February 28, 2011
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Response to TheoDan’s Request
By a recent message, Dan the theologian exhorted me to…
Copy and paste this mass message and send it to all of your friends and subscribers.
“Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 10:32-33
If you are not willing to send out this mass message to all of your friends it is probably because you are not willing to take a stand for Jesus. So some day He will just have to deny you before the Father when you get to Heaven.
So send out this mass message to all of your friends.Excellent stuff. But I’m sure Dan didn’t intend me to adopt a narrow minded, bigoted, sectarian approach to the subject. I’m convinced he didn’t want me to fall into the error of pretending that the Christian scriptures carry the only valid records or reasonings on God (theo-logy, if you like to speak Greek, or if you prefer plain English, God-logic.)
So, as we live in a world where there are many religions, and many good people bursting both their hearts and brains as to how to approach nearer to the Creator, and many good people bursting their balls in an effort to evade the pain of dealing with those who inflict religion on others…
…I’ve put together of few extracts from a few of the Wider World’s books that are usually termed “holy,” in my own brief, feeble attempt to act against what has surely been one of the larger boils on the Wider World’s arse: the western belief (in reality, no longer held by all that many westerners) that we own the only “genuine” revelation.
So from the Baghavad Gita (Song of God) thought to be pre-500 BC…
Yea! thou hast seen, Arjuna! because I loved thee well, The secret countenance of Me, revealed by mystic spell, 310 Shining, and wonderful, and vast, majestic, manifold, Which none save thou in all the years had favor to behold: For not by Vedas cometh this, nor sacrifice, nor alms, Nor works well-done, nor penance long, nor prayers nor chaunted psalms, That mortal eyes should bear to view the Immortal Soul unclad,
And from a famous rabbi, I believe Rabbi Hillel…
“Do to others as you would be done to yourself. All the rest is detail.”
Hillel was challenged to explain the whole of Jewish teaching during the time that his challenger could stand on one leg.
The Buddists have the Tripitaka (the Three Baskets.)
“Even as all the sea has the flavour of salt, so all my teachings have the flavour of freedom.”
Gautama Sidharta, commonly known as The Buddha. Approx. 500 B.C.
The Muslims have Al Koran, (The Recitation) but also the Hadith (pronounced hadiss.)
“Say Bismillah ( in the name of God) over it, then eat.”
From The Hadith (the sayings and acts of Prophet Mohammed.) The meaning is that a poor woman’s goat had become ritually unclean, therefore uneatable. Mohammed considered her starvation, and so set aside the minor dietary rules. About 600-630 AD.
There that’s better, and I’m only sorry I haven’t more time and patience to make it longer. I’m sure that’s what Dan really wanted, if he’d thought before he acted. Foot-and-mouth is a terrible disease of animals, but foot-in-mouth a terrible disease of man.
Literary works by me of great clarity,
depth, importance, and entertainment value for money.
Comments (25)
Awe, it was all in good fun.I loved your quick response to my post. . . 24 hours later.
“Quick? 24 hours? Do I detect sarcasm? A miracle it is that I bother to spend any time in this pit of inanity, as I for one am harried from pillar to post, wearing half a dozen different hats in an effort to pay of a mountain of debt. Nice if you have time to hang out here. But… was it fun? This is more fun =)
Makes telling which religion is the “truth” pretty difficult when one realizes there are many supposed “truths” out there.
@loner_writer - truth is truth. religion is unnecessary details and red tape.
@loner_writer - many people say that ultimate truth is in fact not expressible in words, and only to be found in a deeper inward understanding. It is a search to be found in all parts of the world, in all cultures. All these founders, without exception, point to the same thing: the possibility of knowing a deeper, clearer, more joyous state.
Yeah, nothing speaks the truth better than every religion and theologian.
@loner_writer - …but their later followers, unfortunately, miss this point, and pass their time… @carolinavenger - …amusing their lower natures with said Red Tape.
@darkoozeripple - I think that’s the best description of Catholicism I’ve ever heard. I’m sure it applies to others too but I can only speak from my background.
@ctaretz - and nothing misses truth better than geting bogged down with too many words.
@darkoozeripple - LOL..agreed.
Thanks, more or less, for another and far wiser look at this issue that yesterday’s multifold irritations that caused me to unfriend four inconsiderate inglourious basterds who followed Dan’s ill-advised instruction.
I think it was totally a ploy to get us to stop blogging about all else and only blog about bible verses.*looks around* awww I guess I totally forgot to do it….darn it. =P
As a Christian, I get these types of emails all the time and I loathe them. I cringe when I get them. God knows my heart and I don’t think He expects me to send mass emails to accomplish His purposes. Anyone can do that….it is my life that hopefully glorifies God and not the enter key.
@twoberry - The thing I hate is this assumption that there is a single conflict going on, between “good people,” who include Christians, and no one else, and “atheists.” In reality there is a world full of theories, writings and beliefs, and all can be seen to circle round a certain point: that there is a better life, if we would only seek it. Generally I keep out of these pointless disputes, but on this occasion I just overflowed.
@WondersCafe - I find it hard to be angry with Dan, as in many ways he is a genuine person, and – in as far as I can see – prefers cooperation to conflict. But what he did here was to simply pock a stick at Xanga’s number one hornet’s nest, knowing full well what the result would be; a riot.
It’s incredible how narrow-minded some people can be.
I’m pretty sure what Dan wanted was for us all to do was to whip ourselves into a bloodthirsty frenzy and blog about it!
@LifeNeedsProtection - I often feel that in this arena it’s best to mind one’s own business, and be as silent and stoic as a stone. But this was a piece of dimness so underhand that it made this stone at least cry out.
@Sand_notes - true. We live in a world of it. Occasionally it’s good to do what you can, and say “every little bit helps,” like the old lady who peed hopefully into the ocean.
@firetyger - that was undoubtedly his intention. But it’s not a good idea to use serious matters as childish toys.
@darkoozeripple - In general, I agree. Though I have to say it never hurts to make jokes every once in awhile. People are too uptight.
@firetyger - they are indeed, and it’s something I try to avoid; but this weekend I’d seen this dirty bucket taken to the dirtier well once too often. Dan now says it was only a joke, ha ha. Fine Dan, lets all clap. Clap clap clap. Now you’ve had your joke, we’ll have ours. We all know by now that Dan plays Xanga like a fiddle, and as far as I’m concerned he can do it daily. My urge was to use the incident to achieve something more substantial, by expanding the horizon of what it means to be a believer. Why should there be this two-alternatives situation driven so deep into the Xanga consciousness that even our quarrels can only see the christian/atheist conflict, as though only one or the other is correct? Does the rest of the world not exist?
hi. you don’t visit anymore.
@hilaw - I shall have ot rectify that. I’ve been plagued with illness and disasters for more than a year now, and only recently am I getting back into the groove.
@darkoozeripple - i am so sorry my friend. oh boy. hugs. i am glad for your getting back into the groove.