Eλευθερί
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@eleutheri
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Post by Eλευθερί on Jun 17, 2018 10:38:59 GMT
God has no face. It's even arrogant to assume, that if there was a God in the Christian sense, that he would shape himself after human beings. How limited is that notion? You have it backwards. Genesis says that God shaped humans after His own self. All humans share certain distinctive, recognizable physical features. You would never confuse a whale and a human, or a carrot and a human, or a rock and a human.
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Eλευθερί
Junior Member
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@eleutheri
Posts: 3,710
Likes: 1,670
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Post by Eλευθερί on Jun 17, 2018 10:46:35 GMT
This question is spot on because Christians, Trinitarian or not, see the two as different beings. Of course Christ was a young Semitic male. The composite they came up with is idiotic. ...or more 'wishful thinking' for young arrogant ignorant American whites? Not just whites. Christians of other races, with a few exceptions, also tend to imagine Christ as being white. Despite the origins of Christianity, the main evangelists of the religion for many generations have pushed the image of Christ as a blue-blooded white man.
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Post by Aj_June on Jun 17, 2018 11:16:48 GMT
Gnostics thought of God much differently than today's Christians. I think gnostic movement should resurface to make Christianity more compatible with modern way of thinking. I think any religious movement should be buried altogether, except for mankind to learn from it's mistakes from a historical perspective. Gnosticism was an anti-religious movement. For example, instead of sin it explained human actions in terms of ignorance. It was close to Advaita school of Vedanta or Sufi school of Islam. The amount of freedom it afforded to people probably led to its downfall.
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Post by Aj_June on Jun 17, 2018 11:55:06 GMT
Gnosticism was an anti-religious movement. For example, instead of sin it explained human actions in terms of ignorance. It was close to Advaita school of Vedanta or Sufi school of Islam. The amount of freedom it afforded to people probably led to its downfall. People can't be free, whatever will happen then to the those that think they are in control? The answer to this depends upon meaning of freedom, which I think is based on different layers of bondages. A person can be enslaved as in slavery. Even if a person is not a slave then a person can be enslaved by dogmas. if a person doesn't attach to dogmas and religious rites then a person can be enslaved by her own prejudices. But I believe there are people who are capable of attaining freedom as in free from all sorts of bondages like lust, greed, envy or what you call 'maya' in Sanskrit. I believe that the number of such people in society is directly dependent on quality of spiritual schools existing in the society. This isn't to say that there is any religious school of thought that prepares a person to become free. But the more liberating the religious/spiritual schools are the greater is a chance that people will be liberated from various bondages. I believe Gnosticism is more liberating form of Christianity than say Protestantism, Sufism is more liberating and empowering form of Islam than Wahabism and Advaita is more liberating form of Hinduism than Vaishnavism. Of course there is a chance that people will then become slaves to Gnostic thoughts or Sufi thoughts or Advaita thoughts but when religious schools are liberating than a person stands better chance of attaining freedom.
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Post by Aj_June on Jun 18, 2018 0:41:43 GMT
The answer to this depends upon meaning of freedom, which I think is based on different layers of bondages. A person can be enslaved as in slavery. Even if a person is not a slave then a person can be enslaved by dogmas. if a person doesn't attach to dogmas and religious rites then a person can be enslaved by her own prejudices. But I believe there are people who are capable of attaining freedom as in free from all sorts of bondages like lust, greed, envy or what you call 'maya' in Sanskrit. I believe that the number of such people in society is directly dependent on quality of spiritual schools existing in the society. This isn't to say that there is any religious school of thought that prepares a person to become free. But the more liberating the religious/spiritual schools are the greater is a chance that people will be liberated from various bondages. I believe Gnosticism is more liberating form of Christianity than say Protestantism, Sufism is more liberating and empowering form of Islam than Wahabism and Advaita is more liberating form of Hinduism than Vaishnavism. Of course there is a chance that people will then become slaves to Gnostic thoughts or Sufi thoughts or Advaita thoughts but when religious schools are liberating than a person stands better chance of attaining freedom. Authentic freedom, is freedom from the tyranny of the ego mind. Once this is let go of, people can start to release themselves from their attachments and fears of what they only believe to be real. Which I am not denying at all however how would you expect people to attain authentic freedom when their head is already brainwashed either by mind enslaving religious ideas or state propaganda or when the first priority of humans in most parts of the world is to attain basic standards of living? For example, millions of people in Asia & Africa live below poverty line. For them the main quest is to attain freedom from poverty. They don't even think about tyranny of ego of mind. What I am saying is that world is always better off when there are moderate or liberal forms of religion or governments than when there are strict and conservative forms of religion. Sure, all religious schools have some agenda but still a more liberating school of thought such as gnosticism will be better than if they exist than rigid schools such as Protestantism.
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