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Yes hitching your horse on a Sunday/Saturday was also considered unholy and a sin. But today holy days don't matter... and... God has not changed?

My Question is which "God" does not change?

I am already going to hell because I am "happily" uncircumcised. (TMI, oh well)

But God seems to not anymore mind the gentiles and their schmucks…

Adultery was handled by the same "punishment" as homosexuals. Was it to deter sexual freedom or disease? Cured pork has nothing to do with sex but has all to do with disease. So, were these laws instituted for health reasons and not sexual reasons?

You would think heterosexuals would at least score a few points with their bisexual God because they understand "the birds and the bees".

Adam and Eve understood the birds and the bees and without corrupting the Bible with all this Lilith stuff the original sin stands as heterosexual sex...

And leave it to the heterosexuals to invent Lilith and use the story to flip the "original sin" around to hate homosexuals.

If the lesbians and gays really knew what "the Christians" have thunk up and used Lilith for they would drop her like a limp wrist.

Effeminates and dykes are going to hell too? Because their sexual preference is too murky, like God's or God-like. Explain how two sexes can represent the image of one God?

Then we get this picture of and androgynous man and woman suck to each other's backs with two genitalia... Remind you a bit of this ambiguous God that...

"Is not a man that she should lie..."

I will get back to you.

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I would rather live conscious of inherent ambiguity with mercy rather than live with absolutes which are often errant seeds tossed in fertile ground, they grow like weeds and choke out the truth.

Is God more served by us recognizing the ambiguity or by imposing impossibly strict absolutes on ourselves and others?

Thus I would conclude that the image of God is ambiguity and the spirit of God interfaces with such diversity as the world.

How do you confess ambiguity from sin? If one is to confess Jesus from sin and confess God from sin if Jesus and God represent absolutes and strict laws then, is the spirit the person receives holy?

Holiness is in diversity not partiality.

God is no respecter of persons. For the seed of the spirit is ambiguity. The seed is not a certain race, sex or sexual preference. The seed grows diversity. God waters the seed with ambiguity. H2O again two elements make one substance. So is water hydrogen or oxygen? God waters and tends us with diversity itself.

God causes it to rain on the just and the unjust.

Why would God make it rain on the just if God is so holy?

Because holiness is loving with diversity and ambiguity.

It seems to me that some of your questions are to broad to be answered with absolutes on my part.

It seems to me that we both agree that honest ambiguity is better than deluded certainty.

I understand that with your background that sexual roles and gender will be hard things to handle. But some of the things that you ponder just are not questions that are on my heart. But for someone with fundamentalist ideals that tends to want to believe that standards as they are written in the scripture a lot of your questioning only seems to muddy the water. You have the right to do that if you choose, but I'm speaking just for myself.

As a fundamentalist, I believe that our flesh is bound to sin. If the things that you and I have done make us worthy of death in our flesh then you and I are in the same boat. That is where I find the unity between us that you mentioned in this thread's subtitle. In our flesh alone, WE ARE ALL WORTHY OF DEATH. And even if someone chooses not to believe in the clarity I find in that concept guess what: IN OUR FLESH ALONE WE WOULD ALL DIE. So who's going to disprove that point, it seems to me that it is beyond the ability of human power to disprove the concept.

Ideologies come and go, wind of doctrine blow back and forth. Whether or not one chooses to hang their hat on the ideologies of Orthodoxy, Protestantism, or Gnosticism one event happens to us all, DEATH.

I believe that the only deliverance from the malady of death is Jesus Christ, AS IT IS WRITTEN.

But as concerning bringing things together in unity as YOU mentioned in this thread's title, Where do we go from here DrWearWord. For me the path seems clear and I would wish that it was clear for you too. But doubtlessly for both of us as we are still breathing the breath of life we have our own issues to work out.

(added in editing)

I'm out of time now, maybe later guys and gals.

Edited by JeffSjo
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It seems to me that some of your questions are to broad to be answered with absolutes on my part.

It seems to me that we both agree that honest ambiguity is better than deluded certainty.

But for someone with fundamentalist ideals that tends to want to believe that standards as they are written in the scripture a lot of your questioning only seems to muddy the water. You have the right to do that if you choose, but I'm speaking just for myself.

Muddy waters are often full of more nutrients and help plants grow and thrive better. :)

Egypt believed the Gods filled the Nile with "muddy waters" as Osiris was believed to cause the banks, rich in silt, to overflow and irrigate farms along the Nile river banks. The farms closest to the "muddy waters" grew better.

One may think of speaking in tongues as a muddy river for it is not one pure tone or tongue but again it is speech in ambiguity.

