Politics Apocalypse

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[food for thought:]

[My Thoughts]

This is kind of like a blog, collecting my thoughts on the topics of Religion, Politics and Music. These are my own thoughts and opinions. I hope you find the following interesting and thought provoking and take it in the spirit in which it is given: An opinion amongst others for you to consider.

Religion IMHO

Please read this first "...I do not believe in miracles or that God is a being who intercedes in human history..."

What is God?

Who was Jesus?

What is a Christian?

Why religion and state law need to be separated

Divine Revelation?

The experience of a God which does not "exist"

Proof of God’s Existence?

Can evangelicals, conservatives, moderates and liberals coexist in peace?

Anglican Diversity

Politics IMHO

Music IMHO

The Fall of An Evil Empire: Record Companies and Their Business Models

Quotes:

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is
granted, all else follows.

(from Chapter 7 of 1984 by George Orwell)

[I]n our daily life, in dealing with society and state, we have to face social tribunals that accuse us and may condemn us, because we are not conformed to their way of life. The picture of extreme non-conformity that Jesus paints includes all the small acts of non-conformity that we must perform in our daily life. Do not be conformed to the society group to which you belong. Do not be conformed to those who have political power over you, even if you obey them. But work for their transformation.

(from Chapter 12: "Do Not Be Conformed" of The Eternal Now by Paul Tillich)

"To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection, this is religiousness. In this sense I am religious. To me it suffices to wonder at these secrets and to attempt humbly to grasp with my mind a mere image of the lofty structure of all that is there."

- Einstein
(from Denis Brian, Einstein, A Life, New York, 1996 p.
234)

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference

-Reinhold Niebuhr

The truth which makes us free is neither the teaching of Jesus nor the teaching about Jesus. Those who have called the teaching of Jesus "the truth" have subjected the people to a servitude under the law. And most people like to live under a law. They want to be told what to think and what not to think. And they accept Jesus as the infallible teacher and giver of a new law. But even the words of Jesus, if taken as a law, are not the truth which makes us free. And they should not be used as such by our scholars and preachers and religious teachers. They should not be used as a collection of infallible prescriptions for life and thought. They point to the truth, but they are not a law of truth. Nor are the doctrines about Him the truth that liberates. [...]

The Church very early forgot the word of our Gospel that He is the truth; and claimed that her doctrines about Him are the truth. But these doctrines, however necessary and good they were, proved to be not the truth that liberates. Soon they became tools of suppression, of servitude under authorities; they became means to prevent the honest search for truth—weapons to split the souls of people between loyalty to the Church and sincerity to truth. And in this way they gave deadly weapons to those who attacked the Church and its doctrines in the name of truth. Not everybody feels this conflict. There are masses of people who feel safe under doctrinal laws. They are safe, but it is the safety of him who has not yet found his spiritual freedom, who has not yet found his true self. [...]

How do we reach this truth? "By doing it," is the answer of the Fourth Gospel. This does not mean being obedient to the commandments, accepting them and fulfilling them. Doing the truth means living out of the reality which is He who is the truth, making His being the being of ourselves and of our world.

(from Chapter 8: "What Is Truth?" of The New Being by Paul Tillich)

God is not a being up in the sky
Judging us with his watchful eyes
God is not a being up above

God is not a supernatural being
Interceding in human history
God is not a being up above

A spiritual depth to reality
God is humanity
God is Love

Myths attempt to describe an insight
Metaphor for a way of life
Our sense of wrong and right

Describing selfless sacrifice
Literal words simply don’t suffice
So we use words like “Christ”

God is found in nature
Found in things
God is in every single human being,
Art, religion:
The Ground of all Being

Supernatural theism
And your superstitions
Can lead to fundamentalism.
Panentheism, mysticism,
Christian humanism:
My God is Love.

(from "DEUS CARITAS EST" by Politics Apocalypse)