"On Faith" panelist Pamela K. Taylor is co-founder of Muslims for Progressive Values and director of the Islamic Writers Alliance. She is a member of the national board of advisors to the Network of Spiritual Progressives, and served as co-chair of the Progressive Muslim Union for two years. Taylor is a strong supporter of the woman imam movement, which seeks the full participation of Muslim women in every aspect of life, including the pulpit. In July 2005, she became the first woman in centuries to officiate Friday prayers in a mosque when the United Muslim Association of Toronto and the Muslim Canadian Congress invited her to serve as guest imam. (This event followed a number of services, sermons and prayer sessions led by women held in private venues because no mosque agreed to host them.) In February 2006, when the former Grand Mufti of Marseilles visited Toronto, he requested that Taylor lead him in congregational prayer as an unequivocal demonstration of his support for female imams. Taylor has also been active in interfaith dialogue for 20 years, both in local initiatives and speaking at numerous conferences, universities, and churches. She received her MTS from Harvard Divinity School, and writes regularly on spiritual matters and the Islamic faith. She has essays in Nurturing Child and Adolescent Spirituality: Perspectives from the World's Religious Traditions (2006) and the forthcoming The Veil: Women Writers on Its History, Lore, and Politics (2007). She has written hundreds of articles and opinion pieces for newspapers, magazines, and journals, and is an award winning poet.
Close.
Pamela K. Taylor
co-founder, Muslims for Progressive Values
"On Faith" panelist Pamela K. Taylor is co-founder of Muslims for Progressive Values and director of the Islamic Writers Alliance. She is a member of the national board of advisors to the Network of Spiritual Progressives, and served as co-chair of the Progressive Muslim Union for two years. Taylor is a strong supporter of the woman imam movement, which seeks the full participation of Muslim women in every aspect of life, including the pulpit.
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Same old Victoria "ducking" the important problems of Islam. Sorry singing American songs will not change Islam or will it? Maybe we need some "holey (not holy) hallucinator" rap music??
How might that sound?
Big Mo de angel man, seeing "pretty wingie thingies" while fasting man, Go Big Mo the koranic man, Go Big Mo he's the "nutteo", Go Big Mo he really was a "nutteo", making the biggie buckies with plunding and pillaging, He was the bloodie man!!!!!
Hmmm, sounds like a contest in the making? A barrel of Texas crude for the best Big Mo rap??
one of my alltime favorites hank w.
ive sung it many a time, but didnt know all the words- now i do thanks
thanks anon-
mr schein- my own perspective on the need of a god for our adoration is this-
god has no needs- thats a projection of our own human desires and wants-
but we humans DO need to learn appreciation and gratitude-
often it is a great struggle for me to summon up real gratitude in my heart-
that giving and appreciation
sometimes when im praying it never really materializes
but i keep striving for it - it is real and this is the mechanism i have to strengthen my consciousness of appreciation
Look, Concerned the Christian Liberated, you have the right to believe as you may choose. And so do I. I found this song to be very interesting by one who sang that the words of the prophets are now written on subway walls (and not bathroom stalls)
The Boy in the Bubble
By Paul Simon, 1976:
Graceland
It was a slow day,
And the sun was beating
On the soldiers by the side of the road,
There was a bright light,
A shattering of shop windows
The bomb in the baby carriage
Was wired to the radio,
These are the days of miracle and wonder,
This is the long distance call,
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all,
The way we look to a distant constellation
That's dying in a corner of the sky,
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don't cry baby don't cry
Don't cry,
(Pause)
It was a dry wind,
And it swept across the desert
And it curled into the circle of birth,
And the dead sand,
Falling on the children
The mothers and the fathers
And the automatic earth,
These are the days of miracle and wonder,
This is the long distance call,
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all o-yeah,
The way we look to a distant constellation
That's dying in a corner of the sky,
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don't cry baby don't cry
Don't cry
(Pause)
It's a turn-around jump shot
It's everybody jump start
It's, every generation throws a hero up the pop charts,
Medicine is magical and magical is art think of
The, Boy in the Bubble
And the baby with the baboon heart
And I believe
These are the days of lasers in the jungle,
Lasers in the jungle somewhere,
Staccato signals of constant information,
A loose affiliation of millionaires
And billionaires and baby,
These are the days of miracle and wonder,
This is the long distance call,
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all o-yeah,
The way we look to a distant constellation
That's dying in a corner of the sky,
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don't cry baby don't cry
Don't cry don't cry
If there is a Singularity, it started this "hands-off" experiment with the Big Bang. Part of the experiment are the inputs of innate free choice and future.
I believe the Covenant of Works was supposedly established in the mythical Garden of Eden with the mythical Adam making it the Covenant of Myths.
concerned the Christian now liberated wrote to me:
"A realistic conclusion by Father Edward Schillebeeckx, the famous contemporary theologian:"
It's an interesting argument under the heading of "realistic" but being somewhat of a scientist myself and looking at Works Convenent I disagree.
The Works Covenent involves such things as night and day, an earth tilting on axis to give us seasons and and the laws of gravity. These things are of a universal order that man now takes for granted.
It's now beyond the realm of possiblities to me that God in fact functions inside and outside our space/time reference. And in fact prophecy, visions and oracles have be recorded since adaptation of written language.
So who am I not to say God the Creator has perfect hindsight and foresight if Christian, Muslim and Jew all believe in prophets ? Our society in fact rejects modern prophets or mysticism as parlor tricks or Illusionists.
And rightly so because I believe that recently, as in the past, religion has been exploted for political gain much like threats Christ posed to Church and State or the Roman Empire Church/State union.
Today, through personal experience and documentary, I see people addicted Jesus and encouraged to be so for the glory of an individual mega church or for political gain. The young are easy prey.
Besides, in this here country we have a freedom of faith which is not supposed to be bigetory or discrimative on many different levels. And so, I don't really care who the Prophet is in a religious sense, I only want to know if the Prophet speaks the truth. And that is a universalist requirement of religious authority.
For another time we may consider self-fulfilling prophecies spanning several generations. I was focused on a Syrian born converted saint that warned of the rise of the ayrian race circa 500ad. See, if you tell your kid he is a bad person will he grow up to be bad ?
Of the three Abrahamic faiths, Islam lacks any form of philosophical basis. Muhammad was never revealed anything, by his godling Allah, that does compel humans to have a deeper introspective view of life and its meaning.
Islam is essentially blind obedience and hence is essentially Submission to the Supreme Will (of Allah). The Quran states that it is the perfect book of rules revealed to mankind. So doubting its authenticity is essentially apostacy. Islam is vehemently opposed to apostacy and doubt by the believer. That is, those who believe and then disbelieve, are hypocrites ("munafiqs") and the punishment fort hypocrites is in most Islamic traditions, death.
Pamela Taylor is promoting misleading and corrupt versions of her own sanitized view of Islamic beliefs, which have been rejected by the large Muslim ummah outside her self-defined realms of Americanized Islam.
Why do people even bother to read such posts that are full of half-truths/lies and imaginations and hence all these posts do is to generate more confusion and chaos.
A realistic conclusion by Father Edward Schillebeeckx, the famous contemporary theologian:
Church: The Human Story of God,
Crossroad, 1993, p.91 (softcover)
"Christians must give up a perverse, unhealthy and inhuman doctrine of predestination without in so doing making God the great scapegoat of history" .
"Nothing is determined in advance: in
nature there is chance and determinism; in the world of human activity there is possibility of free choices.
Therefore the historical future is not known even to God; otherwise we and our history would be merely a puppet show in which God holds the strings. For God, too, history is an adventure, an open history for and of men and women."
