I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul

I suppose that could be true if hearing ticks, tones, and words could truly hurt someone.
 
I suppose that could be true if hearing ticks, tones, and words could truly hurt someone.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"Much can be said of a person's character by the way they use their tongue. Sanaca once said, "Speech is the index of the mind." Jesus said that "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." (Mat. 12:34) According to Proverbs 18:21, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof." In James 3:6, the Bible says that the tongue is "a fire, a world of iniquity", and James 3:8 calls the tongue a "deadly poison." "[/FONT]

So you see, words can hurt someone, quite badly.
 
So you see, words can hurt someone, quite badly.
I submit that it is not a word or a pattern of words that hurts someone, but that it is a deceitful tongue that speaks them or the unforgiving ear that won't hear them that may bring themselves some hurt.
 
I submit that it is not a word or a pattern of words that hurts someone, but that it is a deceitful tongue that speaks them or the unforgiving ear that won't hear them that may bring themselves some hurt.
Perhaps it would be better defined as the deceitful or unforgiving heart and soul that may bring hurt, to everyone involved. Even a look or a gesture can hurt, to someone who for one reason or other, vested a caring interest in the one doing the hurting. In fact, deliberate silence can do the same thing. And it all means one thing...rejection. And since humans are wired to be social creatures, rejection is the hardest form of pain to take, regardless of who started the process.
 
Perhaps it would be better defined as the deceitful or unforgiving heart and soul that may bring hurt, to everyone involved. Even a look or a gesture can hurt, to someone who for one reason or other, vested a caring interest in the one doing the hurting. In fact, deliberate silence can do the same thing. And it all means one thing...rejection. And since humans are wired to be social creatures, rejection is the hardest form of pain to take, regardless of who started the process.
So to combat your feelings of rejection by someone's words, you think it good to reject someone for their words. I can see how someone's words can hurt as you insist on burning bridges over them.

Yet you suggest this is being a loving protector, assuming or wanting others to think the same. That reminds me of the mafia and gangs and governments that employ a similar protection racket: "You need my protection." Oh joy... another need.
 
So to combat your feelings of rejection by someone's words, you think it good to reject someone for their words. I can see how someone's words can hurt as you insist on burning bridges over them.

Yet you suggest this is being a loving protector, assuming or wanting others to think the same. That reminds me of the mafia and gangs and governments that employ a similar protection racket: "You need my protection." Oh joy... another need.
I was talking about people in general. And rejecting or "policing" slander, libelness, nonsense or hyper criticality has nothing to do with rejecting a person.

No one has to accept the rantings of a mad man. However as a consciensious society, it is obligatory and humane to accept the man as part of the whole.

FYI, I'm not the one burning bridges here, nor do I feel rejected, or in pain...
 
The Lord Jesus is the Master of my faith, and the Captian of my soul. I gave it all up to him when I found out that he owned it already.

AMEN!! :)

MASTER OF MY FATE
Through the eyes of
unbelief . . . . . . . versus . . . . . . . faith

William Ernest Henley VERSUS Dorothea Day
or
INVICTUS versus MY CAPTAIN

UNBELIEF
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

FAITH
Out of the light that dazzles me,
Bright as the sun from pole to pole
I thank the God I know to be
For Christ the conqueror of my soul.

UNBELIEF
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

FAITH
Since His the sway of circumstance,
I would not wince nor cry aloud,
Under that rule which men call chance
My head with joy is humbly bowed.

UNBELIEF
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

FAITH
Beyond this place of sin and tears
That life with Him! And His the aid,
Despite the menace of the years,
Keeps, and shall keep me, unafraid.

UNBELIEF
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

FAITH
I have no fear, though strait the gate,
He cleared from punishment the scroll.
Christ is the Master of my fate,
Christ is the Captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley VERSUS Dorothea Day
 
“I am the master of my fate:I am the captain of my soul.”- by William Henley, excerpt from “INVICTUS”,

"I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my brain." I am free to think; I am free to ask/inquire; I am free to believe as reason indicates; I am sceptical and reject nonsense.