Edited by DrWearWord
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...opposing views and how they are united

ive offered this batch of cookies around here before

seems to speak to this thread...i guess we'll see how it spills again this time

...perhaps as a way to point at how opposites may compliment, sowing universal peace...yada yada

speaking generally of views

it seems that we have many parts that develop through stages

or otherwise "unfolding along lines"

and all of our parts also develop through stages together in collective waves

quite a field of daisies blowing in the wind

but one part of us that develops through stages (both individually and collectively)

is our view..which can also be described as things like...

...our faith

...our perspective

...our philosophy

...our theology

...our belief

...our godview

...our worldview

etc..

regardless, some of the common stages (both personally and culturally) can be described/identified thus...

+ 1st person focus - i-me-my...beauty and meaning and significance...magic egos...belief in the power of personal wishing and wanting...the divine is described as mostly a parental figure who meets MY needs...

culturally...the biggest ego rules ...survival of the fittest...god-kings, gangland, lord of the flies, mafia, tyranny, all our isolated narcissisms, etc..."is it good or bad for ME?"

this stage is discernable regardless of religious-language set, or period of history

reminds me of how we are in the springs of our lives

+ 2nd person focus - we-us-our...goodness...mythic culture...belief in the power of a shared ...the divine is described as mostly familial...via storyline/script/slogan/cliche/saying

culturally...the one true pure story rules...shared story/ideal is more important than any individual...orthodoxy, religion, cults, fan clubs, friendship, marriage, groupthink, teamwork, race and family heritage, etc..."selfishness is wrong"..."friend or foe?"..."good or bad for US?"

this stage is also discernable regardless of religious-language set, or period of history

reminds me of how we are in the summers of our lives

+ 3rd person focus - it-this-he/she...truth....rational evidence, logic...belief in the power to test and prove and DISprove...the divine is in a matter of fact...

culturally....excellence and experts and merit and success rules...utility, proof and evidence ...business, work, science, etc..."myth, story, metaphor and subjectivity is futile"

this stage is also discernable regardless of language set, or period of history

reminds me of how we are in the autumns of our lives

+ 4th person focus - relativity, pluralism, social...contextual flexibility...belief in the power to dismantle our own ego and language...the divine is understand as ambiguous but also personal and unique...the last bastion of dualistic worldviews...the process of language, interpretation and meaning-finding becomes less conventional, less solid and less self-assured and less absolute...

culturally...civil rights and equality...where information and communication abound...but "selfishness, groups, and formal/conventional systems" are often avoided and suppressed...

this stage is also discernable regardless of language set, or period of history

reminds me of how we are in the winters of our lives...

and while each stage is a mini-death of sorts

this stage can also be described as "death"

also known as "enlightenment at gunpoint"

and "the coming of the lord"

+ 5th person focus - integration of complexity and simplicity...unity/nonduality...belief in (at least) the value inherent in all of the above four perspectives...the divine has no opposite...dismantling the ego is futile...

culturally...reminds me of sanctuary, monastary, respite, hospice, hospitality, hospital, midwifery, contemplative community, monastic devotion and service, capacity for interreligious and interdisciplinary, free and able to "taste touch etc..."

this is also discernable regardless of language set, or period of history

so on..so forth

each new stage arises in response to the inherent limits (and disfunction) of previous stages

so each stage also brings an new important lesson

...so important a lesson...that when the beneficial values of earlier stages are somehow excluded from fuller development...those are the parts of us that sit there and haunt us from our shadows

example...some experience an extreme suppression of "magic thinking" in our earliest years...leaving us unable to find meaning, or be positive and wishful in our adult years. On the other hand, some experience an extreme rewarding of "magic thinking" in our earliest years...which is also called "being spoiled"...leading to unrealistic and unreasonable adults

and while all 4 views are always becoming more possible to us all the time

(like 4 horses always revving to ride everywhere and inside)

we naturally tend to want to favor one view over all the others during our path of development,

and if the impression of that one view is deep enough

we may even spend most of our adult life mostly there

rejecting the rest, and developing a "cave" of sorts

embedding and solidifying our view more and more

as if ...

as "i" become more than we or it...we enter in subjective fantasy

as "we" become more than i or it...we enter a cult

as "it" becomes more than i or we...we stay outside of our very own selves

and such

....

regardless

highly valuable for deeper more authentic religious/spiritual/doctrinal type discussion, activity, whatever

is the capacity to assume that our view of "God" (or "the one true ultimate whatever") does change radically ...

multiple times in life

as if life for EVERYONE is a process of being pushed/pulled through some "series of radical but necessary humiliations"

as if this simple assumption/permission empowers us to accept a much wider bandwidth of "data" on the table of discourse

in this very impartial universal sense

we are all innocent bystanders

simply witnessing our own mostly helpless

choiceless crashing through this universe

leaping from from rung to rung

from womb to tomb

...

anyway...i enjoy reading your mutterings and offerings, dww

full of gems

the responses on this thread are interesting ...all gems...genuine

i just hope that my crude attempt even comes close to touching your intent for this thread

hohoho

+ODD

now watch me edit this doodad til the timer runs out

i love/hate writing typing

Edited by sirguessalot
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Muddy waters are often full of more nutrients and help plants grow and thrive better. :)

Egypt believed the Gods filled the Nile with "muddy waters" as Osiris was believed to cause the banks, rich in silt, to overflow and irrigate farms along the Nile river banks. The farms closest to the "muddy waters" grew better.

