Posts by journey-on

48

Mother Teresa doubted God's existence during her last years

by Gregor in

jw
friends

her personal diarys and letters have revealed she doubted gods reality and this in turn caused her to ask herself "is jesus true?

" she no longer prayed right up until her death.

in my opinion this in no way detracts from her being a wonderful, self sacrificing woman.

journey-on

"Where is my faith?" she writes. "Even deep down … there is nothing but emptiness and darkness. ... If there be God — please forgive me."

A direct quote from her writings

She was experiencing something called THE DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL. A simplistic definition can be found in Wikipedia:

Dark Night of the Soul is a term used to describe a specific phase in a person's spiritual life. It is used as a metaphor to describe the experience of loneliness and desolation that can occur during spiritual growth.

The "dark night" could generally be described as a letting go of our ego's hold on the psyche, making room for change that can bring about a complete transformation of a person's way of defining his/her self and their relationship to God. The interim period can be frightening, hence the perceived "darkness". In the Christian tradition, during the "dark night" one who has developed a strong prayer life and consistent devotion to God suddenly finds traditional prayer extremely difficult and unrewarding for an extended period of time. The individual may feel as though God has suddenly abandoned them, or that their prayer life has collapsed.

Rather than being a negative event, the dark night is believed by mystics and others to be a blessing in disguise where the individual extends from a state of contemplative prayer to an inability to pray. Particularly in Christianity, it is seen as a severe test of one's faith.

57

Do you suffer from RELIGIOUS HYPOCHONDRIA???

by Terry in

healthy people don't go to a doctor.

if they do they are hypochondriacs.

hypochondriacs spend their time and money on imagined illnesses.

journey-on

RAF: Your responses to Poppers and J.T. makes sense to me.

Poppers/J.T:

Most people are living lives based on memory and projection of mind into a future fantasy and completely miss what's actually real right before them. Devoid of analysis, judgment, and label what is here right now? That's reality.

Have you ever stopped to think that in order to move forward, man HAS to look at the past and the future? EVERYONE cannot live in the here and now or our species would stagnate. For you and some others, perhaps that is the way you live and cope with your life. For the collective, that would be tantamount to stagnation IMO.

We create reality as a collective with our past dreams and imaginations. Invention and new technology is made from those past imaginations and dreams. If you don't indulge THE MIND, our forward progress would cease, or at the very least crawl along at a snail's pace.

57

Do you suffer from RELIGIOUS HYPOCHONDRIA???

by Terry in

healthy people don't go to a doctor.

if they do they are hypochondriacs.

hypochondriacs spend their time and money on imagined illnesses.

journey-on

And as far as sin goes, here's my take on it, for what it's worth (2 cents?).

At some point in man's evolution, we became self-aware and conscious of the consequences of choice (free will). This is our creator interacting on a new level with creation...man, in this case. You make a bad choice, the consequences are bad. It was part of our "spiritual" evolution. Some choices were black and white. You eat this plant, you're poisoned. You eat that plant, you're satisfied. Some choices were not so black and white. Perhaps they were good for you, but proved detrimental to the tribe. Now you have to create rules and regulations...laws, if you will...to address these grey areas and govern the tribe. The leaders of the tribe probably directed this. Voila! Religion is born. Another step in "spiritual/social/philosophical/psychological" evolution.

Religion evolves. Now we're at a new crossroads of spiritual evolution.

Who is going to go forward? Isn't that the real question? I think it is safe to say that religion as we know it today is on the path of the dinosaur. What will the NEW RELIGION'S face look like?

The atheists say God has to be removed altogether from the equation. Religionists cling to God and the narrow Christian/Buddhist/Islamic/etc. way of defining God. Then there is this other area between science and spirituality, like me? WHERE ARE WE GOING AND WHO IS GOING TO LEAD?

57

Do you suffer from RELIGIOUS HYPOCHONDRIA???

by Terry in

healthy people don't go to a doctor.

if they do they are hypochondriacs.

hypochondriacs spend their time and money on imagined illnesses.

journey-on

J.T.

Maybe I should start another thread rather than interrupt this one, but I'm getting ready to go out of town later and will be gone five days and won't have time to follow up with any replies. So, if Terry will indulge me for the moment, I'll give my reply to your answer.

