cilosyb said:

My advice would be to not let religion influence your views on God at all. Be your own source of knowledge on the divine [...] I am sure there is a God, that God does not exist in seperation from anything, and is much more fantastic than religion has any inkling of.

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AroundtheSon said:

We all struggle with these types of questions, or at least have at one point.

I believe, like the Bible says, that we are the temple of God. Thus, we have a direct link up to the Father, and really don't need religion per se to direct us. If we follow our own hearts, things will turn out okay.

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jonathanseagull said:

From reading your post, it seems that you hold onto a Christian notion of God. I think that you could benefit from losing that idea, and formulating your own idea. Also though, a god defined is a god confined. For instance though, your idea of a a child in Africa living a good life then suffering all eternity... your logic already tells you that this is wrong, but doctrine tells you it's right. I think I'll stick by logic on this one. The idea of Hell falls under the tactic of "F.U.D." It's something businesses use to create Fear, Uncertainty, and Death about another businesses product. Religions play that game too.

Just keep thinking about it. If something doesn't make sense, then there are probably two options. 1) You don't have all the info you need, or the capacity to understand... or 2) It just doesn't make sense or follow logic. I'm sure you can figure out which is which with each dilemma in your mind.

Good luck.

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MushroomTrip said:

Heaven & hell are both states of mind... we create them

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backfromthedead said:

MushroomTrip said:

Heaven & hell are both states of mind... we create them

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I would like to add that when the baby killer's self induced amnesia barrier is obliterated in a hail of 'stones'... He will be exposed to judgment, and the state of mind that he finds himself in from there on out will be HELL, literally. Naughty or nice??

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JackthaTripper said:

Some people don't have that late emerging conscious. How does this balance out? Without the concept of hell someone could live their whole lives committing atrocities with no consequence in the end. I have to believe that what goes around come around, if not in this life hopefully it is balanced out in what follows life.

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Quote:

Do you believe in some version of heaven? If so what happens to those that do not make it in?

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JackthaTripper said:

backfromthedead said:

MushroomTrip said:

Heaven & hell are both states of mind... we create them

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I would like to add that when the baby killer's self induced amnesia barrier is obliterated in a hail of 'stones'... He will be exposed to judgment, and the state of mind that he finds himself in from there on out will be HELL, literally. Naughty or nice??

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Some people don't have that late emerging conscious. How does this balance out? Without the concept of hell someone could live their whole lives committing atrocities with no consequence in the end. I have to believe that what goes around come around, if not in this life hopefully it is balanced out in what follows life.

Do you believe in some version of heaven? If so what happens to those that do not make it in?

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leery11 said:

This is karma man. It has nothing to do with judgment but everything to do with dominoes.
Recognize that we are all authorities....
See, whenever one commits an atrocity, it is because their mind is deluded with wrong views about the nature of reality. They are seeking to fill a God-hole with a blunt instrument that causes damage upon insertion, but they are so used to it that they come to think of it as pleasure. The pleasure comes at the cost of extreme suffering is therefore an illusion, yet, they know no other way.
So...... you have all these terrible views in your mind, you are already being "punished" for what you are doing regardless of the afterlife, because any human being who is completely devoid of any and all sufferings will never commit an atrocity and will see no reason to, already being in a state of Grace with the Kingdom of God, therefore we have hells and heavens in this very Earthly existence in our own consciousnesses....
Physics tells us energy cannot be created or destroyed....... one who makes his home in dense energies migrates to dense energies.
What we unfortunately see on Earth is that there are immeasurable dense energies in need of purging as well as very high holy energies in need of being noticed, but basically Earth is sort of a training realm where one can pick heaven or shades of hell (Earth is indeed almost a shade of hell if one does not attain spiritual harmony) based upon the kind of activities they are inclined to do, and from there they can simply move to denser or lighter realms as they see fit upon death.

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MushroomTrip said:

All of us have consciousness. Even if one doesn't feel "guilty", one will experience "hell" in one way or another due to the nature of consciousness. At least this is what I have observed. I think it's the same thing that Buddhists call karma.
I believe in freedom. As in the natural (cosmic) flow. What can be more "heavenly" then that?

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EllisDSox said:

Your story sounds a lot like mine. I was always a totally cynical atheist until I began to use psychedelics, after which point the revelations and experiences I had been through completely changed my perspective of spirituality. Far from the authoritarian, irrational police officer figure of the Bible, I came to see God as a force of pure positive energy that one can embrace and find unity with all the universe as well as an increased drive to do good. Almost in the sense that good deeds are a channeling of this energy.
You don't have to look anywhere other than into your own mind, or out your window to see what you believe and how you view the universe. You don't need anyone, or anything else to reaffirm your philosophical or spiritual views, as ultimately all reality is in the eye of the beholder. Spirituality and religion are totally different things. Religion constitutes the institutions and organisation designed around, and intended to spread the spiritual experience. It's the experience itself that's important, regardless of whether or not your views have a religion to be reconciled to.

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