Welcome to Gaia! ::

I'll start by saying again that I agree with some others here in the idea of reincarnation, in the sense that after we die, I believe we go to a spirit world where we continue to learn and grown, but if we choose to come back and learn/experience other things, we can.

And I believe that the purpose of life IS to learn and grow and experience things and better our souls.

I don't believe there is a hell (I've researched this and looked into this a lot, as well as the ideas of evil, or evil beings) or a "satan" who tempts us into things. I believe we're learning to find a balance in life by weighing our human desires and emotions (from our physical brain) with our morals and values (from our eternal souls.)

Anyway, I could go on and on, but if other people contribute their thoughts, it would be more interesting than a novel by fawN!

EDIT: By human desires and emotions, I mean things like Anger, Greed, Jealousy, Impatience, Depression, Hatred..

So many wars have been fought in human history -- the most in the 20th century. The majority of wars were fought for religious reasons and causes. Yet men say that God is one and god is love, et al.

What is it in man that makes him fight/ kiil for the concept of god? What do you think of the idea that the only infidel, terrorist, or fanatic is the one who kills in the name of god? What is the way out of this situation?
If, indeed, god is one and love, how can man continually wreak havoc and destroy each another? How can man achieve a state of tolerance and compassion?

What is your vision for an ideal place where all peoples can live without fear of bombs and thuggery?


Like I said, I don't even know where to begin with this. If you don't want to discuss it or would rather I remove this please just let me know.

My opinion on the "holy wars" throughout history is that for some reason people have a hard time accepting that differences in beliefs are ok. They tend to assume that any beliefs that differ from their own, whether they be religious, cultural, or otherwise, are WRONG, and they fight wars over this. I feel like humankind would do much better if they would accept that it's ok for different people to believe different things and have different cultures, and that there is no one right way.

The reason for Holy Wars--a polytheistic take.

Now, I'm not going to say that polytheistic religions are any "better" or anything than monotheistic ones; the Gods know that the Greeks were great warfarers and had two deities specifically attached to the concept.

But wars in those days were for land, territory. Not over god for the most part. In fact, as Ancient Greece spread, the gods of other lands were either ignored, looked at as epithets (aspects of the major Gods) or syncreted into the religion, as Isis and Dionysos were.

Holy war didn't really begin until the Holy Roman Empire wanted to conquor the world. A monotheistic religion where ONE god was teh RIGHT god and all others were devils, deviants from teh status qo that was trying to be established. It's because people who worship a single deity (remember, this is all my own opinion) tend to think in terms of one and only one for everything. How many Buddist or Native Americans or Recons touting about their way being the only way? very few compared the the many Christians, Muslims and Jews (although Judaism tends to fall outside of the normal monotheistic model having been so repressed) that feel this way.

Honestly, I hadn't either until I made the post. I'm going to have to expand about the concept in my LJ.

Wow! That's a pretty unnecessary comment. Aren't we all adults here and able to use "big words" in order to get our points across? I've actually been pondering this subject for a couple days but this specific comment has kept me from actually posting. I'm sure I'm overreacting, but imho this comment trivializes the time and thought put into the posts that are already here. I apologize if that's not how it was meant, I'm just stating how I interpreted it.

With regards to my beliefs, it's something I'm going to have to sit down and try and put into words. I consider myself and ecclectic wiccan...almost to the point of just being an ecclectic pagan. I kind of pick and choose ideas and beliefs and traditions from all walks of spiritual life and incorporate them into me. For instance, I'm not Catholic, but that doesn't stop me from burning my Virgen de Guadalupe candles all the time.

I'll get back to this topic, I'm sure *huggles* heart

Sorry I said anything at all. I was only trying to lighten things a bit. With such a serious subject a little levity is always a good thing. I guess I'll just keep my mouth shut now.