. April 12, 2007 SouthAmerica: Reply to Nitro The book we now know as the Bible was compiled at the end of the fourth century A.D. Around the year 350 A.D. two completely separate groups of the church went through all kinds of literature of the time and they decided which texts should belong to this new book that they were creating that eventually became what we know today as the Bible. The Church left out of their selection for one reason or another many texts that people used at that time as part of religious Gospel. Some of the literature was suppressed by the Church, because it did not fit the churchâs thinking of that time, and these texts were not included among the chosen Gospels that became the Bible. .
I am still deciding whether to put this comment in the A group or B group. Oh, what the hell: A group! Jesus!
There is no BS. Your lack of analytic power on that last one was awe-inspiring. I truly think you could have heard the Gettysburg address, and been the only one in the audience who said "Is that all???"
Wrong again: It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it. -- Albert Einstein, 1954, from Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, Princeton University Press The mystical trend of our time, which shows itself particularly in the rampant growth of the so-called Theosophy and Spiritualism, is for me no more than a symptom of weakness and confusion. Albert Einstein, quoted in Madalyn Murray O'Hair, All the Questions You Ever Wanted to Ask American Atheists (1982) vol. ii., p. 29 To be sure, the doctrine of a personal God interfering with the natural events could never be refuted, in the real sense, by science, for this doctrine can always take refuge in those domains in which scientific knowledge has not yet been able to set foot. But I am persuaded that such behaviour on the part of the representatives of religion would not only be unworthy but also fatal. For a doctrine which is able to maintain itself not in clear light but only in the dark, will of necessity lose its effect on mankind, with incalculable harm to human progress.... Albert Einstein, Science, Philosophy, and Religion, A Symposium, published by the Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in Their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life, Inc., New York, 1941 http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/einstein.htm
I have experience with meditation although I was doing it with the goal of being able to drop in during change overs on the tennis court. I did spend a very considerable amount of time meditating. I might suggest to you, in all seriousness, the "highest" state men achieve is achieved while surfing. The years of practice, focus and acceptance that you are doing nothing unless you yield to the will of nature. The necessity that you live in harmony with the rhythms of the earth. Not many people can surf well enough to get inside a large wave without laying a foundation for their surfing. . Standing up inside one of natures greatest creations. Just to be there you have to be so skilled, so focused yet so relaxed. Even though you are risking your life on a large standup barrel you are not even thinking about that while you are in it. You are aware you are about to find the sweetspot, you see wall about to throw and then you are just not really there. Transcendant experiences (which is what I realize I was seeking quite frequently until I got married) are critical to living a worthwhile life - I am not sure they are God experiences. They may show you what his realm is like, but I do not think you are in the presence of God. (of course that is my speculation.)
Thats funny. I was raised a fundamentalist baptist. My father even started a baptist church in our small town that still exists today. I spent 50 years as a believer until with the advent of the internet i was able to learn enough truth to see through the mass delusion. Now i am free to let the evidense determine what i believe.
Just because He was brilliant doesn't mean that He is right about his religious beliefs or maybe I should say unreligious beliefs. I don't care what anyone says, I believe in what I believe and I believe that God exists.