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I believe in our energetic existence--that we go on after the body goes. But, as far as a "God" not sure. I think there are helper beings, saints for me personally (of course after catholic school, the saints remain). But, you could call the "saints" helpers, spirtual beings, whatever;to me they're saints, once human and know our toil and have ascended to a higher level and can help us. I think there are angels, too, quite a high, high level of being. And, Jesus, Buddha, all the rest, yes, but, again the omnipresent "God," not sure. My thinking is a work in progress, not a static set of beliefs.
It depends on the definition of god. Several posts here resonate with my own perspective.
I think there is something out there but is also within that connects us all. What ever it is, is the same force that created life and earth. We are aware that everything is elemental and energetic, ourselves included.
My equivalent to god is the Universe, it is the everything and a mystery. We can see some parts of it and we can't see others. The Univese can be 'vengeful' as well as 'giving'. But with the Universe it's not 'good' or 'bad', it just is. We are the ones that identify with this good and bad thing. Which leads to karma, duality and balance.
(Wish I was on my computer so I could properly quote and respond)
As for reincarnation or afterlife, it's a part of the workings of the Universe. What happens to us I can only guess from an overview of all points of view and even then it is still a mystery.
Either time is linear and we do reincarnate, or we can just plug in to all the memories of those that came before us. Perhaps time is always ever happening (past, present, future at the same time) and we somehow 'slide' over to another realm. I think we do reincarnate (in the linear form- yet time is cyclical) but also there is another realm that we are aware of when we are there.
We are energy as is everything else. Atoms, molecules, electrons, neutrons, protons - everything has these things. These things do not go away, they just change form. What ever intelligence is out there and is called god or what ever is also within. I believe that there is also a coexistence of free will and destiny (associated with karma and past lives). Again, it's all about duality, none is 'bad' and none is 'good' in the Universe. People who 'hate' life live bad lives. To humans, this is how we see it- unless you can get past it and understand that you get what you give, it's the way of the Universe.
RE: DMT- unless you have good people you trust around you and you don't have an issue with totally losing all self-control (something very much like passing out) for a few minutes, it might be an interesting experience- if you can get past the vulnerability aspect. I would not do it myself. However, I'm not against natural 'medicines' either. There are other tools for exploration that are not so intense.
I agree that there are many aspects of the universe and our lives that we do not understand.
If there is a god, I tend to agree that it is some sort of force that glues us all together, but such a force would not necessarily be 'pro people' as most human religions seem to think.
I believe that there are other, more powerful, life forms that are favorable to us, but also others who think of us as we do the natural world around us, things to be used and discarded. I am not sure that there is some mastermind orchestrating all of it unless it is an impartial force.
Who cares about all this rhetoric and debate? Not me. I've got multiple degrees in theology, but none of that education has ever ''proven'' anything to me.
Living is what has ''proven'' it to me and then it's not even a scientific ''fact'', but a matter of ''faith''.
I believe there is a ''god'', a creative, intelligent, loving life force. I believe in guardian spirits. I believe that the death of the biological body is not an end, but a transformation.
Yes. I am trying to find out why that makes sense? We are taught one thing by religions, but most of those are man made. We can only rely on our own feelings and senses and logic.
Do we sense an actual higher force or might it be our own higher selves - the selves that are the sum of all our knowledge and experience of all our lives? Sensing a higher loving presence may be only sensing your higher consciousness.
If you were born into an environment in which you never heard of a religion or a god, and only had to rely on your own interactions with the mysteries of the world, what would you then believe? Do you consider those beliefs to be more valid than the propaganda filled ramblings that you were taught by your religious group as a child?
Propaganda is something we don't really believe. It's a reflexive reaction that we were conditioned into. Our true beliefs are based on what we have chosen to explore and been brave enough to question - everything should be questioned and examined because anything else, to me, would be wasting this life that we are born into.
Wasn't it Socrates who said the unexplored life is not worth living?
If you were born into an environment in which you never heard of a religion or a god, and only had to rely on your own interactions with the mysteries of the world, what would you then believe?
