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On faith, lack of faith, different faiths . . .

Started by David Pinnegar, January 29, 2011, 05:24:27 PM

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David Pinnegar

"There are many mansions in my Father's house" . . .

Best wishes

David P

KB7DQH

QuoteA member of Idlewild Baptist Church, Sykes is committed to his Christian faith. In the beginning, he admits, he envisioned a chapel that reflected his own beliefs. But he came to understand the sanctuary needed to include and respect people from all faith backgrounds. The chapel now services at least nine religious groups with students representing dozens of countries.

"It will open the doors to a better understanding of each other," he says. "And that will serve an important purpose in the long run. I believe great things will be accomplished here."

Hacked out of the following article...http://www2.tbo.com/content/2011/jan/28/20-million-university-of-tampa-chapel-is-a-dream-f/news-breaking/

Oh yeah... The Organ.......http://www.dobsonorgan.com/html/instruments/op89_tampa.html

Just in case it got missed in the "New Pipe Organs" subject area...

Eric
KB7DQH
The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

revtonynewnham

Hi

I'm certainly not convinced by the "all roads lead to heaven" theory - which incidentally conflicts directly with the words of Jesus.  And I have very real problems with the concept of "Multi-Faith" worship.  Just who are participants praying to?

The closest I get to this is attending Bradford council's Holocaust Memorial event as one of the church representatives.  This, however, is fundamentally not an act of worship, but a memorial of the horrors and of the past, and a re-affirmation of our common purpose with representatives of other faiths and none to stand, and guard against such things, which sadly still happen in various parts of the world.

Within the Christian sphere, I'm very open - as long as the basic Christian creed "Jesus is Lord" (simple but profound) is at the root, then I'm happy.  I happen to be a Baptist minister because of God's leading.  Over my 50 years involvement in church music I've been involved in churches of at least 6 denominations, and have preached and/or led worship in a few more, as well as ecumenical/non-denominational gatherings.  (And this does include Roman Catholic, who regrettably are seen as heretical by too many evangelicals).

I also see God at work in other faiths - and that's all too the good.  In this country we have a religious freedom (even if an atheist agenda camouflaged as political correctness is trying to undermine this) - but that doesn't stop me praying that my Muslim neighbours will encounter the real Isa (the Muslim name for Jesus, who they regard as a prophet).

Every Blessing

Tony

David Pinnegar

Quote from: revtonynewnham on January 29, 2011, 10:53:05 PM. . .   And I have very real problems with the concept of "Multi-Faith" worship.  Just who are participants praying to?
. . .
I also see God at work in other faiths - and that's all too the good. 

  :o ;)  :)  :D

Um . . . it looks as though you might have answered your own question!

8)

Best wishes

David P

revtonynewnham

Hi

Just because God is at work doesn't mean that He is recognized!

Must go now - busy date (United communion service with the Anglicans this morning, then off to Blackpool for our middle Grandson's baptism (as a believer)).

Every Blessing

Tony

David Pinnegar

#5
Quote from: revtonynewnham on January 30, 2011, 01:43:09 PM
Just because God is at work doesn't mean that He is recognized!

Hi!

Recent posts have brought a focus to the mind and for today I'm going to be seen to support the cause of the Feminists . . .

Part of the problem that many face in any belief in God whatsoever is the promotion of God as He.

As I have mentioned in posts on The Lord's Prayer, The Son of God, and Our Father in Heaven, the problem IMHO is the departure from the wisdom of the 400 year old translation known as the Authorised Version. This contains wisdom obscure to people nowadays such as a freference to the "Men of Renown", a question that none have answered yet recently in the relevant posting . . . and here, Our Father WHICH art in Heaven.

It's easy through the dogma of each and every religion to forget that basic indefinition of what means God - the Invisible, the All Powerful, the Everywhere and the Eternal. I say indefinition as by definition God cannot be defined. God is a mystery, to which even the most sophisticated brains and computers among physicists can only guess. The concept is so infinite that it is beyond definition.

God is possibly known more to old men and women and children as they appreciate that in contrast they are mortal and not eternal.