I cannot believe that a god created humans deliberately designed to sin. I consider that to be irrational.

Morality is a species specific set of behavioural guidelines resulting from evolution. As humans evolved from Australopithecus to Homo sapiens sapiens we formed organised groups. We needed internal guidelines that established order within the group. We saw that murder, theft, adultery, assault on tribal members led to a failed tribe.

So we exiles or killed murderers, punished or banished theives, adulterers, child abusers, psychopaths who created trouble or assault, and such led to their being removed from the gene pool. The result was humans whose brains were hard wired (with occasional exceptions) who intuitively thought infanticide a sin, wife abuse a sin, murder or a clan member a sin, lying a sin, theft a sin.

Over the past 3 million years or so, evolution by natural and social selection led to a human brain with "Intuitive Morality." Later because some humans are defective, they needed civil laws to reinforce Intuitive Morality. And as religion was invented, it added the force of a God who gave many of the same rules as intuitive morality. For the psychopathic defectives, fear of a powerful and vengeful god further contributed to morality.

Be honest, we do not murder another human being because we sense it is wrong. Being caught is not as powerful as the expectation of guilt for killing another person. Probably the least important reason for not killing a man is Ten Commandments. Most Christian know that they can get any sin erased. Intuitive Morality means you cannot erase your wrongs, you must live with the guilt the rest of your life.

Intuitive morality and life long guilt of doing wrong is a greater deterent than a religious sin that you can easily get forgiven (erased.) Civil Law carries some deterence but the fear of getting caught may vary with circumstances. It may stop a killing on a crowded street in Manhattan but not on a lonely rural road with no witnesses around.

Amergin






 
AMEN!! :)

MASTER OF MY FREEDOM

The Joy of Freedom


When I became convinced
that the Universe is natural,
that all the ghosts and gods are myths,
there entered into my brain, into my soul,
into every drop of my blood, the sense,
the feeling, the joy of Freedom.

The walls of my prison crumbled and fell.
The dungeon was flooded with light
and all the bolts, bars
and manacles became dust.
I was no longer a servant, a serf, or a slave.
There was for me no master in all of the wide world,
not even in the infinite space. I was free.

Free to think, to express my thoughts,
Free to live to my own ideal,
Free to live for myself and those I loved,
Free to use my faculties, all my senses,
Free to spread imagination's wings,
Free to investigate, to guess and dream, and hope;
Free to judge and determine for myself,
Free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds,
all the "inspired" books
that savages have produced,
and all the barbarous legends of the past.

Free from popes and priests,
Free from all the "called" and the "set apart,"
Free from the sanctified mistakes and holy lies,
Free from the fear of eternal pain,
Free from the winged monsters of the night,
Free from devils, ghosts and gods.

For the first time I was free.
There were no prohibited places
in all the realms of my thought:
no air, no space,
where fancy could not spread her painted wings.
No chains for my limbs,
No lashes for my back,
No fires for my flesh,
No master's frown or threat,
No following another's steps;
No need to bow, or cringe, or crawl,
or utter lying words.

I was free.
I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously,
faced all worlds;
And my heart was filled with gratitude,
with thankfulness, and went out in love
To all the heroes
and the thinkers who gave their lives
for the Liberty of hand and brain,
for the freedom of labor and thought;
To those who fell on the fierce fields of war,
To those who died in the dungeons with chains,
To those who proudly mounted scaffold's stairs,
To those whose bones were crushed,
whose flesh was scarred and torn,
To those by fire consumed;
To all the wise, the good, the brave of every land,
whose thoughts and deeds have given freedom
to the sons and daughters of men and women.

And I vowed to grasp the torch that they held,
and hold it high,
that light might conquer darkness still.

--Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899)
 
Our Ancient Land

The Ancient Land of Gillichattan Mhór

In the ancient land of Gillichattan Mhór
Men and women according to the lore,
Spoke to the animals, the trees, and springs.
And heard singing stones in standing rings .

Equinox at Sunrise on Bealltainn
Before ancient magic did wane,
Elder Gods for eons did reign,
Spirit brought the bounty of rain.

