I have bursts of lucidity....thanx.
Is There One True Religion, One True Path to God?
- Thread starter Namaste Jesus
- Start date
No I've repeated it often...it doesn't....it applies directly to American Catholicism...of the lay people, not the theological catholics, not the preachers...but the average Catholic attendee in this country...
And I think that is largely the reason we have so many nonpracticing and former Catholics, they are leaving cause of this bs...
And I think that is largely the reason we have so many nonpracticing and former Catholics, they are leaving cause of this bs...
BigJoeNobody
Professional Argument Attractor
Is there 1 true God. Absolutely. I could not be Muslim and think any differently. Is that bad that I think this way? No. It means that I believe what the creator, (in Arabic Allah, Semitic YHWH, English God) has told me is true. A Jew who does not believe there is only 1 God is not a Jew, Same with a Christian (arguably those commonly referred to as Hindus also tend to fit into this catagory although they believe that God has many different forms for his attributes).
Is there 1 path to God? Without more explanation the answer would be simply Yes. As we believe anyone who has recieved the word must Obey it. Faith, action, and intent all have parts to play in the path and are specified in the Quran (as we see it the word of God (Allah)). Does this mean that anyone who doesn't know about the path or word of Allah are doomed as the Torah has specified? No. Allah has stated that for those that have not received the message, they will be judged not on faith, but actions alone. So if you are Buddhist and do good by Buddhist teachings and have never heard the word of Allah, you could still possibly go to Paradise. Does that mean there is more than 1 path? No. For if you have recieved the word and choose not to follow it, then you are sinning against Allah.
If you follow a religion that says "this is the path", and you think there are other paths you should/could take then you in no way believe what you are reading to be the truth. You are just making it up on your own. If you don't know God exists, you aren't helping yourself or anyone else by creating your own God in your mind and creating a path on your own. Unless that is you do believe in God, but think his purpose is to hide from you and lets you guess the path to heaven.
Is there 1 path to God? Without more explanation the answer would be simply Yes. As we believe anyone who has recieved the word must Obey it. Faith, action, and intent all have parts to play in the path and are specified in the Quran (as we see it the word of God (Allah)). Does this mean that anyone who doesn't know about the path or word of Allah are doomed as the Torah has specified? No. Allah has stated that for those that have not received the message, they will be judged not on faith, but actions alone. So if you are Buddhist and do good by Buddhist teachings and have never heard the word of Allah, you could still possibly go to Paradise. Does that mean there is more than 1 path? No. For if you have recieved the word and choose not to follow it, then you are sinning against Allah.
If you follow a religion that says "this is the path", and you think there are other paths you should/could take then you in no way believe what you are reading to be the truth. You are just making it up on your own. If you don't know God exists, you aren't helping yourself or anyone else by creating your own God in your mind and creating a path on your own. Unless that is you do believe in God, but think his purpose is to hide from you and lets you guess the path to heaven.
LincolnSpector
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lol.... you do take things personally....nope not every....only the vast majority of lay folk..
you know...the ones that attend mass, but not classes, that stay for the eucharist, but not the discussion.
you know...the ones that attend mass, but not classes, that stay for the eucharist, but not the discussion.
S
Shibolet
Guest
Since the whole of the NT was written by non-Jewish Hellenists, their slander of the Jewish authorities at the time of Jesus was tantamount to slandering the whole Jewish People. And this that Pilate washed his hands from any guilt in the case of Jesus only shows you have never read Josephus about Pilate.
There was nothing Pilate enjoyed more than to crucify a Jew no matter the reason, even for any reason at all. The idea was akin to throwing the seed of Anti-Semitism throughout History so that anti-Jewish hatred could grow in the heart of every Christian. No wonder Jesus' prediction in Mat. 5:11 when Jesus was delivering his famous Sermon of the Mount unto a crowd of Jews and said to them: "Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake." His prediction has met fulfillment so heavily among the Jews that millions have been murdered through pogroms, blood libels, Crusades, Inquisition and lately the Holocaust.
Devils' Advocate
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If you follow a religion that says "this is the path", and you think there are other paths you should/could take then you in no way believe what you are reading to be the truth. You are just making it up on your own. BigJoe.
Yes absolutely. You are making it up in your own mind as you go along. Every person who has ever lived on the planet has done this, and every person that will ever be born will continue to do it. This is the nature of religion and the truth of faith. The tragedy in it all is those who think they somehow have a more direct line to the path than others do. They don't.
Yes absolutely. You are making it up in your own mind as you go along. Every person who has ever lived on the planet has done this, and every person that will ever be born will continue to do it. This is the nature of religion and the truth of faith. The tragedy in it all is those who think they somehow have a more direct line to the path than others do. They don't.
Kathie Bondar
Author of "Voices from the parallel universe"
The being we recognize today as our God and his wife have six children, who have become known to us as: Jesus, Moses, Gautama Buddha, Dalai Lama, Prophet Mohammed and pope John XXIII.
