Tag Archives: God

“Circle of Secrecy” Children, Sexual Abuse, and the Catholic Church in Africa

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Submitted by Dr. Bamidele Adeoye

Thus, when others impose the image of their deity upon you while you abandon your Gods, and accept theirs, you inevitably become their spiritual prisoner —

Dr. John Henrik Clarke

In every culture, there is a belief in a supernational being (Almighty), and the relationship between humans and God requires worship and sacrifice. And, in any recorded human history, humans practiced some form of cultural religion — spirituality, so, culture cannot occur without education, while education is impossible without some form of societal culture.

From the time in antiquity, religion comprised of regular ceremonies centered on a belief in a higher supernatural power (God — the unknown) that created and maintained the order of things in the universe. Over a period, religions focus on the spiritual aspect of God, creation, human, life after death, eternity, and how to escape suffering or to be adjudicated afterlife. That is the reason why every culture made Gods in its image, similarity, and representation in their cultural space.

There is nothing more important in any culture or life than the worship of something. The only question is whether the worship is the right One, done in the right way. However, every religion believes that they are the right One, worship the right way, and their God is best in their cultural space.

Hence, the essence of worship is to establish and maintain a relationship between human beings and their God within their cultural space. Thus, worship can be defined as an extreme form of love, unthinking devotion and adulation for a God. When God is an exaggerated worship of the cultural self. And, God is as the wind, which touches anything and everything. For that reason, religion can be restrictive, repetitious, show regard for something sacred within an organized system of beliefs and practices, leading to a supernatural spiritual experience.

Therefore, the concept of God is an attempt to forge an identity in confrontation with a limited understanding of the unknown universe. That is why Leeming, David Adams attested that the existence of God fulfills a significant human needs. While Gods are symbols of ultimate reality, and their existence provides a sense of significance in an otherwise random universe. So, religion or worshipping is not a European invention introduced to Africa.

Are human traditions and practices hypothesis or scientific, and how can one discover the reality of religion instead of the true religion?

Read full article –

Circle of SecrecyDownload

 

Morality in the Absence of God

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Submitted by Charles Knighton

PTSDIn the Nation of January 12, Mark Boyce in an article called Time We Let Go Of Flogging pointed to Sweden as a place that has abolished flogging and is a better society, with less theft, drugs, rape, murder and so on. But he didn’t mention that the Swedes have almost completely driven God out of their lives.” Be Our Guest column “In favour of corporal punishment by Daley Reneldo Reece, January 22.

We can always be sure of three things whenever a writer favours corporal punishment:

  1. The claim will be made that no causal effect exists between corporal punishment and subsequent aggressive behaviour exhibited by the victim of said punishment.
  2. We will be reminded of Proverbs 23:13-14.
  3. The writer will declare that despite the “hot licks” received as a youngster, he or she became a citizen of good character.

What these individuals seem unable to grasp is the known fact that similar stressors in life affect people differently. It has been estimated that approximately 23 percent of US military personnel who served in the Iraq and Afghan wars suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. Even though experiencing similar stressors, about three-quarters don’t demonstrate PTSD symptoms and go on to lead productive lives. Knowing that, can we not assume that a percentage of those victims of corporal punishment will come to display deviant behaviour, while a large majority will not? If such an outcome is even possible, corporal punishment should cease.

As to the Eurobarometer poll cited in the same article, that just 18 percent of Swedes believe there is a god, I say bravo to their becoming doubly enlightened. I continue to read in the papers and hear on the radio good and anxious people asking how we would teach morality in the absence of God. This question has two implications. It first shows a lack of confidence among believers, as if they half know that faith is weak, and suspect that morality might also be so. Second, it insults unbelievers, as if we infidels might at any moment give ourselves over to slaughter and pillage.

The working assumption undergirding such a question is that we should have no moral compass if we were not somehow in thrall to an unalterable and unchallengeable celestial dictatorship. What repulsive nonsense. Such a question constitutes a radical attack on the very concept of human self-respect. It does so by suggesting that one could not do a right action or avoid a wrong one, except for the hope of a divine reward or the fear of divine retribution.

While the Swedes may seem avant-garde to many, they have actually reverted to the long-held belief of many philosophers: Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it.

