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

To: Don Martini who wrote (25599)	6/4/1999 4:26:00 PM
From: mark silvers	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 39621

Don, << I meant no insult to you or Sam, and sincerely apologize if I gave offence.>> No offense taken, I certainly am prone to making my own mistakes and I am sure that my wife would be happy to provide a complete listing of the most recent ones. :-) <<Mark, I would consider it a favor if you define your beliefs about God, and any benefits for mankind. For my enlightenment, not debate.>> I would be happy to give you a "thumbnail sketch" of my beliefs. I don't even mind debating it, as I find that debate is usually a good thing, unless it gets too heated or too personal in nature. Then I usually just refrain. I grew up as a Jew in a Jewish community. I attended Hebrew School three times a week after Public School until I was bar mitzvhad. However, I can not really say that I ever fully believed in the Jewish religion.Even as a youth, I felt the God of the OT acted as a King or ruler of that era might be expected to act, and not as a God. What I mean by that, is that I felt that the OT portrayed God as a capricious, insecure God who sometimes acted out of meanness or spite, and was not above what appeared to be racism based on nationalistic bent. Needless to say, I became very disenchanted with organized religion. After many years of contemplation and study, I just could not reconcile how a blanket organized religion can have the same meaning and relate to the billions of individuals on this planet in the same way. I don't feel that it is above God to relate to each of us individually, so that we can all relate to him in the most meaningful and personal way. After a long time, I have come to believe that God resides in all of us.That each of our souls is a spark of divinity, and that the best way to relate to God is to go within. I believe that God is the embodiment of Love, and that the closer we can get to unconditional love, the closer we get to God. I will be happy to get into more detail later(and address your other post to me) but I am getting short on time, and I am still at work. I would like to add one thing about your list of positive effects that happen when people have a strong belief in religion. It is true. However, those same attributes and effects are also present with people who have a strong sense of spirituality, with people who are already in positive relationships, and even with some people who have hobbies that they enjoy. I believe those things come more from the sense of hope they bring to people and the resulting decrease in stress and pressures in their lives. That is not to say that there can't be positive benefits to believeing in Chrisitanity, Judisasim, Hinduism, Bhuddism, or any other religion, as there most certainly can be. I would never tell you that whatever path you are on is wrong for you, because I can never know that. I only hope that it brings you happiness, love, and serenity. If it does that for you, great. If it doesn't, I hope you find a path that does. Mark