No Bible Scriptures?

It seems like you're missing the whole point. The whole idea of the new rule was to leave the boards open to free debate with out it being chonged up by pointless posts about why we should think the way the fundamentalists do or tyring to get everybody else to believe what they believe. That's not the point of this board. It's for actual dicsussion of Christianity as a topic.

There are some people who want to short circuit that discussion and post propaganda instead. The whole point of the new rules are to prevent that and allow serious discussion to take place.

Read the rules, it should give you a pretty good idea of what Skip had in mind. When I quoted Skip I took the liberty of placing the bible quotes rule in bold as it is the topic of the thread and I felt it needed to stand out:

 

Nevertheless, most Christians would agree that their religion is based on a book. I understand that someone could make post after post of quotes and add nothing. But one could make post after post of no quotes (or quotes from other texts) and still add nothing. Naming no names *coughfamewalkcough* of course.

The rule is fine in spirit. But it exempts a hell of a lot of other texts and arguments that people will make, not because they have thought about them, but simply because they have been indoctrinated by them.

 

Most of those pointless posts fall under other categories of the new rules, such as proselitizing or witnessing. It won't get rid of every fundamentalist post but I don't think that was the idea to begin with. The rules were put in place to control abuses that had occurred on the board, and they're set up pretty well to control that.

 

I'm talking more, for example, of when people trot out the Flying Spaghetti Monster argument time and again. Works both ways, or it should, anyway.

 

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That's cool Don, but does the scripture have any realevence to the topic at hand?

 

People who can read, quote scriptures. People who can "see", require nothing in written form.

They become the embodiment of the written words.

They require nothing outside of themselves.

Their flame is self sustaining.



x

 

There is no such thing as a self sustaining fire, without fuel the fire goes out!

 

Literal to the death, I see.

 

We are talking about matters of spirit. The laws of physics as you understand them do not apply after a certain point

If one becomes God, there is no chance of "winking out". Only the things that are divided against the whole have lifespans. "Creation". And your human identities.

The whole, "God", is self sustaining. To identify with that more than your human identity is to be one of those people you read about in the various scriptures of the world.

The human vessel will always contain human imperfections and weaknesses. The purity of the message will be affected by this, and is to be expected.

But the end product is always the same. A being who has realized the divine within, and no longer needs anything external to them to carry the message forward.

The only reason such people may use religion is because they're trying to approach others on their own level first, so that they may be able to understand the higher teachings later.

Jesus was known to use this same method.

If we spent our time discussing scriptures here, we would be discussing the words of others.

We should nurture and grow what we ourselves are capable of saying.


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ok..Jesus teachings are quoted and written as a history for whoever wishes to learn about the qualities of God and the great hope for mankind..how can you learn about Jesus, if you are not reading what he said when he was on the earth..cause his teachings in the bible are nothing short of amazing and timeless.

 

Dont make me quote some scriptures of something he taught

 

Jesus quoted scriptures from the bible a few times..

 

Jesus used what beliefs were already in place at the time. This is the usual approach of mystics as they engage people. Jesus was first seen as a Rabbi by those who knew him.

It wasn't until he started putting his own spin on things that he got the religiously orthodox upset. He went against the established law of Moses with his higher ideas.

The problem with Christianity is they never knew the real Jesus. The real Jesus wasn't a deity from the clouds. He was a flesh and blood human like you and I who had undergone an amazing process that unites one's waking mind with the divine current itself. A realized person. The final chapter in the evolution of a human soul.

You can enjoy the religious imagery of Jesus sitting on the right side hand of God if you want. It will not move you a single inch closer to the Kingdom yourself.

Jesus is not to be worshipped but followed. And the only way you can follow Jesus is under the guidance of people who have become like Jesus themselves. Many have tried...

It is only by their light that the darkness of this world is displaced and the path revealed. Others will wander in the darkness, lucky if they ever encounter such a being. They will stumble down whatever path they find themselves on and hope for the best.

It is work on the self alone that gains spiritual merit. All the reading and meditation and reflection just leads up to it. It sharpens the tools you'll use later on.

Scriptures chronicle the lives of realized people. But to make the scriptures come alive, you must become like the people who originally spoke them.

Not like the people who wrote them down.



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Beautifully written.

 

Yeah and I'll take the high road and you take the low road and we'll see who get to Scotland first.

 

...and what makes your road the high road and his road the low road?

 

I agree. A majority of the scholars at the controversial Jesus Seminar contend that Jesus said and did less than one-fifth of the things attributed to him in Scripture. To give it a more positive spin, even these skeptics agree that there was a Jesus and that he said and did almost one-fith of the things the Bible says he said and did! Of course they reject the more miraculous and supernatural aspects of the Biblical Jesus, and portray him as a benevolent Jewish radical liberal hippie sage who preached unconditional, non-judgmental love, especially to the outcasts and dregs of society. To me, that's the most important thing about Jesus. As one of the outcast dregs myself, he's definitely my guy!

 

Aren't we though inclined to find in Jesus what we find in ourselves? If we are a 16th Cent. Lutheran theologian, then is the Jesus we discover also the same? If we are a scholar and cynic radical, then is Jesus a scholar cynic radical?

Most often the answer is, unfortunately, yes.

 

That's because gods are figments of the imagination.