Nietzsche, Friedrich Nietzsche, who lived from 1844-1900, was a German philosopher, poet and writer. He was the son of Karl Ludwig Nietzsche (1813-1849) a Protestant minister, who died when Friedrich was only four years old. Nietzsche had a Christian upbringing in his home, but despite his Christian upbringing, Nietzsche went down in history as an atheistic man. His thoughts were recorded for us in writing, popular mostly in non-English speaking countries while he was alive... but today Nietzsche’s writings are translated and read in English and in America. His work has been the influence of artists, novelists, psychologists, sociologists and social revolutionaries everywhere.
Nietzsche is perhaps most famous of all for publicly challenging the foundations of Christianity and the traditional morality that aligns itself with the commandments of God. Nietzsche believed that he had figured this thing call life out.. to a "t." to him nd his faithfu following, the goal of life was to discover self, to listen to self and to be true to your self, NOT God.
The Gay Science (or Die Fröhliche Wissenschaft, 1882) is the famous work of Nietzsche. It is in this work that he made his most famous proclamation: "God is Dead!." ( “God, ” defined as a single, ultimate, judge and authority who, being omniscient, knows the begining from the end and knows and sees everyone’s secrets,) It was also in this book that he put forth his doctrine of what he called “eternal recurrence,” that is, the idea that everything has already happened for an eternity in the past and that it will continue to happen over and over forever, a concept akin to the eastern religions when a soul incurs karma and is reincarnated time and time again, perhaps until they finally "get it right." But with Nietzsche, it was not religious, nor karma.... it was to further circumvent submission to this thing known as the Christian God
Realizing than men had some form of weakness, Nietzsche encouraged his readers to become superior humans who, when they learned his philosophy and created for themselves their own values, (instead of the dead God’s ideas of life and morality here on earth,) would be able to successfully overcome the flaws in humanity, (mainly Christianity, which he believed was the equivalent of evil) and thus they would raise above the mundane. He called this model of the perfect man, which he wrote extensively about, “Overman,” which translated is “Superman.” (a.k.a. Ubermensch)
Believing that mundane things, like Christianity, only serves to hamper human potential, Nietzsche’s Overman is one who trusts in his own intuition, who rejects any kind of values that does not come from within his own mind and heart, and who embraces (wholeheartedly) everything that Christianity isn’t. The Overman of Nietzsche's imagination is a little different than the Superman of the 1978 American Movie, but then Nietzsche’s superman is not battling for truth and justice, or the American way.
Overman is not compassionate, not affected by human suffering, and he has little or nt tolerance for the weak. He is a strong man of steel, who can overcome any obstacle put before him in a single bound, because, he himself is ... “God.”
In Nietzsche’s pseudo moralistic concepts, lustfulness is not a sin. It is “an invigoration of the human heart,” and power, (otherwise known as the “lust to rule”) is a gift, a virtue. Selfishness is a character trait of quality, as is rebellion for in his dichotomy of, dare I call it, "Faith," to be rebellious of authority is how one shows their strength and power. It would be weakness to conform. Overman has the power to embrace change and grow, to grow and become whatever he wants to, and the stronger and more powerful one becomes as they become like Nietzsche’s “Overman” the more one can dominate and recreate the mundane world. Nietzsche’s concepts are nearly an atheist’s dream come true.
The musical entity known to the world as Marilyn Manson was supposedly greatly influenced by the philosophical writings of Nietzsche. Contrary to what you might think, Marilyn Manson is not a female, not a singular person, but a band with a figurehead who is a male with the same female stage name as the name of the band. The group hit the pop charts like a bullet in the 1990’s wearing T shirts that read, "Kill God, Kill Your Mom and Dad, Kill Yourself/"
Some people thought it was supposed to be funny.
