Relaxing Fireplace Video

Set this on full screen. Meditate. If you're like me, you'll probably end up...

ZZZZZZZZZZ!

~Lily~

Think About It

Here's what I like about Greg:
He doesn't tell you what you should or shouldn't believe.
He simply tells you to think about what you believe.
He has a number of ebooks and articles on his website that you can check out. Not all of them are religious in nature.

Cross-Posted to:
One Love
Sly Fawkes

Mind Reading or Not?

Did he really read her mind? Who knows? I keep an open mind.

If someone read my mind, there's a good chance I'd get slapped!

Hateful Fundamentalists

This is a response to a post at Triangulations.

The sort of holier than thou Christians (or whatever religion) who claim that only by believing just as they do can lead to salvation are truly insufferable people. They don't care if those who would suffer in accordance with their terrible beliefs are helpless children. They so badly want themselves to be special snowflakes that they are willing to become vile, hateful, intolerant people to achieve that goal.

If deities there be, then they are much more evolved than humans. They would not have egos which require worship from said humans. Fundamentalist Christians believe in a cosmic abusive parent: the Demiurge.

I had nightmares about hellfire and damnation from a vengeful God until I was nearly thirty years old. It took many years to get rid of the fears that were put into my psyche during my childhood.

He Shall Feed His Flock

Although I have become poorly disposed towards organized religion, I still find songs like this one comforting.

Brief Movie Review: The Man from Earth

This 2007 American film by Jerome Bixby is a dialogue-based dramatization of a story by Gordon R. Dickson about a man claiming to be a 14,000 year old caveman. While his friends/former colleagues initially believe that John is pulling their legs and go along for the ride just for fun, they eventually begin to believe that what he says might be true. This causes anger in several of his guests as they are forced to question the validity of the things they have always believed to be absolute truths.

Questions are raised about the validity of both science and religion. Things that are thought to be absolute truths one day may be refuted the next, replaced by new beliefs. People want something that they can believe in and when it seems that one's comforting belief may be taken away, a person can have irrational, even violent reactions.

I have had discussions about belief with my son, who is, in my opinion, one of the wisest people I have known, although he is only 23 years old. He said that while he has certain spiritual ideas which he on some occasions holds to be true and on other occasions hopes are true, in general he feels that the only way to be a true scientist and a true seeker is to conduct oneself as an agnostic. Thus, one does not reject possibilities, nor embrace anything as absolute. One is always open to discovery and change.

As to the nature of questions such as life, death, and salvation of the soul should there be a soul, we are not in a position to know the absolute truth in these matters. This being the case, it is best to keep an open mind and an open heart. We must, as Dr. Martin Luther King Junior said, learn to disagree without becoming violently disagreeable.

~Cie~

Cross-posted to:

One Love

Sly Fawkes

Black Dot on Chem Cloud

Unsure what caused this phenomenon. I tend to suspect film glitches and dust or tricks of the light with "Spirit Orbs," and this is probably something similar. Nonetheless, it is interesting.
To explain my position with "supernatural phenomenon," I don't believe in the supernatural. If entities such as ghosts, angels, and demons exist (which I believe they very likely do,) they are natural and not supernatural.
I am a skeptic as opposed to a cynic. I look for proof of things that I theoretically believe to be possible or that I have encountered but can't prove the existence of using current scientific method.
I don't believe in the existence of Niburu, because the way it is describe completely defies physical laws. At any rate, even if by some strange chance it should exist, it gave us a miss in December 2012. On bad days, I think that's kind of a pity.

~Rose~

Cross-Posted to:

One Love

The Sunday Picture