Nativity My Ass - The Reality Of Jesus's Birth

[Sensible Shoes]

Good!

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Now see? Who the hell ELSE here even knows who Harry James is?????

[thome]

I am kinda a more of a Bob James kinda guy, does that count.

[chefcraig]

I am kinda a more of a Bob James kinda guy, does that count.

No kidding? A couple of months ago, he put out a pretty decent anthology. Highly recommended for the novice and the real fan.

THE VERY BEST OF BOB JAMES

[GO-SPURS-GO]

So I choose to respect what you believe as well as your right to evangelize. Merry Christmas.

I know this was directed at ELVIS, but I just wanted to say that I think it was cool of you to say that!

Oh.. Merry Christmas to you, too!

[Golden AWe]

That is really silly...

There is a man-made theory about EVERYTHING!

The nature is the God, and our only God.

The Nature will always have larger powers than man, and no matter how we try, nature will always be greater than man...we can use it, and can resist it somehow, but we will never be able to control it, totally. And funny thing is the only thing that has UNNATURAL forces and superpowers is the nature.

[ZahZoo]

That is really silly...

There is a man-made theory about EVERYTHING!

Well that statement just cut right to the bottom line on all elements of the subject matter being discussed here!!

[Ally_Kat]

At Easter we can have a thread about how Jesus death absolutely and historically could not have happened the way it is claimed now.

This is the thing with the Jesus story, take away the nativity and the crucifixian and what are you left with?

The amazing thing is that if you listen to a really senior expert theologian like the current Archbishop of Cantebury he will agree that the nativity story is not factual and did not happen the way it is usually described.

They just don't mention that too much to the sheep in case it worries them...

I don't want to get into a debate here because we all have strong beliefs and no one's going to convert either side here. However, I just wanted to point out one thing: I have to laugh at the Catholic comments. I know we have a pretty crappy past and I know there's a lot of disagreement about birth control, but when it comes to a lot you guys point out - time, location, etc - the Church brings this up and mentions how the Gospels weren't written to preserve history but for a specific people experiencing specific problems in a specific time. We're not selling a word-by-word translation of the Bible. We sell more the moral of the story with some guidelines that come from them.

We were big bad wolf back in the Middle Ages, but now we have the Baptists and Pentecostals to worry about. They're the ones going on about how dinosaurs didn't exist and men can't have long hair cuz it's the way of the devil.

[Nitro Express]

Since we're on a religious rant...there is a great book that is conversations with the Dalai Lama Amazon.com: Healing Emotions: Conversations with the Dalai Lama on Mindfulness, Emotions, and Health (9781590300107): Daniel Goleman: Books

What really stood out in this book was there is no perfect life...
that's just a bunch of bullshit made up by advertising guys to sell you shit you don't want or need(that's my line, BTW).

We all want everything to be perfect and there is no such thing. When going through hard times, remember in the grand scheme of your life it is but a small amount of time and we tend to blow things way out of proportion. Jobs come and go, nice things come and go, relationships come and go but things never stay the same forever.....sounds gay but it helped me during my darkest hours.

Yup. You can't control the world but you can control your own attitude and amazingly Jesus was right when he said what you think you become. If you are negative your life will become negative and if you are positive and act on your positive thinking, amazingly your life will turn around.

The world is controlled by a small minority of powerful people who use religion, the media, politicians, banks, and corporations to control us. People who have no self-esteem seem to be easy to manipulate. One reason powerful people don't want us to be self-fulfilled. They want us on their drugs, addicted to their entertainment, and voting and doing things because the status quo demands we do. Political parties, fashion, trends, religions for the most part are all the same game of image control.

[Nitro Express]

No, we are not...

We all are creators and whether it be bad or good is up to us. We have way more power than we think and that is what those who control others don't want us to figure out. So let's invent some father figure in the sky who we can cry to and who will fix things for us. All we have to do is believe. It's Santa Clause for adults and it puts us all to sleep while fear and shame are used to control us. God is a living free man. Bob Marley had it right.

[Nitro Express]

Actually, there is a theory that God is in fact simply the human race.

God is creation and we are part of it as is everything else. The native Americans have it right.

[Nitro Express]

Everyone has God inside of them. What they do with it is up to them.

[Nitro Express]

Jesus taught if we were aware of our abilities and had a mustard seed of faith, we could perform the same miracles he did. I believe this was his message and the Jews he was trying to teach just turned him into the sacrificial lamb of Yom Kippur. If you really read what Jesus was teacher there was no chosen people and his main enemy was the church itself. What Christians are is what Jesus was trying to teach people from becoming. He saw all races and people as equal and love not dogma was his teaching. Jesus was hijacked.

[Sensible Shoes]

I"ve kind of believed that over the years. Jesus was doing one thing and his followers turned it into something quite different after his death. Hey, you've got 12 guys, not all terribly educated, some are going to "get it" and stick to the message and others are likely to play it for all the money they can milk out of it. I think both things survived. If they hadn't, even Sesh wouldn't be bothering to be so angry. For me, it comes down to "listen to the message, screw the details."

[FORD]

God is creation and we are part of it as is everything else. The native Americans have it right.

Well, SOME of the Native Americans do anyway. Our resident self proclaimed Apache.... not so much.

[Hardrock69]

Well, I am at least.

Uh, no. You are a pile of bones somewhere in the Middle East.