school system. The best example I can give you on the perils of panacea is that of money. Money is a marvelous lubricant for life. It keeps the wheels turning, but the hope that it can cure the ills of the world has brought all the evils of the world into its domain. This is a subject-specific universe which honors the presence of its Creator in all things. Can the idea of God not also be perceived as a panacea --a cure all? That all depends on whether they're referring to God as an idea or as reality!. In reality, God is subject-specific, a guiding force in all that is. When one knows God in reality, he has all the answers potentially in front of him. Where is there not God? It is the job of science to address the workability of particulars and to strive for explanations and understanding within categories of common probability. This is an unassuming pursuit, but a very noble one, for it will take man to the threshold of infinity. Such attitudes generate respect for life, for infinity, and all particulars of existence. Infinity is the universal factor that allows quantities to be translated to quality and qualities to be translated to quantity. Therefore it relates to the transmission of potential in every dimension of reality. It is through this function that the particles of infinity synchronize with the power of love. Perhaps this is why man gravitates toward panaceas, because he instinctively seeks for contexts of commonality and predictability. The instinct is healthy, but the mistake lies in man's reliance upon archetypal formulas, which have been artificially imposed upon life instead of being distilled from life's intrinsic nature and true tendency. Discernment, acknowledgment, and workability are humbling attitudes, but without them you do not have science. Through them, you have the love connection -- the caring for particulars that moves live forward, and the devotion to workability, which is a primary impulse of love. It is imperative that man change his viewpoint and look toward physical infinity and the reality of God if he would bring forth upon the Earth a brotherhood of peace and prosperity. Within this change of viewpoint he will find both the physical and the spiritual answers for which he has been looking. The purpose of science is to expand understanding of life and to make life work. Since man is dealing with energy defined by the principles of conservation, he understands it only as a scarcity. This is reinforced by the fact that the primary source of energy he can perceive and understand is solar supply. This supply is suffused through the whole planetary system and works its way up through all the patterns of life. Because there is limitation and dependency within this system, there is also competition. Thus the strong, the aggressive, and the highly conservative forces dominate. As long as man's primary supply of energy is subject to such scarcity, there will be no system of social democracy that can last long upon the Earth. Science is the pursuit of workability, developing consciousness about how life works, and applying that consciousness toward solving the problems of living. Any activity which employs that attitude and process is science. True intelligence is innately humble -- not in a self-effacing way -- but in the way of innocent perception and workable discernments of reality. There is a key to the universe. All the answers are right in front of you. Its secrets are unlocked by formulating your question. Without the right question, the answer is invisible. Therefore, approach reality with a humble, inquiring mind, open in heart and perception, and free of judgment. If you will ask the right questions, all will be revealed! Namaste, Jesus
Yeah, but God didn't make people really that smart. From Newton to Einstein it took about 300 years. You got to have lots of time and patience even to find a little key.
LOL...what? You made that up! Or at least it sounds like you did. But you're right, I looked it up and there it was in Kings. Sounds positively absurd.
True. I am completely assured of my immortality. I could not "die" so-to-speak. It would be deceptive to say that I could die, but that's not what I said. And ye too are "gods" that cannot die. Death is not what I came to experience. Death is a clearing house for useless identities. I came to experience separation from my Father, which was more painful than any of the torture I received. I had never experienced separation before, nor had I ever created a fiction about myself that would cause me to experience the illusion of death. In deliberately separating, I applied love to the point at which mankind became broken from wholeness. With love, I touched a point of infinity where quantity transforms into quality, and quality transforms into quantity. This is how I multiplied the fishes. In a subject-specific universe, I applied a remedy to the problem of the cycle of judgment that keeps you separated from God. The deception, ironically, is that it is only you who believes you are separated from God. That is, the part of yourself that has created this fiction that you can die. Thus, it is only that part of you that believes you can and must die...that must die! That is the only part that can...and must...die. That part is such an overwhelming part of you that is robbing you of your freedom...that is why I said you must "die" to yourself in order to live. When you have really understood this, you no longer need physical deaths and rebirths to educate your soul. You will then see that death, like separation...is an illusion you can choose to overcome. I came to make it easier for you to overcome this illusion. I transformed separation itself back into the illusion it has always been, and made it easier for you to pick up a sword of truth and cut the veil of this illusion. Once you get this, the physical body is no longer under the influence of limited supplies of energy from this solar system. You have all created fictions about yourselves that cause illusions of limitation, pain and suffering. If you choose, you can now see your "mistakes" as acts of love...if only to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt, that you, and every being has free will. That is a valuable lesson. Learning it, you no longer have use for lessons of pain and suffering. You can now know that you ARE love, and life is love in action. Namaste, Jesus
Look around you. People are 'dying' in your hospitals. YOU are the children who are dying. By mocking legitamate sources of knowledge that can deliver you from peril, you, (mankind) fall victim to the peril. Currently, you are in peril of endlessly dying and rebirthing under a solar system that does not supply enough energy for your physical body to continue...to ascend...to move on in this galactic schoolhouse. The bears are Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. Here in this region of the galaxy in which the negative intelligences live...who's mental energies are spent keeping you as gravitationally trapped light under a solar system whos radiations eventually devour your bodies. In this way you supply them with opportunities for bodies they find hard to come by. Their geometries are cubic and their evolutions are entropic. Their number is according to their cubic geometries...6-6-6. These intelligences are "God" to your imagination...hence, "God sent..." Prophets come from Orion, the Pleaides, Archturus...and associated regions...with information that can deliver you from this system. Do you laugh at them? The great Pyramid teaches you, through it's dual alignments with Ursa Major on the one side, and Orion on the other...that there is a choice along a dual path. The Bible is coded deeper than you realize. Namaste, Jesus