BRANCHES OF LIFE - inc GT on Religion

READ MY ULTIMATE MAGAZINE POST - Something posted most days - keep visiting!
What’s on today: A poem inspired by a ReadWritePoem prompt. Have you had a go yet? … PLUS … Guru Tony looks at just what Religion is. It might surprise you.
YOU KNOW IT’S THE WRITE WAY

BRANCHES OF LIFE

I stand proud and tall,
hoping I will not fall;
All about me I’m full of glee,
there’s so many types of me;
Soaking up sun, then winds I resist,
climate allows me to exist;
I am part of a bigger whole,
providing for others, nourishing their soul;
My purpose in life is also to grow,
replenishing myself so I do glow;
I branch out in every way,
my diversity I can always display;
I’m covered in colours, bright and rife,
thriving always - they call it life;
My centre is solid, supporting it all,
inside, my history, for you to recall;
My roots go deep, without stagnation,
to it all, they are the foundation;
Now you may think I am a tree,
but no, no, no, I must tell thee!
I am how
human society
should be

(c) Anthony North, March 2008

******************************

Have you tried my current affairs blog?

EYE ON THE WORLD

Stay informed! Super short comments! Now give me yours!
Latest Posts:

Floods Not Due To Global Warming?

******************************

GURU TONY

He’s talking about what Religion really is

It can be a funny thing can religion. It can bring people together into a single cause. Yet at the same time, it can fragment societies to the point of war. Is this what God intended? Or maybe it’s man who’s got it all wrong.
One thing I’ve noticed about religion is that whilst different systems contradict each other, they are also remarkably similar. Indeed, if you strip the ‘culture’ away from any religion, you find the same fundamentals.
These often include an instigator. He will be frustrated when young, go on a spiritual journey and have an experience that makes him a teacher. In addition, you have an afterlife, the idea that we are divorced from a better form of life, and a similar moral code.
Does this suggest that all religions have a common home? I think it does – and that home is in the depths of our own, human, psychology. Carl Jung identified this in his theory of ‘archetypes’.
We seem to share identical symbols. It is as if they are species traits rather than individual to the person. Rich in spirituality, I think this forms what I call an ‘under religion’ – a symbolic spiritual impulse deep within us all, which is unifying.
But man is also split into different cultures. And I think the identical symbols within us are forever reinterpreted to echo meaning within local cultures. This adds ‘place’ to the universal symbols, and in doing so religions become a form of cultural ‘over mind’.
It is in this process that the antagonisms between religions form. Would it lead to a more peaceful world if the understanding of their universality, beneath the culture, was understood?

Copyright © Protected, March 2008

Find out about my Think Tank

******************************

NATURE OF GOD - THOUGHT

READ MY ULTIMATE MAGAZINE POST - Posted every Mon, Tues & Fri (inc poetry)
What’s on today: What does it take for God to exist? … PLUS … Analysing the threats of an Olympic boycott. Air travel to double - what can we do to make it more eco-friendly?
YOU KNOW IT’S THE WRITE WAY

NATURE OF GOD - THOUGHT

The problem with god is He causes far too many arguments. And the main bone of contention is whether God does, or does not, exist. Yet, to me, this is a shallow argument. All it does is place people on two sides of the paradigm.
I like to look at the problem in another way – basically, to what extent could God exist? After all, if He doesn’t exist, then we’re saying that people have been deluded for a long time. Do we really think us modern people are so superior?

Descartes came up with the dictum: I think, therefore I am.

This was the cornerstone of the western intellect, for in the ability to think, man had risen above himself to the point that what he could think about was a form of reality, validating himself.
Yet this argument can be brought into the theological debate concerning God. For instance, could thinking about God bring Him into existence? Think about it. In accepting His reality, does it have a consequence?

Thought leads to action.

Hence, by thinking that God actually exists, your actions are exactly how they would be if God did exist. And if you transfer that to a whole society that accepts God’s existence, then everything in that society would be as if He did.
So let me ask a simple question: in what way does that society differ from a society if God was real? And the answer, good reader, is it would be no different at all. Hence, the simple fact that a ‘culture’ of belief is identical to it being true, then God must exist at some level.

© Anthony North, February 2008

OH GOD!

1. I thought of You and it came true,
there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for You.

2. I thought of You and decided rot,
a believer I most definitely am not!

3. I thought of You and I couldn’t decide,
this indecision I cannot abide.

We think of God in many ways,
the diversity that the human displays;
yet thinking one way disgusts the other,
breeding fanatics who attempt to smother,
our inherent links,
to each other;
Oh brother!

