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#1424 - Wednesday, May 7, 2003 - Editor: Michael
Well, our ever-loving blond bombshell of an editator, Christiana, is on jury duty. I had jury duty a few years back. We were six in the jury and voted a woman not-guilty on a concealed weapons charge. Oh, she had a gun hidden in her purse all right, she did. What she was actually guilty of was being married to a knucklehead. She had taken the gun from him to prevent him from shooting a guy that was harassing thier 15 year old daughter. Anyway, the cops got involved and that was when the gun was found. Her defense was based on the lesser of two evils. Her attorney explained that there was a basic tenent of law that sometimes when a person is faced with a tough decision that has a bad or illegal outcome either way. If they choose the way that causes the least harm, due to the circumstances, then they can be found to be not guilty. The prosecuting attorney went to great lengths citing the validity of the point of law made by defense. The charges stood however. She had removed the gun from her husband's control sincerely seeking to stop a killing. Possibly. So we let her off. You should have seen her sulky teenage daughter testifying. Trying to act tough all the while realizing that the court had the power. And the bonehead of a husband. What a broomstick; and she so well rounded... No, that lady was the pillar of that family. We just couldn't let the rest of her family run loose by putting her behind bars. Didn't make sense. Not when it was so obvious that she was the only one keeping any kind of order in that family. So we did our true civic duty and let the good lady go. I gave her a big hug in the elevator. It was a good good day.
factoid a google search on the phrase, beyond god's judgment, returned about 62,500 hits.
speaking of judgment http://www.tparents.org/Library/Unification/Books/World-S/WS-21-00.htm
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World Scripture, A Comparative Anthology Of Sacred Texts |
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Editor, Andrew Wilson |
Chapter 21: Eschatology And Messianic Hope
This final chapter contains texts prophesying the coming of what is variously called the Last Days, End of the World, or Days of the Messiah. Most religions contain teachings that anticipate a time, beyond the present era of suffering and injustice, when human history will be consummated by a decisive act of God. Evil will be destroyed and goodness will triumph. Typically, the course of events includes three phases: a time of tribulation and confusion when evil and suffering grow more and more rampant; the Last Judgment when God intervenes decisively to destroy all evil; and the coming of a new age of bliss, often called the Kingdom of Heaven. Furthermore, this decisive transformation is often said to require a great leader, a Messiah, who will wield divine authority to destroy evil, establish the saints, and found a new age of unlimited happiness.
Teachings about eschatology are found in most religions, though they are most characteristic of the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic scriptures. Judaism anticipates the coming of the Messiah who will inaugurate an age of peace and justice on earth. Christianity teaches broadly that Christ, the Messiah, has already come to offer salvation, and he will come again to judge the world. Yet there are a variety of opinions within the Christian family about the details: For some, Christ will return to bring judgment (Premillennialism); for some he will come after the progressive decline of evil to consummate the Kingdom of Heaven (Postmillennialism); still others reject millennialism altogether and interpret scriptural passages about a last judgment as concerning the spiritual fate of the individual soul. In Islam the Last Judgment is a cardinal doctrine. While it is sometimes understood as a spiritual judgment of the individual soul after death, many passages in the Qur'an clearly describe it as a world-transforming event to occur at the end of time, when the earth will be destroyed and all people will see their just reward as they are sorted into groups bound either for Paradise or hell.
Hinduism, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism contain teachings that the world is going through a cosmic cycle in which morals and religion have gradually decayed and have reached a state of dire corruption in this present age, identified as the Kali Yuga or Age of Degeneration of the Dharma. This Kali age will give way to a renovation of faith as the cycle turns and the earth enters a new golden age, the Krita age. Some texts predict that this cosmic change will be initiated by the advent of the new Avatar (Hinduism), the Maitreya Buddha, or the Saoshyant (Zoroastrianism).
Millenarian beliefs are a minor part of the teaching of most religions. Yet they blossom from time to time in sectarian movements, and they sometimes produce religious or political innovation. A number of bloody political revolts, from the Bar Kochba rebellion in Israel against Roman rule to the T'ai Ping rebellion in China against British rule, were fueled by messianic fervor...
another factiod
a google search of the phrase, free from god, fetched this stunning advertisement:
BEAUTIFUL HOMES:
TO
BE GIVEN AWAY
IN A PERFECT CITY!
more at: http://www.odyssey.net/subscribers/radiobill/freehome.htm
and yet another factiod
a google search on the phrase, free god concept, returned about 1,030,000 hits.
for example - Skip's Corner http://www.hippy.com/php/article.php?sid=148
Determinism vs free-will is always an interesting debate. Let's expand it to include a discussion of God and Karma.
First, I think everyone needs to stop anthropomophizing God. God is not a person like us, who makes decisions for everybody and everything (imho). But that's not my point.
My point is that if you believe in an infinite being, you must not let that being be limited by your own finite perceptions and limited understanding.
scientology
www.efn.org/~bsharvy/
godIs.html 
Now, don't get too excited.
