Tag: Religion and Spirituality

A strange result in some research:Religious people were more likely to lie for financial gain

Angels i n church window...Mike Flemming

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/22/study_religious_more_likely_to_lie_for_financial_gain_partner/

I think it’s not so surprising amongst Christians because Jesus came to save sinners and so more sinners go to Church…They need salvation but it must take time!That’s why we have Confession/Or maybe people who go to Church are from lower social classes and so are short of cash?I always found rich people avoid tax and so on regardless of religion.

Maybe “trying “to be good is counterproductive!

I’m not sure about Jews….I knew a lot at work and they were all more than honest.Also they seem more intelligent…. after all they invented the alphabet writing,story telling,ethics,morals,poetry…..God!Why should they steal?

Now don’t blame me…read the research!

Related articles

Reading Lawrence Le Shan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_LeShan

For many years I have enjoyed the writings of Le shan.Recently I discovered that he had written a book about Evil.He also treated people with cancer for many years.I admire him

I am reading it slowly.I recommend,Alternate Realities from which some of his terminology comes.His book in Meditation is the best I have ever found.I was reading it as I was on a train going to my father in law’s funeral and a beautiful image cane to my mind

http://artquotes.robertgenn.com/auth_search.php?authid=6217

http://artquotes.robertgenn.com/auth_search.php?authid=6217

Lawrence LeShan -A man will be effective to the degree that he is able to concentrate! Concentration is not basically a mode of doing but above all a mode of Being. (Lawrence LeShan)

I can’t breathe with you , my doom.

Foster Bible Pictures 0067-1 Moses Is Holding ...
Foster Bible Pictures 0067-1 Moses Is Holding Up His Rod (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Pin Index Safety System
Pin Index Safety System (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Grass
Grass (Photo credit: Moyan_Brenn)
Pin Index Safety System
Pin Index Safety System (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Has crime harassed your lies?
Wracked bladders are too good mannered.Don’t hang on,he urged me.
Sated with breath he put his lungs on standby as we got  laid in a field
Baptism by liars sets you up for life on earth.

Safety Pin Spinnerbait with a tandem blade con...
Safety Pin Spinnerbait with a tandem blade configuration; a Colorado blade mounted ahead of an Indiana blade. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Communion with the quaint is a beginning and confirmation is another gnostic reminder.
Do we need seven acrimony’s anymore?Sacrament,we lament.Who shall repent?
Beauty is wry for the beholder
Loyalty is like a safety pin on a tiger’s head.
Now we need to be paranoid and the calm are the mad of society.
A fig tart helps one to care less and end consolations in the bathroom
Do you tease me in your heart?
Does my heart taste good since you cooked my goose?
He was depriving me daily so I sleep with him annually instead
Endless sentences issued from his finger tips as he slept leaning over the keyboard.His unconscious never heard of a semi-colon or a
black dot that one might fall down unwittingly
Every dog has his day and he has a dog’s dinner every night.Is that enough or do we need Deconstructing?
Everything’s coming up wearing pantyhoses.Modest plants
We fell wed over a meal in an Inn.Not out!
Sin falls through the lax
I fan old flames till they disperse
Grass is always more seemly on the brother’s side of the road
I hang in a chair
Saying have a heart implies you have one that’s disconnected but suppose he has none?
A heart breaker struck me down in the desert.He felt sorry for himself he agreed.He thought he was playing pass the parcel but doom is still scaring him…even after sharing it by force
heavy heart
i can’t breathe with you in my room
i can’t live without your absence
i love you more than a pickled beetroot but not that much
in the nick of a rhyme he came and went at once or maybe twice
Sweep your chin up if nothing else
Missing the rose he peed on the daisy chain… then he pulled it.Who’d to blame?
Looking into his heart I saw nothing,not even a space.Howzat?It’s not cricket.

Related articles

Smile

I once had a cat who loved being

Her eyes were much brighter fot seeing

She foresaw the recession

Though not the depression

If only I `d heard her confession

Related articles

My life books

Looking  over my life in books I see my instincts drew me  with certainty to certain author/thinkersTillich

The Psalms…King David

Bible stories.

Montaigne

Dante

Blaise Pascal

Soren Kierkegaard

Martin Buber

Simone Weil

Paul Tillich.

e e cummings

W H Auden

T.S.Elliot

I see I’ve not found many women on this journey… they were too busy childbearing I suppose.

And I  think of myself as neither male nor female.I am just me… a unique being.