I was born into an environment that was non-religious but I can't say I never heard of god. My mother provided for me many books, from Aesop's Fables to the Children's Book of Bible Stories. I did not associate these bible stories with religion, to me they were just stories. Religion was not discussed. It would be once I entered school and around 2nd or 3rd grade that I would be faced with religion and the god of.
I did get to explore the Great Mystery on my own. As a young child I wanted to believe in magic. And by this I don't mean conjuring of spells or turning people into toads. It's a spiritual magic.
As a child, sleep never came easy and I spent many hours roaming my consciousness and in a trance-like state asked many deep questions like 'where did I really come from' - 'what would be of me if I had not been born' - 'what happens to others when they are not in my sight/company?' - that last question was asked long long before every hearing anything about the concept that life is holographic. In fact we did not even have holographics at that time. I really wondered if life was just a dream.
All those nights and all those questions showed me things that would be my foundation. Being that young I did not have terms or words to express, it was just a knowing. It would be later when I could shop for and buy my own books that I found that I was not alone and that the things I experienced was sometimes very ancient wisdom as well as universal through-out humanity.
I was about 9 when I had confrontation with religion on the playground at school. True, I was conditioned by my parents, father was a scientist, mom was an agnostic artist. So for me Adam and Eve were not the first humans- just the first with names (that's how I rationalized it at the time). Expressing my thoughts got me shunned and ridiculed. I was asked, I did not just volunteer that sort of thing, something in me knew such point of view would cause an issue so I kept quiet. However, I have all around respect. Someone asks me a question, I'm to offer an answer. So I was prepared for resistance and it really did not matter in the end because I was already a total outcast and oddball among my peers...nothing could make it worse.
I don't mean to make it sound traumatic or anything. It was annoying more that painful and I did not like any of those kids anyway.
BUT- I did go home that day and when came time for bed- my question of the night was about the Christian god. I was given an answer, told not to worry and got a cosmic hug. I was told that Christianity was just one way and that all that matters is being 'pure of heart' (actual quote), which at the time I did not fully understand but I took it to mean be a good person. Which it does, but it also speaks of the ultimate aspect of life- Love.
Having grown up without religion, I was not aware that Love was at the core of Jesus's teachings.
Your OP should specify, what do YOU perceive as a God.
Without going into long discussions leading to nowhere, answer is twofold.
1. There is a God, as far as there are two or more believing into it. But that will likely not be a God you referring to.
2. There is no God, in manner, you are likely to refer to, as omnipotent creator of everything, and such.
But there is something, called "god", that is present and everything is in it, and everything is its manifestation. But by no means it is a say Christian or Muslim God.
Here's five metaphysical proofs to its existence (please, do not tell me god is he or she. God is asexual and in English language is IT)
Motion: Some things undoubtedly move, though cannot cause their own motion. Since, there can be no infinite chain of causes of motion, there must be a First Mover not moved by anything else, and this is what everyone understands by God.
Causation: As in the case of motion, nothing can cause itself, and an infinite chain of causation is impossible, so there must be a First Cause, called God.
Existence of necessary and the unnecessary: Our experience includes things certainly existing but apparently unnecessary. Not everything can be unnecessary, for then once there was nothing and there would still be nothing. Therefore, we are compelled to suppose something that exists necessarily, having this necessity only from itself; in fact itself the cause for other things to exist. That is what men call God.
Gradation: If we can notice a gradation in things in the sense that some things are more hot, good, etc., there must be a superlative which is the truest and noblest thing, and so most fully existing. This then, we call God
Ordered tendencies of nature: A direction of actions to an end is noticed in all bodies following natural laws. Anything without awareness tends to a goal under the guidance of one who is aware. This we call God
For lack of better word, "god" is suitable. You could also use Brahman, as ultimate enlightened entity, ultimate consciousness, that gives origin and order to everything, is present in everything, animates everything, and everything is in it. Or, you could use The Light of Intelligence; or, Ultimate Consciousness. It's no more than game of words. As far as you comprehend the concept behind it.
Be well and let The Light be with you.