I am so saddened to read this column and the commentary. More words and mental energy wasted discussing what is completely unknowable. The Koran and the Bible are nothing but words, not divinely revealed, surely not the Word of God. Why this society continues to waste so much effort on this complete nonsense is simply beyond my comprehension.
I am so saddened to read this column and the commentary. More words and mental energy wasted discussing what is completely unknowable. The Koran and the Bible are nothing but words, not divinely revealed, surely not the Word of God. Why this society continues to waste so much effort on this complete nonsense is simply beyond my comprehension.
I think that Mother T. suffered from battle fatigue, she spent too much time in the stuff as they would say. But who are they anyway, does they include us ?
As relating doubt to religion, very few or anyone can claim a direct communion with God these days. Checked one year with FBI and statistics showed about 2 dozen men in the United States claiming themselves as the second coming of Christ. Certain mental conditions are known to cause a phoney God Consciousness. I see that at times the Oracle echoes the will of man's ego.
Look at poverty, disease and a lack of basic human services in Iraq. Lack of electricity and water shows that basic civil order is lacking so I am not surprised political order is lacking power right now.
In Christian tradition, Adam spoke to the Father directly. Is said that Adam broke the Covenent of Works, thereby causing Adam and Eve to lose innocence and mankind has had to cover up since then.
God knew Adam was going to eat that apple I think, just as God knew 9/11 was going to happen just as God knew there would be a war in Iraq. We all doubt these things occured or were allowed to occur under an all loving Creater.
I suggest we all step out of the stuff at times and look at the bigger picture as like, "Now where is the Creator going with this one and how can I help through doing his Will and not mine, let it be so".
To see how the church used the good lady for its own benifit (to provide it with manpower, nuns, from the good country of India), read Chris Hitchens book "The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice". The poor lady had no choice but to follow the tenents of the greedy church, rather than her own reason. The church's reaction to her doubts is both selfserving and disingeneous.
On Sunday, our junior pastor gave the meditation, prior to communion. He pointed out something very important from Mother Theresa's writings, aside from the fact that her most profound wish that all of her correspondence be destroyed upon her death.
Mother Theresa believed in God, and Jesus, but she struggled with it every day, with profound doubts and troubling thoughts. As someone who thinks a great deal about my religious faith, and who has nothing but questions and more questions, this information was of great comfort.
There is a large school of thought in the United States that says you should just believe, do what your religious leaders tell you to do, and not to ask any questions, because it will all be "OK." I do not subscribe to this school of thought. I think that God gave us brains, and expected us to use them, and didn't restrict our "thinking" ability to figuring out how to program a VCR; he left us free reign for our minds to roam the universe, searching for better answers.
Mother Theresa's struggle gives hope to some of the rest of us, who struggle similarly, every day.
It's MUCH easier to believe in, espouse, cheer, and carry on about something you never bother to question, and never think about. I would encourage those who are absolutely certain in "their faith" and who now find that they have been manipulated by and lied to by what passes for their leaders, to start thinking for themselves. If she can do it, so can the rest of us.
People posit a God, provide the entity with a nature and then become concerned when they lose faith in their invention. This says nothing about the nature of ultimate reality, just that humans seem to need the interposition of a supreme leader--the ultimate dictator for whom they invent rules that they can be subordinate to.
How quaint that this omnipotent and omniscient creature seems to need the adoration and obedience of humanity and only humanity. But humans have been attributing to themselves special qualities that set them apart from and make them superior to all other animals. They do this primarily to feel free to kill or to enslave these creatures for food, labor or pleasure, or to dominate their habitats for human purposes.
Then humans go one step further. In order to authenticate the superior standing of their culture and society with respect to the rest of humanity, they create a God who verifies this contention with a special dispensation. And the authorities amongst each culture who prosyletize this dispensation and are recognized and "sanctified" by their activities sit at the very apex of cultural and often political power, elevated to this position by means of this ultimate blasphemy.
Good post. It is obvious that you have doubted and probably still do. Your answer to doubt is faith.
It is possible that only those who doubt can experience true faith. The Christian scripture says that "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Why so defined?
Because what I have seen I need no longer doubt, and what I hope for and which has subsequently been accomplished I am secure with.
But life is filled with hope that is not substantiated and doubts that are not answered. The one who has faith is able to keep on moving toward his/her goals in spite of what they do not know.
That is the purpose of faith and to criticize someone who acknowledges their doubts is to lack any knowledge of what life is like and what true faith is about.
Good post. It is obvious that you have doubted and probably still do. Your answer to doubt is faith.
It is possible that only those who doubt can experience true faith. The Christian scripture says that "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Why so defined?
Because what I have seen I need no longer doubt, and what I hope for and which has subsequently been accomplished I am secure with.
But life is filled with hope that is not substantiated and doubts that are not answered. The one who has faith is able to keep on moving toward his/her goals in spite of what they do not know.
That is the purpose of faith and to criticize someone who acknowledges their doubts is to lack any knowledge of what life is like and what true faith is about.
Good post. It is obvious that you have doubted and probably still do. Your answer to doubt is faith.
It is possible that only those who doubt can experience true faith. The Christian scripture says that "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Why so defined?
Because what I have seen I need no longer doubt, and what I hope for and which has subsequently been accomplished I am secure with.
But life is filled with hope that is not substantiated and doubts that are not answered. The one who has faith is able to keep on moving toward his/her goals in spite of what they do not know.
That is the purpose of faith and to criticize someone who acknowledges their doubts is to lack any knowledge of what life is like and what true faith is about.
the atheists on these boards perceive dount as a wekaness in the chain of faith-
your answer-
~Er-- based on this reasoning-- if the 9/11 terrorists had had "doubts" on attacking the WTC, would the fact they still acted on their superstitious beliefs --constiute ANY evidence they had true beliefs?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
are you saying the terrorist were atheists?
that is the only way that reasoning would apply-
they very well could have been as there motivation was not religious but political-
the comment was my observation of how atheists have characterized doubt for believers-
it is not applicable to believers of any type-
so your response, addressing believers logically cannot apply to believers-
your analogy had no bearing on the statement as it didnt address it
AG, I make a point of it because YOU and THOSE WHO ADVOCATE THE HOMOSEXUAL LIFESTYLE make a point of it. And I say homosexual because its offensive you took a word the used to mean something totally different and perverted it to mean something its not. Homosexuality is NOT gay. Just like a crack cocaine its very very dangerous to everything that makes you a person. It effeminizes a man and makes women brutish. It destroys families and children and neighborhood parks AND PUBLIC RESTROOMS! And when you try to make it "normal" I must speak up. Now having said that I DO NOT CARE WHAT YOU DO IN YOUR HOME! But do not say your lifestyle is normal on par with whats considered "Family."
Children DO NOT have a say when you adopt them. THATS SICK! AND HORRIBLY WRONG. And it is the beginning of the end of the America I grew up in.
You forgot to add the Third Axis of Evil, aka the Islamic state of Iran and all the "liberal" Muslim commentators on this blog to your list of non-doubters. Any reason for these exclusions???
Why is it so important for you to focus on gay and lesbian people? And who decided that you could very selectively use the Hebrew and Christian bible to justify such condemnation? Your comments are a poster child for the craziness of the country's evangelicals and Religious Right. Is it any wonder that you have created the Ted Haggard's and Larry Craig's of the world? Let me make a recommendation, find a rock and hide under it until the world is safe enough for you to join the rest of us!
Why is it so important for you to focus on gay and lesbian people? And who decided that you could very selectively use the Hebrew and Christian bible to justify such condemnation? Your comments are a poster child for the craziness of the country's evangelicals and Religious Right. Is it any wonder that you have created the Ted Haggard's and Larry Craig's of the world? Let me make a recommendation, find a rock and hide under it until the world is safe enough for you to join the rest of us!