It's only a bumper sticker.
www.lightworks.com/MonthlyAspectarian/
2002/June/cohen.htm 
In the garden of the Sarasota, Florida estate of fabled circus entrepreneur John Ringling stands an impressive bronze statue of the Roman god Atlas bearing the world on his shoulders. The first thing I noticed about Atlas was that he was not a happy camper. Atlas was struggling dreadfully and appeared to be on the verge of caving in. Dude, carrying the weight of the world is overbearing.
While Atlas is often romanticized, his job sucks. If you accept his role, your life will suck. If you assume responsibility for everyone and everything around you, you will rapidly become a crispy critter. Besides, it doesn't work. When you try to run the whole show, you get frazzled, frayed, and fatigued. You feel overwhelmed, grow resentful, and then lash out inappropriately, blowing little things into major issues. Over time you may become ill. Shoulder pain, stomach problems, and high blood pressure are strong indicators that you are trying to play Atlas.
If you examine your responsibilities more closely, you will discover it is not the universe that has piled too much on your plate. It is you. You have taken on jobs not assigned to you. You are trying too hard. Frustration and conflict are messages from the universe that it is time to back off. The longer you wait to get the message, the harder your journey will be. Let go now and beat the rush later.
more at the above link
Renew your faith in human nature. Go see the new X-Men movie. You know, the one with the mutants in it.
And you can further your appreciation of the human condition by paying CrankDot Net a visit.
http://www.crank.net/energy.html
a final factoid
a google search using the phrase, just plain god, returned about 1,210,000 hits.
including: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/5340/rawgodadope.html
I find the morality and theology of this Doomsday Brigade highly questionable. A large part of the Native American population was exterminated in the 19th century; I cannot regard that as a "Great Cleansing" or believe that the Indians were being punished for their sins. Nor can I think of Hitler's death camps, or Hiroshima or Nagasaki, as "Great Purifications." And I can't make myself believe that the millions killed by plagues, cancers, natural catastrophes, etc., throughout history were all singled out by some Cosmic Intelligence for punishment, while the survivors were preserved due to their virtues. To accept the idea of "God" implicit in such views is logically to hold that everybody hit by a car deserved it, and we should not try to get him to a hospital and save his life, since "God" wants him dead.
I don't know who are the worst sinners on this planet, but I am quite sure that if a Higher Intelligence wanted to exterminate them, It would find a very precise method of locating each one separately. After all, even Lee Harvey Oswald ù assuming the official version of the Kennedy assassination ù only hit one innocent bystander while aiming at JFK. To assume that Divinity would employ earthquakes and pole shifts to "get" (say) Richard Nixon, carelessly murdering millions of innocent children and harmless old ladies and dogs and cats in the process, is absolutely and ineluctably to stat that your idea of God is of a cosmic imbecile.
This site was also found: http://www.herbertwarmstrong.com/herbienuts.htm
Now The Plain Truth
About Herbie;
He Was Just Plain Nuts!!
By Alex
"There can be no doubt that as a matter of fact that a religious life, exclusively pursued, does tend to make the person exceptional and eccentric," the American psychologist and philosopher William James wrote nearly a hundred years ago.
There are individuals "for whom religion exists, not as a dull habit, but as an acute fever," he said.
This is what I read in the Faith and Values section of the Columbus Dispatch under an article entitled: Religious Fervor, Instability Long Related. The quote was taken from his book, The Varieties of Religious Experiences Published in 1902. The book was an instant success and by 1935 had gone through 38 printings.
I called the library and I was informed they did have the book. An hour later I sat down and read the particular section from whence the quote was taken. Here it is in all its entirety:
On page 15 under the heading Religion and Neurology it states: "There can be no doubt that as a matter of fact that a religious life, exclusively pursued, does tend to make the person exceptional and eccentric. I speak not now of your ordinary religious believer, who follows the conventional observances of his country, whether it be Buddhist, Christian, or Mohammedan. His religion has been made for him by others, communicated to him by tradition, determined to fixed forms by imitation, and retained by habit. It would profit us little to study this second hand religious life. We must make search rather for the original experiences which were the pattern setters to all this mass of suggested feeling and imitated conduct.
These experiences we can only find in individuals for whom religion exists not as a dull habit, but as an acute fever rather. But such individuals are 'geniuses' in the religious line; and like many other geniuses who have brought forth fruits effective enough for commemoration in the pages of biography, such religious geniuses have often shown symptoms of nervous instability. Even more perhaps than other kinds of genius, religious leaders have been subject to abnormal psychical visitations. Invariably they have been creatures of exalted emotional sensibility. Often they have led a discordant inner life, and had melancholy during a part of their career.
They have known no measure, been liable to obsessions and fixed ideas; and frequently they have fallen into trances, heard voices, seen visions, and presented all sorts of peculiarities which are ordinarily classed pathological. Often, moreover, these pathological features in their career have helped to give them their religious authority and influence.
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