Finding God by Faith and Reason -- Where religion meets reality --
Where reality meets religion -- Where mind, heart, the
evidence, common sense, 26-09
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. If you think we are in any way belittling the Christian Bible or attempting to degrade the sacredness of the Christian tradition, we refer you to the page titled, "Prisoners of Yesterday" on our Religion and Reality Website. There, you will find the biblical support for the religion-related statements we make -- statements such as: "We are intimate part of nature, thus both our biological nature, our fellow life forms on Earth and the Earth, itself, must be honored and respected." (Regarding this statement, readers are referred to Ecclesiastes 3:19 ` and to the covenant between Noah an God in Genesis _____ ) Readers who question our veracity are also referred to the TLC-Life-Center's Truth Challenge at: And to the page titled Prisoners of
Yesterday at: There you will find numerous Biblical passages that support our perspective on Creator/God, on the nature of the universe and on the nature, the origin and the destination of man. Do you believe in the Christian Bible? Do you believe it's the word of God? Do you believe the words of Jesus? Then why are you not honoring these passages:
Psalms
82:6 "I
have said, Ye [are] gods; and all of you [are] children of the most High
Isaiah 41:23 "Shew [show] the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye [are] gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold [it] together."
John 10:30-35 + 10:38 John10:30-35 ... 30) " I and my father are one accord. 31) Then the Jews again took up stones to stone him. 32) Jesus said, I have shown you many good works from my Father; for which one of them do you stone me? 33) The Jews said to him, It is not because of the good works we stone you but because you blaspheme; for while you are only a man, you make yourself God. 34) Jesus said to them, Is it not so written in your law you are gods? 35) If he called them gods because the word of God was with them (and the scripture cannot be broken) 38) ...the Father [is] in me, and I in him.
“Behold, the kingdom of God is within you."
John 14:12 John 14:12 ... "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater [works] than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." (Paraphrased) Anything I can do, you can do and more.
Ecclesiastes 3:19 .Ecclesiastes 3:19. ... "For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all [is] vanity." u Here, the Bible, itself, exposes the religious fairytale about man being separate from nature. Readers are directed to the quote from Chief Seattle.°
1 Corinthians 1:10 KJV "Now I beseech you...that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment."
Matthew 25:40 "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done [it] unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done [it] unto me" u Is it possible that there aren't really any enemies, but only fellow-god-beings with different points of view living in human bodies that are slightly different from our own?
Matthew 6:5-6 Matthew6:5-6 ... "And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites [are]: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues [houses of worship] and in the corners of the streets, [and on television] that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." u This passage chastises public prayer and instructs people to pray in private. We wonder if school prayer and praying on TV could possibly be considered public prayer.
This passage tells us that school prayer is not about reaching God. It's
about mind-bending. It's about promoting religiosity to children too
young to know, or understand what's happening. Remember the
Communist slogan: "Get the mind of the child and you've got the
adult." Well that technique is Christian in origin and started back in
the beginning days of Roman Catholic public manipulation. Romans
14:14 “I
know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that [there is] nothing unclean of
itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him
Romans 14:20 “. . All things indeed [are] pure; but [it is] evil for that man who eateth with offence”
Mark 10:19 Mark 10:19 ... "Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother." u This passage clearly condemns lying and committing fraud.° It does not distinguish between lies of commission and lies of omission. (A lie of ”Commission” is intentionally deceiving someone by telling something that is not true. A lie of “Omission” is intentionally deceiving someone by withholding vital information.
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." u Clearly states that life as a human being begins at first breath.
"The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty has given me life." u Reinforces the Genesis 7:2 statement that breath is the place where God acknowledges His creation as being alive.
"And no one hath ascended into heaven, but he that [has not first] descended out of heaven, [even] the Son of man, who is [now] in heaven. u This passage indicates that human beings are NOT physical bodies, but that humans are non-physical beings who existed prior to conception and prior to birth into the physical world -- that humans are non-physical beings who came to Earth from some other realm of reality. The logical implication gathered from this passage is that we existed prior to conception and prior to our birth into the physical world. And considering that a being comes from "heaven" to Earth at least once, there is no indication that one could, should, or does come only once.