Earth Goddess Érie sought the love
Of Lugh the Sun God from above.
Golden fire, this Lord of the Sun,
Gave light to Érie of Earth and Dun.

Life from sacred springs did abound,
Trees and vines grew from that ground
Giving life to animals humble and regal,
Vole, stag, human, and eagle.

But the ancient magic did not survive,
A foreign God, not dead, not alive,
Drove ancient spirits that did dwell
From the forest, fen, loch, and dell.

Padraig of Cymrn deceived and then led
The people from Érie, Lugh, and Aed.
Gods and Goddesses were banned by fear.
Poetry faded and hate killed cheer.

In ancient times humans were a part
Of a natural world as hind and hart.
Wisdom was lost under priestly rule
By guilt and fear; ignorance their tool.

The Sun shall shine again at Bealltainn.
The spirit of light, wind, and rain
Will signal rebirth of the ancient reign.
Druii lore and wisdom will not wane.

I will rejoin nature in my proper place.
With cousins the salmon, trout, and dace;
My brothers the cat, the bear, and dog
Will welcome me back to Tir na nÓg.

Among rings of tall stones on the moor,
I will some day stand before the door
And enter the veil of mystic fog
To enter the land of Tir na nÓg.

******* Mc******** - 1998
 
Thoughts of An Ancient Farmer

Salty sweat drips from my burning brow
As I strain in the dust behind this plough.
The Sun is bright, the air hot as Hell.
Why I breathe this dust, none can tell.

I cough and ask God, “Why, oh Why?”
So I gaze in the glare of the empty sky.
Am I punished for some bloody crime
That I can’t recall in this dust and grime?

It must have been a foul sin before my time
By my father, or his, in a past gentle clime.
The sin angered my God to such cruel rage;
He burned the garden of the Golden Age.

Man and woman were sent into dusty fields,
To scratch the dry soil for meagre yields.
“By the sweat of your brow shall ye struggle to live,”
Said the angry God without mercy to give.

I asked the shaman about the ancient fall.
“How did our father degrade us all?”
Moses the shaman, told me the story
Of Adam’s sin and his fall from glory.

Adam said, “she, the law first did break
When the fruit of knowledge she did take.”
Eve sought truths that God does deny,
Good and evil, and the first great lie.

They lied that God made me from mud,
Slime and dust, spit and crud.
They denied my true solar source,
Feared my leaning the truth, of course.

God said magic words, arcane chants,
Animated mud became man without pants.
Shamans in their arrogant chatter
Deny I am ancient star matter.

In future I’ll avenge slandered Eve
Using a complex brain I did receive.
There is no god but Gaia, our mother,
Earth, visible and real, and no other.

The complex brain Gaia had us evolve
By climate shifts, rational thought to solve
Alleles, markers, and nucleotide codes,
Translocations, repeats, and deletion modes.

She evolved my complex frontal lobes
To send into the cosmos, intelligent probes.
Finding my source in a proto-star core,
A supernova blast, and then I did soar.

Protons fused into atoms of Hydrogen,
Carbon, Oxygen, Sulphur, and Nitrogen.
Off into space they sped trillions of miles.
‘Till gravity collected them into dense piles.

Big piles ignited as hot nuclear suns.
Little piles made planets in orbital runs.
One watery planet made life in a mix,
Molecules bonding a double helix.

Helix bonds lyse and translocate.
Alleles delete, repeat, and mutate.
Mutation to mutation, many die out.
Some adapt to walk, think, and shout.

Large frontal lobes discovered my kin,
Amoeba, worm, lungfish, and lobefin,
Kangaroo, primate, ape, and mankind.
Gaia evolved my inquisitive mind.

Here comes that shaman to brow beat
My tired body in this burning heat.
”Thank god for not making your toils
Even worse as your sinful flesh broils.”

The shaman tells me I will go up there,
To grovel for God who never did care.
From this dusty field I’ll get no relief.
But no shaman’s lie will be my belief.

A glob of mud was not my sire.
Eve sought truth I also desire.
Our atoms burst from a nova’s core,
Across space sped, 10 billion years more.

