Christian God theme debunked.

That^was not a response to your post.

 

Yeah----I have been skiing and snowshoeing and have not kept up with the comments.

 

I don't think God wants anything from us or of us. If there were such a being as people believe that there is, such a God, if it was worth its salt, would want us to forget about it and to create a world worth living in. We're here for us.

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together!

 

By the way, merry Xmas! If you'll note, I did capitalize the x. Always willing to meet people halfway.

 

Merry Christmas!

It don't matter to me. Religious, atheist, or what---as much as it is a religious tradition, it is also a cultural tradition. I think it is sad when people have to destroy their traditional cultural values over a bunch of B.S. dogma. There are plenty of atheists who enjoy Christmas for what it is, even if they don't believe in the story behind it. It still is very important to them, and brings back memories of when they were a child, and good family times, and so forth. I'm not a Christian yet I still fondly remember and enjoy the good times at church around Christmas time. I even go to hear Christmas programs and all at, my parent's church, for example.

Besides---what difference does it make if the Christmas story is true or not. Though I for one know it is true! When I was a kid, I saw Santa Claus placing presents under our tree! I really did see him. And as a matter of fact, last year I heard a swooshing noise in the sky---and sure enough----there was a lone red light----it just had to be Rudolph pulling the sleigh!!!

Seriously though---we have a lot to learn from the Japanese, for example. there are a lot of religious holidays there, and no one----absolutely no one---makes an issue over them because they happen to believe differently. The Christians (though there aren't too many) celebrate Buddhist holidays, the Buddhists celebrate Christian holidays (even though they are only a few decades old). The atheists celebrate the holidays----everyone enjoys the traditions-----no one cares about the dogmatic bullshit.

The worst thing of all about this so-called war on Christmas---is that the media and political parties that are out to, "Get Christ back in Christmas." Have very little understanding of Christian love and what the real message is around Christmas. And the worst part is that there are plenty of religious organizations supporting them.

Yes---lets put the Christ back into Christmas, because at a time of economic struggle (and especially after decades of outstanding growth in the wealth of the top 1%---and even the top 5% or 10% has done ok), when families everywhere are struggling to make ends meet, and feed their children, they are going to need something to do (like pray) when they wake up to another year of being able to barely afford presents and a Christmas dinner, because their food stamps are getting cut back even farther at the end of the month (even though they just experienced that Dec 1st). But don't let them raise the minimum wage---because it will destroy the economy to pay them a dollar more for the work they do---after all, they are poor!

Yes----in God we trust----that's why we need to stop all the government handouts to the needy and poor people. Let God take care of them. After all we are a Christian country, and Christmas is a time of giv... I mean, it is a time of Christ!



...Ok---I'll get off my soapbox. Seriously though---not directing this at you Storch, I just think it is important to keep our cultural traditions---but I have no problem with any holiday greeting----I am thankful that someone thought kindly enough to say it to me.

But for those who have a political statement to make about putting Christ back into Christmas----if you don't show me that you are trying to create a political reality that acts out the teachings of your Christ----then just shut the F@#k up.

 

Are you really trying to compare what the creator of the universe has done, does and can do, with witch doctors in masks, shaking rattles and cutting the heads off chickens.


You probably don't even know how to change the oil in your own car and yet you're claiming you know better how to fix mankind's problems than God.


Yep, no need for Jesus' sacrifice, since mankind is doing so well with out it.

 

I can relate to this, though I felt driven to question, and what did not fit with me---just did not fit. Then of course I was overly curious anyway----hey it was the 60's.

Part of the problem I have with Christianity is that there is so much fear built into it. You have to join the collective---otherwise you are doomed forever. There is that scripture in John that starts out, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son..." Christians revel in that verse---but even when I was a Christian, every time I heard that, I heard it as a threat. In fact---it was probably that verse alone that made me question the crucifixion so many years ago.

Even worse is that it is kind of like being a citizen back in Ancient Greece---if you weren't a citizen, you were basically nothing---but you couldn't be a citizen if you weren't a land owner, and so forth.

I don't know how many times I will answer back to people that I am a Christian just to avoid their judgment, or to avoid awkward judgmental conversations, or to hear how I am going to Hell for all eternity, or simply to not be ostracized. "Oh yes I am saved. In fact I just got saved last week. Actually--I am going again next Sunday to get saved again..."

As far as running out the door to avoid losing a finger to save all humanity, it reminds me of the Sun Dance. The meaning behind it is different---but it has similar motifs and some correlations. The Sun Dance is done by the Plains tribes, and maybe some Mountain ones usually in the summer months. It is done around the Sun Tree, which, like the cross is the Tree of Life. It is a very powerful and amazing experience---even for the supporters who do not dance.