Within that understanding none can deny that we exist within a matrix of matter, a corresponding relationship with that matter and this includes both the inanimate and the living. And yet in the motion of the universe and the conversion of matter into energy and the materialisation of matter from energy we see even what we regard as inanimate as animate.

But perhaps most obviously we see most readily our existence within a network of relationships between people, well described by The Lord's Prayer in which we ask to be Delivered from Evil, evil being a state of ununderstanding, of ignorance of how all of the environment in which we find ourselves is arranged and relates - of which The Lord's Prayer shows a way to arrange it better. Why throw that benefit away just because we want to deny the fact of our relationship with all around us?

Are not the forces that drive matter, and all of the people around us, and their minds a mystery? Are they not unavoidable, and therefore all powerful, invisible . . .  and everywhere?

Can the existence of God be denied?

Best wishes

David P


David Pinnegar

#6
Hi!

A member has emailed me privately about the last post, http://www.organmatters.com/index.php/topic,450.msg3112/topicseen.html#msg3112, which I believe goes to the heart of the mechanism of the workings of the world, and it's possibly appropriate to post here his reply and a response.

QuoteI do suppose the existence of God cannot be denied and I'm not entirely sure that it is important if God exists or not (I was about to use the word "he" then, slap hands!) as some people will believe and some will never. I find however that certain people's interpretation of God to be strange. The way they go about describing and promoting their understanding of God to my mind seems skewed, distorted and even to their own advantage.

There is a large media group called [edited] broadcasting on television in the name of the Christian God, which in my mind portrays lots of the bad bits of skewed [religion]. The preachers appearing on this channel seem to promote the love of Jesus and the love of wealth as some sort of interconnected benefit to all believers. This channel regularly asks for donations for its continued existence and it's the spread of its so-called ministry across the world. There is a major focus on the money giving however we never really see where this money goes; does it go to the needy, the poor or just some corporation and its owners' bank accounts?

To get to my point; is it correct for the wrong type of faith to be portrayed to the unsuspecting, the un-sure, the lonely, the needy, the depressed. If someone has no faith but then by persuasion or observation of the wrong teachings becomes faithful then is this a good thing? Surely not!

I think my question here is that as god can not be defined, then what is the correct faith and belief as there are so many different religions and within each of those religions so many different versions of understanding and belief, some more poisonous than others.

I'm sure that many recognise that the circumstances outlined above do not accord with what Jesus was teaching - but just because there are false prophets to mislead the unwary does not mean that the understanding of the workings of what I call the mechanism of what we call God (it's a thought that the ancients always referred to any name as an epithet rather than a name for the reason that the name was too powerful to be uttered and was subject to Taboo) is not worthy of trying to come to understand.

Any person or any label that says "Follow me because I am the way of Jesus" is going to be having a high liklihood of falsity for the reason that "By their Deeds shall ye know them". The Deeds to which you have referred don't appear to be particularly profoundly Christian.

In addition to http://www.organmatters.com/index.php/topic,450.msg3112/topicseen.html#msg3112 I shall try to write on the subject of the deep reality of the kindergarten concept attractive to people early on the path that "Jesus loves YOU"  . . .

Perhaps someone else might expand if they think they understand - we live in a multidimensional matrix but to understand we only need consider two dimensions. Imagine those puzzles of 9 squares and 8 tiles which have to move around. Each tile has to move in the direction that it's needed to move in in order to produce the result.  If a tile sticks, the result is blocked. The Lord's Prayer is intended to unblock the path so all may result in Heaven. It is the routemap. The blank square into which the next tile moves is both the fate, destiny, calling of the mechanism which we call God (whilst placed in the list this does not automagically equate with the former items) but above all is undeniably "The Path".

The good thing is that in real life there are more than nine spaces and eight tiles. As a result there are multiple paths through multiple spaces in what becomes a moving interactive maze. This means that there is always a path that Jesus shows to us, thus validating the concept that Jesus Loves YOU. But that is a description of an illusion, which itself is reality.

The whole is abstract. It is so abstract that it is indefinable and any attempt at description must therefore be understood to be a description of reality, a mechanism, rather than the reality itself. Mistakes happen when the description is held to be the reality.

The infinite can be described but not defined as to its whereabouts.

