maggie

Wow, Fred, I guess I agree with most of your spiritual beliefs. I do, however, also believe that as Flowperson said, there is an underlying unity to it all. I don't share your political beliefs but we all have a right to our own political persuasions. I think you will have a lot to contribute to the discussions here and I look forward to more of your posts.

I think that God mainly uses our hands, feet and hearts to answer prayer. Mainly, I think he uses our hearts, though. I have recently been reading some of Larry Dosey's work on prayer research and also I've been reading about research that shows that our intentions affect outcomes. That has made me wonder if it our intention for the person we are praying for that influences the outcome rather than intervention by God. However, I also believe that God is the life-giving energy that infuses all of life, including us, so maybe it's the part of us that that has God's spark (our soul or spirit?) that is used to answer prayers. I'd really love to see any feedback on these two ideas you might have. I'm just in the process of working through these concepts so all new insights are welcome.

It's interesting, but I know several folks who were real fundamentalists at one time. Then their faith got shaken because they couldn't believe every word in the Bible and they became athiests. They rail against the fundamentalists and their propensity of insisting they have the TRUTH but these athiests now insist that their lack of belief in God is the TRUTH. So they went from black and white on the right to black and white on the left. Seems to me that they are just some of those folks who have to be right and have all the answers sewed up in a neat little package.

The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck Peace is the Way by Deepak Chopra

This topic is of real interest to me because just yesterday I had one of those a-ha moments about it. I have struggled for some time with trying to find a way to deal with my distaste for fundamentalists. I want to be inclusive and accepting of all faiths but struggle to accept fundamentalist beliefs because they exclude and condemn. Anyway, I have improved in dealing with this over time, but yesterday I had a real a-ha about the whole thing. I was thinking about how things must have been when Columbus set off to discover a passage to the Orient. Most of the people stayed in the 'Old World' and only a few went with Columbus. I'm sure there were many who stayed behind who thought Columbus was totally nuts, but I'm sure there were others who rather envied him and his crew. What I also realized, though, is that both those who stayed behind and Columbus and his men had a necessary role to play in the development of our world. I was able to see the value of both the 'stay at homes' and the 'adventurers'. Then my mind went to the whole concept of conservative versus progressive religious values and that's when the a-ha happened. I realized that just as there was value in those who stayed in the 'Old World', so too there is value in those who stay in a conservative faith. That was a HUGE realization for me. I had to stop and really think about it. However, the more I thought about the analogy, the more I realized that it was true. Being an explorer myself, I see far more value in those who are like Columbus, but just as I can not deny that those who stayed at home had a role to play, I can no longer deny that those who remain in their comfortable pew have some role as well. This whole thing made me realize that we are all on a continuum, with those of us who are 'seekers' being spread along the left side of that continuum and those who are 'conservative' being spread along the right side of it. I also came to see that all are necessary. However, I know that even with this new understanding I will still struggle when I hear fundamentalists say that others are going to hell or that they (the fundamentalists) have the ONLY TRUTH. I will have to continue to develop compassion for them and will work to do that, but I know that this a-ha has helped me see things in a better light. Hope these thoughts might be of some help.

The Road Less Traveled is one of my all-time favorite books. Peck was an awesome author. I was so sad to hear recently that he had died.