OLYMPIC BOYCOTT

Beijing has spoken out against calls for a boycott of the Olympics. This follows the high profile pull-out by film director, Spielberg following China’s failure to act in Darfur. And again the debate is on whether sport should involve itself in politics …
… read more …

AIRCRAFT BOOM

It has been reported that the number of airliners in our skies may double by 2026, requiring more runways, and the obvious increase in environmental damage due to flight. I wouldn’t have a problem with this if real eco-measures were taken …
… read more …

You can comment on any linked post below if you wish

NATURE OF GOD - OTHER

READ MY ULTIMATE MAGAZINE POST
What’s on today: Scripture says God is above the universe, but could He be seen in a different way? … PLUS … Liberals love faith schools - strange. British police get militant.
YOU KNOW IT’S THE WRITE WAY

NATURE OF GOD - OTHER

For many years I’ve thought about God. I’m not a practicing Christian, but I’m certainly not an atheist, either. I suppose, in some ways, we need more than the material to be complete.
I’ve decided to write down my thoughts and ideas on the subject in a brief way, rather than the in-depth essays I’ve previously written. This is the first of a series of such posts, which will appear over the next month or so.

I cannot grasp the idea of God being ‘other’.

By this, I mean an entity separate from the universe, and all that is within it. My research into mysteries has convinced me of the possibility of a form of ‘consciousness’ in the universe.
Quantum theory is slowly moving in this direction, also. And mystics have long thought that the way to access a universal consciousness is by descending into your own inner mind.

This would change the position of a possible God.

For rather than being ‘other’ He would be intrinsically connected to the universe, and man. This is a much more acceptable concept to me.
In effect, God could well be ‘higher’, in that He is a much more encompassing level of consciousness, whereas we are ‘lower’; but He would certainly not be ‘other’. Would this make the idea of God more acceptable to our skeptical world?

© Anthony North, January 2008

FAITH SCHOOLS

David Cameron has angered people by deciding to send one of his children to a Church of England school rather than the nearest schools. Yet there is a degree of hypocrisy in this anger …
… read more …

POLICE MARCH

I watched a frightening sight on the news last night. There it was, in stark intensity. 20,000 British policemen marching in protest at the government’s handling of their pay review …
… read more …

You can comment on any linked post below if you wish

MONEY AND BELIEF

I don’t know whether God exists or not, but this is irrelevant regarding belief. All that is needed is the idea for God to exist. I base this on a simple sociological reality. I ask the question: what would society be like if people believed God existed?
Such a belief shapes everything a Christian does. Hence, everything a Christian does would be as if God existed. As such, everything in a Christian society would be how it would be if He did. So in social terms, a belief leads to a definite reality.

Sceptics would say this is not true.

But they would, wouldn’t they. But more than this, they say society is such, now, that such beliefs do not affect society in this way. Rather, we are rational beings, released from such stupidity. But is this really the case?
The overall western system, today, is not a belief in God, but an economic system that I call ‘super-capitalism’. This system appears to have produced great affluence, giving us the impression that we are rich. But a question:

What would happen if we all had to pay off our debts today?

The only answer is, we couldn’t. We couldn’t do so because super-capitalism is not based on real wealth, but ‘confidence’ in the system. Take away that confidence and there is nothing left.
Like the above appreciation of God, super-capitalism creates a society with nothing at its centre. In effect, it is based on a belief. So when skeptics say that God cannot exist, they must also come to the conclusion that neither does modern affluence.
Rather, it is the greatest confidence trick in history.

© Anthony North, October 2007

Click Tony On, on Blogroll, for my current affairs blog.

GOD’S SCIENCE

I read something recently that grabbed my attention. It asked where would science be, today, if not for God? The implication was that God had held science back.
In many ways this is, of course, quite true. Throughout the Middle Ages, and well into modern times, science had a fight with Scripture in order to gain valuable freedoms to allow science to advance.

Without this religious dogma we could have advanced further.

But there are two central points we must consider. First of all, is it ever right to allow a single system to take predominance over all others? Without restraint, could science have taken us well into the Frankenstein league by now?
Most scientists would disagree, arguing that they’re very level headed chaps that can be trusted with our future. The only thing is, though, I always fear ‘level headed chaps’ who say they don’t require restraint.
As for my second point …

It was God who allowed science in the first place.

Now this will get people confused, or angry, or both. And of course, I’m not talking about a real God – that’s a matter of belief. But due to the belief in God, man’s mind-set changed fundamentally.
Before the monotheist God, people lived in a cyclic world, tied to the cycles of nature. Once God came into the picture, intervention in the world was understood, and we lived by linear advancement. And science is the natural outcome of this mind-set.
Thank God.

© Anthony North, October 2007

Click Tony On, on Blogroll, for my current affairs blog.