A naturalistic spirituality?

Thomas, you speak of Beauty, and I agree that it is proverbially in the `{eYe} of the beholder' ... yet here, you forget about your own GOD.
What you actually mean is, I don't see your idea of God.

Some of us haven't, and experience Beauty with realizations foreign, perhaps unimaginable to you. I do not need rose-colored glasses, or a St. Augustine, to appreciate the Beauty of a Rose ... and that stuff about Solomon, in all his Glory and Splendor ~ ah well, I think you were off with the Sanhedrin on that particular day.
You see, your inability to respond without abuse says a lot.

Personally, I think you are afraid.
Personally, I think you're inability to respond with anything other than jeers and insults just shows you've got lots of abuse, but no substance.

God bless

Thomas
 
Here, Thomas evidences again that he fails utterly to understand ANY form of esotericism which is not HIS OWN, after Guenon or that of the Jesuits, many of whom are first-class Black Magicians, persecuting Truth and Her Exponents and thereby holding up progress within organized western religion almost indefinitely.
Here we go, no substance, the usual infantile conspiracy theories, and the usual tirade of abuse ...

None of the esotericists I know or have ever worked with, and likely very FEW in the Theosophical or related schools, has the LEAST angle on the material worlds as an evil to be escaped ... with the etheric [Aetherial] Inner planes as those where we really ought to be experiencing things, etc. etc.
Really?Have you never come across the 2nd century theosophies grouped under the banner of 'gnosticism'? I'm surprised, you've endorsed them often enough.

One only hopes that the severe distortions which appear ANY time Thomas begins to rattle on about esotericism ...
That's because I don't buy into your materialistc notions of esoterism.

... than Thomas here will EVER be.
Abuse. who are you trying to impress, exactly?

... then it is certainly our resident theologian, and not best exemplar of the Society of Friends.
Ah. Look out Radarmark, you're being courted, old chum.

The one only ...
... abuse ...

The other ...
That's you, Mr R.

Sadly, some are just blinded by the man in invisible robes notion...
Now we're into anti-religious bigotry ... and, by the way, if you understood the very least thing about Christianity, you'd know we don't believe or even think like that ... Lord knows where your ideas come from?

No, Thomas, some of us are not at all confused by the smokescreen ...
Are you sure? You seem utterly bewildered about Christianity, frankly, you can't get even the simplest thing right.

God bless

Thomas
 
Hi skinker —
The shock of realizing one's world is a fictional story where you are playing out roles written before Creation began is most upsetting, especially for people trained in science analysis.
Well I would say that the data of Divine Revelation outstrips the writings of even Philip K Dick. This is actually a pre-Christian notion — we're back to the idea of man as the plaything of the gods, and the Cult of Persephone.

When Scripture talks about creation 'in our image', it is generally understood that this is talking about man knowing himself as God knows Himself ... when you contemplate this, you realise the notion of 'person' is the greatest gift that God can bestow upon His creature.

But the logic of history is inescapable: at some point human beings will evolve to the point of having powers identical to God's and at that point they will become God,
I'm afraid I think that's cart-before-the-horse logic. It assumes God is just the exemplar of what man can be.

It's also not given that man will necessarily evolve into the best of all possible worlds, as it were ... that's a notion of scientific progress that's become rather out-moded, I think.

which I now know is the purpose of Creation, to evolve humanity into God at the "End of Days".
Not really. God is not a thing like other things are ... God is not DNA.

We did it and as God we created Creation to create God "Unbegotten", a paradox.
Nope, there can't be a paradox in God.

God bless

Thomas
 
There are two realities.
These might prove enlightening with regard to the Christian perspective:
Gospel of Thomas, Logion 11:
Jesus said, "This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away. The dead are not alive, and the living will not die. In the days when you consumed what is dead, you made it what is alive. When you come to dwell in the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?"

Logion 22:
Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to His disciples, "These infants being suckled are like those who enter the Kingdom."
They said to Him, "Shall we then, as children, enter the Kingdom?"
Jesus said to them, "When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness; then will you enter [the
Kingdom]."

Logion 48:
Jesus said, "If two make peace with each other in this one house, they will say to the mountain, 'Move Away,' and it will move away."

Logion 106:
Jesus said, "When you make the two one, you will become the sons of man, and when you say, 'Mountain, move away,' it will move away."

God bless,

Thomas
 
In Christianity there is only one reality, the Divine.
Should I ask for a proof of this divine reality? Bible? Oh, no. Faith. Is that right?
'Mountain, move away,' it will move away."
Mountain moved away! Which one?
All other created natures: angelic, human, fauna, flora, mineral, subsist accordingly.
All these are not real? There are angels? Michael, Gabriel? And the children of God's angels and daughters of humans, the Nephelims.
 
