henrik_82

Hello all, I'm new to this forum, I thought it might be an interresting place to discuss some of the things I've found during my lifelong search for God.

To make things clear from the start, no I am not christian, not atheist, but I am on a search, and try to share what little I have found. I stand in the middle ground

My take on Jesus is that "he" is a pointer to what is in every human being,
and might not have been physical (he might have been, I wasnt alive 2008 years ago, so I have no way to be absolutely sure.)

If you look at the story of Jesus, and look at it through philosophical eyes,
an abstract of my own view is something like this:

Jesus represents the goodness of man (inside yourself)
It tells how this man defies the animalistic selfpromoting ways of old ways (inside yourself).
It tells how it can heal wounds (inside yourself) by faith in it (yourself).

In other words, my take on it is that Jesus, and the Bible itself is a guide to the human inner self, not the outer world.
And at the same time telling stories showing the inner strenght of man to overcome his own doings of "evil". How to honour his own goodness and help it prevail.
It might get seduced at times, but in the end it prevails over all falcities and doupt.

The old testament is not my area, so I wont comment on that.

In essence, I think Jesus is an iconic representation of what is good in all men,
not an actual being as such. He might have been, but that doesnt change the message.
A guide to inner humanity, I guess you could say.

My take on why the Bible is paradoxical is because there are two sides of the coin,
but neither in itself makes up the coin.
To see it is a coin, you need to see both sides, and the coin is the result.
In other words, "read between the lines".

The Buddha also taught this, the "golden middle road", so to speak.

Maybe because any absolute truth cant be described in relative terms,
so it needs to opposing dualities to make itself known.
It's "between" the extremes, so to speak.
Look at either extreme itself, and you wont find it.

I might be wrong though, that is why I'm writing this here,
to test my view of it against other peoples, so I can get some fresh views on it.

Does it make sense or not?
Any comments welcome.

/Henrik

mountainman

Hi Henric and welcome.
Yes this makes sense.
Thanks for sharing.

Perhaps your view is similar
to the view of Yoga Swami:

At the top of the mountain you find it very cool.
There will be none of the dissimilarity
that you can see at the bottom of the path.
The fundamental principles of all religions are one.

This of course precludes the christian assertion
of their special and reserved exclusivity
with respect to the "god" relationship.

Best wishes,


Pete Brown

Chili

Right, and this will be Good as in "Ultimate Good" which a vision of the Final Form that the Greeks called Chrestos, the Catholics call it Christian, the Budhists call it Buddha, and the prots call themself

Gogol recognized him in "Dead Souls" and wrote; "He has no equal, he is God."

Chili

I agree and would add that their exclusivity places them in a league all of their own that has nothing to do with God. I picture it like a drag race in the desert where all they do is spin tires and bite dust, and so it is no surprise that they end up here at the IIBD for a breath of fresh air (with Johnny still fuming away).

Chili

Hello Henrik and welcome. I am the black sheep here but bid you a fair welcome and hope that you will enjoy your stay.

There is lots of good stuff here for you as you are for us. I'd say: keep writing, it is good for you.

henrik_82

Black sheep? Arent we all?
Yeah, writing is my new hobby of sorts, and it does do good for me.

Just kidding, we are all inherently neither good or bad.
And not in the middle either

And on the exclusivety thing.. Hmm,
I guess my view on that is "Claimed by many, achieved by few."

In a world where everybody is trying to be "exclusive",
is it exclusive if you actually make that goal?
Wouldnt that be.. Like everyone else?

And wanting to..
Have more money than everyone else? Who doesnt?
Have exclusive rights to the word "God"? Who doesnt?
Have exclusive personal ideas? Who doesnt?

Maybe the christians actually are exclusive, since you believe them?
Truthfully, I dont know a lot of christians though,
so I wouldnt know.

I dont mind them claiming exclusivety,
since everybody does. In one way or another.

To not be a hypocrite, I would have to judge myself and everybody
else claiming to be exclusive. Most of my friends, most of society,
all clubs and companies..
I would have to condemn the whole world in order to not be a hypocrite.

And I personally dont have the energy to spend my days on the moon :banghead:

The thing is, that in one way, they are right.
The way the Bible teaches is exclusive.
The "God" is the same. There is only one. Not two. Not four.

But speaking about an absolute thing in relative terms requires
using paradoxes, like my personal favourite:
"If a tree falls in the forest, and nobody hears it, does it make a sound?"
That's a simple paradox. Very simple.
The answer is the same. For all paradoxes.

So, the more paradoxes you are pondering,
the closer you get.
When you get it, read another. The answer is the same. Next. Same.

That's why the Bible is extremely efficient,
it has loads and loads of them.
And the more you read it, the more you "get".
Until you "know".

If you understand it, you missed the point. :Cheeky:

Take care, hope my ideas are not too farfetched for you all.

Chili

Nice rant Henrik but we all know that there is no noise when a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears "it" . . . yet the tree fell but the sign is gone which at one time could have been a noise that now is pobe-able for an event that occurred in the past.

So who cares if there was a noise if all we need to know is that the noise maker was you, or me, and from here we must pick up on the vibes that still linger today and finaly declare that we are the it that at one time was out there.