Good stuff MM, and SG, you will take life seriously, lol, by choice or not. But one way or another.....YOU WILL!!! It is almost certain to me it will not be by choice. That is the much more painful way, but then pain is a great teacher.
All this talk of knowing God and seeing god has got me in right shape to type out my feelings on the issue...... I know God, I speak to God....I meditate/pray every night... I've begun my serious struggles in life a few years ago, I was diagnosed with Crohn's and I was at 112 lbs and dropping, keep in mid i am almost 6 feet tall so thats pretty skinny.....I had to work, strongly, to get my weight back up....I know God is just making me suffer in this life so tha tHe can test me so that i can attain my true spiritual knoledge in this, or hopefully my next life..... And midnightmoonlight (or w/e sorry), i knwo what you mean when you say you've seen God, and you cannot descrivbe the experience...all my christain friends who i ask to describe my the Holy Spirit, cannot describe it...I cannot begin to describe the hapiness and joy i feel When i feel God's love...
MM, just remember that because it is one person's opinion that animals don't have free will, you are perfectly fair in your opinion as well. Especially on something like this, where none of us knows for sure, we can only guess. Now I happen to believe that none of us have any true free will, and that would go for animals as well. But I am just going to give my opinion and not be a jerk about it like some people here... Animals, like humans, are a product of their environment. Their decisions (like humans) are influenced by their upbringing, their parents (or masters, whatever you like to call pet owners), their intelligence, their home, their surroundings, as well as instinct. Now they may not be as intelligent, but simplier minds can still make choices and decisions. I see my animals do it all the time. But souls, I don't even think it's likely thay humans have souls let alone animals, and I am not going to believe it just because it is a possibility.
I used to work with a fellow who's wife died of lung cancer, though she was a nurse who never smoked. It was less than a year from diagnosis till she was gone. Around a month before she passed on she told him that she was going to send him some kind of a sign. He is a very honest, family-oriented, devout Catholic. Then, from her hospital bed a week before she passed on, she told him she knew what the sign would be....lightning. I have only been to one funeral in my life, hers, and it was at 1PM at St. Anne's Church. As we arrived it was pouring out, really hard, the sky was low overcast thick clouds, and it was dark like twilight. We sat down, and got settled in, and then boom, thunder, and the lights in the church went out for a couple of minutes. Kelvin told me that when the thunder struck, he looked at his watch and it was 1 o'clock on the dot. After the funeral, we came outside to find that there was not a cloud in the sky, I swear. Everything was soaking wet, and dripping, and the sun was shining in a clear blue sky. This did not even make me a totally convinced believer, but this years event sure did. I think animals do too, and whales, in my view, may have a more developed brain than ours.
in even simpler, don't do anything to someone that if they did it to you you would be pissed the right off... got that from a fishing book
It's great that you think that, and you have posted it a number of times in this thread - but you have yet to tell us why you think this way. Why do humans have free will and animals not? Why do you think that free will exists at all? "devine interplay or cosmic dance" is hardly an explanation. I say that every decision we make is guided by outside factors. We have the ability to make choices and decisions, but not complete free will. We are limited by our intelligence, environment, personality, social standing, culture, income, families, race, physics, government, just about everything that can influences the decisions we make every time we make a decision. A person only has true free will if they would make the same choices wether they were raised by a tribe in New Guinea or raised by a middle-class family in the United States. I don't think it is much different for animals either. They just don't have as complex social structures and aren't all so wide-spread across the globe, so won't have as many factors influencing their decisions.
Usually when a person comes to a forum it is for discussion of a topic. Not to just insult people and tell people their wrong with no explanation. What this tells me is a.) you are young and immature and likely hurting for attention; and b.) You have no solid reason for thinking the way you think, because otherwise you would add it to the discussion, since you are coming to a forum to discuss. I was giving you an opportunity to stop the trolling, and actually participate in the discussion rather than make yourself look like an idiot. But you, of course, took the route of the idiot. No suprise there I guess.
Heck I am not even an angel, or even a fallen angel.....keep looking. I know what I believe, which comes from 40 yrs. of experience. The smacks I got from guides went unrecognized for decades by me. You are just a prime candidate for some due to your attitude and views, in my opinion. I never said I knew, either. It is you that I could show does it every day. You seem to know for sure, whereas I do not. I have faith in things, believe things, and do even feel I 'know' the odd thing or two, but those are rare.
