Spiritual stuff

[Da Blob]

Here are a few of the links I have posted.. there are a lot more if anyone else cares to contribute...


Death to the World
http://www.desertwisdom.org/dttw/links/index.html

Latent Power of the Human Soul
http://www.eaglevision.com.my/lps.htm

Birth of the Pentecostal Church
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azusa_Street_Revival

Evolution - Chance or Purpose?
http://stephanscom.at/edw/katechesen/articles/2005/10/14/a9347/

Postmodern preaching
http://www.postmodernpreaching.net/

 

[eudemonia]

Da Blob asked if I had anything of interest to add to this thread. Well, it might be of interest to me but I'm not sure about anyone else here. But anyway, here goes:

www.bethinking.org - an apologetics website aimed at students. Nothing startlingly original but some great thinkers and apologists.

http://www.ship-of-fools.com/ a british site where Christians from all denominations come together to fight, debate, disagree, discuss and generally indulge in bad manners in a light hearted kind of way. The best of British Christianity. Also has a debate about Ehrman - if Noddy ever sees this. Some like him; some love him but they are all Christians. So obviously some Christians feel very comfortable with what he writes.

www.sciencefaith.org.uk - I have to mention this one as this is something I set up and the last two talks in our second series have been outstanding. the first one is on the self esteem culture and the second is essentially exploring morality in a world of cultural relativity. We hear a Christian banker who sanctioned a loan to a brothel but resigned his post when he felt that the banks were pushing too much consumer credit. Fascinating insight into how to forge a personal ethical code when so much is relative and subjective. The first series has talks by Denis Alexander, a leading biologist, John Polkinghorne, an eminent scientist and Rodney Holder, a leading physicist - all explaining why they believe in God and how they reconcile their beliefs with their science. The last talk by the banker is probably not up on the site yet as he only came last week.
Lots of other links from this site too.

http://www.innerexplorations.com/chmystext/christia.htm
This is a weird site which describes itself as where the mysticism of St John of the Cross enters into dialogue with modern attempts to renew the contemplative life like centering prayer, Christian meditation and the Catholic charismatic movement. They have put some of the works of the mystics up in full for people to read. But I guess most people here would regard this stuff as insane or pathetic

I still like to come here for a little rest occasionally. I miss our little community but enjoy reading the new threads when I have the time.

 

[Artifice Orisit]

What, no starting whistle, not even recognition that the game's begun?

It never occurred to me that you could be so sneaky

 

[eudemonia]

Okay, Cog, I'm lost.....I've obviously been out of the game so long I've forgotten the lingo.
What the heck do you mean???

Anyway, thought you might like to know that I mentioned transhumanism to my students the other day - out of complete ignorance, though I could set them up to go an research it further??? I thought of you.

 

[Artifice Orisit]

Okay, Cog, I'm lost.....I've obviously been out of the game so long I've forgotten the lingo.
What the heck do you mean???

Da Blob and I are both unyielding in our beliefs, so I suggested we should make a game of it, like how angels try to lead people one way and demons in the other, or perhaps that was just the movie Constantine, anyway point is it seems like he's taken this game to heart and started without first acknowledging that we're playing or not.

Anyway, thought you might like to know that I mentioned Transhumanism to my students the other day - out of complete ignorance, though I could set them up to go an research it further??? I thought of you.

What do you want to know?
Wikipedia's always a great place to start, and googling/youtubing the words "Transhuman", "posthuman", "cybernetics", "Artificial Intelligence", "Kevin WarwicK", "Stelarc", etc, will lead to some interesting information.
If it's specific moral/philosophical questions you want answered I'm more than happy to answer them, assuming of course your willing to put up with my admittedly biased perspective.

 

[eudemonia]

thanks Cog; I'll follow those links up.

It's nice to think I'm a tool in a game - at last I have some use

 

[Da Blob]

thanks Cog; I'll follow those links up.

