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Word Gems What is a man but the sum of his
thoughts?
God, Religion, Spirituality
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The great end in religious instruction, is
not to stamp our minds upon the young, but to stir up their own; not
to make them see with our eyes, but to look inquiringly and steadily
with their own; not to give them a definite
amount of knowledge, but
to inspire a fervent love of truth;
not to form an outward regularity, but to touch inward springs; not
to bind them by ineradicable prejudices to our particular sect or
peculiar notions, but to prepare them for impartial, conscientious
judging of whatever subjects may be offered to their decision; not
to burden memory, but to quicken and strengthen the power of
thought.
William Channing

Editor's note: My search for God has
been a long and torturous one. I suppose everyone could say that. I
was once a "good little
boy,"
kept in line by threats of eternal hellfire if
I were to miss mass. To the displeasure of my parents, I began to read
the Bible at age 15, but understanding hardly
a word. My searchings, ill-advisedly, for many years, would lead me
to association with a strict and doctrinaire Old
Testament theology-based Christian group. I would attend their Bible college. For
some decades I continued to research the Scripture for answers
to life's big questions; but with
mixed results. Eventually, Life would offer teachers instructing me
toward a better understanding. Finally, I found the "rosetta stone" of insight
which would be most help of all, "the scientific evidence for the
AfterLife."
You'll want to know
about this, too. I write of my journey toward the Light in my Personal
Statements: CLICK HERE. See examples of my articles listed
below. Wayne Becker

Personal Statement #3:
An Introduction to The Scientific Evidence for
The AfterLife - "I'm not allowed to tell you too much about
what it's like over here, because some of you might try to end your mortal lives just to get
here a little faster"
Personal Statement #7: Love
In The AfterLife: The Love Story of Elmere and Franklin: Summerland, Where Dreams Come
True
Personal Statement
#11: True Confessions: Individuation: You
Are Not A True Person Until You Think Your Own Thoughts
Personal Statement
#12:
True Confessions II: There Is Something
Immoral About Denying Your Own Judgment
Personal Statement #21:
How To Know If You Belong To A Cult: Why The Lying Teacher Always Comes
Dressed As A Lamb
Personal Statement #22:
Things You Don't Wanna Know: Saving the Scripture from
Superstition: How Literalism Has Ruined the
Spiritual Message of the World's Greatest Book!
Personal Statement #23:
Part 1: Forgiveness, The Final Battle:
What I Learned From Father John Kuhn
Personal Statement #31:
Finding Healing From Religious Abuse: The Nature
of Authentic Spiritual Authority: What I Learned
From Father John Kuhn

Personal Statement #34:
What You Need To Know Before You Die: How Your
Religious Beliefs Can Hurt You For Hundreds Of Years To Come:
How I Helped A Departed Relative, Trapped In Fears Of Judgment, To
Go To The Light
Personal Statement
#42: The Fear of Death and the Meaning of
Judgment in the AfterLife: We Cannot Escape our
Responsibility to Unfold the Spirit, to Evolve as a Soul, to Love
Ourselves! I'm not afraid of dying, but I am afraid of losing
you!
Personal Statement
#46: Love In The AfterLife: Romance at the Pinnacle of
Existence! The Ultimate Dualistic-Halves of Eternal Twin-Soul Love!
Why Your Deepest Yearning is the Voice of the
Universe Proclaiming Its Truest Cosmic Message! I will
love no other! no other!
Personal Statement
#47: Reincarnation on Trial: Fantasy or Fact? The Central Issue:
Whose Memories Are They? When I tire
out, I'll come home to you!
Personal Statement
#49: Can Morality Be Reduced to a Set of
Written Rules? An Interview With Francesca of Madison County:
The Good Little Girl Strikes Back!
Personal Statement
#62: The Awesome Power of Sacred Directed
Purpose: How to call into Being the deepest desires of your
Soul! Why all seemingly impossible obstacles will eventually
bend to your Sanctified Targeted Intentions; and why Jesus said,
Embrace this God-Life, and no Mountain will dare stand in your
way! It's as good as done! You cannot be stopped!
