monotheism sameolme This condition of spiritual poverty prevents the patient from appreciating the vast pantheon of dieties. 050201 ... sameolme deities 050201 ... oldephebe Granted. I'll accept that mono-theism as an idea as a modus of worship and or observance of a faith or connection to the metaphysical for YOU is limiting and or constraining. But to apply a term like impoverished to an entire category of individuals who find thier life, thier breath in a mono-theistic religion to me seems like an impoverished statement. a rather facile and broad brushed one at that. ... 050311 ... sameolme You're right phebe, at the time I was pissed at the Abrahamic religons for fucking up the world and made a bad joke about it. There's surely a monotheistic religon that doesn't feature a jealous and vengeful supreme being who tortures people for eternity, I'm just not aware of one. 050311 ... The Heretic CHRISTIANITY IS POLYTHEISTIC. SO IS JUDIAISM AND ISLAM. 050311 ... oldephebe Okay, Okay point taken, noted. You're not a fan of the religions that claim a heritage to Abraham. Query:Is it God that has animated all of these marrionettes to slaughter in His name or is it merely human nature using the "scriptures" as a pretext to accomplish thier rascist and genocidal aims? I mean because in my eyes, in the way that I read (interpret, even though it's in pretty plain language) the scriptures we're living under the dispensation of Perfect Love perfect forgivenes for jew christian moslem brahman whoever. Christs character as exemplified in the scriptures is the message of God, the instruction from God how we as humankind are to relate to Him and to one another and ah how He relates to us. It's man that gives God a black eye. From the Catholic Church sponsered Inquisitions to the witch burnings, to the rationale for slavery and jim crow and the white supremacy of the klu klux klan to the disenfranchisement of white women and children who were treated almost as chattel in some parts of this country in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is Man using the pretext of a certain faith to....I'll come back to this later... ... peace ... 050314 ... oldephebe And Oh god please, try to resist the impulse to cite random scriptures written in a certain time in a time of war, in a system of rule that was if anything a culture of war using the imprimnature of a theocrasy to carry out it's various aims for protection and expansion and to settle some pretty unspiritual debts...so God recast in the eyes of a beleagure and embittered peoples who believed in polygamy and slavery and the ultimate subjugation of the woman, still though God's perfect Love still managed to shine through despite the interpolations of the scribe and the sword. But hey, I mean I'm not even a cleric and I probably should spend more time in the scriptures than i do....soooo..don't take my word for anything, we all gotta just work it out for ourselves..i guess.. ... be back mebbe to bring the whole litany of Man's abuses done under the rubric of religion...mebbe ... what i do hear sameoldme is that your heart is broken for the world, and that you're looking for a compassionate portrait of God, you're looking for a God of forgiveness and a God who is interested in the world He is supposed to have created. So on that level man, I dig you, I'm pretty much at that place myself. ... 050314 ... sameolme Thanks phebe, thanks for not just reacting to an apparent insult to your religon, and thanks for using the word "facile", love that word and it describes well much of what I and others consider cherished opinions. I am very tired right now and a really lousy typist all the time so I can't begin to explain my dread for the future of our world. That is one reason I resort to facile quips, I would pray, but I don't know where to direct the words. Us humans, us lonely, arrogant, people are gaining more technological power at an accelerating rate. Some day soon, a grad student in genetic engineering will get cheated on by his or her lover and decide that they hate the world and everybody should die. The problem is that this grad student is increasingly able to act on these emotions. We need to evolve physcologically right now and our spiritual traditions should be at the forefront of that effort to evolve, but they are stuck in worn, old, tribalistic turf wars. Well, I did begin to explain, now to bed. 050317 ... sameolme I will no longer apologize for my spelling, it will have to apologize for itself. 050317 ... pobodys nerfect As the saying goes, "To err is human". Besides, perfection is overrated.=) 050317 what's it to you? who go blather from