It is interesting to read this post, but very distressing to know that it is framed by Islam's horrible oppression for gay and lesbian people. In Muslim countries, gays and lesbians must remain closeted and hidden just to stay alive. The Muslim punishment for the "sin" of homosexuality is death with such extremes as burying people alive and crushing them to death under the weight of a bulldozer. Let’s call it for what it is! Islam is just another destructive, repressive, flat-earth belief systems -- so similar to the evangelicals and Religious Right of the U.S. -- that is so damaging to gay and lesbian people.
positing a role for doubt as integral to belief in something with zero evidence adds nothing to the credibility of the belief. "The more you doubt the greater your belief" or whatever, is really just goobledy-gook-- it makes no sense.
Only the likes of Bush and the american christian right wingers and their counterparts the Saudi right wing wahabists have no doubts at all,the rest of us mortal men and women have doubts as we should.Amen.
I am supposed to have belief in a loving God because four homing pigeons flew back to Abraham? Huh? And this is the same Abraham that was supposed to kill his son to appease God - how barbaric.
You still have not answered why this loving God allows so many bad things to happen to innocent people. Invoking natural beauty does not prove or explain anything. I still think Sam Harris has it right - there is no God and you would be better to get off your knees and out of those churches and give your money and time to helping the poor; just like Mother Theresa did even after she lost her faith.
He who seeks the Living God....."finds him. He who finds him.....finds...."HOPE....and he who finds "HOPE....finds....."PEACE."
Greetings in the name of the Living God....
As A Servant of the Living God, I believe that we are to be thankful for our gifts everyday, especially our "Good Health" and countless blessings to those who know...."God.
I like Danial talk to "God" several times a day, and like David I ask him....."What is Man dear God that thou art mindful of him?
He replied because he is mine, and he is made in my image and to him I gave all things under heaven and for him I gave my son...to die, on a "CROSS" and with that my son gave all, so that all could live.
I beleive that those who seek the Living God will find him, and I believe that those who find him, find "PEACE.
I believe in "PRAYER" and I know the Living God is making his presence felt even now....
In conclusion those who seek the Living God will find him, and those who the "TRUTH" find Christ, and "PEACE."
....You cannot see, the air but you know its there, as Christians we walk by "FAITH" and not by sight, because...."WE KNOW...."GOD!
We do not look for the Air because we already know its there, We do not look for "HOPE..because we....."WE TOOK A LEAP OF FAITH.....and found "The Living God and because we took that "LEAP OF FAITH....WE FOUND HOPE!
...."If You Judge....People, "You Have No Time To Love Them." --Mother Teresha
...."Call Unto Me...."And I Will Answer Thee..."And Show Thee Great and Mighty Things."
---Jeremiah 33:3
Sincerely, your friend, and fellow student,
Tommy Birchfield,
Voter, Vet USAF,
Class 2007 East Tennessee State University
Masters Program ETSU, Fall 2007
"May the "Peace of the Living God, Be with you....
"... if he doubts,he lives;
if he doubts,he remembers why he is doubting;
if he doubts,he has a will to be certain;
if he doubts,he thinks;
if he doubts,he knows he does not know;
if he doubts,he judges he ought not to give a hasty assent."
Sounds like doubt is a good idea to me.
Doubt may be a measure of good sense
trying to peek through a murky haze.
A doubt is like a hole, a vent,
where truth sometimes penetrates.
And when one might have a thought about
that which they do not wish to doubt,
they should not stop and doubt
the doubt that questioned
what they thought they knew about.
Your response is the much needed counterpoint to the unfortunate Mr. Harris' article. Faith and doubt are truly inseparable; to doubt is to be human, but to have faith is what marks us as a race.
Homosexuals will go to any length to discredit God and the Bible in their mind to justify their homosexual lifestyle. Its so sad too. This life is all they have and they spend it hating eternity.
Fifty people on a church outing are riding in a bus when it crashes into a tree. Forty-nine people are killed and one survives. For the one survivor there is at first
Doubt: How can there be a God who would kill forty-nine believers at one stroke.
But then there is
Faith: My life has been spared. There is a merciful God who truly loves me.
I would like to add I appreciate Pamela Taylor's post -- applauding all religious individuals who take "Doubt" out of the Closet to make it acceptible.
It is only when religious groups admit their doubts that they will be less likely to follow demigods who proclaim they have the "certainty" to cause violence towards those who do not hold their beliefs.
I might add Mother Theresa was not honest of her doubts: She wanted her letters to be hidden from the public while she put on a mask on her true views.
To the Catholics who published Mother Theresa's letters -- Thank you for the reason given above.
I think your theory is that Mother Theresa was given a "test" -- sort of like Job.
Except, unlike Job, Mother Theresa never appears to have found relief. No doubt, according to your hopes, she has found it in heaven.
You can hope for this, of course; but this does not constitute any real proof.
My only objection is blurring the lines between the two (i.e. hope and proof.)
Victoria: "to many of the atheists that grace these boards, [doubt] seems to indicate some weakness in the chain of faith".
Er-- based on this reasoning-- if the 9/11 terrorists had had "doubts" on attacking the WTC, would the fact they still acted on their superstitious beliefs --constiute ANY evidence they had true beliefs?
Of course, this is nonsense.
I applaud Mother Theresa for her acts of charity. But I note her deep doubts is EXACTLY what one would expect in a world that was not designed by a divine hand.
I think Mother Theresa kept going on-- because she was hoping for special powers (ie rewards in heaven). She despaired this might not be true, but kept going only because she had convinced herself that life was meaningless without her heavenly crown.
Here are some of the Mother Theresa's quotes showing the severity of her doubt:
“So many unanswered questions live within me afraid to uncover them—because of the blasphemy—If there be God—please forgive me—When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven—there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul.—I am told God loves me—and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul."
and
“What do I labor for? If there be no God—there can be no soul—if there is no Soul then Jesus—You also are not true.”
For anyone to argue this is somehow "proof" -- shows desparation to believe ... anything.
No Annonymous, God is the Potter and He can make of the clay anything He wishes. I just hope you become a vessel of Mercy and not stay a vessel of wrath.
I have recognized my brainwashing in Catholicism and Christianity and the flaws in said religion and noted these many times. NT exegetes like Professor Crossan and the Jesus Seminarians are leading us to the real foundations of Christianity.
You and your fellow liberal Muslims have not done the same for Islam. Once again:
1. Abraham founder/father of three major religions was probably a mythical character. If he was real, he was at best a combination of at least three men. 1.5 million Conservative Jews and their rabbis have relegated Abraham to the myth pile along with most if not all the OT.
2. Jesus, the illiterate Jewish peasant/carpenter possibly suffering from hallucinations, has been characterized anywhere from the Messiah from Nazareth to a mythical character from mythical Nazareth. Analyses of his life by many contemporary NT scholars (e.g. Professors Crossan, Borg and Fredriksen, On Faith panelists)via the NT and related documents have concluded that only about 30% of Jesus' sayings and ways noted in the NT were authentic. The rest being embellishments (e.g. miracles)/hallucinations made/had by the NT authors to impress various Christian sects.
The 30% of the NT that is "authentic Jesus" like everything in life was borrowed, plagiarized and/or improved from those that came before. In Jesus' case, it was the ways and sayings of the OT and John the Baptizer and possibly the ways and sayings of traveling Greek Cynics.
3. Mohammed, an illiterate, hallucinating Arab, also had embellishing/hallucinating scribal biographers who not only added "angels" and flying chariots to the Koran but also a militaristic agenda to support the plundering and looting of the lands of non-believers.