Personal Statement
#63: Love In The AfterLife: Summerland:
Where Dreams Come True, Part II: How You Will Yet Find Healing from
the Devastating Losses of this World! Long, long shall I rue thee, too deeply to tell
Personal Statement #66:
Imprimatur! Let it be printed! A Priest Speaks
Out from The AfterLife! The Testimony
of Father Robert Benson
Personal Statement #67:
The
Nature of Evil! Would you recognize it if you met, on the
street, or in the mirror?
Editor's
Essay: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Scarlet Letter, Chapters 16-19,
"Redemption in the Forest"
Dr. Mortimer J.
Adler: Syntopicon essay, God
Dr. Mortimer J.
Adler: Syntopicon essay, Angel
R.M. MacIver: The Deep Beauty of
the Golden
Rule
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A Real-Life
Encounter With An Angel
a story submitted by a Word Gems
reader
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A Course In Miracles
What The Bleep Do We Know?
Atheism
the Church
Faith
God
Heaven & Hell
Jesus Christ
Law & Grace
Near-Death Experience
Prayer
Science & Religion
the Scripture
the Search for Truth in Religion
Suffering

Thomas Paine: "The world is my country, all mankind are
my brethren, and to do good is my religion."
Sri Aurobindo: "[We must not] attach ourselves even to
the truths we hold most securely, for they are but forms and
expressions of the Ineffable who refuses to limit itself to any form
or expression."
Calvin & Hobbes cartoon: "It's hard to be religious when certain people are
never incinerated by bolts of lightning."
Religion through the eyes of children, The National
Review, 1996-Dec-31:
"The seventh commandment is 'thou shalt not admit
adultery.'"
"Paul preached
holy acrimony, which is another name for
marriage."
"One of the
opossums was St. Matthew."
"Joshua led the
Hebrews in the battle of Geritol."
"Jesus was born
because Mary had an immaculate contraption."
"A Christian
should have only one wife. This is called
monotony."
"The Jews had
trouble throughout their history with the unsympathetic
Genitals."
"Lot's wife was
a pillar of salt by day and a ball of fire by
night."
"Moses went to
the top of Mt. Cyanide to get the 10
commandments."
"Unleavened
bread is bread made without ingredients."
"Solomon had 300
wives and 700 porcupines."

Jesus
became God in 381 C.E. - that's the year that the "church fathers,"
one group of them at least, mafia-like, finally succeeded in
excommunicating and, whenever possible, murdering their opposition.
The process took close to 200 years with the "Jesus as Man but not
God" faction leading the controversy much of the time. They
eventually lost. The circumstances surrounding the final doctrinal
decision, one that would frame and define ensuing Christianity for
thousands of years, were not pretty and, upon close inspection by an
objective reviewer, would not inspire confidence in the
truth-promotion process. Our knowledge of the details of that
ancient debate is fragmentary with information scattered over a wide
array of sources. Jewish historian, Dr. Richard
E. Rubenstein, invested 15 years or more tracking down these various
sources and piecing together a picture revealed to be a tawdry state
of corrupt church politics. The stakes were high.
Ecclesiastical demagogues knew full well that if they allowed the
common people to view Jesus as a Man who could grow and develop and
progress - well then, this, of course, was a threat to the church's
power over people - because if people can change and grow by
themselves and appeal to the Father directly for help in life, why
then, the people will surely conclude, do we need the church to save
us? This book is only for those who are ready for the truth. Be
prepared for some cognitive dissonance as it will alter your view of
yourself, your view of Jesus, and how you fit into the divine cosmic
plan. I would also recommend a book by my old professor, Sir Anthony
Buzzard, The Doctrine of the Trinity, Christianity's
Self-Inflicted Wound. Professor Buzzard reveals what the
original languages of the scripture actually say about the nature of
Jesus and why the early church, for the first few hundred years, saw
Jesus as a Man, not as God!
Bishop Desmond Tutu: "When the
missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land.
They said 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we
had the Bible and they had the land."
Albert Einstein: "Science without religion is lame;
religion without science is blind."
Thomas Merton, Opening the Bible: "Religious
thought does not move from question to answer but rather from
question to question with each new question opening a larger field
of vision."
Mahatma Ghandi: "If it weren't for
Christians, I'd be a Christian."
Thomas Paine: "Of all of the tyrannies that affect
mankind, tyranny of religion is the worst."
Archbishop William Temple: I
believe in the holy Catholic Church, and I deeply regret that it
does not presently exist.
Oliver Stone: Religion is for those who are afraid of hell. Spirituality
is for those who have been there.
