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| Do you believe in life after death? |
| yes |
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33% |
[ 5 ] |
| no |
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66% |
[ 10 ] |
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| Total Votes : 15 |
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| Author |
Message |
Penelope 
Doctorate
Silver Contributor
Joined: 02 Oct 2007
Posts: 511
Gender: 
Location: Cheshire, England
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 Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2008 10:41 am Post subject:
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We can all be influenced by charistmatic characters. Some people are very persuasive. The Crowd is very persuasive. It is not easy to keep ones integrity in the face of mass opposition.
We can only pray.....not wear the uniform.....not chant the chants....
If something is ultra-popular.....treat it with suspicion. Beware of 'Jargon'.
I think the only defence I can recommend is an attitude of gentleness and humility.
I've got it wrong plenty of times!!!!!! |
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sweetpea27
Eligible to vote!
Joined: 26 Feb 2008
Posts: 14
Gender:
Location: PA
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| Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 2:16 am Post subject:
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I believe that when we die we all meet again with the loved ones we lost before us,personaly i saw my dad several times sence he passed away i like to believe he is my guardian angel.ofcourse for some this is hard to believe for me it is very easy i feel a sence of calmness knowing that my dad is watching over me.  |
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Interbane
Senior
Joined: 09 Oct 2004
Posts: 369
Gender: 
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| Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 9:51 pm Post subject:
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Since I'm new to many of you, I'll reply to as many posts as I can, but please don't feel like I'm insulting your intelligence, I simply don't know you.
Constance963: "I am energy, therefore I can be neither created nor destroyed. I can only change form........."
You can certainly change form, but that is not life after death. You are no longer "living" as we interpret the word, when you are not a life form. If you change into carbon matter from burning at the stake, you are then dead, not a life form.
Chris: "A man claims he can shoot 16 pound bowling balls out of his ass at 600 mph. Either he can or he can't. There are two mutually exclusive outcomes. He cannot both do and not do this."
Our beliefs coincide Chris, but I have to amend this. It's not a good idea to apply percentages to examples. Perhaps a thousand years from now man has evolved to shoot bowling balls from his butt. He can't do it all the time, only some of the time. It is within the parameters of our physics for this to be possible, as much as you might disagree. It's simply an exercise in thought... you can't dichotomize in order to rule out a negative factor.
Penelope: "I agree, it is the most wonderful thing to experience.
BUT - what about when the baby is born - not perfect....malformed in fact.. what happens when it is is your own baby....and you feel 'relief' as much as grief when that baby dies.
That is when you need to find some spiritual hand to hold......that is when you know you don't have the inner resources and need help and assurance from somewhere 'other'."
When the cream comes to the crop, you realize that you're wanting, yet reality might not deliver. With respect to the "truth", it doesn't matter what you want, the truth is the truth is the truth. It may be cold and uncomforting, so the point is, realize that at those times when you want comfort, you may be reaching for something that isn't true. It may deliver, but the deliverance is within your head, and untrue.
Constance963: "Some people do indeed need to find some kind of spiritual hand to hold however, others do not."
Simply because they need it does not make it true. What if I were to find a relevant situation where I needed communication with a martian?
Penelope "I just believe that there is much more to life than appears on the surface. I believe there is a higher power and that we can source that power when we feel ready or we feel the need. I believe it is a power that is in all of us, not that I am anything special. "
Belief in a higher power has the same positive attributes as believing in the age old myth of the Christian God. In this sense, it is part of being human to try and reinvent the "higher power" wheel. There is no such thing, and you DO NOT need any such thing to deal with the greatest depravities of being human. The reason that there is so much more to being human than appears on the surface is that... simply put, can you completely understand our reality and the human brain? Of course not. A mathematical formula exists that shows you that you cannot possibly understand not only your environment, but human beings in general. That is fact, and it leads people to become depressed with the lack of understanding. Simply because you don't understand it doesn't mean you have to attribute it to a higher power. Think outside the box.
G'night guys. |
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Penelope
Doctorate
Silver Contributor
Joined: 02 Oct 2007
Posts: 511
Gender:
Location: Cheshire, England
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| Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 11:15 am Post subject:
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Interbane said:-
| Quote: |
| Belief in a higher power has the same positive attributes as believing in the age old myth of the Christian God. |
No it bloody well doesn't!!!!!! The Christian/Jewish God comes along with a lot of baggage, ridiculous, inexplicable rules and imposed thinking patterns. Belief in a higher power.....is different...doesn't pretend to know what it is.....what the rules are......nothing to fight/squabble about. Just that testing the theory that there is 'something among us' .....experience seems to back up the theory. Well, in my experience, not in yours, obviously.
I don't like your suggestion to 'think outside the box' - that is modern cultural jargon. I would think outside the box if I knew where the box was or if it even ever existed..........  |
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Constance963
Intern
Joined: 20 Nov 2007
Posts: 153
Gender:
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| Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 11:48 am Post subject:
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| Interbane wrote: |
Since I'm new to many of you, I'll reply to as many posts as I can, but please don't feel like I'm insulting your intelligence, I simply don't know you.
Constance963: "I am energy, therefore I can be neither created nor destroyed. I can only change form........."
You can certainly change form, but that is not life after death. You are no longer "living" as we interpret the word, when you are not a life form. If you change into carbon matter from burning at the stake, you are then dead, not a life form.
Constance963: "Some people do indeed need to find some kind of spiritual hand to hold however, others do not."
Simply because they need it does not make it true. What if I were to find a relevant situation where I needed communication with a martian?
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1. I was speaking more about a "soul" than a body. The question was asking about "spirits" not a living body, so my reference was to my brain waves and energy.
2. Please reread my sentence - nowhere did I say anything about needing a hand to hold as making it true. You can believe anything you want whether it is true or not. I may mentally need to believe pigs can fly but that doesn't mean they can. Again my statement was simply that some people need that "spiritual" connection.
p.s. If you would like to communitcate with a martian, I know a couple guys from the astronomy club in high school who used to make such devices. I can hook you up  |
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