JR7, I apologise for any part I've had in the recent flaming you've been enduring here. My post was intended
only as an alternative viewpoint, even if I did wax a little bit verbose. Your opinions and spiritual beliefs are your own.
From what I have gathered through reading your posts (this thread and elsewhere), it sounds as though you have been through some darkness, and it has been by questioning who you were that you have come into your spirituality.
Questioning is very important. Questioning can do nothing but bring better and further Understanding. (Or: There is a difference between
knowing the path, and
walking the path.)
Yes, it is important to stand by your convictions, but, if one doesn't question one's beliefs from time to time, then that faith ceases to be a
living faith. I bring this up only because, as has been pointed out, some of your positions are actually contradicted by the biblical references you quote to support them.
Your reference to Genesis 50:20, which I'll single out as it was directed at my earlier verbose post, was intended to indicate that, and I'll quote,
I am not so sure that good can not exist apart from evil. Their relationship for me is a bit different. Yet this is not what the reference states. The reference actually confirms what my original point had been. Does the good of the many outweigh the good of the few or the one? Joseph confirms that intentions against him had been evil, yet that personal evil has protected the lives of many others. That "good" could not have come about without the evil against Joseph.
Also, what about Judas? Had he not betrayed Jesus, there would have been no crucifixion, and Christianity would not have existed in the form it is today. Jesus would have been, at best, seen as a prophet. Again, it is the evil which has spurred on the good.
The reverse is also true - just think of all the atrocious behaviour for which "good" is solely responsible. Inquisition, Crusades, witch burnings in Salem (care to guess why I'd bring that last one up?). Even Hitler believed he was doing good. In these cases, good was the intent, yet evil the result.
Open-mindedness does not mean becoming a "Yes Man," or bending to any and every trend or philosophy that comes along. It means considering the validity of ideas before rejecting or accepting them.
Also, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but some of your spitiruality-centric posts come off as a little hostile. Razor's
Spaceballs quote wasn't an attack on your beliefs any more than any of my posts have been. If anything, it was intended to poke a little fun at
me - he found a single sentence that said everything I took paragraphs to say. Granted, it's a slightly warped version of my post, but therein lay the joke.
It is my hope that, even though I've gone loquacious again, you understand that this is not an attack on your beliefs either. It is not
my place to question
your beliefs. I don't have that right. I do have the right, however, to express my views in a discussion, and can hope that others will consider their validity before passing judgement, and perhaps even question their own.
Thanks for your time,
Jon
Posticum Scripticallia: If you should find yourself with the time and inclination to do some reading, allow me to recommend
What The Buddha Taught by Paul Demieville & Walpola Rahula.
Postal Libretto the 2nd:
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Rev. 20:1-3
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. [2] He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; [3] and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while. </font>
See, here's another quotation that supports my point of view - within the X'n mythology, if the all-powerful personification of "good" refuses to destroy the personification of "evil," is it perhaps because he knows (and being omniscient, he ought to) that the world just won't work for very long without it? (
But after these things he must be released for a little while.)
(edit: I've got to learn to be more laconic around here - between starting & finishing this post, 5 more messages have been posted ... GAH!!)
------------------
What's that - bag of tricks?
... Bag of knives!
... stomp and squish as required ...
[This message has been edited by willOthewisp (edited 06-29-2001).]
