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Pastimes : Ask God -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Chris land who wrote (26673)	9/7/1999 7:22:00 AM
From: Don Pueblo	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 39621

That's a fair answer, Chris, and I can accept it. I would, however, like to caution you. I do this with the highest respect for your beliefs, which I would not challenge. Assuming that I am a fool because I do not interpret the words in a book in the precise way that you do may not serve the overall purpose that you claim you intend. If you intend for me to agree completely with your interpretations of some words in a book at some point in the future, then two things must happen first: One, I must be totally convinced that my current interpretation of the information in the book (or lack thereof, if I have not read the book) is not completely correct. Secondly, I must be then be totally convinced that your interpretation IS correct. I'm a Christian, but let us assume for a moment, for the sake of argument, that I am one of several billion Buddhists on this planet. Let us further assume that one of the tenets of my religion (remember, I'm illustrating a point here, not arguing about the tenets of Buddhism) is that every being on this planet has some spiritual qualities. To put it another way, let's assume that the religion that I subscribe to recognizes a certain quality in me and other people that is not physical in nature. We might extrapolate from this assumption that I have the ability to understand the nature of this spiritual quality. Not that I DO fully understand it necessarily, just that I CAN. We might further extrapolate that an understanding of this quality might be the truth; that true understanding of my personal qualities as a human being might in actual real fact include an understanding of my own spiritual nature. (Some philosophers have argued the opposite, that truth cannot be known. I personally do not agree with that.) If we accept that I, or you, or anyone, has the ability to understand his or her own spiritual nature, then we must further accept that I, or you, or anyone has the capacity to already understand, at least partially, that nature. Further, we could theorize that some people know more about their own spiritual nature than others. I think you will agree with me on all these things, since it is obvious you have some understanding of your own spiritual nature. My point is this, Chris, and I hope you understand: I am not here to judge the validity (or lack of validity) of some other person's personal understanding of their own spiritual nature. I am convinced it serves no good purpose. It is my personal belief that a human being on this planet can be easily recognized as to his understanding of his own spiritual nature by his words and deeds. Simply stated, I believe that a person's actions can be understood as giving an indication of his understanding of his own spiritual nature, or lack thereof. I believe that if the first man kills the second man, or hurts the second man, or causes the second man pain BECAUSE the first man has a different interpretation of his own spiritual nature than the second man, then the first man has proven by his harmful words or actions that he does not completely understand his own spiritual nature, or the spiritual nature of the second man. You can call me a fool if you choose, Chris. It does not hurt me. But if you, or anyone like you, should decide that in order for me to understand you or your philosophy, I need to really feel some pain or anguish, or suffer in some way, or that someone in my family or one of the people I love must suffer at your hands due to the fact that I do not have the same understanding of my own spiritual nature as you have of yours, then you might be working against the purpose you claim to be working for, you might have seriously underestimated me, and you might be a bigger fool than I.