It's nice to think I'm a tool in a game - at last I have some use

Ummm, I did not say it was a game- Cog did. If it is a "Game' then "we are playing for all the marbles"

 

[eudemonia]

don't worry da Blob - I didn't take offence - I think its funny. Go for it - though I think the odds are stacked against you!

 

[Artifice Orisit]

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha etc
(real laughing, lol dosen't convey how long it lasted)

F*** it, I Lolz

 

[Da Blob]

don't worry da Blob - I didn't take offence - I think its funny. Go for it - though I think the odds are stacked against you!

How Odd! that you mention Odds in this regard

The rationale of the secular world is totally dependent on Odds, on Probability and Probability Theory...
I suggest that it is God, Himself, that is the great 'Odds Maker in the Sky...' and to date has beaten every set of Odds, that He, Himself has projected...

God is a Gambler????

 

[fullerene]

I can really only think of one I use, http://www.blueletterbible.org/index.cfm

Type in a verse, click on the "C" next to any individual verse, and it brings up a list of all the greek/hebrew words, as well as how the translation you're looking at translated them. Click on the Strong's number (for instance, G1722) to bring up a lexicon entry, many different english definitions for the word, and a list of all the other places in the bible where the word is used.

I really love it because there are no opinions (at least on the parts of the site I mention/use... I haven't really explored it fully), no one interpreting things for you--just raw data on the language for those of us who don't speak it.

Also cool is the fact that, by seeing what a lone Greek/Hebrew word translates into, you find a lot of connections that english words gloss over. It really gives you insight into the way an ancient person must have perceived the world, when you see the same word used for things like vanity, emptiness, wasteland, and confusion.

 

[eudemonia]

How Odd! that you mention Odds in this regard

The rationale of the secular world is totally dependent on Odds, on Probability and Probability Theory...
I suggest that it is God, Himself, that is the great 'Odds Maker in the Sky...' and to date has beaten every set of Odds, that He, Himself has projected...

God is a Gambler????

Oh well. I guess I'm not feeling very holy atm.

one of those dry spells, I guess.

 

[Agent Intellect]

Here's some "spiritual" stuff (depends how one looks at it I suppose):

Philosophy Index - has some good stuff about different philosophers and different philosophical thoughts (mostly basic stuff, but a good starting point). I also rather like this page though, too.

Skeptics Annotated (Bible / Quran / Book of Mormon) - most of the annotations are not incredibly well thought out, but it's an interesting 'new' way to read the books (plus it has an online Quran and book of Mormon both of which I'm sure most people here have not read much (and just in fairness, you can read about Dianetics here)).




Can't really think of anything else off hand.

 

[spoirier]

How would you like some anti-spiritual stuff I wrote after my deconversion from Christianity ? to explain that all these "spiritual teachings" are mere deception, how to divinely and securely put your head in the sand in order to keep teaching this nonsense as if it was from God, and never hearing nor noticing how wrong it is, while it had been clearly shown to be wrong since long ago.

I consider it unacceptable to let this deception of faith and spirituality be spread as if it was the only possible truth and consistent worldwiew.

First because it is wrong and inconsistent (for reasons that may be hard to notice if you don't know, and unfortunately Christians usually don't know as they looked not seriously and usually not at the right references).
Then because it is harmful (you Christians are the champions of disinformation about what can faith bring to life, as indeed it can bring more harm than good but you can't tolerate to understand this, as you love, for God's sake, to dismiss your victims'testimonies as those of "unfaithful" people who did not understand and rebelled, but you never care to check by any means whether your accusations have anything to do with reality).
Finally because there does exist other more consistent worldviews, which you just ignore. (for a brief summary of my views, see my answers in that thread)

In another style, you can also visit some new answers I found to the main questions of life:
Who created the world ?
What is heaven ?
What is hell ?
What is the goal of life ?
What is sin ?
What is morality ?
What is redemption ?

As you will see, the huge advantage of my new answers to these questions, is that they are self-evident, while the Christian ones were arbitrary.