Jesse Ventura, Governor of Minnesota, 1999, in an
interview with Playboy: "Organized religion is a sham and a
crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells
people to go out and stick their noses in other people's
business."
Galileo Galilei: "I do not feel obliged to believe that
the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect
has intended us to forgo their use."
What is
the significance of 2012?
May 25, 2011, Editor's note: It's not a doomsday event.
Sensationalists have tried to suggest as much; even so, 2012 just might be very important
for the whole world! What did the Mayas know anyway? Well, I
don't know; but they did know that the universe is about 15 billion
years old; they invented the "zero," a mathematical triumph for
which much of civilization would need to wait another thousand
years; and Mayan calenders still predict lunar eclipses within
seconds of their appointed times - so maybe they knew something
about 2012, too. They said that 2012 marked an end of a 26,000 year
cycle, representing a certain galactic alignment of our solar
system with the center of the Milky Way. Modern astronomers have
confirmed the Mayas' calculations! This sounds impressive to me
as one who gets lost trying to make his way downtown.
The most comprehensive
discussion of this issue, I think, will be found in this video. It's
a bit lengthy, but a good investment of time.

CLICK
HERE for the
movie
Will Durant, The Age of Faith: "In
Constantinople, more Christians were slaughtered
by Christians in the years 342-343 than by all the persecutions by
pagans in the history of Rome."
William Shakespeare: "The devil can cite Scripture for
his purpose."
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce (c. 1840-1904): "We do not want churches because they will teach us to
quarrel about God, as the Catholics and Protestants
do."
Rich Jeni, on reasons for religious wars: "You're
basically killing each other to see who's got the better imaginary
friend."
Lord Acton: "Fanaticism in religion is the alliance of
the passions she condemns with the dogmas she professes."
Stewart H. Holbrook: "Almost everyone who has read
history in a more than casual manner knows that when the great figure of God appears in a controversy,
the shooting cannot be far off."
Tom Wolfe: "A cult is a religion with no political
power."
Voltaire: "If you have two religions in your land, the
two will cut each other's throats; but if you have thirty religions,
they will dwell in peace."
John Heywood: "The nearer to the
church, the further from God."
Adrian Desmond, Huxley: "Perhaps the greatest
lesson [Huxley] learned from reading Carlyle was that real religion,
that emotive feeling for Truth and Beauty, could flourish in the
absence of an idolatrous theology."
Emerson: "The religion that is
afraid of science dishonors God and commits suicide. It
acknowledges that it is not equal to the whole of truth, that it
legislates and tyrannizes over a village of God's empire, but it is
not the universal immutable law. Every influx of atheism, of
skepticism, is thus made useful as a mercury pill assaulting and
removing a diseased religion, and making way for truth."
Twain: "A man is accepted into
church for what he believes - and turned out for what he
knows." "In religion and politics, people's beliefs and
convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and
without examination."
Edward H. Ashment: "I've come to the conclusion that
there can be little or no dialogue between 'proclaimers of truth'
(religious and secular ideologues) and 'discoverers of truth'
(empiricists). The former tend to debate, the latter tend to
discuss."
Adrian Desmond, Huxley: On Huxley encountering
natives on a remote island... "Untouched people; not necessarily
noble savages, but apparently happy ones. They lived in a land of
plenty, ready to share their bananas and guavas and coconuts. They were to be envied for their 'primitive simplicity
and kind-heartedness'. Where was that 'malady of thought'
afflicting industrial England? [Huxley] realized that 'civilization
as we call it would be rather a curse than a blessing to them'.
Huxley knew the fate in store for them, slamming the 'mistaken
goodness of the Stigginses of Exeter Hall, who would send
missionaries to these men to tell them that they will all infallibly
be damned'."
Thomas Jefferson: "I never told my religion nor
scrutinize that of another. I never attempted to make a convert nor
wished to change another's creed. I have judged of others' religion
by their lives, for it is from our lives and not from our words that
our religion must be read. By the same test must the world judge
me."
Thomas Jefferson: "In every country
and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always
in alliance with the despot ... they have perverted the
purest religion ever preached to man into mystery and jargon,
unintelligible to all mankind, and therefore the safer engine for
their purpose."
