The Real Evil Of Religion.

[_karl61]

...
What is love?
...

One of the great forces of the Universe.

In fact, the primary phenomena of a Unified Field explanation
of existence -- if some genius can ever get around to stating it.

Or, maybe all we need to do is to gaze into the starry skies on a
moonless night.........

UD

and realize that big Black Holes eat beautiful populated planets all the time - no biggie.

[Bedlamite]

....
and realize that big Black Holes eat beautiful populated planets all the time
- no biggie.

Indeed.

The physical existence/experience of sentient beings does not offer the
ultimate explanation for Love.

It's a good start, however. And a second useful realization is that
suffering is inevitable.

More poignant than the fate of billions, doomed to die on their way
to the cosmic event horizon, is the life of a single deformed infant,
born into an existence of continual terrible pain and suffering, due
to a random quirk of human genetics gone awry.

What sort of Love can encompass all of that? -- and still not be its own
opposite? Time to read Herman Melville, along with a very good commentary.

UD

[_Ray A]

One of the great forces of the Universe.

In fact, the primary phenomena of a Unified Field explanation
of existence -- if some genius can ever get around to stating it.

1 Peter 4:

8 And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

Col 3:

14 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

Cor 16:

14 Let all your things be done with charity.

1 Cor. 13:

1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

[_Uncle Dale]

...and have not charity
...

I said -- with a VERY GOOD COMMENTARY...

http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/criddle/Smi ... 57-HM-003a

UD

[_Ray A]

...and have not charity
...

I said -- with a VERY GOOD COMMENTARY...

http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/criddle/Smi ... 57-HM-003a

UD

I think I see the point. Mormonism is a poor imitation of real Christianity. Note that none of my quotations on charity were from the Book of Mormon. It seems to be a sort of fairy floss, a mythical "expansion" on the reality.

In a chapter devoted to The Confidence-Man, Lawrance Thompson says that "Practical Joker" was one of Melville's "uncomplimentary epithets for God." He adds that "much of Melville's vituperation was aimed at human beings who let themselves be deceived by various agents of God" (297). The ship, Fidèle, represents "a m1crocosm of the world" and the passengers on board at the mercy of the confidence-man (or men) "are allegorically represented as making their faithful Christian soul-pilgrimages through life to death" (299). These pilgrims, Thompson explains, are divided into the faithful and the skeptical, a division quite appropriate to the temper of Melville's day and its spirit of religious revivalism. "The skeptical ones repeatedly insist that the confidence-man is trying to conceal the unvarnished truth; that he is merely using the term, 'God's Truth,' as a mask or front or blind, from behind which he can swindle. To the skeptical, then. the confidence-man's fake 'Truth' is diametrically opposed to the unvarnished truth" (303).

As they say, imitation is the "sincerest" form of flattery. The Book of Mormon is, perhaps, the best "imitation gospel" in existence. Appeal to the heart, but expand into eventual debauchery.

[_Uncle Dale]

...
I think I see the point. Mormonism is a poor imitation of real Christianity.
...

Melville was not that happy about Christianity, either. I'm still trying to
fathom what he thought of Mormonism.

But the message behind the text of "The Confidence-Man" is more than just
a denunciation of fake manifestations of Christianity. Melville went deeper
than just thinking about that sort of thing.

He looked at the explanation of our lives and world, as the side effects of an
interplay between positive and negative (confidence and distrust, etc. etc.)
that extended past problematic religion to Divinity itself. The careful reader
will detect that God and the Devil are BOTH dealers in illusion and trickery.
If this is beginning to sound like a summary of Persian/Indian religion, then
you're on the right track.

Charity should hold the answer -- but, I think in Melville's case, he was trying
to depict a reality in which charity (as we typically understand it) is trickery.

That is why I was talking previously about a Love which does not contain
the seeds of its own opposite.

UD

[_Ray A]

That is why I was talking previously about a Love which does not contain
the seeds of its own opposite.

UD

I don't understand this statement, Dale, Can you expound?

[_Uncle Dale]

That is why I was talking previously about a Love which does not contain
the seeds of its own opposite.

UD

I don't understand this statement, Dale, Can you expound?

Right now I'm looking at my computer screen, and reading black letters,
set upon a white background -- the interplay/contrast between opposites
is what makes the words visible.

In a larger sense, the interplay between other opposites makes our world
exist/continue. The balance of gravity and centrifugal force, which keeps
our planet orbiting the sun. The balance between heat and cold which
allows life to exist. The contributions of male/female; yin/yang, etc. etc.

Love, as we generally think of the term, has an opposite -- hate, or
indifference, or lack of love. But it is this very interplay of opposites which
gives rise to illusion, delusion and ignorance, (in a metaphysical sense).

The only sort of Love which rises to the level of an absolute -- a platonic
ideal, or something superior to even a platonic ideal, is the love that has
no opposite to condition it, limit it, overcome it, etc.

I am not here speaking of some philosophical deduction. Rather, I am
speaking of a divine realization/experience, which entails that unique
type of Love. Not everybody on the planet is a knowing participant in
that sort of theophany/revelation/enlightenment. But we have enough
of those sorts of people among us to write poetry, compose symphanies,
or simply live selfless lives that serve as examples to the rest of us.

Not religion -- not spirituality -- not nirvana -- not godhood ------ but
that which encompasses all those human experiences.... and more.

Charity never faileth.

UD

[_Ray A]

The only sort of Love which rises to the level of an absolute -- a platonic
ideal, or something superior to even a platonic ideal, is the love that has
no opposite to condition it, limit it, overcome it, etc.

I am not here speaking of some philosophical deduction. Rather, I am
speaking of a divine realization/experience, which entails that unique
type of Love. Not everybody on the planet is a knowing participant in
that sort of theophany/revelation/enlightenment. But we have enough
of those sorts of people among us to write poetry, compose symphanies,
or simply live selfless lives that serve as examples to the rest of us.

Not religion -- not spirituality -- not nirvana -- not godhood ------ but
that which encompasses all those human experiences.... and more.

Charity never faileth.

I'm with you now, Dale. And I think you've demonstrated this in action. I can't say the same for "Mormon apologists".

[_AlmaBound]

I think I see the point. Mormonism is a poor imitation of real Christianity. Note that none of my quotations on charity were from the Book of Mormon. It seems to be a sort of fairy floss, a mythical "expansion" on the reality.

Interesting stuff, eh Ray?