This agenda continues as shown by the conduct of the seven Muslim doctors in the UK, the 9/11 terrorists, the 24/7 Sunni suicide/roadside/market/mosque bombers , the 24/7 Shiite suicide/roadside/market/mosque bombers , the Bali crazies, the Kenya crazies, the Pakistani koranics, the Palestine suicide bombers/rocketeers, the Lebanese nutcases and the Filipino koranics. And who supports these acts of terror both financially and theologically??? Iran aka The Third Axis of Evil and also the "Wannabees" from Saudi Arabia both using the blood money of oil profits. And please note that the "liberal", peace-loving Muslim commentators on this blog never, never criticize Iran or the "Wannabees".
4. Luther, Calvin, Smith, Henry VIII, Wesley et al, founders of Christian-based religions, also suffered from the belief in/hallucinations of "pretty wingy thingie" visits and "prophecies" for profits analogous to the myths of Catholicism (resurrections, apparitions, ascensions and immaculate conceptions).
5. Hinduism (from an online Hindu site) - "Hinduism cannot be described as an organized religion. It is not founded by any individual. Hinduism is God centred and therefore one can call Hinduism as founded by God, because the answer to the question ‘Who is behind the eternal principles and who makes them work?’ will have to be ‘Cosmic power, Divine power, God’"
The caste/laborer system and cow worship are problems when saying a fair and rational God founded Hinduism."
6. Buddhism- "Buddhism began in India about 500 years before the birth of Christ. The people living at that time had become disillusioned with certain beliefs of Hinduism including the caste system, which had grown extremely complex. The number of outcasts (those who did not belong to any particular caste) was continuing to grow."
"However, in Buddhism, like so many other religions, fanciful stories arose concerning events in the life of the founder, Siddhartha Gautama (fifth century B.C.):"
Archaeological discoveries have proved, beyond a doubt, his historical character, but apart from the legends we know very little about the circumstances of his life.
Bottom line: There are many good ways of living but be aware of the hallucinations/embellishments and myths surrounding the founders of said rules of life.
HEYYOU,
Your quote is either a lie which makes u a fraud-or otherwise your source-Gensis-is corrupt because a true God could not possibely be a racist.
Pamela,
Your article is both Rational and Human:that is ISLAM.Even the great Islamic scholar Abu Hamed Al Ghazali (died 1111 AD)went thru a torturing episode of doubt-before he wrote his great works on Faith.
Rich Rosenthal,
The human race in general especially the overwhelming majority of Jews-such as yourself and the likes of Elie Weisel-have not in any way, shape or form ever condemned the horrendous atrocities of the racist Apartheid jewish theocracy of israel nor its brutal 60-year military occupation of all of Arab historic Palestine-nor of the terrorism of the jewish gangs such as Haganah,Palmach,Shtern and Argun-on which terrorism the jewish theocracy was built and who ethnically cleansed untold number of Palestinians in 1947/9 from their historic homeland and razed to the ground over 530 five hundred and thirty Palestinian villages to prevent them from returning home as per UN 194 of 1947 and who are still living by the millions in refugee camps sixty year later.
Nor have the jews ever condemned the genocide of Bosnian Muslims and not even the invasion, destruction and occupation of Iraq-in fact no community on the face of earth actively and zealously promoted the war on Iraq than the jewish community,AIPAC and Israel.
The world is really fatigued and bored to death from hearing the usual recycled sermon on the mountain: the holocaust, anti-Semitism and the monopoly of the jews over suffering.
Ms Taylor,
I think there are a few more pressing issues than doubt and faith for you to mention. World Islam has not yet condemned bin laden, terrorism and jihad or any other religious justification for the extermination of non-muslims. When all muslims are called upon to turn in those who would kill for Allah then we may consider the fine points of your prattle.
Ms Taylor, you really are on to something when you say "you think allah must be a capricious monster" to allow the suffering he does, he allows it because he likes it, having read the quran I know this "god" takes personal pleasure in tormenting and torturing those in hell who don't agree with him or his prophet. He also does not lead or tell his creation how to achieve a relationship with him or even how to get right with him( unless you murder some innocent soul, of course kuffars are not innocent). Ms Taylor, Islam is evil and you are at best misleading yourself to oblivion.
I don't see or hear many Christian fundamentalist in the news, or many others for that matter, who express any doubt in regards to religious matters.
This includes their personal knowledge of heaven, hell, right and wrong, what is expected of us or any of the many other major issues confronting the world today. If they have any doubts, most are certainly not publicizing them.
Confidence and supreme knowledge trumps all in the world of religion for most believers IMHO.
These are the Humates only needs! The rest Is Bullacrapa!
Every Body's LIFE evolves, day in and Night out, Around these Eclat Given "TETRA-NEEDS" for Humates, since Ecat ITSELF did not want to be lonely is why we appear in miracle & Zero sin! And
Any One Who has All Four tetra Needs Fullfillment, has IT ALL! And Anything [Problems] that one finds to be stressed about outside of any of the tetraneeds fullfillment, is Living a Wasted Life & Is In Definate Illusion or is it Dilussion or religious Pollution that cased suchs problems!
This is only a small fact of Eclati-on Awareness via "Insight & Pattern Recognition" powers & usage" And application of Eclati-on Cruxology-Psychology dicipline or knowledge! Ya Ya Sistar(s) & brethren(s) of America & friends!
All Comments (94)
amhost amhost
October 4, 2007 11:20 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on October 4, 2007 23:20
Read the Sermon on the Mount. It says something about not making a (constant!) public display of one's prayers and charitable actions done for God.
Didn't someone sing ?: 'Self praise is no recommendation.'
If someday you should find Voodoo the religion to try out, would you then find Islam inadequate as you now find Christianity inadequate?
September 10, 2007 4:55 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 10, 2007 04:55
Same old Victoria "ducking" the important problems of Islam. Sorry singing American songs will not change Islam or will it? Maybe we need some "holey (not holy) hallucinator" rap music??
How might that sound?
Big Mo de angel man, seeing "pretty wingie thingies" while fasting man, Go Big Mo the koranic man, Go Big Mo he's the "nutteo", Go Big Mo he really was a "nutteo", making the biggie buckies with plunding and pillaging, He was the bloodie man!!!!!
Hmmm, sounds like a contest in the making? A barrel of Texas crude for the best Big Mo rap??
September 5, 2007 12:13 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 5, 2007 00:13
"i bet you used to sing simon and garfunkel tunes"
I bet you did too, Victoria, until you realized you were singing along with two jews.. : )
September 4, 2007 11:30 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 4, 2007 23:30
lib, relax for once! its just not that serious!
these are the days of miracles and wonders!
watch the video- you know you'll like it-
i bet you used to sing simon and garfunkel tunes in your shower when no one could hear-
September 4, 2007 9:58 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 4, 2007 21:58
sometimes i swear youre such a goofball lib- dont you even like MUSIC?
come onnnnn
take a break watch the video
September 4, 2007 9:50 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 4, 2007 21:50
FedEx overnight shipping and free prescription, http://MyRxPill.com
September 4, 2007 6:28 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 4, 2007 18:28
Victoria, Victoria,
Your Islamic "wishy wash" continues while your imams continue to preach death to the infidels. How indeed do you live with yourself??????
