h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

PC
Like your new answer better. But perhaps pre-lifers are just that, ickle souls or mind-states stacked up, waiting for their turn at life?

Well I stick to my observation about the similarity of pre- and post-life, assuming there are such.



In which case, I expect they'll just return to the stack after death? My own feeling is that, before and after life here on Earth, our souls (or choose your own alternative term if you wish) are part of a big pool of similar souls, which together form - in some sense - the God(dess) in which I believe.

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

Math used the phrase <..direct personal experience of the divine nature of being.>

I don't know about anyone else, but this strikes me as a completely different kettle of fish to "direct experience of divine beings" and especially "direct experience of A Divine Being", and raises questions about where the said divinity is - is it in the mind of the beholder, or is it in some way external?

Noggin

* throws lighter fuel on the fire *

Does it matter?

Yes, surely whether or not a God or religion is worthwhile is based on the benefits it/they deliver? Does the location, or even the existence , of God really matter, as MaW asks? I suspect not.

Lighter fuel, petrol, semtex, it's all the same....

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

hi Noggin,

<<Math used the phrase <..direct personal experience of the divine nature of being.>>

I agree with you that this is a totally different kettle of fish from saying one has 'direct experience of divine beings'.

To experience the divine nature of things is to experience things as they are. To experience a 'divine being' seems very subjective to me.

az

To me, means knowing what it's like to *be* divine; to *be* God, if you will. [Ooh er, what if Justin's reading? ] Just my !

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

hi pattern-chaser,

So then, you don't know how it feels to be 'god'?

I think you do.

az

I didn't say that....

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

I knew it all along.



F

Hi Az and P-C

One of the problems you're going to have with me is that I also believe that I have had, and continue to have, direct personal experience of divine and spiritual beings, not just the divine nature of being (or the Awen /|\).

This does not make me god, or at one with god, or better than anyone else. I am simply at a stage in my journey of many lives at which it is right for this to happen. I converse with my gods, the spirits of the land and of my ancestors (of blood and spirit) on a daily basis. I frequently struggle to understand what they try to show me, and often fail utterly, but this is all part of 'growing up'.

To paraphrase Lily Tomlin (again) "If you talk to god - you are pious, if he talks to you - you are schizophrenic".

Does this put me in your 'fruitcake and nutcase' category, with Justin?

Bright blessings,

Matholwch /|\.

Oh no, Matholwch, you have a unique category all of your own! I commented only on what I thought it was that you meant. I'm happy with your personal daily experience of divine beings, it just isn't *my* experience. ... I think that may be a shame.

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

Math,

<>

Sadly Justin not only 'hears' his God but has come to believe he is God's mouthpiece, if not God Almighty himself. Which is quite different from feeling one is as much 'god' as everything and everyone else.

You know, I saw Lily Tomlin do that bit live in her one-woman show back in Toronto . . . oh, must be almost twenty years ago now. Wonderful stuff.

az

I rarely hear my Gods in the sense of having an experience akin to auditory communication as between humans, although it's happened a couple of times. Mostly they just seem to drop it straight into my mind - I wonder, is that them being lazy, or is that how things are supposed to work?

* ponders the idea of a whole pantheon of really lazy deities and finds he can't match it with what he's seen/perceived *

So how is this different to thinking something yourself?

Noggin

Name:Gunner Laird

Chair title:Male Researcher, Philosopher, Marxist-Leninist,
Epistemologist, Sociologist, Idealist and Free Thinker.

Any beliefs: born again Santa Clausist

<>

Because somehow (don't as me how) I know the thought didn't originate with me. It comes along with a return address, if you see what I mean.

The voices. It was the voices told me to do it! Seriously, how can we distinguish between thinking to yourself, and receiving the thoughts of some other being? This isn't a distinction we're used to making. Are there any reliable ways of telling?

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

Hey all,

JUat got back from my vacation in Canada, I hope i can pick up right where i left off. (Ahh, its good to be back)

h MaW and PatternChaser,

I don't think it is about 'hearing voices'

<>

At least in my case, it has nothing to do with voices or even 'some other being'.

I have no idea what Maw's god concept is. The one I have does not speak to me, is not other than me.

<>

Of telling what? I don't receive messages or hear voices. I just am. Like you are.

<>

I make no distinction between my god concept and myself. And most of the time I make very little distiction between you, or anybody, and myself within this concept. It really isn't anything I *do*. This is why it is so difficult to explain. It is just who I am.

For want of a better phrase, I think I live in god. Whatever that means. I'm really not sure myself. I only know how it feels.

az