Following in the footsteps of Nietzsche who called himself antichrist, MArilym Manson has an album of the same title. Their lyrics are lustful, selfish, and often reek of the glorification of flesh, particularly dead things. It glorifies death, reeks of both suicide, and acts of violence and the lyrics has that special flare for exhibiting contempt for God. Marilyn Manson, (whose real name is Brian Hugh Warner) even boasts that Nietzsche, Aleister Crowley, Anton LaVey, Charles Darwin, and Sigmund Freud are some of the major influences for his “creative” works.
Mistakenly, Manson (a.k.a. Warner, thinks, that he and his friends are freethinkers and they have all the answers. But the sad truth is that he is in bondage and chains and going nowhere fast. He realizes he is dead, in a dying world and he may not admit it to the rest of the world at least as long as he can make them think he is pretty cool and in control. He kinda tells it like it is and he is in a rut. In his Minute of Decay lyrics he says, “I'm on my way down ...I'd like to take you with me." Manson and friends are wallowing in the squalor of humanities depraved mind with no apparent guilt or shame, or a least a consciousness seared to it all.
Nietzsche, (Nietzsche's Thus spoke Zarathustra, pg.3,4,5, Walter Kaufmann translation,) writes, “…I beseech you, my brothers, remain faithful to the earth, and do not believe those who speak to you of otherworldly hopes! Poison-mixers are they, whether they know it or not. Despisers of life are they, decaying and poisoned themselves, of whom the earth is weary: so let them go. Once the sin against God was the greatest sin; but God died, and these sinners died with him. To sin against the earth is now the most dreadful thing..."
But through Christ, death is swallowed up in victory and it has no hold on the believer. Though man dies, he can have the hope of eternal life, in Christ and he doesn;t have to fear being alone to the point that he will take down with him as many as he can.
Neitche is right, God died, but that is not the whole story. He died not because he had to but because he loved us. He gave his life for ours and then, being God he rose again. Jesus Christ, God and full of power, overcame death and rose to life again.
Jesus is the real God, true God from God and light from light. It is he who rules and reigns on high, over all the earth. In his rightful place as God, he has ultimate rule over everything, even over man.
Man on the Moon
At the time of this writing only 12 men have set foot on the moon, and Neil Armstrong, of the U.S. Apollo 11 space mission, is the man first recorded to have done so. Armstrong and Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin explored the Moon's surface for 2.5 hours. Man's ascent into the heavens and his first steps on lunar soil was broadcast to all the watching and hopeful televisions of the world on July 20, 1969.
For his work in space, Neil Armstrong was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It signifies his astronomical accomplishments and his contributions to the United States’ space program. But despite this recognition and despite the historical record etched in history books, despite the testimony of Armstrong's fellow Americans who worked on the space program, despite the fact that millions of people watched this incredible feat of human technology via television cameras and screens, some people still claim the US journey to the moon was a great hoax. They even believe the moon expedition never really happened at all.
On February 15th, 2001, Fox television aired a program called Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon? Another nationally televised program reaching millions of households, this one propositioned the idea that 1969 technology was not advanced enough to actually make such a thing as a lunar landing, possible. Producers behind this program asserted that America, anxious to send a person to the moon and beat the Soviets in the race for space, merely acted out the Apollo landings in some secret movie studio, and this for the purpose of impressing the Soviets and the world. As evidence, the program sights (as proof it never happened,) the absence of star-fields in the sky behind the spacecraft; the waving of a flag in an atmosphere where there is no wind; the curious deficiency of a blast crater beneath the lunar lander where it had just fired rockets and the danger there would have been of traveling through the killer electrons of the Van Allen radiation belt.
( Some believe that the Astronauts would have been killed if they would have passed through this field of radiation.)
Over-all, they believe that the moon buggy rides, the experiment of dropping a feather and a hammer, the collection of moon rocks, the flag ceremony, the momentous “first step into space” and even Al Shephard's golf shot was faked. The premise is that this was all done for tricking the minds of the soviets because they, (who ever THEY is,) believed that reaching the moon first was a sure way to prevent the enemy from dominating the world. Of the millions of viewers, some have latched on to this idea of believing the lunar landing was ahoax, but if the landing of man on the moon was faked, even those who believe it was would have to admit it was indeed a very elaborate one.
