Posted on 08/12/2010 1:19:22 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Her parents were Baptist and Catholic and she was born in Georgia, part of the US Bible Belt. But Hollywood superstar Julia Roberts says she is now a practising Hindu. Speaking to the September issue of Elle magazine, Roberts said she goes to the temple to "chant, pray and celebrate."
The 42-year-old actress, who won a million hearts with Pretty Woman and an Oscar with Erin Brockowich, took to Hinduism during the shooting of her upcoming film, `Eat, Pray and Love' last year. In the movie, she plays a divorced woman who travels to Italy for food, India for spirituality and Bali, where she finds love. In the interview, Robert also spoke of reincarnation. "I've been so spoiled with my friends and family in this life. Next time I want to be just something quiet and supporting," she said.
Swami Dharamdev of Hari Mandir, Pataudi, where `Eat, Pray and Love' was shot for three weeks in September-October last year, said it is good news if someone accepts Hinduism from the heart. During the film's shooting, he said, a makeshift temple had been constructed nearby where unit members would light lamps and burn incense sticks. "Julia too would pray there, run her hands over the lamp and her hair as we all do," he recalled. "She also got her three kids here. I tied the sacred red thread on their wrists and applied the tilak on their foreheads," he said.
Swami Dharamdev recalled the actress also requested him, through her private assistant, to pray for her mother who was ill. "Before she left I told her, `you may choose not to eat or love. But don't forget to pray. Make that a part of your life, not just acting in this film'. She smiled and nodded affirmatively," he said.
In a statement, Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism in the US, also said he and his fellow practitioners welcome Roberts into the fold.
Julia's move to Hinduism has sparked off a torrent of online response. Some are highly critical of her; others the opposite. "Another confused celebrity trying on the religion "flavour" of the month. Hindu? Does she even know what that means? How can you convert to another religion after making a film? Next thing you know she'll be wearing a Kabbalah bracelet after going to a Madonna concert!," was a comment posted on The Daily Mail's website. However, Anne, Leicester, wrote, "I like Julie Roberts, admire her work on screen and her commitment to her beliefs. If she's living her life to the ideals of Hinduism, that's all to the good. I look forward to seeing her latest film.
Yes or no would suffice, but apparently my question was too hard for even that, thanks again.
Preachy, and has a mouth like the open trunk of a Buick.
“If God’s knowledge is not restricted by time, why would He not know what choices a person will make, even before He creates them? “
He would know. It’s inherent in being outside of the constraints of time.
“Why wouldn’t people still be responsible here on earth, even if God is the author of their evil actions?...Just because someone chooses an evil act, that doesn’t mean that God didn’t know about it before, does it?”
You conflate knowledge of evil with responsibility for committing evil. God can have knowledge of evil without being its cause. But if God is the author of someone’s evil act then the person cannot be said to have chosen evil, the responsibility would fall on its author.
“Maybe evil doesn’t even exist to God? Perhaps, it’s just a word we use to descibe behavior.”
That wouldn’t be true for the God of the bible. You’ll have to tell us if that is true for the God you believe in.
Isn’t it presumptuous of you to assume that I can’t back up my statement?
The Dog Method refers to Justice Holmes’ observation that ‘even a dog knows the difference between being tripped over and being kicked.’ An intuitive judgement from a universal moral grammar. In similar fashion not all questioning is done from genuine curiosity. Some is just glib sophistry.
Only in a pure binary system.
thanks again.
No thanks necessary. The entertainment is worth it.
Excellent point made RoadGumpy.....good post. .....people do make their own choices in life in every matter that concerns them....to believe what they will to believe...or not at all. There are smorgasbords of beliefs to consider out there... but one needs to also consider the authority they use to substantiate if true or not. If one determines there is no point of authority than anything goes even to that of developing a religion all your own....New Age does this 24/7.
What do you believe about our choices made before God?...do you believe we are accountable to him?
Then He must know what choices a person will make, even before He creates them? Right?
Assuming God knows all, and cannot be wrong...if God knows someone will do something at a certain time and place, is it possible for them to do something else?
Since I believe that there is only one God, and you say God cannot author evil, perhaps, as I said, God doesn’t recognize evil as we do, He just views it as human behavior.
When you don’t, no.
OK, so how do you know if my questions are in good faith or not, and why?
Should I have said I am asking in a pure binary system? If so, then yes or no?
LaBeoufophobe! ;d
No
By Saying “No” that you do not believe we are accountable to God does speak volumes.
You must be very good to be able to hear volumes from just a 2-letter word. Do you hear other stuff too? Voices?
I believe we each do as God designed us to.
“Then He must know what choices a person will make, even before He creates them? Right?”
If God is all-knowing then there are no limits to his knowledge. And again, “before” is something that has meaning to creatures that exist within time. It’s a mistake to project our finite limitations onto God.
“Assuming God knows all, and cannot be wrong...if God knows someone will do something at a certain time and place, is it possible for them to do something else?”
If God knows all then he will also know that the person in question is going to do something else. There are no choices that can escape God’s knowledge. You have really mixed two issues in your question. Does man have a free moral will to make choices? And does God always know what man chooses? By definition God knows the future and what man will choose. The extent of man’s free will is a subject that has been debated for centuries by both theists and secularists.
Empiricist ethical intuitionism, or moral sense theory. It’s dog method epistemology for differentiating a trip from a kick. Not infallible but it’s something we all use in daily life.
if as you stated this does not require accountability to him... then are you saying we are simply robots. So you are saying we have no choices. Then how do you explain evil choices people make....blame God?
Since we exist within time, when I say before, it is meant for the human...before they are created.
While man has the free will to make choices, God knows what the choice will be, right? There cannot be a something else, can there, if God knows ultimately what the choice will be? He must know the last choice a person makes on any one decision, right?
So I mixed 2 issues, is it that hard to address each one?
You say there are no limits to God’s knowledge and that there are no choices we make that He doesn’t know about. So is it correct to say that you agree that God knows what choices a man will make, whether it is before or after that man is created/born? By definition, right? Yes or No
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