September 4, 2007 4:36 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 4, 2007 04:36
one of my alltime favorites hank w.
ive sung it many a time, but didnt know all the words- now i do thanks
thanks anon-
mr schein- my own perspective on the need of a god for our adoration is this-
god has no needs- thats a projection of our own human desires and wants-
but we humans DO need to learn appreciation and gratitude-
often it is a great struggle for me to summon up real gratitude in my heart-
that giving and appreciation
sometimes when im praying it never really materializes
but i keep striving for it - it is real and this is the mechanism i have to strengthen my consciousness of appreciation
September 4, 2007 2:22 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 4, 2007 02:22
Paul Simon and John Mayer
"Boy in the Bubble"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7y-jnbR8uE
September 4, 2007 12:05 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 4, 2007 00:05
Look, Concerned the Christian Liberated, you have the right to believe as you may choose. And so do I. I found this song to be very interesting by one who sang that the words of the prophets are now written on subway walls (and not bathroom stalls)
The Boy in the Bubble
By Paul Simon, 1976:
Graceland
It was a slow day,
And the sun was beating
On the soldiers by the side of the road,
There was a bright light,
A shattering of shop windows
The bomb in the baby carriage
Was wired to the radio,
These are the days of miracle and wonder,
This is the long distance call,
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all,
The way we look to a distant constellation
That's dying in a corner of the sky,
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don't cry baby don't cry
Don't cry,
(Pause)
It was a dry wind,
And it swept across the desert
And it curled into the circle of birth,
And the dead sand,
Falling on the children
The mothers and the fathers
And the automatic earth,
These are the days of miracle and wonder,
This is the long distance call,
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all o-yeah,
The way we look to a distant constellation
That's dying in a corner of the sky,
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don't cry baby don't cry
Don't cry
(Pause)
It's a turn-around jump shot
It's everybody jump start
It's, every generation throws a hero up the pop charts,
Medicine is magical and magical is art think of
The, Boy in the Bubble
And the baby with the baboon heart
And I believe
These are the days of lasers in the jungle,
Lasers in the jungle somewhere,
Staccato signals of constant information,
A loose affiliation of millionaires
And billionaires and baby,
These are the days of miracle and wonder,
This is the long distance call,
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all o-yeah,
The way we look to a distant constellation
That's dying in a corner of the sky,
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don't cry baby don't cry
Don't cry don't cry
oooooooooEmmmmmmmmmmm........
September 3, 2007 11:05 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 3, 2007 23:05
Mark Whatever,
If there is a Singularity, it started this "hands-off" experiment with the Big Bang. Part of the experiment are the inputs of innate free choice and future.
I believe the Covenant of Works was supposedly established in the mythical Garden of Eden with the mythical Adam making it the Covenant of Myths.
September 3, 2007 10:50 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 3, 2007 22:50
concerned the Christian now liberated wrote to me:
"A realistic conclusion by Father Edward Schillebeeckx, the famous contemporary theologian:"
It's an interesting argument under the heading of "realistic" but being somewhat of a scientist myself and looking at Works Convenent I disagree.
The Works Covenent involves such things as night and day, an earth tilting on axis to give us seasons and and the laws of gravity. These things are of a universal order that man now takes for granted.
It's now beyond the realm of possiblities to me that God in fact functions inside and outside our space/time reference. And in fact prophecy, visions and oracles have be recorded since adaptation of written language.
So who am I not to say God the Creator has perfect hindsight and foresight if Christian, Muslim and Jew all believe in prophets ? Our society in fact rejects modern prophets or mysticism as parlor tricks or Illusionists.
And rightly so because I believe that recently, as in the past, religion has been exploted for political gain much like threats Christ posed to Church and State or the Roman Empire Church/State union.
Today, through personal experience and documentary, I see people addicted Jesus and encouraged to be so for the glory of an individual mega church or for political gain. The young are easy prey.
Besides, in this here country we have a freedom of faith which is not supposed to be bigetory or discrimative on many different levels. And so, I don't really care who the Prophet is in a religious sense, I only want to know if the Prophet speaks the truth. And that is a universalist requirement of religious authority.
For another time we may consider self-fulfilling prophecies spanning several generations. I was focused on a Syrian born converted saint that warned of the rise of the ayrian race circa 500ad. See, if you tell your kid he is a bad person will he grow up to be bad ?
September 3, 2007 10:35 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 3, 2007 22:35
Of the three Abrahamic faiths, Islam lacks any form of philosophical basis. Muhammad was never revealed anything, by his godling Allah, that does compel humans to have a deeper introspective view of life and its meaning.
Islam is essentially blind obedience and hence is essentially Submission to the Supreme Will (of Allah). The Quran states that it is the perfect book of rules revealed to mankind. So doubting its authenticity is essentially apostacy. Islam is vehemently opposed to apostacy and doubt by the believer. That is, those who believe and then disbelieve, are hypocrites ("munafiqs") and the punishment fort hypocrites is in most Islamic traditions, death.
Pamela Taylor is promoting misleading and corrupt versions of her own sanitized view of Islamic beliefs, which have been rejected by the large Muslim ummah outside her self-defined realms of Americanized Islam.
Why do people even bother to read such posts that are full of half-truths/lies and imaginations and hence all these posts do is to generate more confusion and chaos.
September 3, 2007 3:47 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 3, 2007 15:47
Hank Whatever,
A realistic conclusion by Father Edward Schillebeeckx, the famous contemporary theologian:
Church: The Human Story of God,
Crossroad, 1993, p.91 (softcover)
"Christians must give up a perverse, unhealthy and inhuman doctrine of predestination without in so doing making God the great scapegoat of history" .
"Nothing is determined in advance: in
nature there is chance and determinism; in the world of human activity there is possibility of free choices.
Therefore the historical future is not known even to God; otherwise we and our history would be merely a puppet show in which God holds the strings. For God, too, history is an adventure, an open history for and of men and women."
September 3, 2007 10:43 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 3, 2007 10:43
I am so saddened to read this column and the commentary. More words and mental energy wasted discussing what is completely unknowable. The Koran and the Bible are nothing but words, not divinely revealed, surely not the Word of God. Why this society continues to waste so much effort on this complete nonsense is simply beyond my comprehension.
September 3, 2007 9:59 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 3, 2007 09:59
I am so saddened to read this column and the commentary. More words and mental energy wasted discussing what is completely unknowable. The Koran and the Bible are nothing but words, not divinely revealed, surely not the Word of God. Why this society continues to waste so much effort on this complete nonsense is simply beyond my comprehension.
September 3, 2007 9:59 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 3, 2007 09:59
If people had faith... they would let God deal with the people who don't agree with them...
They don't...
They seem to think that their supreme being needs their help....
Mine doesn't.... each person is welcome to follow their own path, but I don't care whether they follow mine or not....
Treat others the way you like to be treated is a good path to follow....
It would be nice if others felt the same...
September 3, 2007 9:41 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 3, 2007 09:41
Pamela wrote:
There are times when I think a loving God cannot exist and let His creations suffer the way he has allowed people to suffer.
Yet you choose to submit to the cruel allah who demands his followers to:
Put to death those who commit apostasy.
Stone those who commit adultery.
Amputate followers who steal.
Treat people of other faiths as second class.
Punish those who blaspheme him and his prophet.
September 3, 2007 9:29 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 3, 2007 09:29
I think that Mother T. suffered from battle fatigue, she spent too much time in the stuff as they would say. But who are they anyway, does they include us ?
As relating doubt to religion, very few or anyone can claim a direct communion with God these days. Checked one year with FBI and statistics showed about 2 dozen men in the United States claiming themselves as the second coming of Christ. Certain mental conditions are known to cause a phoney God Consciousness. I see that at times the Oracle echoes the will of man's ego.
Look at poverty, disease and a lack of basic human services in Iraq. Lack of electricity and water shows that basic civil order is lacking so I am not surprised political order is lacking power right now.
In Christian tradition, Adam spoke to the Father directly. Is said that Adam broke the Covenent of Works, thereby causing Adam and Eve to lose innocence and mankind has had to cover up since then.
God knew Adam was going to eat that apple I think, just as God knew 9/11 was going to happen just as God knew there would be a war in Iraq. We all doubt these things occured or were allowed to occur under an all loving Creater.
