Warning: If “God” triggers you, get out now.

I’m thinking about my whole sordid experience of growing up Mormon and its terrible consequences. I didn’t come here for that, did I? Or did I? What if I did choose the hell of all this. Maybe it was all for something. I didn’t like God for a long time. I was that shattered. That “men of God” could be so wrong in their thinking still amazes be, but I get it. They select for incompetence so nothing gets fixed. It just gets worse. They blindly follow waiting for their turn to steer the clown car. So I’m actually relieved to know that God has nothing to do with TSCC. It’s a bunch of posers stuck in a mental prison of their own making.

I wasn’t wrong to love my mom. I wasn’t wrong to love my dad. So maybe I was right to be so angry about TSCC screwing their lives up so much. And God sure as shit let it happen. Can a man judge God? Well he can sure try. But I think it’s a non-sequitur. Surely there was a point to this. Maybe grace is the point. Job didn’t tell God to go screw himself, but then Job didn’t have to watch a destructive cult wreck families year after year while pretending their shit doesn’t stink.

So, it’s a project. A big project. They say grace happens. Maybe it does, but if you have to work for it then it means something. I think God and I are okay now. I learned that grace comes from within. Mormons have everything backwards. If you can take the worst the world can throw at you and come out with grace, you have found heaven.

My Mom taught me grace the night she was strapped down in a hospital during the DTs for trying to kill people. She called me every name in the book...I realized I loved her in spite of her demonic possession.

Boy the stories you could tell, eh Boner?

There's so much to answer, and I'll regret a lot of what I write when I hit "send," but here goes.

First, I think grace is experienced within, but it doesn't come from within. It's external--it's source is God. One definition of grace, from AA, is that it is "an unmerited gift," something God does for or gives to you that you (we) cannot otherwise earn, achieve, or obtain.

The larger part of your post deals with the old, "why does a loving and all-powerful God allow this kind of crap to happen?" That is a question both infinite and eternal, subject of lots of books, sermons, and college papers. Not to mention a lot of very cynical remarks on this board! I'd be foolish to attempt an answer that is either persuasive or concise.

I will say that I am a Christian, and I also believe, as He is the Creator of an extraordinary cosmos in God's omniscience, and that we are neither the result of random chance in a huge universe, just as we are not the product of a trillion trillion monkeys writing code somewhere.Nor will I attempt to prove that empirically. But if my large God-thesis is true, then there is both design, purpose, and a destination of some kind, even if it is beyond human understanding. I base all this on a mix of personal experience, appreciation of thinkers, many who have preceded me and all who have exceeded me, and faith.

Last thought on "grace comes from within."Some people say, "Peace comes from within." Christ said, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid" (John 14.27)

Curiosity enough, I experienced that grace doing family history work. It was like a waking samadhi. I’ll chalk that up to ancestor worship, so maybe I was channeling my inner Buddha.

Maybe TSCC pushed all the right buttons. A lot of dead wood needed to be burned off. If you’re looking for assholes to mess with your life, why not hire the very best? I’d say they earned their money.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/2018 11:03AM by babyloncansuckit.

Somebody would have to show me some evidence of this "god" thing before I could even begin to figure out if humans could or couldn't judge it...though given that humans CAN judge everything that we know to exist, I'd have to come down preliminarily on the side of, "damn right we can judge god if it exists." :)

Your point about grace coming from within was hard-earned, and valid for everyone. Whether there's a god or not. Whether you chose this life or not. Whether you have some 'spirit' or not.

It's coming to grips with yourself, being at peace with yourself. It's liking who you are, and liking/loving others (sometimes even when they don't really deserve it). It's a conscious decision to live your life peacefully, seeking joy and love...rather than spending the one life you know you'll have being an ass to others and yourself.

And so, to grace from within...I raise a toast. And to babyloncansuckit, for finding that grace. May it fill your life with joy and love.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/14/2018 10:00AM by ificouldhietokolob.

For no useful purpose I will point out that ‘Grace’, ‘Joy’ and ‘Faith’ are female names in the English language, but not in Spanish.

From one perspective, grace and faith are simply opiates of the masses.

If you’re not in ‘the club’, the questions, “Have you been saved?” or, “Have you accepted Jesus?”, are close to being gibberish.

If a Yankees fan and a Dodgers fan discuss their true feelings about their teams, each one is bound to start preaching...

Go Meerkats!!