The Divine-Dimensionality of God

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Submitted by Terence Blackett

Are Humans Quantum Mechanical Beings “Created” To Believe We Have Free Will? If So, What Does It Say About Our “Programming”?

“He must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil” – William Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors

 

ChurchillThe longest journey in human existence is from the head to the heart. […] Continue reading →

Evidence of Israelites Worshipping Several Gods:Praise "God", From Whom All Blessings Flow

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Female figurines and inscribed prayers to a "divine couple" found in temples in Israel suggest that the “one God” of the Bible may not have been entirely alone – read full article Yahoo! News/AFP - Tel Motza: The site where the female figurines were found

Female figurines and inscribed prayers to a “divine couple” found in temples in Israel suggest that the “one God” of the Bible may not have been entirely alone – read full article

Yahoo! News/AFP – Tel Motza: The site where the female figurines were found

What Defines YOUR "Christmas Spirit"?

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Submitted by Charles Knighton

Christian philosopher, Blaise Pascal opined - He who is accustomed to the faith believes in it

Christian philosopher, Blaise Pascal opined – He who is accustomed to the faith believes in it

It has become a self-help axiom that one way to achieve an ambition is to act as though you had already done so: to become a winner act like a winner. Perhaps the most striking example of the flaws in this thinking comes not from a so-called life coach but a great Christian philosopher, Blaise Pascal.

Pascal reasoned that without knowing whether God existed or not, it was a better bet to believe that he did than that he didn’t. Believers had comfort in this life and a better chance of getting into any next one, while non-believers would have to live without any hope and no entry ticket through heaven’s gate, should it turn out to exist after all.

The logic of this is dubious, but even if it holds, how can you get yourself to believe in God if you don’t have good reasons to think he exists, merely that it would be good for you if you did believe?

Pascal’s answer is that you should act as though you do believe and, in time, belief will come: “He who is accustomed to the faith believes in it.” There seems to be something very wrong about this. By cultivating the right habits, a person may end up with what looks and feels like genuine piety. But since its basis is nothing more than a self-serving desire to tilt the odds of happiness and salvation in your favour, it can be no such thing.

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Corey’s God!

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Submitted by Charles Knighton

Corey Worrell

Evidently, Mr. Corey Worrell’s God chooses favorites – So ungrateful November 22nd Nation newspaper. His God has provided him Kenneth Cole and Puma footwear while Ugandan children remain shoeless. His God made certain Mr. Worrell received an education and school meals while Haitian children remain bereft of both. And we all remember how Mr. Worrell’s God spared his favored Barbados the wrath of hurricane Ivan while evidently looking the other way as Grenada was devastated.

To me, the continuing adoration for such a capriciously fickle deity is utterly astounding.

God Made Me Lose!

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Submitted by Charles Knighton

It has been reported in various sections of the press that Jamaica’s Prime Minister-elect, Portia Simpson Miller, plans to rely on divine guidance in her decisions on government policy, and has strongly suggested other members of government the same strategy. After all, if God is personally providing guidance, how can one possibly go wrong?

How many are aware that four Republican candidates were personally recruited by God to run for for President? Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Herman Cain and Michele Bachman each provided detailed stories about where they were and what they were doing when God gave them the nod.  So just what kind of game was God playing? He told four people to run for president, but (barring a miracle, I guess) all four of them are going to end up disappointed. Imagine the situation: God himself told you to run for President. What an endorsement! What a boon to their fund-raising! And what a downer when he fails to deliver!

While I would hope the cognitive dissonance produced by the outcome of this test of faith might serve to disabuse at least these four “chosen ones” of such thinking, there rationalizations, I am sure, will keep them firmly attached to their delusional beliefs.  Should Prime Minister Simpson-Miller persist in governing according to the dictates of divine providence, one wonders what game “God” may play with the Jamaican people. A look at the world’s theocracies may offer some perspective.

The Moral Molecule: “Ye Shall Be As gods” – How Apotheosis is Science’s Last Attempt to Manipulate the Truth Behind Good and Evil

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Submitted by Terence Blackett

The heart of man is desperately wicked – who can know it? Jer. 17:9

The year is 1066 AD. William (Duke of Normandy), later to be crowned King William 1 of England after his war and conquest of King Harold. After setting himself up as Regent – commissioned a survey of his realm and has the research findings compiled in a document called The Doomsday Book.