I suggest we all step out of the stuff at times and look at the bigger picture as like, "Now where is the Creator going with this one and how can I help through doing his Will and not mine, let it be so".
September 3, 2007 9:20 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 3, 2007 09:20
To see how the church used the good lady for its own benifit (to provide it with manpower, nuns, from the good country of India), read Chris Hitchens book "The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice". The poor lady had no choice but to follow the tenents of the greedy church, rather than her own reason. The church's reaction to her doubts is both selfserving and disingeneous.
September 3, 2007 8:07 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 3, 2007 08:07
On Sunday, our junior pastor gave the meditation, prior to communion. He pointed out something very important from Mother Theresa's writings, aside from the fact that her most profound wish that all of her correspondence be destroyed upon her death.
Mother Theresa believed in God, and Jesus, but she struggled with it every day, with profound doubts and troubling thoughts. As someone who thinks a great deal about my religious faith, and who has nothing but questions and more questions, this information was of great comfort.
There is a large school of thought in the United States that says you should just believe, do what your religious leaders tell you to do, and not to ask any questions, because it will all be "OK." I do not subscribe to this school of thought. I think that God gave us brains, and expected us to use them, and didn't restrict our "thinking" ability to figuring out how to program a VCR; he left us free reign for our minds to roam the universe, searching for better answers.
Mother Theresa's struggle gives hope to some of the rest of us, who struggle similarly, every day.
It's MUCH easier to believe in, espouse, cheer, and carry on about something you never bother to question, and never think about. I would encourage those who are absolutely certain in "their faith" and who now find that they have been manipulated by and lied to by what passes for their leaders, to start thinking for themselves. If she can do it, so can the rest of us.
September 3, 2007 7:28 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 3, 2007 07:28
People posit a God, provide the entity with a nature and then become concerned when they lose faith in their invention. This says nothing about the nature of ultimate reality, just that humans seem to need the interposition of a supreme leader--the ultimate dictator for whom they invent rules that they can be subordinate to.
How quaint that this omnipotent and omniscient creature seems to need the adoration and obedience of humanity and only humanity. But humans have been attributing to themselves special qualities that set them apart from and make them superior to all other animals. They do this primarily to feel free to kill or to enslave these creatures for food, labor or pleasure, or to dominate their habitats for human purposes.
Then humans go one step further. In order to authenticate the superior standing of their culture and society with respect to the rest of humanity, they create a God who verifies this contention with a special dispensation. And the authorities amongst each culture who prosyletize this dispensation and are recognized and "sanctified" by their activities sit at the very apex of cultural and often political power, elevated to this position by means of this ultimate blasphemy.
September 3, 2007 3:37 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 3, 2007 03:37
Victoria, Victoria,
Doubt not, Islam is a sham religion with flaws equal to or greater than the Christianity of MT.
September 3, 2007 3:16 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 3, 2007 03:16
Good post. It is obvious that you have doubted and probably still do. Your answer to doubt is faith.
It is possible that only those who doubt can experience true faith. The Christian scripture says that "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Why so defined?
Because what I have seen I need no longer doubt, and what I hope for and which has subsequently been accomplished I am secure with.
But life is filled with hope that is not substantiated and doubts that are not answered. The one who has faith is able to keep on moving toward his/her goals in spite of what they do not know.
That is the purpose of faith and to criticize someone who acknowledges their doubts is to lack any knowledge of what life is like and what true faith is about.
September 3, 2007 2:30 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 3, 2007 02:30
Good post. It is obvious that you have doubted and probably still do. Your answer to doubt is faith.
It is possible that only those who doubt can experience true faith. The Christian scripture says that "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Why so defined?
Because what I have seen I need no longer doubt, and what I hope for and which has subsequently been accomplished I am secure with.
But life is filled with hope that is not substantiated and doubts that are not answered. The one who has faith is able to keep on moving toward his/her goals in spite of what they do not know.
That is the purpose of faith and to criticize someone who acknowledges their doubts is to lack any knowledge of what life is like and what true faith is about.
September 3, 2007 2:28 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 3, 2007 02:28
Good post. It is obvious that you have doubted and probably still do. Your answer to doubt is faith.
It is possible that only those who doubt can experience true faith. The Christian scripture says that "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Why so defined?
Because what I have seen I need no longer doubt, and what I hope for and which has subsequently been accomplished I am secure with.
But life is filled with hope that is not substantiated and doubts that are not answered. The one who has faith is able to keep on moving toward his/her goals in spite of what they do not know.
That is the purpose of faith and to criticize someone who acknowledges their doubts is to lack any knowledge of what life is like and what true faith is about.
September 3, 2007 2:28 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 3, 2007 02:28
THINKABOUTIT- well, i did-
what did you think i was saying?
the atheists on these boards perceive dount as a wekaness in the chain of faith-
your answer-
~Er-- based on this reasoning-- if the 9/11 terrorists had had "doubts" on attacking the WTC, would the fact they still acted on their superstitious beliefs --constiute ANY evidence they had true beliefs?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
are you saying the terrorist were atheists?
that is the only way that reasoning would apply-
they very well could have been as there motivation was not religious but political-
the comment was my observation of how atheists have characterized doubt for believers-
it is not applicable to believers of any type-
so your response, addressing believers logically cannot apply to believers-
your analogy had no bearing on the statement as it didnt address it
read it again
~~~~~~~~~~
"
September 3, 2007 12:47 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 3, 2007 00:47
We are God, and God does not exist outside of our selves. Mother Teresa knew this I think.
September 2, 2007 10:14 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 2, 2007 22:14
Hey Bob, we'll follow you!s LOL! And the poor of the world said, "NOOOOOOOOO! We'll starve..."
Come on Bob, toot your horn...
September 2, 2007 3:42 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 2, 2007 15:42
AG, I make a point of it because YOU and THOSE WHO ADVOCATE THE HOMOSEXUAL LIFESTYLE make a point of it. And I say homosexual because its offensive you took a word the used to mean something totally different and perverted it to mean something its not. Homosexuality is NOT gay. Just like a crack cocaine its very very dangerous to everything that makes you a person. It effeminizes a man and makes women brutish. It destroys families and children and neighborhood parks AND PUBLIC RESTROOMS! And when you try to make it "normal" I must speak up. Now having said that I DO NOT CARE WHAT YOU DO IN YOUR HOME! But do not say your lifestyle is normal on par with whats considered "Family."
Children DO NOT have a say when you adopt them. THATS SICK! AND HORRIBLY WRONG. And it is the beginning of the end of the America I grew up in.
September 2, 2007 3:39 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 2, 2007 15:39
Said,
You forgot to add the Third Axis of Evil, aka the Islamic state of Iran and all the "liberal" Muslim commentators on this blog to your list of non-doubters. Any reason for these exclusions???
September 2, 2007 3:37 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 2, 2007 15:37
Re: HeyYOU
Why is it so important for you to focus on gay and lesbian people? And who decided that you could very selectively use the Hebrew and Christian bible to justify such condemnation? Your comments are a poster child for the craziness of the country's evangelicals and Religious Right. Is it any wonder that you have created the Ted Haggard's and Larry Craig's of the world? Let me make a recommendation, find a rock and hide under it until the world is safe enough for you to join the rest of us!
September 2, 2007 12:47 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 2, 2007 12:47
Re: HeyYOU
Why is it so important for you to focus on gay and lesbian people? And who decided that you could very selectively use the Hebrew and Christian bible to justify such condemnation? Your comments are a poster child for the craziness of the country's evangelicals and Religious Right. Is it any wonder that you have created the Ted Haggard's and Larry Craig's of the world? Let me make a recommendation, find a rock and hide under it until the world is safe enough for you to join the rest of us!