All beings are subject to the reincarnation cycles, being reborn approx. one in a thousand years, thus Jesus in his earliest historical records have been known as Joshua, leader of the Jews, then was Jesus, then was St. Francis of Assissi and most recent in 1990 was born in Croatia and was stabbed to death in 1997
Moses in his next life has been one of the three wise men visiting Jesus at his birth, and in his most recent life has been known as King Saud, founder Saudi Arabia
Buddha in his most recent life has been known as the Mahatma Gandhi
The Dalai Lama's case is different, as he indeed has been reborn 14 consecutive times so that he may work out and hand down to us the principles of reincarnation. There were times when he has been mis-identified, at one time he was an illiterate farm-boy not the person picked as the Dalai lama. Similarly, the 15th Dalai lama although alive today, has not been identified. The current family of the office holder, loath to the position slip out of their hands. As you know the 14th Dalai lama has had five brothers, western educated mostly in law, and by now tons of grandchildren
The Prophet Mohammed in his most recent life has been known as Martin Luther, the German theologian who got embroiled in a fight with the Vatican
Pope John XXIII is actually a woman, God's only daughter. One of the most beloved pope of modern times she had to be born a male or she could not have become a pope.
KB... just curious, who do say were the reincarnates of Krishna before and after?
S
Shibolet
Guest
And now, if you compare all of the above with Isaiah 26:14; II Sam. 12:23; and Job 10:21, the whole castle of illusions will collapse because once dead, one will never return which renders reincarnation as just a myth.
Kathie Bondar
Author of "Voices from the parallel universe"
Hello Shibolet
We honor the accomplishments of our forefathers by building on it. Poor Isaiah and Job did not have the privilege to drive a car even a bicycle, travel to distant continents by airplane, learn correct English spelling or contemplate the wonders of the Higgs particle. What I am saying is, they were good for their times two thousand years ago, but we have moved on.
Just a matter of interpretation there. Consider also Hebrews 11:13-16 (KJV)
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.
Personally, I don't think you can prove reincarnation either way using scripture. Although, the one I quoted above ties in with a passage from the Bhagavad Gita which says in essence that those who die mindful of God go to him and those who die mindful of earth return to it.
We stand on the shoulders of giants, as Bernard of Chartres said, but it's a delusion to think we are better than they.
Hmm, do you think that matters? Sounds borderline racist to me ... it's the kind of thing we in the West assume 'the natives' need when we turn up on their doorsteps, along with McDonalds, Ford and Coca-Cola. I doubt the Isaiahs and Jobs of today care much for the consumer-material values of modernity. 'Progress' is the chimera of materialism. Large Hadron Colliders, Hubble telescopes ... the images are fabulous and inspiring, but are equally a seductive glamour.
We know so much more about the workings of nature than our forebears, but we are farther removed from and more out of touch with nature than we ever were, and our spiritual malaise is that much greater, and we surround ourselves with trite aphorisms and ego-massaging self-affirmative messages to stand off our fears.
Really? I would say we see further through telescopes and microscopes and all our tech, but we ... in our humanity ... haven't changed. Contemplate the philosophy of Plato, or the love poetry of Sappho, the epics, comedies and tragedies of antiquity, the world's great sacra doctrina, all written millennia ago. Have we moved on? Are they rendered irrelevant? I think not.
Oh...we have moved on... yes the poets of yesteryear had visions and beauty as the poets of today do...but our humanity as a whole has moved on...slavery is no longer a given, human rights, women's rights, children's rights, animal rights, less murder, and war, and hunger (per capita) than ever before...we are on a path that has been beneficial to all.... we are standing on their shoulders and they did not get to see the progression of their vision
A Cup Of Tea
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But that has always been argues back and forth on this forum, no consensus has formed. And I also see a great contrast between your list and "to drive a car even a bicycle, travel to distant continents by airplane, learn correct English spelling or contemplate the wonders of the Higgs particle."
Nah. C'mon ... most of the stuff you mention is less than a couple of hundred years old. Jeez, you guys fought a civil war over the right to keep slaves! All the 'rights' you mention are so recent, there's no way they can be said to assume we're 'better' or 'more humane' than our forebears. Evolution just doesn't happen that quickly. And strip away our creature comforts and see how long it takes to regress ...
LOL. Have you looked at the US penal system? Seems to me you simply replaced overt slavery with a more discreet set-up, still largely running off the back of the black man.
Then take third world poverty to maintain your lifestyle and supply all your tech at 'affordable' prices ... if you look it's still there, it's just out of your line of sight.
Well we could discuss the pros and cons of your assumptions. Hunger? I'm not so sure, let's wait until America and China has finished hoovering up all the world's available eco resources and creating dependent economies before we crow too much about that one ...
Less murder/war? Wrong again. Funnily enough, gene profiling has shown that when we read of early cultures 'annihilating' their enemies, it turns out to be somewhat hyperbole. Even when the Israelites were supposed to have slaughtered every man woman and child, the same Book states that they were living alongside the supposedly vanished ... cultural assimilation was the order of the day.
But today? Genocide of the Native American? The purges of Stalin, Pol Pot and Mao? The Final Solution? History has nothing to match that, there just wasn't the tech capability.
(It's interesting that the first 'industrialised assembly line' was set up by Samuel Colt for the mass production of hand guns. I think that says a lot!)
OMG Wil, there are so many assumptions, cultural, political, racial ... in that statement ... shame on you!
How did, "Is There One True Religion...?" suddenly become a political soapbox?
Somehow I just knew your response would turn into a sales pitch. Gee... I guess I'm psychic too!