PS
Addendum:
God is simple, without composition of parts, such as body and soul, or matter and form.[93]
God is perfect, lacking nothing. That is, God is distinguished from other beings on account of God's complete actuality.[94] ‘Ipse Actus Essendi subsistens,’ subsisting act of being.[95]
God is infinite. That is, God is not finite in the ways that created beings are physically, intellectually, and emotionally limited. This infinity is to be distinguished from infinity of size and infinity of number.[96]
God is immutable, incapable of change on the levels of God's essence and character.[97]
God is one, without diversification within God's self. The unity of God is such that God's essence is the same as God's existence. "in itself the proposition 'God exists' is necessarily true, for in it subject and predicate are the same.
I was born into an environment that was non-religious but I can't say I never heard of god. My mother provided for me many books, from Aesop's Fables to the Children's Book of Bible Stories. I did not associate these bible stories with religion, to me they were just stories. Religion was not discussed. It would be once I entered school and around 2nd or 3rd grade that I would be faced with religion and the god of.
I did get to explore the Great Mystery on my own. As a young child I wanted to believe in magic. And by this I don't mean conjuring of spells or turning people into toads. It's a spiritual magic.
As a child, sleep never came easy and I spent many hours roaming my consciousness and in a trance-like state asked many deep questions like 'where did I really come from' - 'what would be of me if I had not been born' - 'what happens to others when they are not in my sight/company?' - that last question was asked long long before every hearing anything about the concept that life is holographic. In fact we did not even have holographics at that time. I really wondered if life was just a dream.
All those nights and all those questions showed me things that would be my foundation. Being that young I did not have terms or words to express, it was just a knowing. It would be later when I could shop for and buy my own books that I found that I was not alone and that the things I experienced was sometimes very ancient wisdom as well as universal through-out humanity.
I was about 9 when I had confrontation with religion on the playground at school. True, I was conditioned by my parents, father was a scientist, mom was an agnostic artist. So for me Adam and Eve were not the first humans- just the first with names (that's how I rationalized it at the time). Expressing my thoughts got me shunned and ridiculed. I was asked, I did not just volunteer that sort of thing, something in me knew such point of view would cause an issue so I kept quiet. However, I have all around respect. Someone asks me a question, I'm to offer an answer. So I was prepared for resistance and it really did not matter in the end because I was already a total outcast and oddball among my peers...nothing could make it worse.
I don't mean to make it sound traumatic or anything. It was annoying more that painful and I did not like any of those kids anyway.
BUT- I did go home that day and when came time for bed- my question of the night was about the Christian god. I was given an answer, told not to worry and got a cosmic hug. I was told that Christianity was just one way and that all that matters is being 'pure of heart' (actual quote), which at the time I did not fully understand but I took it to mean be a good person. Which it does, but it also speaks of the ultimate aspect of life- Love.
Having grown up without religion, I was not aware that Love was at the core of Jesus's teachings.
Thank you for telling us of your experiences. I do not doubt your story, but because there are gentle presences that encourage our development and because there is something called magic of the sort you describe just means to me that there are different realms and entities and a cohesiveness to the universe and not that there is a 'god', at least not one that we hear of in the West.
Your OP should specify, what do YOU perceive as a God.
Without going into long discussions leading to nowhere, answer is twofold.
1. There is a God, as far as there are two or more believing into it. But that will likely not be a God you referring to.
2. There is no God, in manner, you are likely to refer to, as omnipotent creator of everything, and such.
But there is something, called "god", that is present and everything is in it, and everything is its manifestation. But by no means it is a say Christian or Muslim God.
Here's five metaphysical proofs to its existence (please, do not tell me god is he or she. God is asexual and in English language is IT)
Motion: Some things undoubtedly move, though cannot cause their own motion. Since, there can be no infinite chain of causes of motion, there must be a First Mover not moved by anything else, and this is what everyone understands by God.
Causation: As in the case of motion, nothing can cause itself, and an infinite chain of causation is impossible, so there must be a First Cause, called God.
