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Vikingmage

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Hello, I'm Neal,

I was trawling around, looking for interesting and informative places on the internet ... and found this place. Seems to be a huge amount of Christians here, but then thats my experience locally as well.

I am a pagan of some 32 years practicing faith. I found my faith following an interesting experience with an Religious Education Teacher in school. This was a very challenging time and I felt the need to seek out much more than the very narrow view he was presenting to the class. I attacked our local library, then the nearest city library and read more theology books than a 13 year old should ever really come into contact with. Debated with vicars, priests, a rabbi and anyone who seemed to have an opinion. Finally came to my own decisions and pronounced myself a pagan ... though I suspected I might be the only one left in the country at that time.

In the following 3 decades I have discovered some others, tried to make sense of the universe on an ongoing basis and got along with my gods and goddesses, married a born again Christian (thats a tale for another time!) and continued my walk with Odin.

Now coasting along through my 40's, working on my sword technique (Japanese Katana and traditional broadsword) and enjoying using the internet to meet new people around the world, trying to pay the bills by painting and illustration.

Thats me.
 
Lucky

Lucky

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"Did you know that at the name of Jesus every Neal will bow?"

:doh: :nono:


:darwinsm:
 
V

Vikingmage

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Thanks for the welcomes,

Knight, is that the King James translation of Kneel ? ... I know he ordered some funky "ammendments" to the original text because of his paranoia regarding the old village wise women. If I have been mentioned specifically in the text I should really take the time to read through it again. lol:patrol:
 
chickenman

chickenman

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Hi, Neal.
You said you read a lot of theology books. Did you ever read the Bible?
Did you know that you need to be righteous to be accepted by God, and neither you nor Odin can do anything to make you righteous?

Welcome to TOL. :wave:

chickenman :chicken:
 
freelight

freelight

Eclectic Theosophist
epic ventures.............

epic ventures.............

Hi Neal,

I think the world needs more 'country folk' (pagans) to inspire our hearts, arouse our wonders and awe of the fairy folk and gods, besides unviersalize us to the rhythms of Nature and Spirit. Making sense of the Universe is a full time occupation. Each can only progress with the light they are given at any moment. Life is movement, transformation.

Dont forget the very fabric, mind and spirit from which the Universe is derived is that One Supernal God-Presence, call it what you will....which weaves its streams of Life from a central core, like the hub of a wheel, as all the cosmos revolves around and continues to expand outwards from its Heart. God is the hub of the wheel of the Universe, or at least the Universal Father from which all other beings, entities, spirits spring from. - just having fun with some metaphor.


Enjoy the ride,


pj
 
V

Vikingmage

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Stripe: Reason 433?
Click to expand...
Errrrrr … I suppose that does call for an explanation. My experience in school with religious education was primarily quite a positive one. I regarded myself as a Christian in school due to upbringing, though I hadn’t had a conversion experience which Born Again Christians regard as essential. I had been brought up in a household, attended Church and Sunday School as a child.

I joined the Christian Union in School for debating faith and issues. And I wasn’t unhappy or looking for any other explanation of my universe than that.

Then our teacher was changed. We had a mid-term replacement .. our previous teacher having left for some reason I don’t remember. The new chap was a lot more entertaining. He had a funny approach and pretty much everyone liked him. I began to feel uncomfortable with his approach though. He was an unabashed Christian. Came right out, laid his cards on the table and admitted it. He didn’t hold with any other faith having even a nugget of truth in it. As he was bound by the school curriculum to teach them, he decided to inject his own religious bias and sense of humour into the process. This approach was welcomed by the class as it beat the rather dry approach of the previous teacher, but I became unhappy. It didn’t feel right to make fun of what other people earnestly believed. It didn’t right to make fun of central figures of other faiths. I couldn’t put my finger on just what was getting under my skin about this guy, but I decided I needed to explore these issues. I became a bit problematic in class, asking lots of questions. I also began using the Christian Union more to bounce ideas off the teacher running it (who was a lovely and very fair minded person) … and I began to hit the libraries and bookshops.