Ecclesiastes 11:5, RSV (Revised Standard Version) Ecclesiastes 11:5, RSV ... "As you do not know how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of the woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.” u Clearly distinguishes between the body and the spirit, says that humans don’t know when the spirit enters the physical form, and, most significantly, states that humans do not know how God works.
Jdg 19:6 "And they sat down, and did eat and drink both of them together: for the damsel's father had said unto the man, Be content, I pray thee, and tarry all night, and let thine heart be merry."
Ecc 8:15 "Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry. . ." u Does the prior passage (Jdg 19:6) give us any indication of what was meant by be merry? Do you suppose that merry and marry are in any way related?
Matthew 7:15-16 "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.” u Here's a few more details about how to Recognize a False Profit.°
“Know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
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This
same message can also be
found in John 14:2.
. Regarding what we think about, we are constantly at choice. Instead of being here and now, we can focus on the past (on yesterday) or on the future. Our choice of focus makes a huge difference in the future experiences we encounter. For example, my own heritage is a story that I could, if I chose to, dwell upon, get lost in, use to feel sorry for myself and run around saying: "Poor me. Look what 'they' did to innocent me and my people." Polish jokes degraded my heritage from as far back as I can remember. Nazis invaded my country of origin without provocation and murdered hundreds of thousand of Poles. When the Nazis were driven out, Stalin took over and another round of mass murder occurred. Members of my family were hunted by the Russian Communists for failing to bow down to the party line. Because I was too young to remember the details, I do not know if they lived as hunted fugitives for the rest of their lives, or whether they were captured and summarily executed. In spite of this type of ethnic mistreatment, the Polish people were among the leaders in bringing down the Russian brand of fascism, falsely labeled as Communism. Does
any of this matter? What
Does the Evidence Indicate? If reincarnation is actually true, (and the overwhelming circumstantial and physical evidence points to the logical conclusion that it is) then the evidence also indicates that you and I and everybody else simple choose a role for a lifetime, and that we have been on just about every side of just about every issue. So what's the big deal about which culture, which race, which religion, which gender we are at the moment? NONE! Perhaps,
instead, we might focus on the fact that the evidence tells us
that false beliefs, particularly false religious beliefs are the
major source of all human problems.
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. "Perhaps we might look to some role models to help us choose who we would like to be.
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. Humans are not judged for their actions, but rather, by their actions. In spite of what you may have been taught, there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever to support the belief in an angry, insecure, fickle, vindictive, superhuman being sitting on a throne above the clouds saying: "Do this. Don't do that. This is good. This is bad." The overwhelming evidence indicates that every action simply has a consequence. For example, if one jumps off of a diving board, one is going to hit the water, that is, providing that he or she was wise enough to see if there was water in the pool before jumping. Neither is ethnic or cultural heritage an excuse for poor judgment or unwise activity. One can sit around, feeling sorry for one's self, or one can make an assessment of his/her situation and then take the most appropriate action to alter the present circumstances and, at the same time, take care of others living in similar or worse conditions. An
example: Mexican Americans are a dynamic, powerful group with literally hundreds of thousand perhaps even millions of highly skilled and highly talented individuals. Imagine for a moment if they, as a collective, single-focused team, decided to make Mexico a world leader in education, economics, social services, environmental protection, and honesty in government. If they did this, they'd soon have to build fences to keep U.S. citizens out. It's all a matter of focus. It's all a matter of choice. It's all a matter of demonstrating that all of us are skilled in at least one area. .
Why Is Mental Focus So Important? Because beliefs are the foundations for all human actions. If I were of Latino, Black, Chinese, Middle Eastern, or of any other heritage, I'd be both proud and ashamed of what my people have done and are doing. And the same is true of EVERY heritage every race, every nationality, including my own. We are all one people. The sooner we get this, the sooner we'll turn space ship Earth back into the Garden of Eden. Please join us in honoring everyone, regardless of age, gender, race, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, cultural background, et cetera. Thank you. . |
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