Related articles

Why there are ten commandments

Moses with the Ten Commandments
Moses with the Ten Commandments (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: Moses Pleading with Israel, as in Deu...
English: Moses Pleading with Israel, as in Deuteronomy 6:1-15, illustration from a Bible card published 1907 by the Providence Lithograph Company (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Moses climbed the mountain
And he got to the top,
God was waiting for him,
He didn’t say a lot.
He said, Take my commandments
They are written on this stone,
I have only fifty,
Or was it fifty one?
Moses was very worried
~about the human race.
Fifty one commandments
Would meet with strong distaste.
So he told God his troubles
And God thought long and hard.
He came back with the commandments
Written on a card.
How many have you got there?
Moses politely said?
I’ve got it down to ten, said God.
His eyes were very red.
So Moses took the postcard
And put it on his pad.
He said I’d better get back down.
Oh, and thank you Dad!
When Moses got to earth
He called his people near.
He produced his i Pad.
Look what I’ve got here!
I saw God on the mountain.
He gave me a few rules.
They’re easy to remember.
We are not moral fools.
How many of these rules
Has God given to you?
I got it down to ten.
Let’s see how we can do.
Ten is far too many,
Some of the people cried.
We don’t want these rules.
We hate to feel we’re tied.
But all games have their rules.
They’re what define the game.
If we had utter chaos
This loss would be a shame.
As pictures have their frames,
And lessons have strict times.
We need some good constructions,
Like poems need their rhymes.
So all his people heard him.
And they agreed to try.
They lived as best they could
Until they came to die.
But one part of this story
We will never know–
What were all those commandments
That Moses did not show?
And why did God give in
To Moses’ bargain plea?
Do not ask for Moses,
For Moses name is “ME”

Related articles

For the bold:Moral relativism

????

If like me you get hooked on philosophy the NYT has many intriguing articles such has this one.

Is it the case that atheism will damage our morals or those of our children?Can you have morals without religion?Ethics may  or may not need a religious base.Now  Bible reading is diminishing  is that leading to trouble?

Quotes tagged as “relativism”  Goodreads
Michel de Montaigne

“When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not a pastime to her more than she is to me?”
― Michel de Montaigne, Apology for Raymond Sebond
Related articles

The Bible add on:Evening at home

NEW RELIGIOUS TAX ON KOSHER DOGS IS UNFAIR!
NEW RELIGIOUS TAX ON KOSHER DOGS IS UNFAIR! (Photo credit: roberthuffstutter)
Easter morning headline
Easter morning headline (Photo credit: c_neuhaus)
Thus Saith The Lord God
Thus Saith The Lord God (Photo credit: premasagar)

And it came to pass that they ate their dinner
and that she did washeth up.
And she did leave the dishes to drain
Whilst she put on the washing machine.
and the man was very pleased.

And it further came to pass
that she gave the man some pudding
and he was more pleased.
And then it came to pass the he fell asleep
By the fire.

And the Lord God,said
who is this man that sleepeth by his fire?
And He said,I shall waken him up
And the man awoke,
And God spake unto him

How is it that the woman laboureth in ye kitchen.
And that thou sleepeth here in an armchair.
And the man said,
But Thou didst order women to labour.
And the Lord God said unto the man
Why dost thou remember so selectively what I have said?
And the man said,
I knoweth not and therefore I will help this woman.
And the Lord God said,
Why dost thou not think of it thyself?
And the man said in reply,
It was Thou that made me,O God.

And the Lord God was displeased with the man.
so he called down a plague of butterflies
To prevent him from sleeping.
And when the woman came in
she was much pleased to see these butterflies
and so she fell onto the man
And he did make love unto her.
And the cat was very pleased.

For it thrilled a cat to watch humans loving
and gave him hope
That the Lord God would take his rib and make a mate for him.
And indeed it doth seem to have happened
Judging by all the cats staring in ye old window here;
And by their ecstatic yelps
That the Lord God was very generous with them
and made them many mates.
For truly there is no jealousy among them
And they mate freely and happily
and never have rows about the washing up..
as they eat straight from the can.Amen

Here endeth today’s lesson.
Be thou kind to thy mate always

Related articles

Oh, my own lover!

George Boole's House and School, Lincoln, UK
George Boole’s House and School, Lincoln, UK (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Image

Loose in the fields of green…
Oh, my own lover!
He was such a bold flirt;
with his love unclaimed,
he could recite George Boole
he was one of the old Cool.
He never reached his goal.
so with my bling and some flair
I hoped he’d open the enchanted bud
To the music of his lyre.
I’ll pray this for him:
t hat he should find what he wreaks
and write it down with a stylus.
Really he is the allurement of angels
He was my epiphany
Make it up, as the clocks clang..
It’s not really you…it’s just an affliction.
I can do nothing for my calves
It’s because of all the punning I did once.
I can’t even lump a stone over a wall now.
My arms are as weak as Trojans.
I never suffer viruses to be declassified.
Like I said,just wink and say a prayer..
In God we dare.

Related articles

I didn’t know I knew

s:

“Once I begin the act of writing, it all falls away; the view from the window, the tools, the talismans, and I am unconscious of myself… one’s carping inner critics are silenced for a time… there is always a surprise, a revelation. During the act of writing, I have told myself something that I didn’t know I know.”

