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To: 21stCenturion; Diamond; betty boop; LogicWings; Mind-numbed Robot

You wrote: “...superstitious minds have constructed ‘Signs of a covenant’ between God and Man never again to drown the entire world in order to punish the wicked and preserve the good. Elsewhere, Norse mythology attribute it to an actual ‘bridge’ between Earth and Heaven, guarded by Heimdall, who allows only Heroes entry into a blessed afterlife. As fundamental as these conjectures might be to the belief systems of their practitioners, they are NO demonstration of ‘reason’ or the successful application of the attributes of the human mind to the processing of ‘reality’. ...”

You sound like Bill Maher. He takes Scripture literally, and then attacks it for being so literal. When Maher attacks religion, hi is really attacking his own stupidity. http://onecosmos.blogspot.com/2008/09/god-is-joke-and-bill-maher-is-barbaric.html

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“...what eludes both atheists and religious literalists “is that form and meaning are complementary.” For example, in order to play music, harmony, melody and rhythm are necessary. In their absence, there is only disorganized noise, not music. But to think that music may be reduced to musical theory is also wrong, for form is simply the vehicle but not the substance of music. ....

“To stop at the literal level of the text as a Rev. Jerry Falwell or Sam Harris would, is to leave most of the meaning out, and [to] deify the Bible itself for their purposes (either pro or con) and to miss out completely on the doing of its meaning being actively threaded through the reader’s soul.” Exactly, for the modern deviation of “fundamentalism” is no less a form of debased materialism than materialism proper. In fact, it represents the reaction of a weak soul to the abnormal conditions of modernity — an attempt to combat materialism by fully conceding its assumptions.

“Quite obviously, the Bible is not “the word of God.” It is not the logos. Rather, it is inspired words — inspired (or even “authorized”) by the Word — about the Word. Once again, this conflation of the Bible and the Word — or bibliolatry — is a modern deviation that essentially concedes all ground to the horizontal flatlanders. It is a reduction of that which can only by understood by the nous to that which may be understood by the material ego. ....”

http://onecosmos.blogspot.com/2007/02/on-hearing-cosmic-suite-without.html

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“...one thing that was different about the past is that people were unaware of other religious traditions, let alone science. Therefore, they lived in a kind of “innocence” (which literally means “without knowledge”) that is impossible for us. ....This is why I [am] hesitant to “join a church,” for fear that one would actually be turning away from spirituality and toward the world. Certainly this is the problem with “fundamentalism,” which is mostly worldly (in a naive, or worse, sometimes cunning sense) and materialistic. It is definitely a response to the abnormal conditions of modernity, and therefore itself abnormal.” Here: http://onecosmos.blogspot.com/2007/11/tradition.html

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We might as well face the fact that we can never contain God, not in any human words, any institution, or any person, no matter how “realized.” Rather, God — the ultimate — will always shatter whatever you attempt to contain him with.

“....And you will gnotice how often the playful Word Himsoph played with language in such a way that it could never be “contained” by all of the future would-be scribes and pharisees. After all, he could have left an unambiguous “to do” list for humans, couldn’t he? Instead, he largely spoke in the form of parable, symbolism, metaphor, and allegory — all modes which require our own participation to realize their truth. In other words, they are not simple containers of information, i.e., .

Rather, in an odd way, they are always highly provocative and “disturbing” s that require our own to com-prehend, i.e., we must make the effort to wrap ourselves around his rap (even as it wraps around us).

But then it shatters our again! And again. And again. It’s hopeless. And therein lies our hope. For in being shattered and deprived of merely human meaning, we are resurrected and part-icipate in ultimate meaning. “

On Being Shattered, Battered, Scattered, and Made Whole
http://onecosmos.blogspot.com/2009/07/on-being-shattered-battered-scattered.html

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“...But in reality, “a metaphysical doctrine is the incarnation in the mind of a universal truth.” Right? If that weren’t the case, then there would be no way to prove anything. Which is why, prior to actualizing this or that seed, a kind of cultivation of the soil is necessary; one must “awaken the intellectual faculty in oneself,” and not just superimpose a man-made formulation upon realities that are not explained by, but rather, explain, reason itself. ...” Here: http://onecosmos.blogspot.com/2011/09/why-give-enema-to-dead-atheist.html

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“.....When he says that the pastor had a knack for making scripture “accessible,” I’m going to take a wild guess and say that he probably had an even bigger talent for vulgarizing it. After all, truth is truth, and if he had been conveying anything deep and useful, [he] would still believe it. It would have “stuck.” [He would not now be an atheist]

On Keeping Faith Alive: The Intellect Doesn’t Slump
http://onecosmos.blogspot.com/2008/08/on-keeping-faith-alive-intellect-doesnt.html

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Follow the depth. And avoid the deeply shallow false lucidity of the terrible simplifiers. ....
.... if you want to prevent people from knowing about that deeper truth, you don’t have to even argue. Rather, all you have to do is erect a barrier to depth. ....
Last week I quoted Gurdjieff, who said that I have very good leather to sell to those who wish to make shoes. Do you see the point? He doesn’t sell shoes. Rather, he only sells the good leather for you to make your own shoes, which is to say, to have a realization. Paradoxically, if he gives you the shoes, you cannot have the leather!

But it is absolutely no different with religion: if someone gives you the answer, you can’t have it. It will be like a museum piece, or like a couch covered with plastic, or like a toe with no body attached....

Human beings are mental beings, and to the extent that religion cannot offer a deep and satisfying vision to man’s intellect, then it has failed in its saving mission. A religion should not only illuminate your mind, but save it — and not just from “the world,” but from yourself. Can I get a witness? Thank you. Left to his own devices and voices, there is obviously no end to the nonsense man will come up with. ....

Knowledge vs. Realization: Follow the Depth
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=8580258&postID=2070263310285273565

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The field of nature is a thophany, a meeting point of vertical and horizontal energies. The serpent-—the most horizontal of all beasts-—represents the self-enfolded world of scientistic materialism or Spinozean pantheism or Marxist dialectics. ....”

http://onecosmos.blogspot.com/2006/04/noble-raccoons-trousered-baboons-and.html


196 posted on 01/18/2012 10:47:19 AM PST by Matchett-PI ("One party will generally represent the envied, the other the envious. Guess which ones." ~GagdadBob)
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To: Matchett-PI; All

Yo, M-PI, that was one humdinger of a sermon, you betcha !

Seems a shame to waste it all by hitchin’ it so precariously to a randomly selected posting to which it doesn’t entirely seem to fit.

In another context, we would call this an ‘attempted thread hi-jack’. You know, somebody uses the phrase ‘Oh, Baby !’ and someone else comes along and uses that as an excuse to rant about contraception and abortion, regardless of what the original poster’s intent might have been.

If y’all don’t mind, I’m gonna simply neglect to engage with y’all on this’n, OKay ?

Regards,

21stCenturion


198 posted on 01/18/2012 11:09:38 AM PST by 21stCenturion ("It's the Judges, Stupid !")
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