Ancient mystery religions and the possible psychedelic roots of Christianity

I could not disagree more and am sad that you have reached this "conclusion".

 

Have you looked at any of the research? You are waxing poetic nonsense. What we call Love is a chemical reaction that happens in the brain. Cat scans have shown it. Try thinking instead of relying on faith.

 

Christmas is pretty close to the winter solstice and Easter is close to planting time.

 

Do you have a basis for moral indignation that rises above the epistemological level of a snake’s hiss ?

 

On December 25 (the winter solstice according to the ancient Roman calendar) the Romans held a festival called the Saturnalia (in honor of the god Saturn). It expanded to a weeklong celebration starting on December 17. Its traditions included merrymaking, feasting, and giving gifts. It's no coincidence, of course, that Christmas is celebrated on December 25. Actually Jesus was probably born in the spring, given the shepherds in the field with their flocks at the time.

 

Thanks for that. You and I are alike strugglers.

Majoring in religion nearly destroyed the faith of my youth. None of my professors were Christians. I took Father Michael Gannon’s Comparative Religions course and came out comparatively religious.

Where you and I may differ is that, over time, I scrutinized the boilerplate arguments against Christianity. And along the way I came to doubt my doubts.

Germaine to our discussion, I came to doubt my ability to divine an “essential Jesus”, a Buddha-like Jesus, just another dead moral exemplar.

I still have my doubts. I’ve often confessed to being an agnostic every-other-Tuesday. But I’ve settled into the understanding that faith does not preclude doubt, but that my doubts have their limitations.

I do not believe that Buddhism and the Bible can honestly be reconciled.

 

I'm sorry someone hurt you. But I dont understand why you respond like you do.

And stop acting like I didnt get educated from the same textbooks that you did.

That chemical reaction has an origin man and no matter how deep you dive, you cant answer those questions.

Life and love are miraculous. They are not something we can just make happen.

I believe in science. I just believe science explains the basics of what a creator did.

 

So well said.

Doubt is essential for faith.
Without doubt faith can not exist.

 

Quite the romantic there Danny boy!

 

Viagra is proof that love is just chemistry.

 

Huh, you seem more confident about what life means and when it begins when you are talking about abortion, lots of you guys even say its science

 

“Unfortunately”? LOL. I think your case study is a perfect example of transference.

 

Huh, nice try.
Science can tell is when life exists, it can not really explain what fires it off and on at a deeper level.

 

Sure it can, maybe the explanation isn't satisfying to you (who wants to think love is a chemical reaction or release of hormones?), but it can explain those things.

 

It’s like they put their fingers in their ears and say la la la I can’t hear you.

 

You're just repeating what was already said, and my response is the same as it was earlier.

 

Its like you put your hands over your eyes and say if I cant see it and physically observe it, it can't be true.

 

Chemistry explains primortal attraction; desire to mate and propagate; desire to survive, to live, to protect one's own...

It has @#$# all to do with a person sacrificing for another's comfort; empathizing with their pain; understanding their emotions, feelings, moods and such; catering to them.....

Chemistry explains a bird feeding her younglings, a mate fighting for the best of the opposite gender....it does not approach a mother and/or father setting aside their own interests, dreams and desires, to swan diving into the gutter to retrieve a wayward drug addicted child.... taking on extra jobs, forgoing their own dreams, to pay for their child to go to college... to forgo so many other mating opportunities, and remain committed to one single mate, even if it means no offspring (where one is sterile and the other not, for instance...).

Chemistry =/= love.

To attempt to equate the 2, is a pathetic, twisted dilution of love.

That might garner you sympathy; not respect.