September 2, 2007 12:45 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 2, 2007 12:45
It is interesting to read this post, but very distressing to know that it is framed by Islam's horrible oppression for gay and lesbian people. In Muslim countries, gays and lesbians must remain closeted and hidden just to stay alive. The Muslim punishment for the "sin" of homosexuality is death with such extremes as burying people alive and crushing them to death under the weight of a bulldozer. Let’s call it for what it is! Islam is just another destructive, repressive, flat-earth belief systems -- so similar to the evangelicals and Religious Right of the U.S. -- that is so damaging to gay and lesbian people.
September 2, 2007 12:38 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 2, 2007 12:38
positing a role for doubt as integral to belief in something with zero evidence adds nothing to the credibility of the belief. "The more you doubt the greater your belief" or whatever, is really just goobledy-gook-- it makes no sense.
September 2, 2007 12:07 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 2, 2007 12:07
Only the likes of Bush and the american christian right wingers and their counterparts the Saudi right wing wahabists have no doubts at all,the rest of us mortal men and women have doubts as we should.Amen.
September 2, 2007 8:16 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 2, 2007 08:16
I am supposed to have belief in a loving God because four homing pigeons flew back to Abraham? Huh? And this is the same Abraham that was supposed to kill his son to appease God - how barbaric.
You still have not answered why this loving God allows so many bad things to happen to innocent people. Invoking natural beauty does not prove or explain anything. I still think Sam Harris has it right - there is no God and you would be better to get off your knees and out of those churches and give your money and time to helping the poor; just like Mother Theresa did even after she lost her faith.
September 2, 2007 6:36 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 2, 2007 06:36
He who seeks the Living God....."finds him. He who finds him.....finds...."HOPE....and he who finds "HOPE....finds....."PEACE."
Greetings in the name of the Living God....
As A Servant of the Living God, I believe that we are to be thankful for our gifts everyday, especially our "Good Health" and countless blessings to those who know...."God.
I like Danial talk to "God" several times a day, and like David I ask him....."What is Man dear God that thou art mindful of him?
He replied because he is mine, and he is made in my image and to him I gave all things under heaven and for him I gave my son...to die, on a "CROSS" and with that my son gave all, so that all could live.
I beleive that those who seek the Living God will find him, and I believe that those who find him, find "PEACE.
I believe in "PRAYER" and I know the Living God is making his presence felt even now....
In conclusion those who seek the Living God will find him, and those who the "TRUTH" find Christ, and "PEACE."
....You cannot see, the air but you know its there, as Christians we walk by "FAITH" and not by sight, because...."WE KNOW...."GOD!
We do not look for the Air because we already know its there, We do not look for "HOPE..because we....."WE TOOK A LEAP OF FAITH.....and found "The Living God and because we took that "LEAP OF FAITH....WE FOUND HOPE!
...."If You Judge....People, "You Have No Time To Love Them." --Mother Teresha
...."Call Unto Me...."And I Will Answer Thee..."And Show Thee Great and Mighty Things."
---Jeremiah 33:3
Sincerely, your friend, and fellow student,
Tommy Birchfield,
Voter, Vet USAF,
Class 2007 East Tennessee State University
Masters Program ETSU, Fall 2007
"May the "Peace of the Living God, Be with you....
September 2, 2007 1:43 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 2, 2007 01:43
As St Augustine wrote,regarding the doubter;
"... if he doubts,he lives;
if he doubts,he remembers why he is doubting;
if he doubts,he has a will to be certain;
if he doubts,he thinks;
if he doubts,he knows he does not know;
if he doubts,he judges he ought not to give a hasty assent."
Sounds like doubt is a good idea to me.
September 2, 2007 1:30 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 2, 2007 01:30
Doubt may be a measure of good sense
trying to peek through a murky haze.
A doubt is like a hole, a vent,
where truth sometimes penetrates.
And when one might have a thought about
that which they do not wish to doubt,
they should not stop and doubt
the doubt that questioned
what they thought they knew about.
September 2, 2007 12:01 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 2, 2007 00:01
Amen, Pamela.
Your response is the much needed counterpoint to the unfortunate Mr. Harris' article. Faith and doubt are truly inseparable; to doubt is to be human, but to have faith is what marks us as a race.
September 1, 2007 11:28 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 1, 2007 23:28
Homosexuals will go to any length to discredit God and the Bible in their mind to justify their homosexual lifestyle. Its so sad too. This life is all they have and they spend it hating eternity.
September 1, 2007 11:23 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 1, 2007 23:23
Fifty people on a church outing are riding in a bus when it crashes into a tree. Forty-nine people are killed and one survives. For the one survivor there is at first
Doubt: How can there be a God who would kill forty-nine believers at one stroke.
But then there is
Faith: My life has been spared. There is a merciful God who truly loves me.
September 1, 2007 11:10 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 1, 2007 23:10
I would like to add I appreciate Pamela Taylor's post -- applauding all religious individuals who take "Doubt" out of the Closet to make it acceptible.
It is only when religious groups admit their doubts that they will be less likely to follow demigods who proclaim they have the "certainty" to cause violence towards those who do not hold their beliefs.
I might add Mother Theresa was not honest of her doubts: She wanted her letters to be hidden from the public while she put on a mask on her true views.
To the Catholics who published Mother Theresa's letters -- Thank you for the reason given above.
I think your theory is that Mother Theresa was given a "test" -- sort of like Job.
Except, unlike Job, Mother Theresa never appears to have found relief. No doubt, according to your hopes, she has found it in heaven.
You can hope for this, of course; but this does not constitute any real proof.
My only objection is blurring the lines between the two (i.e. hope and proof.)
September 1, 2007 10:37 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 1, 2007 22:37
Victoria: "to many of the atheists that grace these boards, [doubt] seems to indicate some weakness in the chain of faith".
Er-- based on this reasoning-- if the 9/11 terrorists had had "doubts" on attacking the WTC, would the fact they still acted on their superstitious beliefs --constiute ANY evidence they had true beliefs?
Of course, this is nonsense.
I applaud Mother Theresa for her acts of charity. But I note her deep doubts is EXACTLY what one would expect in a world that was not designed by a divine hand.
I think Mother Theresa kept going on-- because she was hoping for special powers (ie rewards in heaven). She despaired this might not be true, but kept going only because she had convinced herself that life was meaningless without her heavenly crown.
Here are some of the Mother Theresa's quotes showing the severity of her doubt:
“So many unanswered questions live within me afraid to uncover them—because of the blasphemy—If there be God—please forgive me—When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven—there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul.—I am told God loves me—and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul."
and
“What do I labor for? If there be no God—there can be no soul—if there is no Soul then Jesus—You also are not true.”
For anyone to argue this is somehow "proof" -- shows desparation to believe ... anything.
September 1, 2007 10:23 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 1, 2007 22:23
No Annonymous, God is the Potter and He can make of the clay anything He wishes. I just hope you become a vessel of Mercy and not stay a vessel of wrath.
September 1, 2007 9:53 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 1, 2007 21:53
Victoria Oh Victoria,
I have recognized my brainwashing in Catholicism and Christianity and the flaws in said religion and noted these many times. NT exegetes like Professor Crossan and the Jesus Seminarians are leading us to the real foundations of Christianity.
You and your fellow liberal Muslims have not done the same for Islam. Once again:
1. Abraham founder/father of three major religions was probably a mythical character. If he was real, he was at best a combination of at least three men. 1.5 million Conservative Jews and their rabbis have relegated Abraham to the myth pile along with most if not all the OT.
