Made in God’s image. Yuk. Not me thanks.

acheivments of you biblerejecters=
here the image you chose-



miles of poopstreets,trashedup tentcities,
lovely downtowns marred by ugly spraypaint,burnt garbage in streets\
worst crisis of homless,autodwellers,moms w no help\
all ugly things you made happen\

Spoiler Alert! Mumbo Jumbo coming up!

I have no belief in any "God" conceived as being totally separate from his creation, thus an interventionist God who then inspires the writing of a particular book, then inspires certain chosen ones to bestow upon the book - and our world - its privileged interpretation.

Myths are found throughout our world, throughout all time. In Buddhism there are the Underground Bodhisattvas, who express the liberative potential within all of us, in the ground of the earth, in the psychological ground of being, ever ready to spring forth. As another has said, the image represents "the fertility of the earth itself and the wondrous, healing, natural power of creation, or the phenomenal world."

"For the earth brings forth fruits of herself" (St Mark) as the Bible tells us, speaking of the liberative qualities of spatiality and temporality.

The Bible itself speaks of the "lamb slain before the foundations of the earth", which - at least to me - suggests profound interconnections between temporal time and eternity.

Anyway, that's enough.

(To be honest, I don't see myself as the brightest. Reading through the above I see nothing that is particularly "obscure" )

Relating my last post to the object of this threads seems pretty obvious to me.

Be a centre of healing yourself and you are "one" with reality. Therefore, in a non-theistic context but in theistic language, "in God's image".

Now that is not so difficult is it?

As I see it the problem is just who or what is immortal and who or what has been "blocked."

An ego-self imprisoned in its own consciousness?

This is why I have an interest in Dogen. His thought seeks to bridge the duality between our everyday selves and the so called "enlightened self"

In his writings he speaks of the "finger that points at the moon" but he does not rush into all the waffle about "not mistaking the finger that points for the moon itself." Dogen sees both finger and moon as equally important, if not "one".

Yes... but aside from reality, just looking at what the bible does or does not say:

"The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”


Thus, clearly know two things that are part of the biblical story on this topic of immortality:

1. Man was blocked from being immortal.
2. Man was not made immortal as man would have had to eat from the tree of life to become immortal.



As a side note, it is a bit funny that god threaten Adam & Eve with death if they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Apparently they, not being made immortal, were going to die sooner or later anyway.

You appear to be suggesting that there are a few holes in the original story?

Well, on a serious note, it is now virtually indisputable that the creation stories in Genesis (of which there are two, incompatible with each other) are reworkings of earlier creation myths of Mesopotamia. Appeal can be made to the creative genius of the Jewish mind, but basically any fundamentalist/inerrant reading of the text is indefensible. Creation myths of other cultures can yield starting points with just as much "spiritual" potential as those of the Jews.

Whether or not they all point towards some unity of truth concerning the human situation I'm not sure. I think you are familiar with Joseph Campbell, who does seem to see some sort of common denominator.

Buddhism does have its own cosmologies, even stories that could be called "creation" stories at a stretch, but more often than not it is concerned with seeking understanding of the suffering human condition "now" rather than how it came to be.

nothing yuk about clean streets,absence of trash tentcities,helping struggling moms,building empires that givv jobs to vast amounts of people,absence of babyhippies marring our life and cities,ABSENCE OF AIDS CRISIS you caused and still refuse to help heal!!!!!!!!!!

Yes. As some wish that they had seen a particular rock band back in the day, I regret missing the opportunity to see Joseph Campbell speak.

I've read much of his writings.

If I ever get full of myself and need to bring myself back down to reality, all I have to do is read a chapter or two of his and I am back to being not all that smart after all.

What is the difference between an orange?


Elephants. Monkeys don't ride bicycles in Antartica.

what's the hell, you talking about, leory?



(You have been asked by another here to tell us your understanding of "God" and not offered a reply. You speak of "Bible Rejectors" but never actually share what your own understanding of the Bible is.

Rather than engaging in any form of intelligent debate you apparently choose instead to throw out judgements and accusations against others.

But your choice)

what's difference between antartica and orange?

nothing except during christmas time, when polar bears make great coke commercials.

I have a few of his books in my Kindle library. A lot of his books now being issued seem to be collections of various essays that were once delivered as lectures. But nothing like the man in person.

I tried his book on Finnegans Wake and yes, brought me down to earth! What I have tried to read, way above me. But his book "Mythic Worlds, Modern Words" on the art of James Joyce was good. I'm more into literature than myths as such.

Have a good day.

I always enjoy your rather unique perspective!