One may think of speaking in tongues as a muddy river for it is not one pure tone or tongue but again it is speech in ambiguity.

For your sake DrWearWord I hope your muddy water causes you to grow and not just cloud your vision.

JEFF

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For your sake DrWearWord I hope your muddy water causes you to grow and not just cloud your vision.

JEFF

'Til Kingdom Come

Steal my heart and hold my tongue.

I feel my time, my time has come.

Let me in, unlock the door.

I've never felt this way before.

The wheels just keep on turning,

The drummer begins to drum,

I don't know which way I'm going,

I don't know which way I've come.

Hold my head inside your hands,

I need someone who understands.

I need someone, someone who hears,

For you, I've waited all these years.

For you, I'd wait 'til kingdom come.

Until my day, my day is done.

And say you'll come, and set me free,

Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me.

In your tears and in your blood,

In your fire and in your flood,

I hear you laugh, I heard you sing,

"I wouldn't change a single thing."

The wheels just keep on turning,

The drummers begin to drum,

I don't know which way I'm going,

I don't know what I've become.

For you, I'd wait 'til kingdom come,

Until my days, my days are done.

Say you'll come and set me free,

Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me.

Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me.

Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me.

Coldplay

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Darkness is the absence of light. Light dispels darkness. Biblically never says the otherwise. Light does not live in darkness.

Blessings and love, truly.

Blessings and love to you too. :)

If one were to venture into space beyond the protection of our atmosphere; invisible light could cook a person with light photons that are imperceptible to the human eye, light like, microwaves, infra red, solar radiation in general, all imperceptible to the human eye but still “living in darkness.”

Entire stars/suns and solar systems are born out of the darkness of black holes. Did light live in the black hole and come out as plasma? Yes... Also a black hole can equally dispel light just as light can dispel darkness. Consider that the stars lovingly live within the habitat and darkness of the night sky.

Science will say dark energy and matter are necessary building blocks of our universe.

Consider that light exists in wavelengths far surpassing our ability to perceive it.

Humans are capable of perceiving with the naked eye only a narrow bandwidth of visible light. So light does exist in darkness, even though we cannot see light in darkness it is still there. And if light dispeled darkness then there would be no darkness because light would be visible all the time. Though it exists in darkness it cannot always dispel darkness. God cannot be omni-present without living also in darkness.

Maybe light does not “live” in darkness but it most certainly exists in darkness. I thought I would use one of my own figures of speech to emphasize what is important.

One may note that light exists more in darkness than the narrow perceptible band in the spectrum that we are able to see. Once again, the all knowing God of the Bible is wrong.

june1.gif

Black hole dispels light...

hst_ngc4438_0021.jpg

The creator of the universe sees things a bit differently than the creator of the Bible.

Where is this "solid ground" we used to stand on with sincerity?

Edited by DrWearWord
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One may note that light exists more in darkness than the narrow perceptible band in the spectrum that we are able to see. Once again, the all knowing God of the Bible is wrong.

june1.gif

Black hole dispels light...

hst_ngc4438_0021.jpg

The creator of the universe sees things a bit differently than the creator of the Bible.

Where is this "solid ground" we used to stand on with sincerity?

DrWearWord,

That's your best shot at the bible!?

Your reasoning may be enough for you to think that you are wise (ala Rom ch. 1) but c'mon.....

The lamps that existed at the time that the scriptures were written were not overpowered by the darkness. (A ref. to John 1) Everybody can see that and it is so simple that any child can understand it. No matter what you think of the bible it is a very simple and illistrative observation for anyone.

You don't believe the bible and you are purposely obnoxious about it. I have nothing left to say to you.

JEFF

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these verses come to mind...

where i read all the "he"s as "God" as

"the great integrity" and the "manifestedly unmanifest" and "many-named unnamable" and such

Proverbs 8:27

When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:

Job 22:14

Thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not; and he walketh in the circuit of heaven.

Isaiah 40:22

It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

Edited by sirguessalot
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DrWearWord,

That's your best shot at the bible!?

