Live life to its fullest... 100 Years
None of us know how long we have on this amazing planet...
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Friday, October 2, 2009
free to discover
I wrote about the results of a quiz that I took over at beliefnet back on April 1st of this year. It had interesting results as you can see if you click here where I wrote about it then. This morning I took the quiz again. I was interested to see if any shift had taken place in the past six months. Well, actually I knew that a shift had taken place, as it would in anyone who was deconstructing their faith. I just wanted to know what it looked like compared to the last one.
Obviously this is no scientific study, so a grain of salt should be thrown in with the results. The percentages show that I agree with some of the doctrines which are represented in the test for each particular religion. Here's the way I tested today:
1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Liberal Quakers (94%)
3. Secular Humanism (92%)
4. Neo-Pagan (92%)
5. Taoism (90%)
6. New Age (87%)
7. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (86%)
8. Mahayana Buddhism (86%)
9. Theravada Buddhism (86%)
10. New Thought (79%)
11. Scientology (79%)
12. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (72%)
13. Nontheist (71%)
14. Reform Judaism (71%)
15. Baha'i Faith (68%)
16. Sikhism (65%)
17. Orthodox Quaker (62%)
18. Jainism (56%)
19. Hinduism (44%)
20. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (44%)
21. Islam (42%)
22. Orthodox Judaism (42%)
23. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (38%)
24. Eastern Orthodox (27%)
25. Roman Catholic (27%)
26. Seventh Day Adventist (27%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (8%)
It's interesting to me to note the order and which religions "clump" together in the list. Drawing attention to the bottom of the list shows that #'s 20, 21, and 22 are the three main monotheistic religions in the world today. So their differences, in my mind, are not great. All three being basically legalistic in nature. The fact is that all religions have a lot of commonality. (It's not that I'm schizophrenic.)
Interestingly the religion in last place on my list remained the same. You'd think the Jehovah's Witnesses would change their tactics now because I see them all the time walking past my house. They actually are the only religious people I see these days. So obviously their witnessing program isn't working on me. (Meant to be humorous, in case not understood.)
Mainline to conservative Christian/Protestant (#20) has dropped 43 percentage points from 87% six months ago to 44% today. Anyone reading this who has known me personally or known of my physical existence (as in church attendance) in the past, may wonder what has happened to Mary.
Over the past four years I've been searching for an authentic, new way to live my life. The "ah-ha" moments have been many during this time. And I'm most assuredly not finished with the process... hopefully, never will be.
The reading and studying I've done over the past 2 1/2 years of different religions of the world has been very interesting to say the least. From conservative protestant (which is where I started), to liberal protestant, to universalism, to eastern religions, to non-deity, and many in between, I've had opportunity to consider a conglomeration of ideas. There is one prevailing theme in most. Most religions teach a way to God and have created doctrines to help people get there and/or to make sense of their very human lives on this planet.
It has been and is a great adventure. Everyday something new presents itself to be discovered. The only way a person can do what I'm doing is if they feel they don't know much about anything in particular. I'm happily content to admit that I know basically little about life's purpose or meaning. Before disillusionment and reality forced themselves into my life several years back, I would have never afforded myself this luxury. I didn't love the process initially but I do now. I feel genuinely free to discover life for the first time ever.
Obviously this is no scientific study, so a grain of salt should be thrown in with the results. The percentages show that I agree with some of the doctrines which are represented in the test for each particular religion. Here's the way I tested today:
1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2. Liberal Quakers (94%)
3. Secular Humanism (92%)
4. Neo-Pagan (92%)
5. Taoism (90%)
6. New Age (87%)
7. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (86%)
8. Mahayana Buddhism (86%)
9. Theravada Buddhism (86%)
10. New Thought (79%)
11. Scientology (79%)
12. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (72%)
13. Nontheist (71%)
14. Reform Judaism (71%)
15. Baha'i Faith (68%)
16. Sikhism (65%)
17. Orthodox Quaker (62%)
18. Jainism (56%)
19. Hinduism (44%)
20. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (44%)
21. Islam (42%)
22. Orthodox Judaism (42%)
23. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (38%)
24. Eastern Orthodox (27%)
25. Roman Catholic (27%)
26. Seventh Day Adventist (27%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (8%)
It's interesting to me to note the order and which religions "clump" together in the list. Drawing attention to the bottom of the list shows that #'s 20, 21, and 22 are the three main monotheistic religions in the world today. So their differences, in my mind, are not great. All three being basically legalistic in nature. The fact is that all religions have a lot of commonality. (It's not that I'm schizophrenic.)