Chickenman wrote :Hi, Neal.
You said you read a lot of theology books. Did you ever read the Bible?
Did you know that you need to be righteous to be accepted by God, and neither you nor Odin can do anything to make you righteous?
Click to expand...

I was reading the Bible first … and have returned to it time and time during the years. I read the religious texts of many of the major religions, and books of witness and faith from Christians and others. The concept of being dirty due to some sin carried out in the past that has somehow wrecked mankind’s ability to connect to and be right with God is an odd one. I struggle with the idea of God who makes mistakes the way the God of the old testament does. I couldn’t understand how a God who was all knowing could gaff up so badly in his creation that it went off the rails almost as soon as it began. Did God not know that Adam and Eve would sin? As I mentioned in another thread …
You would think that he would create them with more common sense/intelligence and wherewithal to go listening to the first smooth talking serpent who came along. God did a bit of a rough job in creating his people, then he ditched them next to the most interesting tree in the garden of Eden … sat back and allowed a serpent to “educate” his people … all the time knowing this was going to happen. You have to conclude the God presented in Genesis either
(a) Had this planned from the beginning as he knew it was all going to play out like this. In which case how can we be blamed for this/punished for this when its all in God’s plan.
(b) Was utterly surprised by the outcome (hardly likely!) of his creation. This would be a flawed God, one caught flat footed by his creations … and not one believable or credible.
(c) Some other mysterious option that preserves God’s status as Omnipotent being and explains how his “perfect” creation hit the skids so quickly.
So sin came into the world because the Responsible parent God who created us, created us so badly we were doomed from the start. He then murdered the population of the globe in a flood that was supposed to put things right, but he knew it wouldn’t. God knew in advance that the flood wasn’t going to work … he knew he needed Jesus, but he still flooded the globe. This is the God you are struggling to worry about people being righteous with? Do you read your Bible? Or do you read with special glasses that make these awkward bits vanish?

Freelight, thanks for the welcome. I struggle with a single super creative concept. So many things come with a duality ... a yin and yang principle ... light and dark ... male and female ... shouldn't the essential nature of the cosmic spark have such a duality? Skyfather and Earth Mother? :)
 
keypurr

keypurr

Well-known member
Welcome Viking, I look forward to your posts. I may not agree with them, but that is OK. At lest til we get you to believe.
 
V

Vikingmage

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Thanks for the welcomes folks.
Keypurr, not sure what you want me to believe, but I am always happy to listen, debate and chew the fat. I don't suspect I will say a whole lot that people would agree with. As my daughter points out I have quite a "mad" view of the universe, but it resonates at a deep level with me, as I understand people's Christian, Buddhist,Agnostic, Isamic, Hindu etc, beliefs do with them.
My buddy Paul says that religious faith is all down to a chemical inbalance in the brain ... and they are eventually going to create a pill that will make all the world's faiths meaningless.:chew: .... so until we are all cured (forcibly in most cases!) lets at least pretend there is more to life than dodgy neurochemistry!
 
freelight

freelight

Eclectic Theosophist
regeneration

regeneration

Vikingmage said:
Freelight, thanks for the welcome. I struggle with a single super creative concept. So many things come with a duality ... a yin and yang principle ... light and dark ... male and female ... shouldn't the essential nature of the cosmic spark have such a duality? Skyfather and Earth Mother? :)
Click to expand...


Your welcome. Indeed,...much of my theosophy includes God as our Father/Mother, for I include the duality of yin-yang polarities within the Universal Unity of the Whole as they are apparent in creation. All multiplicity, duality, diversity arises within the Uni-Matrix. :) The One becomes two and the Two become One in inner-merging cycles of pro-creation. My Essene thread covers this more, as we honor the Father/Mother as the All-Parent.

Namaste',


pj
 
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