2. Jesus, the illiterate Jewish peasant/carpenter possibly suffering from hallucinations, has been characterized anywhere from the Messiah from Nazareth to a mythical character from mythical Nazareth. Analyses of his life by many contemporary NT scholars (e.g. Professors Crossan, Borg and Fredriksen, On Faith panelists)via the NT and related documents have concluded that only about 30% of Jesus' sayings and ways noted in the NT were authentic. The rest being embellishments (e.g. miracles)/hallucinations made/had by the NT authors to impress various Christian sects.
The 30% of the NT that is "authentic Jesus" like everything in life was borrowed, plagiarized and/or improved from those that came before. In Jesus' case, it was the ways and sayings of the OT and John the Baptizer and possibly the ways and sayings of traveling Greek Cynics.
3. Mohammed, an illiterate, hallucinating Arab, also had embellishing/hallucinating scribal biographers who not only added "angels" and flying chariots to the Koran but also a militaristic agenda to support the plundering and looting of the lands of non-believers.
This agenda continues as shown by the conduct of the seven Muslim doctors in the UK, the 9/11 terrorists, the 24/7 Sunni suicide/roadside/market/mosque bombers , the 24/7 Shiite suicide/roadside/market/mosque bombers , the Bali crazies, the Kenya crazies, the Pakistani koranics, the Palestine suicide bombers/rocketeers, the Lebanese nutcases and the Filipino koranics. And who supports these acts of terror both financially and theologically??? Iran aka The Third Axis of Evil and also the "Wannabees" from Saudi Arabia both using the blood money of oil profits. And please note that the "liberal", peace-loving Muslim commentators on this blog never, never criticize Iran or the "Wannabees".
4. Luther, Calvin, Smith, Henry VIII, Wesley et al, founders of Christian-based religions, also suffered from the belief in/hallucinations of "pretty wingy thingie" visits and "prophecies" for profits analogous to the myths of Catholicism (resurrections, apparitions, ascensions and immaculate conceptions).
5. Hinduism (from an online Hindu site) - "Hinduism cannot be described as an organized religion. It is not founded by any individual. Hinduism is God centred and therefore one can call Hinduism as founded by God, because the answer to the question ‘Who is behind the eternal principles and who makes them work?’ will have to be ‘Cosmic power, Divine power, God’"
The caste/laborer system and cow worship are problems when saying a fair and rational God founded Hinduism."
6. Buddhism- "Buddhism began in India about 500 years before the birth of Christ. The people living at that time had become disillusioned with certain beliefs of Hinduism including the caste system, which had grown extremely complex. The number of outcasts (those who did not belong to any particular caste) was continuing to grow."
"However, in Buddhism, like so many other religions, fanciful stories arose concerning events in the life of the founder, Siddhartha Gautama (fifth century B.C.):"
Archaeological discoveries have proved, beyond a doubt, his historical character, but apart from the legends we know very little about the circumstances of his life.
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/BUDDHISM/SIDD.HTM
Bottom line: There are many good ways of living but be aware of the hallucinations/embellishments and myths surrounding the founders of said rules of life.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Jesus for an analysis of Jesus' life to include his illiteracy
September 1, 2007 9:13 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 1, 2007 21:13
HEYYOU,
Your quote is either a lie which makes u a fraud-or otherwise your source-Gensis-is corrupt because a true God could not possibely be a racist.
September 1, 2007 6:14 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 1, 2007 18:14
sven,
Yes you combine in one shot:evil,ignorance and stupidity.
September 1, 2007 5:56 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 1, 2007 17:56
Pamela,
Your article is both Rational and Human:that is ISLAM.Even the great Islamic scholar Abu Hamed Al Ghazali (died 1111 AD)went thru a torturing episode of doubt-before he wrote his great works on Faith.
September 1, 2007 5:52 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 1, 2007 17:52
Rich Rosenthal,
The human race in general especially the overwhelming majority of Jews-such as yourself and the likes of Elie Weisel-have not in any way, shape or form ever condemned the horrendous atrocities of the racist Apartheid jewish theocracy of israel nor its brutal 60-year military occupation of all of Arab historic Palestine-nor of the terrorism of the jewish gangs such as Haganah,Palmach,Shtern and Argun-on which terrorism the jewish theocracy was built and who ethnically cleansed untold number of Palestinians in 1947/9 from their historic homeland and razed to the ground over 530 five hundred and thirty Palestinian villages to prevent them from returning home as per UN 194 of 1947 and who are still living by the millions in refugee camps sixty year later.
Nor have the jews ever condemned the genocide of Bosnian Muslims and not even the invasion, destruction and occupation of Iraq-in fact no community on the face of earth actively and zealously promoted the war on Iraq than the jewish community,AIPAC and Israel.
The world is really fatigued and bored to death from hearing the usual recycled sermon on the mountain: the holocaust, anti-Semitism and the monopoly of the jews over suffering.
September 1, 2007 5:45 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 1, 2007 17:45
Ms Taylor,
I think there are a few more pressing issues than doubt and faith for you to mention. World Islam has not yet condemned bin laden, terrorism and jihad or any other religious justification for the extermination of non-muslims. When all muslims are called upon to turn in those who would kill for Allah then we may consider the fine points of your prattle.
September 1, 2007 5:04 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 1, 2007 17:04
Ms Taylor, you really are on to something when you say "you think allah must be a capricious monster" to allow the suffering he does, he allows it because he likes it, having read the quran I know this "god" takes personal pleasure in tormenting and torturing those in hell who don't agree with him or his prophet. He also does not lead or tell his creation how to achieve a relationship with him or even how to get right with him( unless you murder some innocent soul, of course kuffars are not innocent). Ms Taylor, Islam is evil and you are at best misleading yourself to oblivion.
September 1, 2007 4:05 PM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 1, 2007 16:05
I don't see or hear many Christian fundamentalist in the news, or many others for that matter, who express any doubt in regards to religious matters.
This includes their personal knowledge of heaven, hell, right and wrong, what is expected of us or any of the many other major issues confronting the world today. If they have any doubts, most are certainly not publicizing them.
Confidence and supreme knowledge trumps all in the world of religion for most believers IMHO.
September 1, 2007 11:59 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 1, 2007 11:59
Correction.
On The Eclati_on's TETRA-NEEDS they are;
1)Food, 2)House not cave, 3)Love & 4)Clothes.
These are the Humates only needs! The rest Is Bullacrapa!
Every Body's LIFE evolves, day in and Night out, Around these Eclat Given "TETRA-NEEDS" for Humates, since Ecat ITSELF did not want to be lonely is why we appear in miracle & Zero sin! And
Any One Who has All Four tetra Needs Fullfillment, has IT ALL! And Anything [Problems] that one finds to be stressed about outside of any of the tetraneeds fullfillment, is Living a Wasted Life & Is In Definate Illusion or is it Dilussion or religious Pollution that cased suchs problems!
This is only a small fact of Eclati-on Awareness via "Insight & Pattern Recognition" powers & usage" And application of Eclati-on Cruxology-Psychology dicipline or knowledge! Ya Ya Sistar(s) & brethren(s) of America & friends!
Happy Labor Day & Happy RAMMADAN Cooming Soon!
P.S., You Can Watch me Eat! < ?:=)' Ummm Ummm.
September 1, 2007 10:35 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 1, 2007 10:35
liberated- the best defense is an offense-
since you are always demanding this of others, what particualr religion were you born and brainwashed into?
and why are you still in it?
you were born catholic, and you're still catholic. just a crossanized one.
i have nothing against catholics whatsoever, but your question rings somewhat hollow in the light of that information.
people in glass houses lib- shouldnt throw stones.
September 1, 2007 9:43 AM | Report Offensive Comments
Posted on September 1, 2007 09:43
Heyyou,
Hmmm, and again you were born, bred and brainwashed in what flawed religion????
September 1, 2007 9:19 AM |