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I'm wondering if you 2 were ignored as kids while a sibling got more than you?
I am not used to hearing 'special' so much, that's all. It's a curious thing to me.
Some low self esteem issues are apparent...gotta get rid of this comparing, guys.
I am the eldest of three sons and was an only child for seven years. It's hard to say that I ever felt ignored, even after my brothers started coming along. I doubt that my brothers would disagree with that assessment. The eldest tends to be favored, if anything. And I had a pretty idyllic childhood, with a collie dog, a tree house in my backyard, lots of other kids to play with, and I lived close to undeveloped wooded areas, so there was room to roam and lots to explore. I enjoyed being a child and had no special frustrations and anger issues. I was also raised Christian, but it went away when I was 13 or so, for no better reason than it stopped being believable.
Someone else's claim that they experienced god first hand is pretty unconvincing though. How do they know what they experienced was god or supernatural at all? Multiple people claim to have been visited by god but then tell conflicting stories about what it really wants.
Muslim extremists can claim Allah visited them and justified the bombing of civilians while at the same time a Christian can say God told them all acts of violence are wrong. As someone who has not been visited by god I have no reason to believe any of it more then people who claim to be probed by aliens. They can't all be right but they can all be wrong.
Well said! Man I have heard people who give "messages from God" and I wonder why in the worldf they would worship such a god!!! The question, I think is no so much what you think, but what you are willing to accept as important in your life. By me, however you come by the conclusion that concern for everyone's well-being is what you want to see and be is ok by me. Mordant (read the post in this thread) has my greatest respect, as does "Mother" Theresa, who is said to have had a close personal relationship with God until she got the "marching orders" or direction for her life and then no longer had the same feeling, but "marched," anyway.
I am the eldest of three sons and was an only child for seven years. It's hard to say that I ever felt ignored, even after my brothers started coming along. I doubt that my brothers would disagree with that assessment. The eldest tends to be favored, if anything. And I had a pretty idyllic childhood, with a collie dog, a tree house in my backyard, lots of other kids to play with, and I lived close to undeveloped wooded areas, so there was room to roam and lots to explore. I enjoyed being a child and had no special frustrations and anger issues. I was also raised Christian, but it went away when I was 13 or so, for no better reason than it stopped being believable.
Miss Hepburn could not answer our question, so she responded with an Ad Hominem.
So many people claim to have been visited by God. Who are we to believe in a world filled with manipulators, tricksters and, liars?
a good litmus test is if their actions and their "message" reflect loving kindness and peace.
if on the other hand they promote through their thought, speech, action, or ideology: hatred, war, violence, superiority, and brutality, it is not in anyone's best interests, and they are dangerous. those are not traits to emulate in either a god or a religion. we are to use simple discernment and common sense.
What is there in writings, speculation and opinion...that matches up
with a Direct Experience? Huh?...what?
I mean ...talk with someone that had an NDE...what can you say that matches they 'experienced' all is One...that All is perfect...that ALL is part of a perfect system...
ALL is 'ok'.
Love...be kind...learn and keep gaining more knowledge...
?
I see vanity...come ON!
Yes I have been visited, but I was out with Satan having a couple of beers. He left a card and said I could call if I wanted to. I don't think I will, he's a bit of a wet blanket.
Many moons ago in my theist days I spent a brief time attending a church that leaned toward the "happy clappy" persuasion and there was this young lady in the choir who used to fascinate me because she seemed so genuinely joyous and caught up in what she was doing. She is probably the only person I ever saw raise her hands in praise and do all that sort of thing without it seeming rather affected. You could even be her, still tripping out on life, for all I know ... but I tend to think it's personality and winning the lottery in the happy juice department (lots of serotonin and dopamine flowing in the ol' veins) because the science behind happiness tells us that (1) you're subject to the human condition just like everyone else and (2) circumstance are only responsible for like 10% of happiness. Combine this with unselfconsciousness, lack of anxiety, high levels of creativity, and anyone would probably be like you, and tend to ascribe agency to their transcendent feelings. But I wouldn't want you to change. After all, you're happy, and that's what matters, provided you can do it without making others unhappy.
I'm not sure that's a bad thing, if it doesn't stop you from working at a real-life occupation and helping people in the real world.
I really won't know much until that final day and moment when all questions will be answered. It will either be a great awakening of spirit and faith, or it will be nothing but a non-event that I won't know about.
I have had a couple of events/visits, or at least recognitions that have rekindled a belief a god does exist.
The first is the day my mother died at a hospice facility. It was a rainy, gray day. But within a couple of minutes of her passing a vibrant rainbow could be seen.
A most recent event was in August when I married my partner of 40 years. This marriage has actually made me more spiritual/religious and desire to more fully open my mind to the possibility of a god.
yes true.
the God experience is not an intellectual experience.
its being alive instead of where you should be, dead.
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