Concepts outlined in The Lord's Prayer and Jesus' teachings, many of which are not unique to Christianity, enable people who follow "The Path" in the service of "The Light" rather than "The Darkness" which is ununderstaning, enable people to "know" what that service requires them to do when they meet those situations which require them to Act. This enables people on the path to understand where they should be going. People who do not know nor understand "The Path" do not understand where they are going or should be going and so are more likely than not to wander around in circles as in a desert rather than finding the direction of the straight line. It is in this way the "darkness comprehendeth it not" and because the people working in the direction that the light shines their path lead the way leaving people in darkness behind and only able to sniff the scent of their trail to follow.

Life is like a potato sorter.

Best wishes

David P

KB7DQH



'Toxic brand': Britons say religion does more bad than good, atheists 'more moral' than believers

Quote Religion, UK

Nearly two-thirds of British people stated that religion causes more harm than it brings benefits, according to a new poll, which shows Muslim beliefs at odds with those of the rest of society.

The poll of 2,004 people conducted by Survation exclusively for Huffington Post UK revealed that nearly two in five Britons have no religious allegiance, with just 56 percent describing themselves as Christians.

The figures for active worship are even more stark, with 60 percent of the population surveyed claiming they are "not religious at all" with only 8 percent saying they are "very religious."

"Religion has become a 'toxic brand' in the UK," Linda Woodhead, professor of the sociology of religion at Lancaster University, told HuffPost UK.

"What we are seeing is not a complete rejection of faith, belief in the divine, or spirituality, though there is some of that, but of institutional religion in the historic forms which are familiar to people."

Young people tended to be less skeptical. Roughly 30 per cent of 18-24 year olds believe that religion does more good than harm, while only 19 per cent of 55-64 year-olds agree.

70 percent of Jews, who constituted about 1 percent of those surveyed, claimed that religion was a force for the negative, more than any other group.

The participants also showed that they did not believe that belief was an indicator of being a good person, with 55 percent saying that atheists are just as likely to be moral as believers. In fact, more (8 percent) thought the irreligious were more likely to be good people than the theists, than vice versa (6 percent).

"This survey just confirms what we know is the common sense of people in Britain today - that whether you are religious or not has very little to do with your morality," said Andrew Copson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association.

"Most people understand that morality and good personal and social values are not tied to religious belief systems, but are the result of our common heritage and experience as human beings: social animals that care for each other and are kind to others because we understand that they are human too."

"Not only that, people understand that religious beliefs themselves can be harmful to morality: encouraging intolerance, inflexibility and the doing of harm in the name of a greater good. We only need to look around us to perceive that fact."

The results show a continuation of existing trends, with church attendances halving to only 800,000 a week over the past half-century, and the number of Christians falling from 72 to 59 percent in just a decade between the 2001 and 2011 surveys, with a corresponding increase in those openly irreligious.

Indeed, the only religion to exhibit growth in the period was Islam, from 3 to 5 percent.

While only 2.5 percent of those surveyed were Muslims, those who were displayed a greater commitment to their faith. One in five UK Muslims describes themselves as "very religious," and only 7 percent say they are not religious at all. 'Toxic brand': Britons say religion does more bad than good, atheists 'more moral' than believers

http://rt.com/uk/202987-britain-church-survey-atheist/

Eric
KB7DQH
The objective is to reach human immortality—that is, to create things which are necessary to mankind, necessary to the purpose of the existence of mankind, and which have become the fruit that drives the creation of a higher state of mankind than ever existed before."

Paul Duffy

It is no surprise that the largely poorly educated British public has reached such a conclusion. They are celebrity and image-obsessed, so for a start church attendance is viewed as uncool. However, to suggest that religion actually causes harm is nonsensical. Have any of these people heard of food banks? Or religious charities such as CAFOD, The Children's Society and Islamic Aid? Or charities that have their bases in faith, such as the Red Cross and Red Crescent? Or the collections that places of worship have for various causes? It is sad but true, the British public only appreciates that which charms the dullest intelligence: texting, sexting, Facebook, Twitter, X Factor et al.

Best wishes,
Paul.

JBR

Texting and Facebook are OK and can be quite useful...

...the rest I agree with!
A missionary from Yorkshire to the primitive people of Lancashire