Thats right LennyeTran you tell 'em....well that took a long time to get a response to...I don't really know if that is good or bad in this case.
I agree with Lennyet! The Bible was an expression written not only to hold great meaning (hwen it was written and for those times) but also there is very much mis-understanding all about the book. In blibical times the messages given to the masses were also meant to garner some interest in living ethically (many were much more un-ethical people than you find all around you these days...ugh! imagine that!)
Also it was meant to gain acceptance of the churches, to gain membership, and status in the townships and community and....some of the passages once understood in one, eventually came to be understood in entirly different ways because that worked better to control wayward citizens or...the sinners that were most focused upon because if
The worst persons in a town, city or country may be controlled and changed to live better more ethical lives as well, then what is wrong with a little different version of the actual wording or meaning of a text...symbolically?
These meanings were retained only in part, and if you ask me, the serpant was a mixed message/sybology with the pagan mental construct of the serpant such as the Quezecotal of the Aztec or Maya, or the serpant god in other mythologies, and you will find out for yourself the various meanings of the serpant, if you read much in mythological lore,and of ancient peoples....pagan Holidays were integrated with Christianity and pagan symbology with the
new religion,replacing panthism, to make way for a people to convert to the one God.
A religious One Way which was meant to be accepted to the point of giving up most of ones personal power, and to be empowered by the Christ
which your Pope,priest or minister would tell you exactly how to determine and go about your whole life if you but asked....
how convienant for those who stood to gain by the *flocks* coming to them, in droves to be cleansed of sins, they didn't know they had incurred until admonished! Before, even the most trivial of acts, could be made a bargaining chip to the church and to the man in politics... How good a way, to discover what was happening in nearly every home, and to use such knowledge to gain even more power in politics and in the church to rise above those flock and have them nearly worship you, your power....
Oh believe me! things did become
verily :) twisted
from the original texts! and as we are discovering now as new things come to light about Gnostic Religious teachings, (such as are only touched upon in The Da Vinci Code bestselling book of *fiction* (yet still perhaps based upon fact) much was also left out, of the original and first written tablets papyrus, stones, and first papers in the retelling.
Much was "re-surfaced" or glossed over too, to the added benefit of those to be placed in positions of power in the townships, about Jesus explaining to use your own self, to knoe your SeLf,that you may learn to connect to what is God without an ounce of separation, and very much deleted about other disciples, as well who taught along similar lines, such as thomas, peter and others who spoke that we must learn to use
personal power in all things as the Christ also said. And to believe in ourselves as innocents, and not as the twisted "sinners".
What I believe has no bearing here but, having been a Christian through my eighteenth year,I have studied the Bible and read and heard every story repeated again and again.I did benefit much from it I will say. And i am not saying that one should give up the religion but use it, and although I rarely attended church, i was very honored to be a part of those lessons learned, and still, I have been reading about other religious teachings from 8 years old onward,many others.
I think the time has come to understand more and that is why we must not take the words of others as quickly to heart without a bit of checking with our insides. Know yourself....learn to meditate...maybe? and
love :D all people unless you find a good reason to be wary of them... Meaning
all sons and daughters of
the universe because people deserve LOVE, despite what your predjudices may have taught you.
My ex-boyfriend told me he might be gay or bi-sexual right after proposing marriage to me....that sure was difficult to get over. You can probably imagine how upset that made me feel at the time, I had a few resentments over it at first, but I had never hated people of that persuasion before, and he was not going to change that open-ness in me, my basic ideas about love, would have needed to be amended, my whole philosophy, rearranged, and i was not really interested in becoming more closed-minded!
for hurting me, with that idea, as anyone else may have done in a day.
I got over myself and we ived together as friends for three and a half more years raising our daughter, he has only recently moved out, but he still visits, sarah and I, and we are friends.
If I acted as so many in here, seem to do daily, that would really, certainly hurt my child, and me in the long run. So I do what I think is more right...and based on some Christian Ideas and some from other Pagan Religions and many Buddhist Teachings,I chose to love him un-conditionally... & it seems to be working out well, we are close and friendly, we share our child, we have our child to raise in common, and nothing will ever change that.
If I can get over that then you can get over hating a stranger....or try making a stranger your friend that you may come to an understanding of how they are ultimately merely human, and not a gender.
