For all religions to think about

[Figleaf]

Constantine was the second major appropriator of the legacy of Jesus, the first being Paul.

Paul took the person of Jesus and panegyrized him into God status, at the same time yoking him with Paul's personal hang-ups and fantasies.

Constantine took the growing social influence of Paul's Christianity and converted it into an arm of Imperial government.

[Drea]

".....do we really know whats beyond death? " This is really is a limited and dogmatic statement. True spiritual thought questions death as an illusion / delusion and doesn't ponder what comes after "nothing"

There are those who had after-death experiences (is that the right term?) My mom had it (being drawn to this very bright light) only to be resuscitated, and it spurred her fervor even more.

I had a talk with a woman over a pint who confided about an after-death experience as a child. It made her a true-believer.

I have to admit that I wondered if my mom was only hallucinating. But it's not what she said she saw that got to me. It was the way she became after that experience.

I've never seen her with such religious vigor and enthusiasm, that at her age (mid-eighties), she actively helped in the restoration of our church. She was so motivated. So "gung-ho."

Something in that after-death experience had only made her faith stronger.

******

Edited.

Our brains -- our wonderful human brains -- make up stuff. Just like a dream that seems so real you're not sure if you are awake or not. We have all been taught to "go into the white light" so someone "seeing" a white light is not proof of anything except the fact that they believe they will go to a light.

Nothing scientific there...

If there is life after death why has no one (not one single person, ever ever) come back to tell us?

[Rue]

I wonder if anyone has an answer for this question..... everyone knows the story about how the Bible and its stories came to be. My question is why has anyone come forth with a Bible that is created by more statements in this life time?? Are we to believe that God doesn't talk to anyone anymore? I'm not saying I don't believe in God or a Higher spirit, I do, but, I just asking why a Bible of statements or stories are of ages ago and not in this time? Can anyone answer this???

I would think if Muhammed was alive today he would have been classified as a stoner and pedophile. Moses would be defined as a delusional paranoid schitzophrenic and I would think Jesus would have been arrested for being a vagrant with a mental illness. I think all three of them would have been institutionalized. I also think Prince Sudhartha (Budda) would probably have been shot by some terrorist.

On a more serious note we do have figures today we give great reverence to only now they are usually movie stars, musicians, politicians, terrorists and professional athletes. Those are the people whose actions and words we tend to worship these days.

There are also no shortage of leaders of huge cult and religious followings.

Now why does it appear we have no modern Bible. We have many. Whether they become Bibles 2000 years from now remains to be the question.

What you see today, will look a lot different 2000 years from now if the planet is still about.

I mean for all we know 2000 years from now Paris Hilton will be considered the messiah. Time distorts what people allegedly say. Death tends to also distort and make things larger then what they were.

[Rue]

Constantine was the second major appropriator of the legacy of Jesus, the first being Paul.

Paul took the person of Jesus and panegyrized him into God status, at the same time yoking him with Paul's personal hang-ups and fantasies.

Constantine took the growing social influence of Paul's Christianity and converted it into an arm of Imperial government.

I am with Margrace on this one but I also like your analysis above.

I also truly believe myths of any kind take on added dimension the further the years pass since they were written and then re-written and then re-re-re-re-written and censored and edited and cut and pasted as was the case with both the old and new testaments.

Anyone who thinks the Jesus trilogy is orginal surely needs to read so many of the other myths that

preceded it to see its lack of originality.

I myself personally think all human thoughts are-is subjective ones people invent and project. I do not think any human can convince me they are universal or absolute or an authority on anything but their own personal beliefs.

Me I see existence as a continuing exercise in urination. It is a constant process of pissing each other off by spewing their nasty fluids called thoughts upon each other.

I find human thought unsanitary and germ infested and smelly. On that note I should do my fly up and cease and desist with any further thoughts.

[betsy]

Our brains -- our wonderful human brains -- make up stuff. Just like a dream that seems so real you're not sure if you are awake or not. We have all been taught to "go into the white light" so someone "seeing" a white light is not proof of anything except the fact that they believe they will go to a light.

Nothing scientific there...

Like I said....how do you know it's hallucinations? How do you know it's supernatural? How do you know it's what these people say it is?

We don't really understand the whole human brain....what it can be capable of.

Btw, I was never taught to "go into the white light."

If there is life after death why has no one (not one single person, ever ever) come back to tell us?

Perhaps once they embrace that light....there's no turning back. Ever.

Perhaps ghosts are real. I know someone who said she's seen a ghost when I took her to my cousin's house. This girl never met anyone in the family (my cousin was out of town). She described the ghost she'd seen....and when I talked to my aunt on the phone (whom this girl had never met), my aunt said the description is the same as the one my aunt had seen too. I never knew the house was haunted...otherwise they wouldn't get me to go in there no matter what.

In the same house. Two different people who'd never met one another. Ever.

Of course countless ghost stories are available. Fiction or not? Who knows.

But I would not dismiss the possibility that ghost are real. Especially basing a conclusion on something like the human brain. The human brain still hold some mystery.

Maybe some people's brains are wired differently than the rest of us that they can detect or see what we cannot see. Maybe some have managed to tap into the deeper recesses of the brain....who knows.

[fcgv]

The authenticity or authority of Holy Writ is twofold on account of its twofold authorship. First, the various books which make up the Bible are authentic because they enjoy all the human authority that is naturally due to their respective authors. Second, they possess a higher authenticity, because invested with a Divine, supernatural authority through the Divine authorship which makes them the inspired word of God.

[Figleaf]

Riiiiiiight.

That's just so totally clear and obvious.

[M.Dancer]

The authenticity or authority of Holy Writ is twofold on account of its twofold authorship. First, the various books which make up the Bible are authentic because they enjoy all the human authority that is naturally due to their respective authors. Second, they possess a higher authenticity, because invested with a Divine, supernatural authority through the Divine authorship which makes them the inspired word of God.

I enjoy New Advent so much, i can recognise it almost immediately.

If I were you, I would cite the site that I cited, lest the stink of plagiarism follow me.......

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02137b.htm

That being said, using the bible to prove the bible is just weak.....

[Mad_Michael]

The authenticity or authority of Holy Writ is twofold on account of its twofold authorship. First, the various books which make up the Bible are authentic because they enjoy all the human authority that is naturally due to their respective authors. Second, they possess a higher authenticity, because invested with a Divine, supernatural authority through the Divine authorship which makes them the inspired word of God.

Or in short, the authenticity or authority of Holy Writ is proven because Holy Writ is authentic and authorative.

[fcgv]

The authenticity or authority of Holy Writ is twofold on account of its twofold authorship. First, the various books which make up the Bible are authentic because they enjoy all the human authority that is naturally due to their respective authors. Second, they possess a higher authenticity, because invested with a Divine, supernatural authority through the Divine authorship which makes them the inspired word of God.

I enjoy New Advent so much, i can recognise it almost immediately.

If I were you, I would cite the site that I cited, lest the stink of plagiarism follow me.......

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02137b.htm

That being said, using the bible to prove the bible is just weak.....

Thank you, I forgot to add the link. I reference that site much for source material for homilies.I once wrote an extensive article on the Scriptures which is somewhere online.