Jesse Ventura says religion is for the weak. For the sake of being an elitist snob, I’ll agree. But then, I’ve accepted Jesse Ventura as my personal savior. But only because Hulk Hogan was never governor.

Joe Pesci is going to be ticked

elderolddog Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> For no useful purpose I will point out that
> ‘Grace’, ‘Joy’ and ‘Faith’ are female
> names in the English language, but not in
> Spanish.
>
> From one perspective, grace and faith are simply
> opiates of the masses.
>
> If you’re not in ‘the club’, the questions,
> “Have you been saved?” or, “Have you
> accepted Jesus?”, are close to being gibberish.
>
> If a Yankees fan and a Dodgers fan discuss their
> true feelings about their teams, each one is bound
> to start preaching...
>
> Go Meerkats!!

I believe you are correct in your thinking to expose the dumb ideas on planet. Billions of people believe irrational ideas and assumptions to turn mortality's purpose into an eternal one by emotion. Dumb ideas.

How do we co-exist with these dumb ideas without going crazy ourselves? The world is a lunatic planet. How can our brains use 100% of its power when clogged with dumb ideas? The new wave is the flat earth theory. What a dumb idea. I do not want to discuss it because the idea is so stupid. Why are we going to waste time on such a stupid idea?

My point is, like Mormonism, billions of people are chugging along on 1% to 10% of the brain's mental power. The idea is classified as a myth, but is it? I don't know.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-people-only-use-10-percent-of-their-brains/

A lot of dumb ideas exist on the planet. Does it clog our brains? Or is it our spirit that gets clogged? I have no answers, just good questions that have no answer.

Maybe we are all equal to Einstein, but he learned to reject all irrational thought from his brain. Maybe he removed the dumb Biblical ideas from his brain and ignored the Bible and could care less about God because eternity is something outside of mortality; therefore, he didn't waste his time thinking about it. As far as I know, he believed in God rationally, but stepped out of box regarding the Bible.


He said the following about the Bible, and I agree with him. This quote is from a man full of rational idea, removing the clogged ideas based on by tradition that you reference in your quote:


"the word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish." For me," he added, "the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions."

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/24598856/ns/us_news-faith/t/einstein-letter-calls-bible-pretty-childish/#.W57PhPZFzIU

I don't agree with all of his views about God, but I agree with the view above. I would add "the interpretation by theologians of the word of God" to the beginning of the quote to absorb the astute ideas of Einstein.

How do we remove all these dumb ideas from the planet? Reason.

I am not Christian, but I do believe in beings greater than myself. We Pagans call them God/desses. When I first left the Morg, I still believed in an all powerful, all knowing God. Then, I was introduced to the Pagan Gods. At first, I thought they were all knowing and all powerful. After 30 years, my thoughts and beliefs are different. Now I believe that these Gods (all of them, including Yahweh) are simply more spiritually evolved beings. They are not all powerful, nor all knowing. They help where and when they can, but they can't do everything. Help you find your keys? Yup. End world hunger. Nope. Is there a creator god? I don't think so.

I am moved declare that I probably worship (worship-lite?) The Bell Shaped Curve.

Whatever happens to anyone, anywhere, it fits on The Bell Shaped Curve. It's all there...

I am sorry that the Christians do think deeply enough to communicate with Pagans in some social circles. This board is mature enough not to attack you, so you can say that you are a Pagan without being condemned by anyone.

Is he ok? It was not my intention.

From your story, I believe I am judging your mind correctly, I hope. I believe you lived on twisted light from the Bible created by theologians and religions. The Bible says to honor your parents because He/She gave them to you for a purpose to know good and evil. Honoring your parents is part of the first five commandments to love God. Honor is not love. God's grace is untwisting the light in your spirit it appears to me, which is a painful process for all of us to cleans the mind of bad ideas, especially if the ideas are connected to emotions of love. If this is not true about you, then you will have to tell me, so I don't misjudge you.

> God's grace is untwisting the light
> in your spirit it appears to me, which
> is a painful process for all of us to
> cleans(e) the mind of bad ideas, espe-
> cially if the ideas are connected to
> emotions of love.
>


I read the above to my good friend, Judic West, and he fainted...

I hope it's nothing serious.

I believe Anon the Great fell prey to the dreaded "posting out of place" calamity when he wrote:

>
> Is he ok? It was not my intention.
>


Yes, Anon the Great, Judic West is fine. He was just being the silly dolt that is his very nature. He'll be fine.