Category: Religion
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Existence
Dualism is the concept that matter and consciousness are separate. As hydrogen and oxygen combine to form water, so matter and consciousness combine to form existence–or life. At some point when the body dies, the conscious portion is split away while the body decomposes to a different form of matter. Non-dualism is the notion that…
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Nothing Lasts but the Land
He told me that nothing lasts but the land. “The land boy! That abides long after you and I.” But it doesn’t. One day we and the land will be gone. One day the sun will fade and die And all the stars will go silent as well. And it will be as though none of this…
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Don’t tell me what you believe…
I don’t want to know what you believe. I don’t care what your politics are Whether you believe in God Or if you have religion or not. Please don’t speak of What makes one person good and another evil Or your judgements about Who should love whom or What others should or should not do. Be done with your beliefs…
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Comos upon Cosmos
The Hubble telescope has transformed the way we humans see the universe. We knew it was large and expensive but none of us perceived the vastness and enormity of it all. We are learning that there are billions of galaxies along with billions of individual stars within these galaxies. The matter that makes up all of…
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Being Jesus in the World
The following story from the Stillwater News Press best illustrates what I think it means to be like Jesus in the world about us. In the end, it’s less about what you believe and more of what you do. LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Thanks to Good Samaritans who aided us at grocery store Posted: Saturday,…
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The Least of These Brothers
It was a wet and cold Oklahoma day. It had been raining the day before and the temperatures were in the 30s. The 40-year-old man stood holding a sign at the intersection of Memorial Road and May Avenue. He had been there for the past three hours asking for money. His clothes were damp and…
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If you are human–read this book!
Ken Sande’s book: The Peacemaker: A Biblical Guide to Resolving Personal Conflict has meant so much to me. I have read it numerous times and am amazed at how practical and biblical it is. If you are a human–you need this book! I will not dwell upon this incident any longer. I will not bring up…
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Religion and the Liberal Bargain
In his book, The Religious Test, Damon Linker describes what he calls The Liberal Bargain. It works like this. In America, we are given a constitutional right for Freedom of Religion. In order to have this freedom, no religion can exert control over others. The moment one religion decides to use the legal process to exert control…
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Charter for Compassion
From Wikipedia. Karen Armstrong is known for her books on comparative religion and wrote a well-recognized book A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam Her work focuses on commonalities of the major religions, such as the importance of compassion and the Golden Rule.