– Gail Godwin

Related articles

A paradox about difficulty

Cat free

After I mentioned the book by Lawrence LeShan yesterday I was thinking about meditation and about difficult times in life.Often when things are hard for us, we get stressed,we get the”fight or flight” response which released adrenalin   and other hormones and we get narrower vision [I have actually had “tunnel vision“,it’s not a metaphor].We are ready to attack somebody or to quickly run away.Usually neither is possible so this response makes life worse.We get worn to a shred

When we need help,we can get in touch with something within us.The paradox is that we need to be relaxed to get in touch with this inner deeper self.We need to trust in something despite the dangers.In religious terms,trust in God is a common phrase.But not many Christians  I have known really do trust in God.I prefer to call it  the Unknown.After all,what or who was it that made the sperm and egg unite and then made the embryo grow into you?It was not by will power and effort that your mother grew you.It was by allowing this inner wisdom to act upon the embryo.So relaxing ,allowing,being are needed.How can we let go and trust in the inner deep self to help us?Maybe when we are in despair because we tried everything else and nothing works.This is a concern I am dwelling on today.I feel ,being Sunday,it is appropriate tio think of what some would call the spiritual side of lifeI was helped once when in a tragic  situation.I kept looking for a way out.Sitting quietly one day I found I suddenly knew I could do nothing except return to my notmal duties and accept the tragedy.We need to feel safe in order to trust

 

 

http://www.onlinecounseling.org/highly_sensitive_people.htmhttp://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200304/how-remain-calm-during-uneasy-times

Related articles

Yet runs my nose and do my eyes not blink?

Blink (novel)
Blink (novel) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have no teeth and combless I remain
My hair once silk is now  a  tangled briar..
Men gaze on me with ruthless cold disdain
My visage does no longer light their fire.

I have no mind and so I cannot think
I cannot love nor hate now I grow tired.
Yet runs my nose and do my eyes not blink?
Where is that man with   care nd with a desire?

I have no heart,or it turns cold and hard.
Yet soul I have and spirit and my sight.
At life’s long game I fling down all my cards.
And ask for nothing but a means of flight.

For beauty withers as my wisdom grows.
And none observe the circling of the crows.

Related articles

More about Geza Vermes and his writings on the historical Jesus

http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/features/5022802._The_world_s_finest_Christ_scholar_/

Related articles

Drowning in words

I have a theory,which I cannot test,that some of the symptoms of “mental illness” are a way a person who feels herself to be without power [in a family, a society] can say what is on her mind in a manner which is almost uninterpretable bythe people around but it has a meaning….that if ahe had more power she could say directly.

Someone tells his doctor his mother is trying to poison him.He is diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Yet in a metaphorical sense it may be quite true.She may dominate,oppress and refuse him freedom and for some reason he is not perhaps strong enough to walk out. Some of the cryptic sayings such  people make do convey in a scrambled way the truth as they see it.And it can apply to old people who are diagnosed with dementia…I have a good example friend’s husband had major heart surgery.She was warned that during recovery  his brain might be affected temporarily and sure enough he began to talk about Kruschev,Stalin,Moscow etc and seemed agitated..she told me about this.It passed.Later he told her that he was trying to tell her she was ordering him around too much and dominating him.he felt,whilst he was ill.No doubt she was anxious.He was trying to communicate to her he did not like her behaviour towards him.So his mind was not gone but he was too feeble to get across what he meant.And she was afraid already .. so became more bullying.Sometimes old people are said to be demented.One test is to ask them to count back in 7 from 100.So if I were you  i’d memorize that!Most people find it hard when younger.r

Imagine if someone told you they believed a piece  of bread has been turned  into Christ‘s body.You might think they are crazy but luckily it  is a common belief in the Western Christian mind…so it’s not a sign of madness and yet a man might say something similar and be called psychotic.

I went the hard way,you know,

on that road with no kerb

Picking up the demons you let out of that woman’s handbag

I feel so sick,you are a Jezebel.

Keep away from me,the voices warned me

That America would start a war against error

And that Jesus would help me to beat them

Let me go.Who stole my coat with the astrakhan collar

that showed I too was the son of God

Like you did before,you want to crucify me

and to eat cake and say,This is him you know…

Even the icing.So keep away.I’ll hit you.

rocks,cracked rocks and a finger

pointing to  the mistakes you missed

putting the blame onto me

and for that,I must die a thousand times

Will you call it my church or my tomb

My tomb of dough will rise and god will bake me

and eat me for his tea.

Thank you,nurse.I love Largactil

As it makes me ill

~and so I know i have to be locked up my

to protect the town from my germs,worms and viruses.

I go numb

Keep away from my arse.

Leave me alone with an old stone

From the grave of my youthful hopes.

You’re all crazy… but you outnumber me

So,I must be mad to fight.

Schizophrenia they think!

I know better.

Related articles

New books

tWeeds or flowers

How to be more obscene than I by George Grammarcy

How not to spill   all your words by Mary Maddens

How to paint yourself into a corner by Vincent Bunk Off.

Novels for he men by Forman Taylor

Related articles