Believes.......

[Fairywolf]

How do you choose between right and wrong?

I have always grown-up in a christian home. However, there are somethings I just don't understand.

I believe there is a higher power. How do you choose what or who that higher power is?

I have always heard as long as you believe in Jesus Christ, you will go to heaven. I don't particulary agree. I do believe in the higher power, I am just unsure in what it is or who for that matter. Why must we label things as male or female. Many think that the higher power is automatically a male figure. Why? Don't ask me.

I want proof, however there is no such thing. What you may call proof, someone else would classify as thought or hearsay. So can you actually say what is right or wrong with out being against one other persons thoughts?

Why does a person belive in a higher power? What propels us to belive in a higher being?????? What is there that prevents us from not believing in anything? This is not to offend anybody, this is just out of my own curiousity.

Wolf

[lynx]

Is it wrong to not believe in church?

I have been told that it is. The church is a holly place where you go to pray and be closest to god. It is the place that all holly acts are followed through, and taken place at. Example, witch burnings. They were done in the court yards of many churches. Believed to be of holly ground or earth. Midevel speaking.

l have always thought that being outside was where one was truly one with god, so to speak. I have believed that man has put to much into the idea of the building of which is labeled 'church'. When the earth was created, there was no mention of a building called church ever being created. Jesus Christ alway prayed and preached out doors. In the open, where we were one with the earth and all of creation. What is the difference?

My thoughts are that the church is man made. I shall not pray to an idoll. I pray to the higher power. I am not saying that I do not feel at peace in a church. Since that was all I was ever told, that a church is a place of worship and hollyness. I also don't feel out of place either. I am more comfortable out doors, however.

I believe that god/goddess intended us to worship where we are most comfortable. At peace with all that surrounds us. Nature.

What are all of your thoughts?

Lynx

[Fairywolf]

Originally posted by lynx
Is it wrong to not believe in church?
I believe that god/goddess intended us to worship where we are most comfortable. At peace with all that surrounds us. Nature.

What are all of your thoughts?

Lynx

AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blessed Be.

Wolf

[Mariposa De La Luna]

You might want to read
Ethics for the New Millennium
by Dalai Lama

Here is the Amazon.com review:
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
In a modern society characterized by insensitivity to violence, ambivalence to the suffering of others, and a high-octane profit motive, is talk of ethics anything more than a temporary salve for our collective conscience? The Dalai Lama thinks so. In his Ethics for the New Millennium, the exiled leader of the Tibetan people shows how the basic concerns of all people--happiness based in contentment, appeasement of suffering, forging meaningful relationships--can act as the foundation for a universal ethics.
His medicine isn't always easy to swallow, however, for it demands of the reader more than memorizing precepts or positing hypothetical dilemmas. The Nobel Peace laureate invites us to recognize certain basic facts of existence, such as the interdependence of all things, and from these to recalibrate our hearts and minds, to approach all of our actions in their light. Nothing short of an inner revolution will do. Basic work is required in nurturing our innate tendencies to compassion, tolerance, and generosity. And at the same time, "we need to think, think, think ... like a scientist," reasoning out the best ways to act from a principle of universal responsibility. Like a merging of the care and compassion of Jesus, the cool rationality of the Stoics, the moral program of Ben Franklin, and the psychology of William James, Ethics for the New Millennium is a plea for basic goodness, a blueprint for world peace. --Brian Bruya

It was suggested by an HP on the subject of general ethics to live by. The book is written in a Buddhist viewpoint but can easily be adapted. I have not read this book yet but plan on it in the future.

[Earth Walker]

:D You may like to read:
Identifying Plantary Triggers by Celeste Teal

or

The Quindecile by Ricki Reeves.

:sunny:

[Amora]

My feelings on going to church are pretty strong. I was never raised in a religious environment. I was always confused because the higher powers hear me wherever I am. Why is it that others must congregate? I've been told I will go to hell because I don't believe in Jesus Christ. But why since we are all so different would the higher power make only one set of beiefs right?

I've gotten to the point where this is all humerous now. I know where I'm going and who answers my prayers and that's all I need to know. As far as the church and their rules I follow my own rules. They consist of being the best person I can to myself and others.

All our beliefs are right if we believe strongly enough...and I'll never back down from that.

[Ozymandias]

All I can say is follow your heart for their the truth will giude you.

[Tigerwallah]

I agree with Ozy. When you are true to yourself you will know the difference between right and wrong. First of all it helps keep in mind the effects of your actions on others. I am a very Bohemian person, but consider myself to be very good. I may be what the Christians consider a sinner, but my actions have harmed no one.

My goddess selected me.

I believe that Jesus was a political revolutionary - nothing more, nothing less.

God is looked upon by most as a male because that is what came out of the Partiarcal revolution that began around 1,800bc. Until then, God was a woman. (When God Was A Woman is an excellent resource for a lot of these questions - written by Merlin Stone. Published by Barnes and Noble).

We are taught that god made man in his image. It is no coincendence that Jesus calls his followers his "flock." Thinking for yourself is forbidden in Christianity. Most don't ask questions. We all did, and that is why we are here.

The proof you seek is in ancient history. It can be found in graves and temples. There is proof. You just need to be willing to accept what you find.

People need to believe in a higher power because then they don't have to take responsibility for their own actions. I'm not saying there is no higher power. I am saying that these deities are by and large ambivelent - allowing you and I to make our own decisions. Once we make the right ones we move on and become part of their energy.

These are my beliefs anyway. I'm a product of Catholic school. I was told not to ask questions. I was made to read the story of Doubting Thomas many times, but I was born asking questions and rocking the boat. Blind faith has you drinking cool aid in Jonestown with the rest of your flock. Not this sister. Religion as we know it today has it's roots in political aspirations, and was as much a way to control people as government and laws.