I’m not magic mud, nor conjured by gods.
I’m star stuff from a journey against odds.
It formed planets and then molecules who
stood, thought, and sought what is true.
*

Mc ©
 
  • 1. God is the source and creator of all. There is no other enduring power. God is good and present everywhere.
  • 2. We are spiritual beings, created in God’s image. The spirit of God lives within each person; therefore, all people are inherently good.
  • 3. We create our life experiences through our way of thinking.
  • 4. There is power in affirmative prayer, which we believe increases our awareness of God.
  • 5. Knowledge of these spiritual principles is not enough. We must live them.
 
  • 1. God is the source and creator of all. There is no other enduring power. God is good and present everywhere.
  • 2. We are spiritual beings, created in God’s image. The spirit of God lives within each person; therefore, all people are inherently good.
  • 3. We create our life experiences through our way of thinking.
  • 4. There is power in affirmative prayer, which we believe increases our awareness of God.
  • 5. Knowledge of these spiritual principles is not enough. We must live them.

Excellent quote! Were I to emphasize just one, I would focus on number 5:

"Knowledge of these spiritual principles is not enough. We must live them."
 
Exactly the old ya can't just talk the talk, ya gotta walk the walk.

pray but move your feet.

Those are the five Unity principles... the kids version is:

  1. God is all good and active in everything, everywhere.
  2. I am naturally good because God's Divinity is in me and in everyone.
  3. I create my experiences by what I choose to think and what I feel and believe.
  4. Through affirmative prayer and meditation, I connect with God and bring out the good in my life.
  5. I do and give my best by living the Truth that I know. I make a difference!
 
“I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.”
- by William Henley,
excerpt from “INVICTUS”,

The statement above, although not Jewish is a true statement as it enhances the divine gift of the attribute of Freewill to man and neutralizes the Christian doctrine of predestination.
 
Predestination is not a Christian doctrine....it may be of some churches...but not all.


It is of the gospel of Paul that some are predestinated for salvation and others are not. That's a very unfair doctrine that only shows partiality.
 
Paul also said that women shouldn't speak in churches....

Paul wrote what he thought 2,000 years ago....

We have new knowledge today.... we move on....

some of us... others of us are stuck in thousand year old thought that does not serve us.
 
"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience.
We are spiritual beings having a human experience."
~Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
It is the Soul which incarnates, and yes, we are the arbiters of our own Destiny. Yet the Soul is Immortal, remains such, and it is our own consciousness, the merest Spark or fragment of the Soul-in-incarnation, which chooses and determines our own rate of progress ... or kicks against the proverbial pricks. Thus, we reap as we sew in the afterlife, and neither mighty Thoth nor Ma'at Herself can intervene and adjust a person's destiny, as prepared.

To suggest otherwise is to imply, or state, that God has blundered ... and this is certainly a Blasphemy. To suggest that the balancing effects of the Law of Cause and Effect are not part of God's Plan for keeping the entire Cosmos in Balance, demonstrates ignorance of the Law. As the officer will kindly remind you as he issues the citation, `Ignorance of the Law is no excuse.'

So too, As Above, So Below. Divine Law dictates, and even while LOVE remains the Highest Law as we understand things, it is foolish and absurd to suggest that we escape Justice, Destiny, the consequences of our own thoughts, words and deeds ... or `Fate.'

To seek to escape this is to plead in vain. To seek to CHANGE, to ADJUST, to ADAPT our selves, our lives, our actions, our thoughts and our aspirations - even our speech itself - to make ALL of these more fitting the Divine Standards [illustrated by literally thousands of men and women throughout ALL periods of human history, and in ALL lands, however remote, legendary or forgotten] ... THIS sort of conformity, God does seek. And if it were not too weighty of a word for the Christian audience, which already seems to have its own fair of share of struggles, I would add that God even seeks such WILLING conformity, desperately.

Blow this planet up, and you may just find that I am EXACTLY right in saying that. For certainly, I know that many of God's willing, blithely-submitting Assistants do wish we would hurry up, and get on with things [God's things, that is, God's things].

Plato, anyone? ;)
 
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