Thomas Jefferson: "But a short time elapsed after the
death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his
principles were departed from by those who professed to be his
special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving
mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and
State."
Will Durant, The Story of Civilization: "That
a few simple men should in one generation have invented so powerful
and appealing a personality, so lofty an ethic and so inspiring a
vision of human brotherhood would be a miracle far more incredible
than any recorded in the Gospel!"
Dr. William James: It does
not follow, because our ancestors made so many errors of fact and
mixed them with their religion, that we should therefore leave off
being religious at all. By being religious we establish
ourselves in possession of ultimate reality at the only points at
which reality is given us to guard. Our
responsible concern is with our private destiny, after
all.
Dalai Lama: "This is my simple
religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated
philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the
philosophy is kindness."
Sir Oliver Lodge, Raymond: "To sum up: Let us
not be discouraged by simplicity. Real things
are simple. Human conceptions are not altogether misleading. Our
view of the Universe is a partial one but is not an untrue
one. Our knowledge of the conditions of existence is not
altogether false - only inadequate... Nor let us
imagine that existence hereafter, removed from these atoms of matter
which now both confuse and manifest it, will be something so wholly
remote and different as to be unimaginable; but let us learn
by the testimony of experience - either our own or that of others -
that those who have been, still are; that they care for us and help
us; that they, too, are progressing and learning and working and
hoping; that there are grades of existence,
stretching upward and upward to all eternity; and that God Himself,
through His agents and messengers, is continually striving and
working and planning, so as to bring this creation of His through
its preparatory labour and pain, and lead it on to an existence
higher and better than anything we have ever
known."
Barry McGuire, Eve of Destruction: "hate your
next door neighbor, but don't forget to say 'grace'"
Jean Rousseau, The Social Contract, 1762: "But
I am mistaken in speaking of a Christian republic; the terms are
mutually exclusive. Christianity preaches only
servitude and dependence. Its spirit is so favorable to tyranny that
it always profits by such a regime. True Christians are made
to be slaves, and they know it and do not much mind; this short life
counts for too little in their eyes."
Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God is Within You,
1893: "But Christ could certainly not have
established the Church. That is, the institution we now call by that
name, for nothing resembling our present conception of the
Church - with its sacraments, its hierarchy, and especially
its claim to infallibility - is to be found in Christ's words or in
the conception of the men of his time."
James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance,
1784: "The religion then of every man must be left to the conviction
and conscience of every man; it is the right of every man to
exercise it as these may dictate... Who does not see that the same
authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all
other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular
sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects? While we assert for ourselves a freedom to embrace, to
profess and to observe the Religion which we believe to be of divine
origin, we cannot deny an equal freedom to those whose minds have
not yet yielded to the evidence which has convinced
us."
Kenneth Woodward, Jan. 13, 2006: "When word went out
from Rome recently that the pope's theological
advisers were prepared to abandon the idea of Limbo, it was
clear that the medieval notion of a place where unbaptized infants,
among others, go was as good as dead... The
Catholic habit is to let outworn theological idioms disappear
through benign neglect. That appears to be what has happened to
limbo." Editor's note: It is ironic that institutionalized
religion throws in the towel on this one (after centuries of
demanding blind obedience) just when a great deal of empirical
AfterLife evidence becomes available regarding post-death limbo-like
states of existence (albeit temporary in nature) for those of less
than sterling character.
Dr. Leslie D. Weatherhead, The Meaning Of The
Cross: "The worst penalty of sin is that man is separated
from God, his spiritual senses dulled, his spiritual desires
lessened. Such separation involves progressive deterioration of
character, which, if unstayed, may indeed involve such a
disintegration of personality that the latter ceases to be
recognizable... both our Lord and [Paul] use the word 'dead' ... to
describe [this wayward soul]... The words of Jesus about His
suffering and death reveal that He willingly committed Himself to
some mighty task, costly to Him beyond our imagining, but effecting
for all men a deliverance beyond their own power to achieve, and
that in doing so He knew Himself to be utterly and completely one
with God the Father." Editor's note: I have
noticed, too often, when communicating with childhood friends of
decades ago, that many of these former bright sparks of personhood,
now, as if walking casualties of the war that is this life, have
lost much of their heart, tragic examples of Weatherhead's
"disintegration of personality."