God may be the wrong word. There has come to be almost a reflex reaction to the mention of God that stirs up a revulsion in the minds of rabid atheists. Maybe we need to redefine what creator means. It seems to be difficult for an atheist to get past the old vision of what He has been represented by in the past and still does to some people.

Creation happened...period, i.e. Space and Matter came to be. At some point there was ONLY a point. What it was and what its nature was, science cannot explain. But it was divine (super human..magnificent..god-like...unknowable). Big Bang! As matter coalesced, it evolved "intelligently".

Now, my problem with "the other side" (whatever that is) is this: I've read, studied, observed pictures real and simulated of the cosmos. I am not an astrophysicist, but I know enough to know that our universe is so dynamic and vast that our solar system with its huge sun is a tiny speck upon another tiny speck---barely a blip on the cosmos radar. In this vastness, our Earth is practically invisible. There are stars that we know of that are 100 times as massive as our sun and 10,000,000 times brighter. These are just the ones we know of.

The things our science doesn't know are so much more than what we do know. By turning a blind eye to the "creator" of this universe, we are cutting ourselves short. Is our creator an entity like us only invisible? No..I doubt that. But, supposedly, all matter including man is made of the same "stuff" as the universe. (How we know this for a 100% certainty is beyond me...our science is so small and incomplete, but nevertheless, "they" say...) If we are all made of the same stuff, then it stands to reason we contain within ourselves part of what GOD is...like DNA for a lack of a better analogy. We ARE His image. We ARE evolving intelligently toward SOMETHING.

If we throw away our father because of the puny vain attempts at religion to explain Him, then we are making a serious error in my judgement. Throw away the old concept of God...YES. Throw away religion with its narrow-minded doctrines...YES. But don't throw away GOD. As we evolve physically, socially, and spiritually, THERE WILL BE NEW DEFINITIONS.

IMO, atheists put way too much stock in physical science. And if you stand back and look how SMALL our science is, you've got to stay open to the fact that there is more to creation and its evolution than can be explained by our tiny scientific knowledge.

Maybe I'm just in a different ring altogther in this fight....either/or, neither/nor.

34

What's the one thing holding you back?

by journey-on in

jw
friends

journey-on

Excuse my stupidity, but holding me back from what?
Please rephrase question.

Whatever comes to you.

57

Do you suffer from RELIGIOUS HYPOCHONDRIA???

by Terry in

healthy people don't go to a doctor.

if they do they are hypochondriacs.

hypochondriacs spend their time and money on imagined illnesses.

journey-on

Questions, Terry:

Are you only talking about religion's interpretation of God?

What about people like me that believe in God as the Creative Energy that produced space and matter and continues to evolve intelligently interacting with its own creation? I'm looking to both Science (man) and God to eventually answer these questions.

I'm not sure exactly where I fit into the argument? If I don't, then I'll bow out of this discussion. I'd just like to know where you think people with the same view as me fit it?

15

another satanic thread.

by bigdreaux in

jw
friends

okay, let's say part of the story is true.

satan rebelled, god said what's going to happen.

what if satan knows god can be wrong?

journey-on

Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert Heinlein

One of my all-time favorites!

4

"Food" at the "proper time"

by educ8self in

jw
friends

if you cannot "reach" someone because of certain psychological "blocks," wouldn't that indicate you need to get into their head more, rather than just use pure reason?

and if people are just more receptive at certain times, doesn't that imply knowing it well enough to see when that is?

(and unfortunately, they may not be posting at the time) messy as it may be, you gotta know people and be good at it.

journey-on

uh? It's late...maybe I'm tired, but I didn't grasp what you're trying to put over.

74

Favorite love songs

by littlerockguy in

jw
friends

anybody got a favorite love song?

if i name one i would later probably name another one that i like better so i can't say i have a favorite.

i will post an old one i like; love the foreign accent of this 70s group, lol.

journey-on

I think there is a sandbar in Arlington where the sewage treatment plant dumps into the Patomac....

Sweetface...I think you just spoiled his "mood."

9

Do the Governing Body members do door-to-door field service?

by R.F. in

those of you that have been around the gb members on a regular basis, do they actually do the door-to-door work themselves, or do they mainly count the talks they give as their field service time?

journey-on

Are you okay, Nathan. Catch your breath!!