Well, just think aboot it, Christopherin...if everyone were to take enough responsibility for their actions and their beliefs (which would include the realization where those beliefs come from, from themselves and not from some outside agency, so included there would be both knowledge and wisdom), then there would be no need for Deities (in the sense of 100 per cent 'in the know' beings outside of ourselves that tell us what to do and how to do it; in effect abrogating one's responsibility for their own actions and beliefs). They'll realize that it is people who are important, people in relationship with everything else who make the world run and, from that, will come having to work together.

I think that the politicans of the now know on some level that they are becoming obsolete and they are scrambling to figure out what role they can play in the future world.

And working together globally will mean, by definition, that some beliefs, actions, philosophies will not be used (as they won't be conducive to such a society). Rather, instead of one overarching B.S. that will never account for everything because, everything changes eventually, people will be able to adopt different B.S. consciously.

Grace and forgiveness would show itself in such things as criminal laws, where we would get rid of the 'revenge' aspect of our laws and actually try to help people.

Sketchily,
Inannawhimsey

While I personally am against polygamy, it is not for biblical reasons. In both Jewish and Christian scripture polygamy seems to be implicitly accepted as a social institution. The only exception seems to be if you wish to become a bishop. In that case you should be the husband of one wife. I am not sure whether Paul is speaking of multiple or serial marriage. But, good news ladies, polyandry is not mentioned at all.

Acceptance of Sodomy, Acceptance of divorcees, Acceptance of Sabbath workers, Acceptance of premarital relations, and, acceptance of women ministers. Oh can you smell what the rock is cooking next?

Hmmm... is it just homosexual sodomy? I thought a husband can 'plow his field' any way he likes. Need some scholarship on heterosexual sodomy of women, please, so I am accurate and thus be Saved.

What do we do with divorcees if we don't accept them? Reject them? India has a good system for this. Widows are cast on the streets to be beggars. Perhaps this could be modified to show our displeasure at divorced women?

Acceptance of Sabbath workers. Okay. Refuse work on a Sunday and get fired. Then the Christian community can give you charity to survive. Hey! Creating a market for classic Christianity!

Premarital relations. So true. What's causing it? Well, need some legal theologians on this. Let's see. Is it bad because it makes babies out of wedlock? If so, then if birth control stops it, then lets outlaw birth control and get back on track! Now, I know in Medieval times, the engagement period before marriage was a time to get the woman pregnant, to ensure she could produce children. Was this the practice when the Bible was written? If so, then only premarital sex if you have a diamond on your finger. And if we outlaw birth control, even in marriage, then we can get back to weighing down women at home so much, they'll remain barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen and stop threatening men at work! Excellent wisdom.

We need to make sex serious again, threatening and dangerous, not just a 'squirt' like birth control reduces it to.

Women ministers? Got that right. It's bad enough listening to men. Who wants to hear women harping about what's wrong with you at Church, when you constantly are getting it at home. A little bit of Grace, one hour a week.

Let's see, Jesus was celibate and Solomon had hundreds of wives and sex slaves. Which to choose? How much of a man are you?

You betcha. I forsee a day, in the Near Now, when husbands and wives will be able to switch places in the literal sense, and children and their parents will be able to switch places in the literal sense.

Pregnant men. Pregnant women. Pregnant women who used to be men then changing back into men sans baby, or putting the baby into some kind of 'holding pattern'.

We will be able to choose our bodies as we now choose clothing. We will be able to 'dial up' personalities and attitudes. Say, we want to spend a week on the moon as a 12 year old boy in the literal sense.

Imagine being able to enter a device that destroys your body and makes an exact copy of it hundreds of kms away where 'you' will step out.

Imagine living as a distributed intelligence a la honey bees, having one consciousness and multiple bodies.

Imagine discovering that suns are alive and sentient and being married to them. Or being married to black holes. Or galaxies. Or universe. Or downloading your self into magnetic fields that suffuse the solar system...

Eventually, we will be able to choose to be 'ugly' and 'beautiful' or 'stupid' or 'brilliant' as art.

We will be able to parse what it is like to be a cat from their point of view.

Imagine being able to be in a computer virtual reality simulation that is so real, you can be with whom and what you wish, all in the safety of your own living room. Or, delving into your inner worlds, the worlds of your imagination, perhaps while you're sleeping or just as a quick 'downtime', and spending a lifetime, seemingly, with the most amazing and handsome guy in the world. Many of them if you want to. And then you wake up :3

Imagine a world where one doesn't have to worry aboot death. That any death will be voluntary and temporary, because there will be 'backups'.

The world is getting more and more stupendous every moment.

Peace be to you and yours,
Inannawhimsey

"Now put that on a church level, and see the disasterous outcomes."

I think, Christopherin, that that is one of the consequences of free will. We have the ability to do whatever we want to do, but that means we have to take responsibility for those actions.

It means we should learn to take responsibility for our own ideas as well, since they are ours, our interpretation, our self-creative acts of whatever it is that is going on 'out there'.

And I think this has been proven time and time again that taking responsibility is seen as a very big burden. So we give our responsibility for our actions to other people, like politicans, or Goddessess, and think of life passively, as something that happens TO us.

When life is something that happens WITH us. We are co-creators.

So, in a sense, if we were to live authentically, with full responsibility, I think the Catholic Church wouldn't stand a chance. It would break up even further. Who knows what would come out of it? It is a paradox: the Church, in order to be 'the Church' has to provide a certain point of view, etc, but in order to survive time, it has to change, just like everything else.

Which is where I think the world is heading.

SunWarrior said: "I thought a husband can 'plow his field' any way he likes"

That hurt me... so...much...

I hope this was a kind of joke. I would like to understand what you meant by that please.

Thanks in advance,
Matt

The one comment that struck me was freedom and the relativistic nature of reverence, respect and fear taken from the Hebrew word "allal."

Can you imagine why authorities would chose fear out of the ambiguities in the Hebrew? Would there he an alternate ... an alter ego involved that had no concern for the Pagan ... the common folk?

It's generally the way visions travel from on high .. through a Haze --- Isaiah 7:11.