Interestingly the religion in last place on my list remained the same. You'd think the Jehovah's Witnesses would change their tactics now because I see them all the time walking past my house. They actually are the only religious people I see these days. So obviously their witnessing program isn't working on me. (Meant to be humorous, in case not understood.)
Mainline to conservative Christian/Protestant (#20) has dropped 43 percentage points from 87% six months ago to 44% today. Anyone reading this who has known me personally or known of my physical existence (as in church attendance) in the past, may wonder what has happened to Mary.
Over the past four years I've been searching for an authentic, new way to live my life. The "ah-ha" moments have been many during this time. And I'm most assuredly not finished with the process... hopefully, never will be.
The reading and studying I've done over the past 2 1/2 years of different religions of the world has been very interesting to say the least. From conservative protestant (which is where I started), to liberal protestant, to universalism, to eastern religions, to non-deity, and many in between, I've had opportunity to consider a conglomeration of ideas. There is one prevailing theme in most. Most religions teach a way to God and have created doctrines to help people get there and/or to make sense of their very human lives on this planet.
It has been and is a great adventure. Everyday something new presents itself to be discovered. The only way a person can do what I'm doing is if they feel they don't know much about anything in particular. I'm happily content to admit that I know basically little about life's purpose or meaning. Before disillusionment and reality forced themselves into my life several years back, I would have never afforded myself this luxury. I didn't love the process initially but I do now. I feel genuinely free to discover life for the first time ever.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
mysterious grace
from Deepak Chopra's Why Is God Laughing?
"Grace shines like a sliver of light. It penetrates the universe, undeterred by distance or darkness. You won't see it, but it knows where it is going. At any moment someone may be touched by its mysterious power."
Friday, September 25, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
affliction
"Affliction makes God appear to be absent for a time, more absent than a dead man, more absent than light in the utter darkness of a cell. A kind of horror submerges the soul. During this absence there is nothing to love. What is terrible is that if, in this darkness where there is nothing to love, the soul ceases to love, God's absence becomes final. The soul has to go on loving in the emptiness, or at least to go on wanting to love, though it may only be with an infinitesimal part of itself. Then, one day, God will come to show himself to this soul and to reveal the beauty of the world to it, as in the case of Job. But if the soul stops loving it falls, even in this life, into something almost equivalent to hell." Simone Weil
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
what's in the suitcase?
"A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side." Aristotle
The world we live in, the worldly systems of politics, religion, and economics, determines our external lives. But it's our choice as to our internal living and its effect on us. Life flows from the inside out. It is present regardless of whether we realize it or not. Unpack the suitcase and look inside. You might be amazed.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
an awesome butterfly
NASA has finished tweaking the Hubble telescope after it received equipment updates last spring. Yesterday it released the newest photos on its website. It is fascinating to think about how we can see the universe this way.
Click on the picture to blow it up. The folks at NASA explain...
This celestial object looks like a delicate butterfly. But it is far from serene.
What resemble dainty butterfly wings are actually roiling cauldrons of gas heated to more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The gas is tearing across space at more than 600,000 miles an hour—fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon in 24 minutes!
A dying star that was once about five times the mass of the Sun is at the center of this fury. It has ejected its envelope of gases and is now unleashing a stream of ultraviolet radiation that is making the cast-off material glow. This object is an example of a planetary nebula, so-named because many of them have a round appearance resembling that of a planet when viewed through a small telescope.
NGC 6302 lies within our Milky Way galaxy, roughly 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. The glowing gas is the star's outer layers, expelled over about 2,200 years. The "butterfly" stretches for more than two light-years, which is about half the distance from the Sun to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri.
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