"People don't ask for facts in making up their minds. They would rather have one good, soul- satisfying emotion than a dozen facts." - Robert Keith Leavitt
Here are some of the books they chose from. Only books that supported the deity of Jesus were allowed in. They had an agenda: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/
The Gospel of Truth is the finest of the Gnostic literature, and gives you an example of what the Gnostic sects believed. Gnosticism was a combination of many earlier philosophies mixed in with some of the things I said or that people thought I said. You will find that I am in agreement with some of it, most important that the world is very much like a dream and God did not create it. Also, that it emerged out of a dense fog of fear. But like what became known as "Christianity", Gnosticism is not the best representation of what I taught. Not one complete copy of my original words in my native language survived the rise of Christianity. But the "Sayings Gospel" of Thomas, predating the Gospel of Truth by 150 years, stands as the clearest example of what the earliest gospels were like, and what they said. Even the gospel of Thomas has been diluted with others besides Thomas adding to his gospel...only 70 of the 114 sayings are original. Still, it stands as the best example of how, as Christianity became Christianity, and as Gnosticism became Gnosticism, they resembled less and less of what I taught. Thomas gives a more authentic representation of the kinds of things I said than the popular gospels. Here are some examples: The first two on this list I spoke to Thomas privately after calling him aside. When he returned to the group, they wanted to know what I said to him. I had told him not to repeat what I said because they would have endangered him as "blasphemy"....with the penalty of stoning. So when he returned to the group, he told them what he said in saying 13: So you can see that my apostles were having a hard time grasping what I was saying due to traditional perceptions, and that there was already a difference between them and Thomas, in their ability to accept what I said. The sayings gospel of Thomas was eventually shunned by the emerging thought system you have come to know as "Christianity". Jesus
I recommend the emotion of joy. In a Guided lifestyle, this is the only judgement you need make: Are you feeling joy or not? If you are following the Guide, you will always feel joy...always. Jesus
your point on surfing sounds very reasonable. in fact it describes the absence of thought. at least that is my imagination why extreme physical experiences are so attracting. and on your reference to god, i would think it finally does not matter how you call "it", if there ever "is" "it" ... puh, seems i'm riding the spiritual speculation horse quite roughly ...
Thanks for confirming . Yes, it is obvious that anyone mentioning a historical character automatically means they believe they are the reincarnation of that character. I feel for your parents...
Einstein's Conception of God --- He wrote, "Certain it is that a conviction, akin to religious feeling, of the rationality or intelligibility of the world lies behind all scientific work of the higher order. This firm belief, a belief bound up with deep feeling, in a superior mind that reveals itself in the world of experience, represents my conception of God. In common parlance this may be described as âpantheisticâ (Spinoza)." Elsewhere he speaks of "the devoted striving to comprehend a portion, be it ever so tiny, of the Reason that manifests itself in nature." --- He also wrote, "[E]very one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe--a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble. In this way the pursuit of science leads to a religious feeling of a special sort, which is indeed quite different from the religiosity of someone more naive." --- G. J. Whitrow writes, "[A]lthough he rejected the churches he had a Spinoza-like belief in a cosmic religious force. He regarded this as an eternal spiritual being that communicates small details of itself to our weak an inadequate minds. As he once declared, 'This deep intuitive conviction of the existence of a higher power of thought which manifests itself in the inscrutable universe represents the content of my definition of God.'"
Your really stretching. This seems clear enough to me. 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 I have examined all the known superstitions of the world, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology.Thomas Jefferson And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors. -Thomas Jefferson,