You can't really have the 'absolute and' (although you qualify the absolute in quotes, you really need to explain you're talking of a 'relative absolute').
I am not talking of any 'relative absolute'. I will go with science. There is nothing in this world which is not 'physical energy'. Energy is expressed as mass also. The universe and all things contained in it are constituted by 'physical energy'. Then there is, as you said, the multiplicity. That is what we perceive, and sometimes forget that it is none other than 'physical energy'. So my two realities, I meant these two. The 'absolute' having 'physical energy' and the 'pragmatic' or 'perceived' which is only a form of the absolute. This is what makes us to run away from a charging bull. At the level of 'absolute' reality, there is no bull, no person, and no running away. I am sure you understand my point though my presentation may not have been very smooth.
 
Religion is like a penis...
You can be proud of it
But yours ain't the only one...
Don't wave it around in public...
And don't try to shove it down our children's throats.
Ah yes: Government, Criminals, and Moderators.
 
I am not talking of any 'relative absolute'. I will go with science.
Which science? Physics or Philosophy?

There is nothing in this world which is not 'physical energy'.
Ah, physics then. Once again, you're in the wrong place: Religion/Faith/Theology :: Belief and Spirituality — discussions here 'transcend' the material and the arguments of scientism.

we're not talking about mere materialism here.
We're not talking about materialism at all. Or at least, I'm not.

So my two realities, I meant these two.
I understand. We were talking about the spiritual - different order of thing altogether.

God bless,

Thomas
 
Divine and all that is related to it, heaven, hell, judgment, salvation, final raising; all these are beyond all empirical determination. But even then you would like me to put my faith in these. Thanks for the try but it does not sell.
 
Hi Wil —
Thomas is the GoT accepted now?
How can it be?

Think of all the dispute over the canonical gospels ... and the Gospel of Thomas stands on far thinner ice, it has less to support it than they, so no, it can't be.

God bless

Thomas
 
Which science? Physics or Philosophy?
Physics is science. Philosophy is speculation.
Ah, physics then. Once again, you're in the wrong place: Religion/Faith/Theology :: Belief and Spirituality — discussions here 'transcend' the material and the arguments of scientism.
We're not talking about materialism at all. Or at least, I'm not.
What is material and what is not? Are energy and material two different entities? Why should one have this faith and not the other. We want to judge it from all angles, with all the knowledge with us. Why would that be wrong?
I understand. We were talking about the spiritual - different order of thing altogether.
What is a spirit?
 
Yep.... in the academy of western tradition, logic, math and philosophy are "well structured disciplines using non-material means of argumentation, evidence, and proof".

One must accept the independent reality of the mental (qualia or consciousness) to accept this definition (mine) and I believe Aupmanyev believes in material monism (everything there is is matter or energy in a strong physical sense).
 
Well you can try, but as the Divine is beyond all empirical determination, you'd be wasting your time.

God bless,

Thomas
Oh my, Thomas. You have had no interaction with the Divine? None at all?

Is that just the clear cut Catholic answer for a person who calls themselves an atheist?
 
Many of us consider philosophy a science, even though it isn't empirical. It's just a definition of a word so noting to start a argument over, I think.
Which perhaps could be consistent if you don't go around telling people that their philosophy is NOT the scientific method, demanding some empirical evidence from them, as if when you are ever convinced, then it is a proof.
 
Physics is science. Philosophy is speculation.
Don't knock it! :D Physics is the child of philosophy. Physics starts from speculation ... and philosophy is a science. They both operate according to their axioms.

What is material and what is not? Are energy and material two different entities?
No, they're both matter, in the wider sense of the term, or matter is energy, viewed under certain conditions ...

Why should one have this faith and not the other.
Why cannot one have both? I do.

We want to judge it from all angles, with all the knowledge with us. Why would that be wrong?
It's not. I was under the impression you were limiting the field to the purely empirical.

What is a spirit?
What is matter :p ...

Sorry, I'm not being rude ... it's just there's a long way to go before we can approach that question.

God bless,

Thomas
 
Hmmm, it is not "generally understood" that "in our image" is a person knowing him or her self the way G-d knows himself. Not one hit in scholar. Scriptures have very little to do with spirit, it is a matter of that which is beyond. True spiritualism is immune to territorial disputes. CTC is only as old as you have imagined it. Again, no references anywhere except in you mind.

No evidence of anything that you claim... except as products of your mind.
 
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