By royal decree – the survey legalized the confiscation of property, livestock, and anything of value in lieu of a taxation levy which would bring money into the Exchequer. The peasants, serfs and villagers across England rebelled – likening their experience to Judgment Day or the Day of Doom – hence the name given to the document.

King William subsequently died without the book being completed however; the book was used as the foundation for tax assessment during the medieval Middle Ages. Then in the 18th century, English jurist Sir William Blackstone used it as a voting register to decipher who was eligible to vote. And so for a 1000 years this document has been used to verify land ownership in Britain (TITLE), rights of passage and planning permission for the establishment of towns, hamlets, villages and even businesses.

A similar Doomsday Book called the HOLY BIBLE* holds the keys to The Ancient of Days – His decrees, laws, commands, and rules. Inscribed within this document are fundamental truths which determine the outcome of “ALL” of our lives but most importantly, it also shows the topography which exist between the forces of “GOOD” arrayed against the alliances of evil in a quantum cosmic battle (being fought here on earth) where “LIGHT” and darkness are vying for supremacy.

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Is There A Scientific Basis For Spirituality? And Can Quantum Mechanics Map A Space/Time Continuum For Proto-Consciousness Which Invariably Frames A Solid Argument For the Existence Of God?

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Submitted by Terence Blackett


In 1492, when Columbus was making his voyages through the Caribbean, it is said that the Native West Indians (American Indians who had travelled South) could not see the sailing vessels approaching on the distant horizon. Their brains could not process the information due in part to the fact that they had never seen such large galleons before. It was only after constantly looking out onto the horizon that spatial recognition transformed the ships into physical objects of reality creating a new consciousness in their minds.

The philosophy of consciousness is inherently a fundamental part of the universe just like scientific issues of matter and velocity. Human spatial awareness is inherently a God-given attribute which has always existed and we each have our own individual consciousness as part of this larger collective consciousness. The exploratory concept of proto-consciousness however assumes that every living thing is also a part of this spatial consciousness, and that each living being has to some extent varying levels of what we term self-consciousness.

This is fundamental to our understanding because it is said that we are only seeing and experiencing the tip of a quantum mechanical iceberg. If our brains can process 400 billion bytes of information per second – then why are we only using 2000 bytes which involves our spatial recognition and understanding of time-space distanciation, our physical bodies and its [5] primary senses and our evolving and changing environment? Are we even capable of going beyond the realm of mere superficial consciousness – migrating from a loci of sensory perception to another proto-consciousness state? And what can the science of quantum mechanics and quantum geometry allow us to understand about our own levels of human spirituality if anything at all?

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Father, Hear Our Prayer

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The BU household turns to You, Divine Physician and Healer of the Sick on behalf of our Prime Minister David Thompson.

Divine Physician and Healer of the Sick:

We remember before you our Prime Minister David Thompson et al who are sick this day. We place our Prime Minister under Your care and humbly ask that You restore him, Your servant, to great health again. Help him to face and overcome his fears. Comfort him when he is discouraged. Touch him with your healing Spirit. Above all, grant him and all of us the grace to acknowledge Your holy will and know that whatsoever You do, You do for the love of us.

Keep your spirits up Mr. Prime Minister
For you we continue to pray that God will make you healthy in mind, body and spirit
And give you better days

The Promises of God

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Submitted as a comment by BU family member Geogie Porgie

the_holy_book_by_djvueI was once challenged to expand on an outline given by Kaiser in Toward An Old Testament Theology, and  read the Bible to discover that the Old Testament Theology is best unified under the theme “The Promises of God” and that the entire Bible could really be seen inter alia, as a catalogue of a large number of promises which God has made, and a record of how he has kept several of these promises.

As I made a deeper search to see where I could find promises that were not immediately as obvious as the major fulfilled promises or of the covenants, and as I extracted and attempted. to co- ordinate the promises that I found, I discovered that it is not unreasonable to conclude that nearly everything of major significance in the Bible depends on a promise of God.

In any argument or discussion with respect to the promises of God in any part of the Old Testament or the Bible as a whole, it is imperative that we ask and answer honestly the following important and relevant questions as the Bible text is carefully perused.

Has God indeed truly made any significant promises?

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