Your reasoning may be enough for you to think that you are wise (ala Rom ch. 1) but c'mon.....

The lamps that existed at the time that the scriptures were written were not overpowered by the darkness. (A ref. to John 1) Everybody can see that and it is so simple that any child can understand it. No matter what you think of the bible it is a very simple and illistrative observation for anyone.

You don't believe the bible and you are purposely obnoxious about it. I have nothing left to say to you.

JEFF

Hold that "lamp" up against that black hole then talk, would the ancients marvel then?

Some are led, some lead.

Major_09%20-%20IX%20Hermit.jpg

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june1.gif

Philosophical and theological considerations aside, this really doesn't represent "light".

It represents energy, the electromagnetic spectrum, radiation.

Light is only a part of the spectrum.

Visible light represents roughly the area between 380nm and 750nm.

One certainly does not think of radio waves as being "light" yet they are part of this same spectrum.

The spectrum is not a measure of light (or darkness), but, rather, a way to understand the relationship of various wavelengths with one another.

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Philosophical and theological considerations aside, this really doesn't represent "light".

It represents energy, the electromagnetic spectrum, radiation.

Light is only a part of the spectrum.

Visible light represents roughly the area between 380nm and 750nm.

One certainly does not think of radio waves as being "light" yet they are part of this same spectrum.

The spectrum is not a measure of light (or darkness), but, rather, a way to understand the relationship of various wavelengths with one another.

Again, twisting words to make the Bible fit.

Visible light is energy too...

So what is your point, energy dispels darkness?

The Bible has used "light" to provide simply another broken and ambivalent allegory of good and evil.

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So what is your point?

You have stated:

"One may note that light exists more in darkness than the narrow perceptible band in the spectrum that we are able to see."

My point is that you are referring to "darkness" and "spectrum" in a synonymous manner.

That's semantically inaccurate. It makes the analogy invalid.

That, in itself, has nothing to do with proving or disproving the Bible.

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And what would you call turning water to wine? Alchemy?

Dictionary.com

Al-che-my

(second meaning) any magical power or process of transmuting a common substance, usually of little value, into a substance of great value.

(One might also note that the word Alchemy is of Arabic/Persian origin.)

[/

Well, WW, water is a very valuable commodity, especially clean drinking water, so your dictionary entry would not technically apply.

Are you Muslim?

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How many homosexual teens have committed suicide because of this man's loving God?

james-dobson-756079.gif

James Dobson

(feed my lambs)

He is holding a Bible, not the superimposed title that was put on to the book. Let's keep the truth visible here. If you wish to make a joke, then say that is what you are doing.

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Jesus Christ gathered twelve MALE disciples...

Is that "inordinate affection"?

NO! It's called CULTURE. Although if you read the Scriptures, you will find that WOMEN followed him on the road as well as the men. Joanna supported Him financially and she was married to an important person and was therefore rich.

Geisha

I am not really agreeing or disagreeing with you. I just think that you care regardless and that to me is the heart of Jesus Christ's message.

Many of us, no matter what the word says in certain places know contrary and have a grip on what is right and wrong.

Yet many have differing opinions.

We are told to sin no more, then we are told that we are above sin, then we are told that all who are above sin are liars.

Then Paul the Apostle goes on for several pages saying that he does what he does, not because he does, but because he does...

Then we have the law of liberty versus the law of sin and death, and we are free indeed!

And all of this justifies telling a homosexual that their sacred love for their same sex partner is a devil spirit...

Where is the love in that?

The person has to desire to be saved. Telling the person that homosexuality is a sin is LOVE. Especially, if it keeps them out of damnation at the judgment throne.

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2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Comment: Is celibacy "knowing no sin"... Or was fathering a child out of wedlock with Magdalene, knowing no sin, Or maybe it was just gathering and hanging out with twelve dudes constantly talking about "love" that gives him his sinless character?

Who says that He fathered a child with Magdalene? Gnostics was it? Hmmm. You should probably think about your sources.

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You have stated:

"One may note that light exists more in darkness than the narrow perceptible band in the spectrum that we are able to see."

My point is that you are referring to "darkness" and "spectrum" in a synonymous manner.

That's semantically inaccurate. It makes the analogy invalid.

That, in itself, has nothing to do with proving or disproving the Bible.

E=MC2

Even matter is energy.

Gamma rays are called rays because it is light, light that exists in "darkness".

So whose analogy is invalid?

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Gamma rays are called rays because it is light, light that exists in "darkness".

Does that mean that radio waves are called waves because they are are light?

Gamma rays are not "light".

They are electromagnetic radiation. They are neither light nor darkness. They are energy in motion within the framework of the known spectrum.

Why do you feel that has any bearing on what's written in the Bible?

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