tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post5685899394709799368..comments2024-03-28T20:04:20.286-07:00Comments on One Cʘsmos: The Inside Story of ReligionGagdad Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14249005793605006679noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-8766900055471992532017-04-26T19:46:07.780-07:002017-04-26T19:46:07.780-07:00Shouldn't we leave religion to the professiona...Shouldn't we leave religion to the professionals, i.e., the priesthood and other holy personages? They'll ensure a good relationship with God for all of us, while we are freed up to chase after worldly delights.<br /><br />A quick conversion or confession near death and we slip into Heaven right past Saint Peter; and we will have gamed the system for an epic win. <br /><br />Or am I missing something? I don't know, maybe its not such a great idea. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-68304137873910715312017-04-26T09:20:08.193-07:002017-04-26T09:20:08.193-07:00As Aleksandr Solzhenlysn said , nothing awakes the...As Aleksandr Solzhenlysn said , nothing awakes the omniscience (god consciousness) within us than the insistent thoughts about one own transgressions, errors and mistakes that awakens us to move toward perfection, a process that cannot be achieved without the a fore-mentioned emptying. Talking about issues is not the same as using the wise issues as a step stone toward our own self realization. Changing oneself is the first step in wanting to be of use in changing the world. Once I saw Ken Wilber putting a naked photograph of himself on his blog and thought that was not the wise human one can learn from. Mental chattering is not the road to Him despite its apparent deceptive assistance in the way to him. It is not a human will, unsupported by the divine will the main ingredient in the process of human spiritual maturity. All prophets proved that the knowledge they are delivering from the source, to remind us to aspire to that knowledge and not to be arrogant as to depend on our sole will. They also remind us not to forget that the human knowledge is prone to stagnate over time that is why there were so many prophets across the ages, charged with the responsibility of renewing the loss effectiveness of the language that has lost its luster. Of course there are no more prophets because humans have matured enough to be their own prophets as it is clearly seen from what is going on in our present human situation where we are hearing the claims of so many humans boasting of their abilities to run the show and it seems God has responded silently in the way of accommodating their wish, only to prove to the humans their stupidity. No wonder we are hearing, all these voices calling for the renewal of consciousness because the prevailed consciousness has strayed so far as no one can be sure as of the two paths our misled humanity is going to take, the safe path of which the Russian visionary identified or crush into the abyss. From what is going on in our world, all signs are not encouraging. It is the influencing names of the domineering divine force that reacts to the human situations negatively or positively in light of the human conditions that the humans have created. We are receivers of divine thoughts and re-creators of these thoughts anew, in light of our receptivity and preparedness that our awareness of Him demands. We are not mechanical machine to reproduce the thoughts of other humans’ machines. This fight of all those we are reading about, to remind us of activating our internal resources in coordination with the only divine energy, the sources of all energies we are using or talking about. Of course Scott knows my Whiteheadian temperament in reading but I surely never stop pondering in his presence. I am not of those who read a lot but work on themselves not. It is only my compassionate urge to see others see what I see and leave the realm of identifying the ills, but to move to rectify it at least in oneself.<br />I like to add that it seems that humans are in need of constant psychological adjustment due to his paradoxical construction that contains both the forces of good and ill, in line with the paradoxical nature of our God and our cosmos. Religion is our personal psychological school which we need to be in a continual study of the divine curriculum prescribed for the school.<br />The problem does not reside in the deniers of such divine curriculum and went to make their so-called curriculum which is stolen from the divine curriculum but in those who do not honestly abide by the curriculum despite their attendance to the so-called schools of God irrespective of the labels. I feel we are in a hermeneutics time when God will manifests his power through some of his prepared creatures to show that there is nothing, in His cosmos that run haphazardly and to expose the liars, who used his knowledge and turned against His creativity through falsification and mental perversion.<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02180761762279054000noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-55593276501297708632017-04-26T07:28:11.821-07:002017-04-26T07:28:11.821-07:00I know that anecdotes are not data, but I am seein...I know that anecdotes are not data, but I am seeing equal numbers of Protestants and Catholics returning to Orthodoxy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-13414993048350802372017-04-25T14:22:24.940-07:002017-04-25T14:22:24.940-07:00To the extent that we cultivate any version of it,...To the extent that we cultivate any version of it, we do so only in our own home - and that not particularly well, I must admit.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-24762216162105129592017-04-25T14:04:43.745-07:002017-04-25T14:04:43.745-07:00I think we can all sympathize with the 'idea&#...I think we can all sympathize with the 'idea' of it, and kudos to folks like you that have cultivated some version of it. I am not sure I could go that path. Intentional Community to me never looks as good on the ground as it does in the head. But thank God there are those who take it on! tedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07354048695798015131noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-69713242725202298532017-04-25T13:43:00.138-07:002017-04-25T13:43:00.138-07:00I haven't. To be honest, I got kind of tired o...I haven't. To be honest, I got kind of tired of Dreher over the past year. He does often have some good observations, and I do sympathize with the underlying idea of the Benedict option. Many of the people I know here live that way, more or less. I tend more toward the hermit option...juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-85204933138959937682017-04-25T13:20:44.341-07:002017-04-25T13:20:44.341-07:00Which reminds me Julie, have you checked out Drehe...Which reminds me Julie, have you checked out Dreher's <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Benedict-Option-Strategy-Christians-Post-Christian-ebook/dp/B01KUCY7XI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493151589&sr=8-1&keywords=benedict+option" rel="nofollow">Benedict Option</a>?tedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07354048695798015131noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-60965508998718440582017-04-25T12:26:00.316-07:002017-04-25T12:26:00.316-07:00No, the trouble is always inside. But it's eas...<i>No, the trouble is always inside. But it's easier to project the inside out and pretend to cure it with some political program.</i><br /><br />Indeed. This, too, is why so many Christians fall into the trap of believing that charity and even communal living (as the earliest Christians had it) can and <i>should</i> be coerced by the state.juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-47074743638887422062017-04-25T12:18:44.218-07:002017-04-25T12:18:44.218-07:00It's the parable of the Prodigal, played out i...It's the parable of the Prodigal, played out in every generation. juliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15975754287030568726noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8580258.post-61710632174476530942017-04-25T10:42:24.685-07:002017-04-25T10:42:24.685-07:00I remember reading somewhere that virtually every ...<i>I remember reading somewhere that virtually every schism, sub-schism, and sub-sub-schism is prompted by some religious minority longing for a more intense spiritual experience, or encounter with God. Ironically, this is precisely why Catholics leave the church for Protestantism, and why Protestants return to the Church. Both are looking for the same thing, and perhaps it is more easily discovered in an unfamiliar setting -- similar to how life can be more vivid when vacationing, away from the familiar.</i><br /><br />So true. Also that's why Christianity is the fastest growing religion in the East, and the Eastern spiritual traditions are growing faster in the West. tedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07354048695798015131noreply@blogger.com