Quote from southamerica:
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April 12, 2007
SouthAmerica: Reply to Nitro
The book we now know as the Bible was compiled at the end of the fourth century A.D.
Around the year 350 A.D. two completely separate groups of the church went through all kinds of literature of the time and they decided which texts should belong to this new book that they were creating that eventually became what we know today as the Bible.
The Church left out of their selection for one reason or another many texts that people used at that time as part of religious Gospel. Some of the literature was suppressed by the Church, because it did not fit the churchâs thinking of that time, and these texts were not included among the chosen Gospels that became the Bible.
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Wrong again:Quote from rcanfiel:
A) C) Having faith in the infinite is not at all incompatible with science. Do you think Albert Einstein is an atheist? Most of the 18th and 19th century European and American inventors and scientists were serious believers. Many of the current scientists are religious. But again, you continue to miss the point.
Quote from man:
puh. that is too big a shoe for me. i am not there by far
but just from my little experience i can grant you that
the whole thing is definitely no hoax, no wishful thinking,
and actually has little to do with "belief". when you hear
that sound and it gets real loud you simply can't deny
it. and with your breath coming to rest you feel a
sensation on top your head or between the point between
the eyes and the top of your head. and you really feel
it. again, no wishful thinking. real feeling.
and along with these comes a feeling of rest, happiness,
awakefulness, however you want to call it. a small
thing that puts not a big grin but a little smile on
your face. and the whole thing can really build up from
day to day. and sometimes i experienced something
quite unique: the feeling that i am doing the exact
right thing in this very moment. not doing it too late
or too early or too little or too intense, just right. and
this feeling comes along with sensation of immense
power and trust. very, very amazing.
the highest state of yogic meditation is called nirvikalpa
samadhi and only few people ever reached it. this
state leaves the seeker without pulse and without
breath. the guru of my guru had reached this state.
he often entered nirvikalpa samadhi, sometimes
leaving a worrying little crowd behind, until he "came
back" quite many minutes later. though admittedly i
have not witnessed it myself. but among the people
it was well know fact for the medical doctors as well.
i just tell you this, because you asked about the highest
state. well, i guess that is it. experiencing complete
unity with god, the self, however you want to call it,
at will.
Quote from rcanfiel:
There is no BS. Your lack of analytic power on that last one was awe-inspiring. I truly think you could have heard the Gettysburg address, and been the only one in the audience who said "Is that all???"
Quote from rcanfiel:
It is obvious you are unmoved by anything that disagrees with your instinct to do this. [/B]
Quote from vhehn:
Wrong again:
It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.
-- Albert Einstein, 1954, from Albert Einstein: The Human Side, edited by Helen Dukas and Banesh Hoffman, Princeton University Press
The mystical trend of our time, which shows itself particularly in the rampant growth of the so-called Theosophy and Spiritualism, is for me no more than a symptom of weakness and confusion.
Albert Einstein, quoted in Madalyn Murray O'Hair, All the Questions You Ever Wanted to Ask American Atheists (1982) vol. ii., p. 29
To be sure, the doctrine of a personal God interfering with the natural events could never be refuted, in the real sense, by science, for this doctrine can always take refuge in those domains in which scientific knowledge has not yet been able to set foot. But I am persuaded that such behaviour on the part of the representatives of religion would not only be unworthy but also fatal. For a doctrine which is able to maintain itself not in clear light but only in the dark, will of necessity lose its effect on mankind, with incalculable harm to human progress....
Albert Einstein, Science, Philosophy, and Religion, A Symposium, published by the Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in Their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life, Inc., New York, 1941
http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/einstein.htm