You are tied to the tree by a long tether, that, with the Lakota, is tied to two pegs that are placed through slits cut into your chest or shoulders or back. The dancers dance with out food or water for four days, under the hot sun, exposed to the elements, clothed only from the waste down, and at some point during that time they will be tied to the tree. They take breaks in between dances---but the dances are long. At night they rest. Oh, and if you think that sounds bad, once you decide to Sun Dance---you have to do it for 4 years. (But you have people that have done it for 12 years, and so on.) It sounds barbaric, but as I said---it is very powerful. And a lot of amazing things happen at these dances.

But no sin is forgiven. There is no guilt attached to it. But they do it, "So that the people may live." But when you say people, they do not mean the Lakota people, they do not mean just the American people, they do not just mean, people-people----they mean all the humans, the animals, bugs, fish, rocks, water, dirt... All of creation.

Before anyone does something like this, they usually go through a process where they see visions of them doing it and so forth. It is not something that you just say---'oh, I winder what that would be like?' Or, 'If I do that imagine all the chick I could get?' It is something that you start getting visions of doing, and others may see you in their visions. Or you may have a very important request from spirit---to heal your parents of cancer, or something like that---everything has a cost----that may be how spirit asks you to give thanks. (How you give back thanks for something is between you and spirit. You are never required to do something that you can't do) Then again--it is proof of the power of spirit just to do these things. I have heard stories that doctors have gone to dances and monitored the dancers, exclaiming that they should all be dead by the third day.

I have gone on the vision quest (another 4 day commitment) and spent 4 days on the hill without food and water. That was hard in itself (but very very rewarding). Would I actually dance at a Sun Dance-------well---I do know that I hope I am never asked, and with that attitude, I probably will not have to. But I guess if I was asked, or if that somehow became the thanks I had to give for something really big---I would do it.

It is a rewarding experience for them. They have visions and experience a reality that is completely alien to the rest of America. But if you are ever in a sweat lodge, or at a swimming pool and happen to see some natives with typically square-shaped scars on their chest---just remember the incredible sacrifice they made for you, your family, your people, for everything in our universe---even if it did not result in the forgiveness of all their sins.

 

OWB,

Yes, if God is the author of justice, and that justice called for a blood sacrifice, then this God is also the author of voodoo. You've been conditioned to not call a spade a spade in the interest of holding on to your child-like fable.

And you're simply wrong about me not being able to change my own oil. Though it's not written in the Bible, it is nonetheless true. But to your point, I would say that I very well may know better how to fix humankind's problems than does this God you speak of. And I would hold up the world situation two thousand years after God's solution was implemented as proof positive of God's failure in his attempt to "fix" things.

 

Certainly room for everything. A teachers goal however is to be no longer needed.

I think twas you on this week before christmas who makes the appeal for a new cultural paradigm that upholds all cultures?

I hope I haven't made a huge mistake in making a holyday of every day.

Peace on it all!

 

Every day's a holyday on Primrose Lane. We're on our way home . . .

______________________________

You didn't capitalize Christmas. What's up with that, anyway? An oversight, or a statement. Watch this: tuesday. friday. sunday. How's it feel?

 

Your ok as long as you don't make it of the nights---especially between 12:00 - 4:00 am when the ghosts and spirits come out, and Satan is lurking in all the corners, and the witches and warlocks are active in their covens!!! Those are the evil times---and succubi come out to destroy all of our good names.

...oh those evil succubi----every night as I try to sleep like a good god-fearing Christian, in bed next to my wife, with only good thoughts of marital fidelity. But then the evil succubi come---quietly to my door----and coerce me into my den where the late night hours are spent in evil satanic abandon of ecstatic bliss. Oh it is so evil, And then I must even pay them for their evil harlotry forced upon me. Where do these evil spirits come from? And why do they always show up in my phone late at night when I am trying to order food, or something, or... yes, call my preacher to seek his advice. Ohhh these evil spirits from hell are too powerful as they force me into these shameful, shameful acts every night, after my wife unknowingly sleeps in our marital bed---bless her heart. And sometimes they even come by twos and threes----oh the horrible, delicious, evil sins I have seen. But I am helpless because the evil spirits are more powerful than I, as just a simple god-fearing mortal man. All I can do is pray for forgiveness each morning and anxiously await my wife's falling off to sleep that next night (with the aid of sleeping pills I slip to her in order to protect her good Christian soul from the evil that invades our home). Oh those wonderfully shameful evil spirits...



(Ah yes----Victorian Age cultural traditions... )

 

God, REPLY!! Your Reputation is sriously on the line.