Amen to that.

thank you Abracadabra
im new to the whole chat thing..i like it! techically im a bit challenged though..could u tell me how to us the quote feature

God doesn't forgive people for you. God offers forgiveness against him. If one lies to you, he doesn't just make trespasses against you. He makes trespasses with our father as well. And if you're not willing to forgive others for their wrongs against you, all I can say is

Matthew 6:14-15
14 - "For if you forgive men their trespasses, then your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

15 - "But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

To quote click the link "quote" to the post you're trying to quote. If you wish to quote multiple things and or just a part of the post here's how that's done.



How that is done is you put [ quote ] then next line what you're quoting, then at the bottom put [ / quote ] without the spaces.

To use the quote feature click on the word "Quote" at the bottom right of the post you want to quote.

You'll see the text you've quoted in your reply box. It starts with a quote TAG and ends with an end-quote TAG.

You can then delete all except the specific words that you'd like to quote if you want to focus in on something specific.

You can also break the the quote up into smaller pieces and respond to each piece. You can do that by just selecting the entire quoted text complete with the quote tags, and re-paste it several times, then just delete all but the text you want to respond to in each quoted section.

Of course, you can also quote anything you want just by using the quote tags. Like the following:



So you can also quote actual "quotes" that you get from other sources if you like.

If you click on the "quote" text at the bottom right of this post, you will be able to see precisely how I used the quote tags in this post.

In other words, according to the book that you worship as the word of God that's supposedly what God is like.

But the point is that everyone doesn't believe in the same book that you worship.

I disagree. I believe those on the forums who cannot discuss their religion without imposing their beliefs on all are the cause of the discourse about certain religions.

As for the OP. I don't consider ghosts and demons to be spirituality at all.

But I guess they could be by others.

Spirituality for me is the connection we all have with the inner self. That part of us that is for lack of a better word or phrase our sixth sense. The energy we give out to others when we are around them is our spirit in my book.

For me spirituality only exists in the living. Once dead the spirit or energy is reabsorbed into the environment and becomes something else not spirit related anymore.

As for ghosts and things like that I do believe they are something that we don't understand as of yet. Maybe a snap shot of time or something like that. I do have to believe in them since I have had strange experiences in my life.

I thought there wasn't suppose to be bible quotes on this thread by the request of the OP?

Proselytizers feel that they are above everyone else.

I agree with Dragoness.

These proselytizing religions are arrogant beyond belief.

I just came form a thread where a proselytizer made the claim that all atheists are insincere people.

And then they wonder why no one gives their religious bigotry any respect?

that's impossible for even God himself

hey God can you tell us how we can be assure that it was you that created the Universe without quoting from the bible

The bible states that I did

but how do we know that what's in the bible is true

because I said so ...now go away before I send a lightning bolt up your apse

Nice to see you posting. Like most poeple, I've had my share of 'odd' experiences that many people would automatically ascribe to spirits, angels, demons, or ghosts of the dead.

I've also notices that many of the 'explanations' are not typical beliefs of any particular religion even though some try to relate these ideas to their personally chosen religious system.

That's why I agree with you that these ideas have been built one upon another, regardless of the current religion an individual claims to adhere to.

So I thought it would be interesting to explore how people 'view' spirits and ghosts, etc. without specifically having to tie it into a particular religion.

Have you ever related 'odd' experiences to people who then attempt to tell you that the event was a 'spiritual' encounter?

Thanks for making that clear. Many people believe as you do, that anyone can be an angel at any time and may not even know it.

But does an angel always have to be a good person, doing a good deed?

Can we learn a valuable lesson from someone that others think is a bad person? Would that person be an angel too?

I do not worship a book. The book you're speaking of, the bible. Is the laws our father has set out before us. We don't worship the book itself, the book is merely history knowledge, future knowledge, and the laws that we are responsible for.

As a believer of Karma, do you also believe in an eternal spirit that developes through various cycles of existences? Are these experiences alway physical ones or are there 'different' forms of spirit beings that need to be experienced to further develop Karma?

I have never had an experience in my entire life that cannot be explained via knowledge that I already possess. Not to say that I can, or have, verified that ever rational explanation I have imagined could have been the cause of "odd" experiences. But I have indeed come up with rational explanations for every experience I've ever had. Therefore rational explanations at least exist.

Moreover, I have never encountered a 'spiritual being' that has impressed me as being anything beyond my own imagination. And if I did, I'm not sure that I would even be convinced that it was 'spiritual' in origin necessarily. If I ever meet a life form that seems 'spiritual' and has convinced me of its sovereignty I would still be suspicious that it could simply be an alien life form of this very universe. Or potentially even the result of technologies that someone is using in an attempt to convince me that I'm talking to a spirit. With today's technologies that's not all that hard to imagine. And technology is increasing exponentially.

However, having said all of the above, it has come to my attention that spirit forms (if they do indeed exist) may potentially communicate with us via our imagination, visions and dreams. After all, that's supposedly how "God" communicates with people according to most mythologies. Even the biblical mythology has God communicating with people via their dreams and visions. Paul supposedly had a vision of Jesus that no one else could see. Well, then it must have been occurring in his imagination and not the physical world.

This idea of spirits being able to communicate with us via our imagination is extremely old and predates all religions. This goes clear back to shamanism which is believed to have been depicted in paintings on cave walls long before any written documents ever existed. Of course that's open to controversy as are all concepts of religion and spirituality.

I've been studying the art and science of shamanic journeying and dream work. And it is a science since it has a method. The results cannot be said to be anything more than 'visions' of the imagination. But most everything that is any religious doctrines came from 'visions' or hearsay rumors about things that may or may not have ever actually occurred.

I think as a matter of 'faith' spirituality has a place. Because that's all it can ever be.

But when it's being held up beyond that as though it represents some sort of absolute concrete truth, then it's lost any credibility at all.

It's only credibility lies in faith. It has no credibility beyond that.

The bible is a cannon of many different stories, some are actually nothing more than commentaries on previous writings. It was constructed by men who had an agenda. It can't be trusted as a history book because of that clear and obvious bias, and it most certainly contains no knowledge of the future. It doesn't even contain consistent stories within its own content.

The "laws" that it claims to contain are laws made up by men as well. Male chauvinistic men to boot.

Corazone,

Here are a few tips (took me WAY too long to figure these out by myself) so I hope these help.

To quote and then respond to a whole post, just hit the QUOTE (between “Report Post” --- “Reply”)

Here is BIG HINT – if you see something and can’t figure out how someone got it in the post like bolded words, or a different color, or a direct url link, etc. - hit the QUOTE key in that post as if you were going to respond to the post and then you can SEE exactly how the person entered the information. That’s how I finally figured our how to do all that stuff. DUH!!!! I like technology, but it takes me a minute to figure it out.

Have fun! Redy

HEY - WHAT DOES ALL THIS HAVE TO DO WITH SPIRITS, ANGELS, GHOSTS AND DEMONS??????????