God is the Universal Source of All That Has Been All That Is All That Will

[cat_mioux]

Discuss

[**meep**]

WINNING:-D

Finally!!!!!!!   Was wondering how long it would take ya!

:^O

[godsandmen]

Did Jesus teach that those who do not believe in God will be damned to hell?

Again, that depends on which writer you read. They don't all agree.

12 A.M. here. Time for bed. Goodnight all.

[**meep**]

Night Gods :-x

[cat_mioux]

I think it is one of those things that are impossible to explain or try to convince those who never experienced it.   How do you deal with people who tell you that you're wrong or delusional?  

When it comes to Buddhism we say we can't convince people of the power of prayer/chanting but we say try it for yourself. If it doesn't make a difference then discard it.

Ever since I was a teenager I suffered from major cyclic depression. I started seeing counsellors and psychiatrists on and off throughout most of my 20's and 30's. I was on anti-dep's for years. When I started practicing Buddhism my Buddhist teacher told me my depressive episodes would stop. I remember I actually laughed at her (the arrogance I had and still struggle with 😞 ). I told her there was no way chanting was going to do that.

But she was right. And it wasn't something I was chanting for nor expected to happen. It happened so gradually I couldn't pin point the exact day/month it happened. A couple of years into my practice I stopped my medication to see what would happen. I waited and waited for the world to turn grey. It didn't.

Even dealing with my partner cheating and subsequently leaving and my father passing away within a few weeks didn't throw me into a clinical depression.

Now there is scientific proof that meditation re-wires the brain. They will soon discover that chanting also re-wires the brain.

A miracle?

You could see it as such, but I think one day all miracles will be found to have a scientific explanation. And what I mean by that, it is all based on how the Universe works. Space isn't the last frontier. Our minds are.

"An understanding of ku [emptiness] helps us to see that, despite how we may see them, things--people, situations, relationships, our own lives--are not fixed, but dynamic, constantly changing and evolving. They are filled with latent potential which can become manifest at any time."

You can see how Buddhism is so close to quantum physics it's incredible. I have a book that quotes famous scientists and quantum physicists and next to these quotes are quotes from Buddhism that say the same thing, just in Buddhist speak.

[cat_mioux]

Did Jesus teach that those who do not believe in God will be damned to hell?

That depends on which NT author you believe. Paul said nothing at all about hell. It appears that he did not believe, or had even heard of such a thing. The gospel writers, on the other hand, disagree. Fundamentalist Christians think the Bible speaks in one unified voice, but it doesn't. It's all much more complicated than people think.

Yes I understand the Bible was written by different people and I know it was heavily 'censored' by some council in around 300AD.

But no one can actually tell me if Jesus himself taught damnation of non-believers.

[purple.cow]

Personally I follow no religious belief or thinking and as far as I'm concerned everyone else is free to believe in whatever they wish to, even if that means worshipping a brick wall.

I will not go out of my way to knock any of it, I just don't feel any of it is my thing.

As far as I'm concerned you get born, you live your life how you see fit to, then you die, end of story.

The world was there before I came into it, and it'll most likely carry on fine without me, and mostly likely I'll be forgotten about in the blinking of an eye, just as I think it should happen.

I'm just a plain old non-believer, full stop.

[cat_mioux]

Just wanting to point out we are having a discussion about religion and I'm enjoying it. And no one has been tempted to quote scripture to prove a point.  🙂

[the_bob_delusion]

Many miracles have been attributed to prayer, all types of prayer or invocation. To God, Buddha, Allah, Wiccan, Hindu ... I don't think one particular God is better at answering prayers than another but I believe prayer reaches The Universal Source which I believe is what/who is known as God.

I've had prayers answered when praying to God (I went to Sunday School as a child) and I've had prayers answered when chanting to The Mystic Law (Buddhism).

Yes praying does have some therapeutic effect. It's found to lower blood pressure and there's the power of the placebo effect. That's different to saying; Allah heard my prayer and granted my wishes. 

I always get confused with this argument of a specific God listening to prayers. (BTW when I say god, usually I mean the bible God) The response is God listens to prayers and it came true it's because of God, if it didn't it's because God had other plans. So in effect by inductive reasoning, GOd's gonna do what she wants to do whether you pray or not. 

So tell me what happens to people who don't pray. Does that effect what God wants to do?

[cat_mioux]

Bob I don't believe God 'answers' prayers in the way we think He does. But I do believe some prayers are answered and I believe in miracles.

I think answered prayers/miracles will be found to have a scientific/quantum physics basis ... something to do with the Observer and latent potential, our minds, our expectations and karma.

[the_bob_delusion]

Personally I follow no religious belief or thinking and as far as I'm concerned everyone else is free to believe in whatever they wish to, even if that means worshipping a brick wall.

I will not go out of my way to knock any of it, I just don't feel any of it is my thing.

As far as I'm concerned you get born, you live your life how you see fit to, then you die, end of story.

The world was there before I came into it, and it'll most likely carry on fine without me, and mostly likely I'll be forgotten about in the blinking of an eye, just as I think it should happen.

I'm just a plain old non-believer, full stop.

THere ARE beliefs out there that are dangerous. If you have a divine book that supports genocide and threatening non believers, or affecting the education of kids, would that not bother you? You just have to think how someone perfectly moral and kind and sane would strap a bomb to their body and blow themselves up with people around him then you would realise how certain beliefs are dangerous.  

You wouldn't see me attacking Janism for example coz' it's a peaceful religion. I don't think it's true but so be it.