Perhaps he'll answer this himself in due course. To imagine the idea Jesus represents, without making it into a religion, a dogma, in fact letting go of all the man-made crap that surrounds the thing we call religion, leaves something else. Something realer. The idea that we are more than we seem to be, and that Jesus represents what that might be if one opens to the possibility. Not easy to do when it has become so corrupted by the constructs the Church has made it into. For me, he was a simple man who preached love and forgiveness - this has nothing to do with the way the church has operated over the centuries. In my opinion, far too many who call themselves Christian do not understand even these simple teachings. While I am not Christian, I feel there is something real to be found there, if one feels a need to find it.
Jesus? Oh yeah I've heard of that fictional person Sent from my HUAWEI Y210-0151 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Depends on whether they believe in the Gospel or believe in the Church. One preaches love while the other distributes political and hate rhetoric. Some of the best people I've met are Christians with a personal understanding of Christ. They are not affiliated with any religious institution. edit: Just read esseff's post. He said it much better than I ever could. lol
Oh, sure. There are good people in every creed, and good people without creed. I'm far more interested in why it's so convincing. And how people can feel so convinced by it. I don't think I could ever feel that Jesus is my best friend, and that's not a statement I make out of spite. Maybe faith is a genetic thing? Is it a thing you have a bigger chance of having if your parents raised you to have faith, and you inherited their genes and their upbringing? I'm fascinated
Why it feels convincing is because of how it feels that makes it convincing. It is not an intellectual thing; it is a knowing, not a deciding to believe some story because it sounds nice. There needs to be some idea, even if that idea is ultimately discarded, to begin the process. But it is a process to do this, not a conclusion in doing it, just as enlightenment is not something one has to become. The idea of 'Jesus is my best friend' is perhaps a little personal to really get at from here, and as this was his feeling not mine, I will leave that to him to reveal. My parents didn't raise me to have faith, although they were part of a religion that required one to have it. In fact what it did was show me what I didn't prefer so as to be able to let go of ideas that simply made no sense to me. But the feeling of there being something to it persisted regardless of how many years I didn't recognise it or ignored what it was. The idea of Jesus is a way to make it real, for some the only way they ever need, and for those who do, it works for them. Many of us just follow our own paths, looking here, looking there, taking bits of this, rejecting bits of that. I would often feel something was missing until I had an experience that suddenly put it back. When I did, there was no doubt that what had been missing made a big difference in how I felt about my life. Many people feel there is something missing in their life, but are often made to look in directions where it simply cannot be found. Some of it is the result of organised religion making claims that it has, for the most part, been unable to back up. Never mind all the hate, violence, suffering, that has taken place under its banner. Too many have been turned away from something that no longer offers them a thing. The idea of Jesus would be that in feeling a connection, and knowing it to be real, we realise what we're all able to realise, and when that happens, life changes, we see what is really there, and as we live life in the present knowing who we are, we live real lives, which also allows others do the same.
Thank you for the extensive reply. I have posed my question before, and read similar replies to yours. My sense of it all being phoney has been dispelled; there aren't that many charlatans. I have nothing but contempt for any church that teaches children if you do not obey Gods word you will suffer in the afterlife; all this cosmic dictatorship in the clouds stuff strikes a very bitter note with me. I think that's the political control mechanism that's been built on top of the real divinity. So is there something divine? I think that's a different question, and so I am so endlessly curious to those who feel it in their heart, be they suicide bombers or orphanage matrons. If I could experience it, just for a moment, I really would. I feel that I can't, that I can't (and I'm just using this as an example now), feel that Jesus is my best friend. Maybe it will change with some life-experience I have. Either way, it seems like it's completely personal, and can't be described. Is this accurate with your point of view? Edit: spelling and typos
Yes. Is there something Divine? Yes, but what that feels like is not one thing; it does not need to be the same thing for everyone, even if their interpretation still reveals it as divine. You would never have to feel Jesus is your best friend - this idea, this path, is for those who do. We do not have to align ourselves with an idea that we feel doesn't work for us. We don't need to resist something we DON'T prefer., only choose something that we do. We know who we are, our own feeling, and so our connection must be unique and specific to our way of being.
This, I can buy this. That is very profound. I can buy this. Human potential is divine. I suppose this is the time I drop that I'm a computer scientist, my whole world revolves around logic and facta and numbers, my parents are agnostic scientists, I know almost no religious people and the country I live in has a population that is 2% churchgoers. I've known maybe 5 truly religious people in my life, and I've steered clear of those. I'm surrounded by the brightest and the best where I study, I'm surrounded by people who pledge their lives and minds to better the human race. That is divine, and I do feel that. Maybe my idea of a God is the soul of ingenuity in the name of the betterment of our species and our planet. That doesn't just limit itself to building machines and better medicine, it extends to the unifying politician, the dilligent journalist, the brave fireman, the compassionate nurse, the skilled carpenter (vis a vis Jesus). Doing good for those around us, maybe that's divinity, and in that case, divinity is real. All this needs to be separated from the preacher at the pulpit, and Jesus, and Mohammed, and all these other goofy figureheads. Why isn't there a church of humanity? Is there, without us knowing?
Yes, I agree. It is holding onto the old ways of seeing things that causes the problem, the individual interpretations where someone feels a need to be right making someone else out to be wrong. A Church of humanity? There is. It is and has always been all around you.