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I never hear the individual spirit of a person being discussed in Church, only the collective versions of Spirit. Could we get to know our individual spirit as a means of better connecting with God? I see signs of something reentering my body when about to wake up from nighttime dreams. It seems...

Ever sit in church and “see” one Christ from the integrated gifts of those in the congregation? I occasionally have. Similarly, A.I. seems able to pull together various human insights. The differently described parts of the elephant can be put together to help us see the whole elephant? I...

I have heard there is translation questions about the word interpreted as “eternal.” As I recall the original word (Greek?) was Eons or something like that. Some interpretations say it means a long time, but not necessarily forever. I agree that eternal damnation is inconsistent with a loving...

I think the Bible has quite a few meaningful myths other than the parables. I wonder what the myth to history ratio might be. I suspect fairly myth heavy. Perhaps Rabbi Christ’s parables were to help us see the Bible’s truths as being figurative, not so literal? Inclusion (that Jesus latched...

I agree that Christianity is not merely a positive self fulfilling prophesy, as it involves encouragement to EXPERIENCE our connection to God, using God’s Messenger/Son to help link/connect. Self fulfilling prophecies help with doing but Christianity is most concerned with BEING. And once the...

I like that. But also suggests that we too are not in essence as separate in our being as we suppose, and that at the base of our individual being we are rooted in spirit as manifestations of God also (3 is a multiple, so is/are all humans). Children of God does come close to this view (of being...

And that would not be a good God by which to promote a POSITIVE self-fulfilling prophecy. So I think you chose your belief wisely, even if for reasons other than self-fulfilling prophecy. I don’t rule out those other reasons. I just prefer to make my case with the weakest reason. “If you can...

I agree Thomas. Religion can be a useful series of prompts to be more fully human or “spiritual.” It may require holding the contents of the religion more loosely and requiring figurative interpretation, but there is some good stuff there. A person can be both spiritual AND religious. To often...

Paul Tillich’s description of God as The Ground of Being, and Moses’ hearing God identify as “I am that I am” suggests that the practice of spirituality (which, I assume religion is really supposed to be about) is largely about the skill of being. In turn, this skill seems to require an ability...

I recently had the insight that there seem to be three skill domains for being fully human: “being, relating, doing.” After sharing this insight with my minister, I decided to do an internet search using the phrase “being, relating, and doing.” To my surprise, the concepts were not at all...

Ditto on that. Seems like an artifact of tribalism. More like “we choose to be THE ones. Exclusionary. The healthier, more loving attitude would be “We all can grow. Let’s help each other do that, and we will eventually all benefit from it. Win/win. Not zero sum.

From first article: In the debates, immortality is usually taken to mean the inability of the person to perish. If we identify with Ultimate Reality (whatever specific form it may or may not have) then, “we” (at least the way we think of ourselves) is by definition immortal because Ultimate...

Image to contemplate in terms of our discussion about developmental stages including movement from independence (selfhood) to interdependence.

Perfect synchronicity: Just as I was parking the church bus I drive to shuttle folks from a retirement village to church, a moth landed on inside of my driver’s side window. I rolled the window down to “liberate” it, Out it flew, free as a bird (or should I say “moth”)!

If you think of developmental stages (as many have), the fear tactic was of a tribal DEPENDENCY stage. In terms of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the dependency stage meets group survival needs. Better to be afraid than dead! But as relative mastery of survival occurs, humankind can advance to...

I agree up to a point. Certainly stuff men made up to approximate their experience of an unknown that seemed useful, like creative solutions appearing out of nowhere. The God function was discovered during times of limited resources and means, along the lines of necessity is the mother of...

That was the God Function (or simply God) disguised as an imaginary friend so the child could relate to (whatever is) God in an intimate and effective manner.

I get your logic on the Big Bang, as the explosion was likely the result of a Greater Reality (Or non physical dimension) coming into a lesser reality, physical dimension. The physical dimension cannot adequately contain the other dimension, so, Bang. And with the explosion everything stretches...

Somehow I got my reply in the wrong place. Looked like Light Within was saying it. Here is my reply: The alternate belief is that the path back to God (heaven?) is much longer for the non-righteous. No eternal hell, just the hells of bad karma/consequences. I’m with Rob Bell on that one. All...