Caliope on "spirituality" and "the soul"

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

So basically what you are suggesting is that the African bushmen and the Buddist monks got it all right, and the Christians got it all wrong?

Now, can you answer the following questions:

Originally Posted by Logic please

do you claim that your god has any interaction in the natural, material world?

Originally Posted by Logic please

if you wish to advance a concept of "soul" or "spirit", how does this exist outside of human bodies and brains?

Originally Posted by Crocodile

If your god asked you to kill somebody then would you do it? <YES|NO>: _

Originally Posted by Jaar-Gilon

If the kingdom of god resides in me it must be made of something. What is it made of?

Originally Posted by Protium

Why did you not capitalise the C in christian?
Even my iPad spell checker tries to do that!!

Are you telling porkies?

And also I have a question about your very Christian behavior:

Originally Posted by Caliope

Atheists are spiritually retarded by choice, they have disabled their highest faculty, to only believe in the tangible carnal things, things that they can see, touch and measure scientifically.

Originally Posted by Caliope

No didn't mean it that way Mr Black, I really didn't.

I could have perhaps used another word though, I concede.

I'm sorry if that offended.

What does "retarded" mean, and if you didn't mean it "that way" then what did you mean?

I have been called "retarded" many times in my life, and spent the first few years of my education in a satellite class for autistics. I want to know what you mean by "retarded" there.

Then go about telling me what you mean by "spiritually retarded"

Answer the above question at least before you start acting like a "victim" then.

I must admit I have a suspicion that you are not really a good Christian at all...

[RealityRules]

.
How about ....

Spirituality, to me, is a state of contentedness gleaned from conflating the notions of belief in supernatural events & entities and the hope of an afterlife.

Soul is the notion one's self-ascribed "good character" persists after death.

Edit/Add

Originally Posted by Caliope

. .. spirituality is not about scientific evidence but about intangible spiritual realities.

The soul is powerful spiritual faculty not a scientifically quantifiable faculty.

"intangible [spiritual] realities" - intangible & realities are contradictions so the phrase is an oxymoron.

The notion of soul may be powerful to believers, but ....
.

[Xeno]

Originally Posted by Caliope

How about we open another thread?

Happy to do so, just as soon as you have answered questions in this thread.

I see your solution for soul is NOMA shit. GM & LP have precedence on working you over on that one.

My next interest is in seeing your answer to Croc's question.

[Caliope]

Originally Posted by Logic please

@Cal: if your last two posts is not your orginal content, please provide links and cites to the source sites or documents.

And on the subject of sources, wiki can be a good reference, but not in preference to original documents and evidence. Many posters quoted you the firsthand source (Chinese Constitution), but you are desperately clinging to your secondary source (wiki), methinks because it suits your preconceptions.

I have a direct question: do you claim that your god has any interaction in the natural, material world?

And another: if you wish to advance a concept of "soul" or "spirit", how does this exist outside of human bodies and brains?

Yes, but God does not just interact in the natural and material world, He actually holds it in existence.

As we put it in spiritual terms " I him we live and move and have our being"

It's not so much that everything would fall to pieces without God, it's more that everything would actually cease to exist without him. Because everything proceeds from him.

I was given this by seeing it's reality spiritually, it is by insight or better awareness.
You become aware light is a person, and energy is a person, and love is a person.

It is very confronting to be aware of a person when you first enter the spiritual world, a person who is at once strange, but also very familiar. But He is a distinct Person who is timeless and absolute.

It is very hard to explain to someone who has no spiritual life, but exists in a carnal tangible reality.
But I'll try to elaborate further if you have other questions.
Forgive me if I'm not explaining it properly.

[davo]

Originally Posted by Caliope

What evidence do you need to believe in God?

I could list heaps of things, complex stuff that is testable, repeatable that would satisfy me.

First you will have to define your god to me, so I know what you are talking about.

And where have you looked for the evidence?

Where have you looked for the evidence of leprechauns?

basically its the same thing, I speak to leprechaun (god) believers and the concepts of a god that they put forward, fails to convince me enough to believe in it. Therefore I have no belief, therefore, atheist.

[loubert]

Yep..... definitely the next Deepak Chopra.

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

Caliope: "It is very hard to explain to someone who has no spiritual life"

I used to have a spiritual life. I was a muslim. Then I became a christian. Then a muslim again. Then a "no religion" deist dude. Then a christian. Then a "no religion" deist dude.

Eventually I became an atheist.

I used to believe I could interact with ghosts, had six senses, and god speaks to me. Hell yeah, I used to also believe I could talk to Elvis and other dead people, and I could also hear them talking back to me. In fact even these days (as an atheist) I still hear a beautiful angel speaking to me with a soothing voice. Even I know that it is not real. And I do not even smoke dope, nor do I use methamphetamine.

Now tell me again about these "non-spiritual" or "spiritually retarded" (AS YOU CALLED US) people.

A polite request: please aswer the questions instead of ignoring them and acting like you own the forums.

You have expressed your beliefs here as if they are true, and you have been asked several questions about them.

[Voltairine]

It's not so much that everything would fall to pieces without God, it's more that everything would actually cease to exist without him. Because everything proceeds from him.

I have no doubt that some people would fail to function in a world without a belief in a god but that's not evidence of a god's (any gods') existence.

[two dogs]

Originally Posted by Caliope

...
Forgive me if I'm not explaining it properly.

I'll forgive you, but only if you believe that I am Jesus; otherwise you're going to burn in Hell for eternity.

[RealityRules]

.
Caliope, @ 5.23pm (#156) You are engaging in Hypostatization -

attributing actual existence or qualities of actual existents to something that is only a name, a relationship, or abstraction.