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While this thread has been done just about to death, I think I would like to throw in my two cents here and give this dead horse one swift hick in the gut.
"Everything and Everyone is God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Religion must go beyond the rational without becoming irrational.
One must have compassion for the smallest child to the largest child murderer to the rock between your feet."
Well said, well said. This echoes my own convictions in the matter quite nicely. However Being a lapsed Catholic who has taken it himself to develop a better understanding of what the Early Christian Church was getting at. I have on my own time spent quite a bit of time studying the apocryphal texts with a particular emphasis on the Gnostic scriptures. but before I get into that bit of my rant, I would like to make one thing clear: The Church didn't "stamp out" meditation, they integrated it into their own system in the form of the Holy Rosary. The phenomenon of the Rosary seems to be unique to Catholic Christianity, but if you dig arround there is evidence that forms, prototypes if you will, of the Rosary have been used by Christians since the early days, before it was widely used or recognised as an institutionaly appropriate devotional tool. Recently I have taken up the practice of saying the rosary on a regular basis. When I was a practicing Catholic it was always something I had intended to do but never bothered to get into it. The first time I took up the beads and said the rosary I didn't focus on the mysteries I simply said the various prayers in the order that they had been taught to me. What came after was, to me anyways a truly sacred experience. When I got to the last Decade of the Rosary and said the final prayer the "Hail Holy Queen" something like a wall inside of me brok down and I just started crying uncontrollably. In the moment when this happened I was immediately and painfully aware of all my sins, and how these misdeeds had affected those arround me, kind of like ripples on still water. It had been just over two years since I had made any sort of confession. World Youth Day 2002 was by breaking point with the Church. After the, well "Hollowness" and spiritual vacuity and biggotry and infighting I had witnessed there I decided that the Church in all its extant forms was a betrayal to the true spirit of truth love and fellowsip that was at the core of Christs teachings. This wasn't a new revelation to me, it was something I had suspected for a while leading up to the WYD ceremonys. the quote from The Revelation of St. John "I know that you are neither hot not cold. How I wish you were one or the other" Rev 3:15-16 seemed at that moment to be put into an immediate context for me. While I still mantained my love of Jesus Christ and God most high, I felt completely dissillusioned by the church. My studies of Apocryphal scripture, especially the Nag Hammadi Library, and a book called "The Complete Gospels" have subsequently shed new light for me on what Christ and the Apostles were getting at, and IMO is something that has been lost by the mainstream church. Man, being the likeness of God is, to use hermetic terminology, a microcosm. To achieve salvation, once again imo, is to continually strive to understand the true nature of the self. The self being a representation on God on earth, and the Soul being The essence of that representation, to strive for understanding of the soul is, in essence, to strive for the understanding of God. Knowlege is irrellevent. No one can "Know" anything. that is really the only thing that Descartes hit on in his philosophy. Evrything, ultimately boils down to faith. Athiesm is just as much a religion imo as Christianity Buddhism etc. The Grace argument makes a lot of sense to me as well. In my meditations recently I remembered part of the Apostles Creed "He suffered under Pontious Pilot, was crucified, died, and was burried, he descended to the dead..." It is my belief that Jesus did descend into Hell, where he preached the good news to the dead, that they might also be saved. I think that if Heaven and Hell are actual "places" then they are as eternal as God and would therefore exist outside of our conception of time. At this point I would like once again to state that all this is pure speculation on my part. But if the Christ did "descend to the dead" then I think that in truth, no one is condemned to hell for eternity. Evryone, both living and desceased can come to God. In closing I would like also to point out that the Bible in its present form has been translated and transcribed countless times over the last 2000 years. To the point where, I would argue, that if any one who earnestly wanted to derive more than simply a cursory understanding of cannonical scriptures, would do well to invest in a Concordance. Either that or find some other way to get a copy of the bible that is closer to source. I would suggest "The Complete Gospels" to any one who is interested in a clearer, more holistic, understanding of Christ's message. The Scholars version of this book also has comentary by the translators. As for the Old Testament I would suggest picking up a copy of the Torah, it's the same book. As for the Epistles, and Revelation? You're on your own there. I would say that a Concordance would probably be your best bet at finding a more lucid interpretation of those scriptures. As with any Holy book, the true meaning seems to be what ever you take out of it. With dilligent persuit of the truth and faith in the process (what ever that may be to you) you'll find meaning. In this rather prolonged kick at the dead horse of this thread I have attempted to share with all of you some of the insights that I have been given in my own search for truth. "Seek and you will find, Knock and the door shal be opened to you."
"No one man, or in this case religion, has a monopoly on Truth"
If you have read all of this without losing interest I thank you, make of it what you will. I hope this rant has been of some use to someone.
I'm getting off my soap box now.
good night, God bless. |
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