Existence of necessary and the unnecessary: Our experience includes things certainly existing but apparently unnecessary. Not everything can be unnecessary, for then once there was nothing and there would still be nothing. Therefore, we are compelled to suppose something that exists necessarily, having this necessity only from itself; in fact itself the cause for other things to exist. That is what men call God.
Gradation: If we can notice a gradation in things in the sense that some things are more hot, good, etc., there must be a superlative which is the truest and noblest thing, and so most fully existing. This then, we call God
Ordered tendencies of nature: A direction of actions to an end is noticed in all bodies following natural laws. Anything without awareness tends to a goal under the guidance of one who is aware. This we call God
For lack of better word, "god" is suitable. You could also use Brahman, as ultimate enlightened entity, ultimate consciousness, that gives origin and order to everything, is present in everything, animates everything, and everything is in it. Or, you could use The Light of Intelligence; or, Ultimate Consciousness. It's no more than game of words. As far as you comprehend the concept behind it.
Be well and let The Light be with you.
PS
Addendum:
God is simple, without composition of parts, such as body and soul, or matter and form.[93]
God is perfect, lacking nothing. That is, God is distinguished from other beings on account of God's complete actuality.[94] ‘Ipse Actus Essendi subsistens,’ subsisting act of being.[95]
God is infinite. That is, God is not finite in the ways that created beings are physically, intellectually, and emotionally limited. This infinity is to be distinguished from infinity of size and infinity of number.[96]
God is immutable, incapable of change on the levels of God's essence and character.[97]
God is one, without diversification within God's self. The unity of God is such that God's essence is the same as God's existence. "in itself the proposition 'God exists' is necessarily true, for in it subject and predicate are the same.
It sounds as though this god is more a force of nature, the first cause of nature. As such it is impartial whether we live or die and it could very well at some point cause/allow all of humanity to be wiped out as other animals have been, favoring a more adaptable creature.
Such a being, if it is a being or if it actually exists, has no desire to be, nor should it be, worshiped.
This thing is the closest that I can understand as a creator.
I am not sure where the feelings of love and harmony we get at various times in our lives originate, but again because these things occur is no proof of anything, are they?
By "soulform" do you mean something like auras? Or more like the whole soul changes colors? I've never heard the term soulform and am interested.
I was just using the term soulform in place of energy form. It could well be the aura. Many messages reportedly passed on from the departed note that the soulform is white for a great deal of time, only adding color as they spiritually progress. I'm not sure how it relates to people seeing colors in the aura though.
It sounds as though this god is more a force of nature, the first cause of nature. As such it is impartial whether we live or die and it could very well at some point cause/allow all of humanity to be wiped out as other animals have been, favoring a more adaptable creature.
Such a being, if it is a being or if it actually exists, has no desire to be, nor should it be, worshiped.
This thing is the closest that I can understand as a creator.
I am not sure where the feelings of love and harmony we get at various times in our lives originate, but again because these things occur is no proof of anything, are they?
Actually, it IS nature, as it is the animating principle in the nature side. This is the principle, that makes everything "tick", as everything, in the nature side, and in the intelligent side, operates in accordance to its alloted amount of consciousness in it. In the nature side, every unit is conscious only as its function, in the intelligent side, every unit is conscious that it is conscious. In both sides - to various degree of progression.
You forgetting one simple basic principle. Such principle - as I find dis-respective to call it "thing" - is eternal. Same goes for the what you call universe, especially - the un-seen one we are not aware of. Both are. They are eternal and without beginning and end. As anything that gave beginning to something, has beginning to itself, as beginning becomes a mark it bears. Yes, I am very well familiar with the Big Bang theory, but it has none to do with existence of eternal principles.
You don't look at this broadly enough. You have to meditate on the principle of eternity. That changes perspective and grasp on the realm we are in.
Says who such principle wants to be worshiped? Remember, I told you, you need to determine, which "god" you speak of. Biblical god is product of humans. As such, it wants to be worshiped, of course. It's an anthropocentric god, with all the features and weaknesses of a human being. Not even that much advanced.
What Thomas was stipulating in his five proofs to god's existence, is the eternal principle, not Biblical God. I am surprised, how far did he even get in his thinking. How close to The Truth.
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