What do you believe, or not? Another religion thread ... (Page 5)

You would *love* the book Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. One of my favorite lines in it is: "Who poofed the gefilte fish?"

There is a famous teaching from Rabbi Hillel."On another occasion it happened that a certain heathen came before Rabbi Shammai and said to him, "Make me a proselyte, on the condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot." Thereupon he chased him away with the builder's cubit that was in his hand. When he came before Hillel, (he also asked Hillel to teach him the entire Torah while standing on one foot) Hillel replied, "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: that is the whole Torah while the rest is commentary; go and learn it."

This is now known as the Golden Rule.

There is one other commentary that comes from this lesson. Jews have a saying, “One should always be humble like Hillel and not impatient like Shammai.” Don't be so quick to judge.

Amen.  Save Ferris.

A. You can never go too far.

But my favorite (where is it? Bueller ... Bueller ... Anyone ... Anyone) is still: "Sooner or later, everyone goes to the zoo."

I'm going to check it out!!

Which is why Jesus was so smart to have instituted a hierarchical Church
with the magisterium of bishops as the definers and teachers of the deposit of faith
and Peter as the first among them
and all of the bishops of Rome who sit in his chair and have followed
holding the same authority.

Otherwise, you end up with 30,000 different denominations and growing
no two of which believe exactly what another does.

That Jesus was one smart cookie.  

I believe in Sloane Peterson.  4-ever.

I don't think he'd recognize today's Christianity in all it's varied forms.

That article got the facts wrong about Buddha. The author attempts to draw parallels between Siddhartha and Jesus' paths and says that Siddhartha fasted for 47 days and Jesus for 40 days. If by 47 days the author means 7 years, then, yeah, their paths were similar. (this is me rolling my eyes)

Are you trying to say Jesus Christ couldn't fast for 7 years?

Slight NSFW language: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhWsNtZXdpY

You're Abe Froman?

Another time I was surprised by a Catholic... was when Pope JP II stated before his death that "Dante's Inferno" was a painting that has done a lot of harm... that it gave the notion that hell was a place to be. The Lake of Fire... He said that hell was simply being apart form God and that you could be there in life or death.

That made a lot of sense to me just from my own personal experiences and that it was pretty easy to go with.

I don't mean to pick on Catholics, just that they do love their dogma... not that there is anything wrong with that...

I was raised S. Baptist. My parents played piano, taught Sunday school, started a mission, and drug me to church 3 times a week growing up. When I was 17 my Mom told me I was free to be be what ever I wanted, but just to remember that when ever I wanted... He would be there. I always admired her for that..... then of course I became a know it all atheist 20 something for a while. ... not that there is anything wrong with that.

One thing that always seemed to get me... and it does not get a lot of press... is that there are plenty of Christians that are not strict fundamentalists. In my journey I have met some pretty open minded Christians and those were some of the most spiritual people I have met. They laid things out in a way that made much more sense to me....It almost goes without saying today that when "Christians" are mentioned, that we are talking about evangelical fundamental Christians... as if those are the only ones that exists. I am not at all saying that is good or bad, I am saying that me personally, that I find more truth the less "fundamental" it gets... for me. YMMV. What is certain in my life is that the whole "Fire and Brimstone" religion of my youth does not fit me. I believe God "fits" everyone, so I choose a better fit.

Now to some that would be some sort of watered down hog wash that is not true...I say that is between me and the God that understands me.  I have said I do not believe in a Supreme Being... yet I do not disbelieve either. I'm agnostic. In these conversations it is just easier to speak "as if". I have been back and forth over this a few times in my life, and yet I still have no answers. What I will say is that the fact that I can say "I do not know, but I am willing to learn"... is so so far removed from where I used to be that it is growth to me. If there is a God, I think he (she) would be happy with me. That is where I am at at the moment.

I was taught that heaven is where god dwells, and that you get to sit in adoration of him for eternity, while hell is being separated from him for eternity. Given my mild ADD, the idea of sitting forever in one place looking at one thing would be it's own special version of hell...

I should have shared this link: zencast.org

Great podcasts.