John Adams: Near the end of his life, the second
President offers a few lines in summation of his spiritual outlook:
"Admire and adore the Author of the telescopic
universe, love and esteem the work, do all in your power to lessen
ill, and increase good: but never presume to
comprehend."
Elizabeth Fry, testimony from the Other Side: Fry
speaks via Leslie Flint,
direct-voice medium: "Christ himself had no
intention, no desire, to found any religious organization.
This is completely, absolutely, a man-made thing - which over the
centuries has misled mankind." read more here
Ellen Terry, testimony from the Other Side: Terry
speaks via Leslie Flint,
direct-voice medium: "I would say that this
[life on our side] is the natural life and yours is the artificial,
and that the truly natural life is the spiritual… the
material life is only a pale reflection of the reality... Here there
is no restriction placed upon expansion of expression; here you
assimilate knowledge and experience; here you throw off more and
more of the old self and become truly free... It is the narrow
confines of earth which prevent individuals from becoming spiritual
beings" read more here
John Adams, 1780: His leaking ship having made an
emergency stop at El Ferrol; crossing the Pyrenees on mule-back en
route 1000 miles to Paris; resting in a Spanish village;
newly-appointed US Ambassador to France, John Adams, records in his
diary: "Nothing [in Spain] appeared rich but the
churches, nobody fat but the clergy... We saw the procession of the
Bishop and of all the Canons, in rich habits of silk, velvet, silver
and gold. The Bishop ... spread out his hands to the people ...
[they] prostrated themselves on their knees as he passed. Our guide
told us we must do the same, But I contented myself with a bow. The
eagle eye of the Bishop did not fail to observe an upright figure
amidst the crowd of prostrate adorers: but no doubt perceiving in my
countenance and air, but especially in my dress, something that was
not Spanish, he concluded I was some travelling heretic and did not
think it worth while to exert his authority to bend my stiff
knees."
Albert Einstein: "Unthinking
respect for authority is the greatest enemy of
truth."
Author unknown: The word "lent"
comes from an Anglo Saxon word meaning "lengthen," as in, the days
are getting longer - it will soon be spring! In times past,
this meant that grain bins were nearly empty, having been depleted
by the long winter, and supplies of food were running low. People at
this time of year were cutting back in order to conserve what was
left. But the coming of spring meant that crops would be planted,
with the promise that food might once again be plentiful. Denying
oneself now meant plenty for later. Traditional Christianity tells
us that Lent is a time of denial and giving something up, but such
abstinence was originally based on necessity not design. If we
choose to abstain from anything this time of year let it be done in
this spirit: abstain from judging others,
indulge in God's view of them; abstain from emphasizing differences,
indulge in tolerance and the unity of all life; abstain from
thoughts of illness, indulge in the healing power of God; abstain
from bitterness, indulge in thoughts of forgiveness; abstain from
hopelessness, indulge in the joy of this present
moment.
Victor
Zammit: COMMENTARY, April 29, 2011: WORLD CHRISTIAN LEADERS
WRONGLY STATE IN THEIR EASTER MESSAGE, "PEOPLE ARE MOVING AWAY FROM
GOD." Just because people are no longer going to conservative
Christian Church services does not mean they are abandoning 'God.'
In a court procedure a lawyer would stand up and call out "OBJECTION
- that is an inadmissible statement" because what the Christian
leaders are stating is an 'interpretation' not a 'fact'. It can
equally be said that people are protesting with their feet because
conservative Christianity needs a radical reformation to remove all
the absurdities, all the dogmas, all the irrelevant doctrines. This applies especially to the Catholic Church. For
example, even today a divorced Catholic woman who remarries is told
by the Pope that she will be ETERNALLY DAMNED and spend billions and
billions of years in 'fiery hell' if she dies! That is a most absurd
doctrine. People these days, especially youth, want MEANING, want
EVIDENCE, want RELEVANCE to their life on earth and the conservative
Christian Church does not seem to be listening to the people.
Somebody has to tell the Pope and the Cardinals that we live in the
twenty first century and the essential message of Christianity of
love, service to others and belief in an afterlife are being
submerged in doctrines that are thousands of years old and totally
meaningless. People are absorbing the information and the teachings
that come directly from credible afterlife sources because they have
value, relevance and meaning to our life on earth here and the
afterlife. Editor's
note: Compare this to John Heywood's, "The nearer to the church,
the further from God."
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