Bart Sibrel, producer of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Moon (1969); Bill Kaysing, author of We Never Went To The Moon: America’s Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle (1976) ; Mary Benette and David Percy, co-authors of Dark Moon: Apollo and the Whistle-Blowers (2001) ; and Ralph Rene, author of NASA Mooned America (1994) have all made it their business to announce to the world that trips to the moon were nothing more than a hoax. It’s an alluring accusation.There is a lot of money to be made if you can tickle people's ears. Not only that, if you believe that USA sent the first man to the moon... you obviously have a lot of faith in your US government, because after all, you didn't REALLY see it. You only saw transmitted photos of something they want you to believe really happened. But, did it?
And, how can you ever really know without evidence?
In Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?, film footage of the moon landing is reviewed with commentary about what is wrong with “that” picture, and several people candidly give their seemingly honest opinion that the United States never “really” went to the moon, leving one to really wonder if maybe they are all right. It quite hard NOT to wonder if the accusations they are making in this film are true. It leads one to ask if it is possible that it all never really happened, except in a remote, obscure and secretly hidden away television studio. You might believe it to be true if uou believe all the evidence they show you.
One problem with this “evidence” that it never happened, (true or false,) is that it is presented as "evidence" before an audience where no one under the current age of 40 can personally remember what took place 40 years ago at the time in history. This little casting of a "shadow of doubt,"is creating a landslide of people who believe the allegation that the moon landing that we all believed to have seen with our own eyes, never REALLY happened. Not only that, but those who actually worked on the space program, those who walked on the moon itself, have now become geriatric or perhaps even slipped the surly bonds of earth themselves in a more permanent way. The legacy of the space program has been left to a skeptical and suspicious world.
Defenders of the moon landing, using the same film footage, most frequently note the untrained observations of the scrutinizers. They have explanations for what is cast as "evidence" and give explanations, point by point, suggesting that those who say we never went there really just want to make a case against the United States or sell a book rather than know the truth- that we were there.
This is the way propaganda works in the media saturated world of this millennium. It seems that anyone with a tongue to wag in front of a camera, anyone willing to lash computer keyboard strokes across the continents, can have a voice if they want to. Their images and words, true or false, are broadcasted for all eyes to see and hears to hear. Like beauty in the eye of the beholder, a person sees, or hears, exactly what they want to. Seeing... is believing, but some never stop to even think that the eye and senses can be fooled.
Fact or fiction is not always so distinct and distinguishable, especially as we live in a digital day. Not only is our media mixed with both real and imaginary images, but people simply love controversy, and like having opinions. We laud people selling books that say what we want to hear, and are quick to forget that cameras, though what they say is word a thousand words, are not always candid.
People who were involved in the space projects from where their paycheck came consider the books and films crying “hoax” to be “nonsense.” They watched the historical event in their living rooms on the TV,. They saw it launch in person, they felt the ground shake when it roared into the sky. They worked on the mission, or stood behind the cameras, they acted as the media, and having lived it, breathed it, seen it for themselves, they simply believe it is impossible for man’s trip to the moon to be a hoax, and some wonder how it is that someone, anyone, could so earnestly assert that all the astronauts, employees of NASA, members of the civil government, the entire Department of Defense, the Russian space program leaders, large portions of the British government, amateur and professional astronomers, journalists, news reporters, broadcasters, investigators, radio engineers, and all the television viewers in that day, could possibly be so deviant so as to foll the rest of us, or so stupid to have been fooled by just a few.
In another related documentary film titled, Did We Go? (2000) Aron Ranen asked astronaut “Buzz” Aldrin, on camera, “Where were you, July 20th 1969?” Aldrin’s response was, “On the surface of the moon.” The interviewer then asked Aldrin, “What kind of proof can you offer us that you were there.” Alrdin replied, “I am an a honest person, and I tell you I was on the moon, if you choose not to believe me, forget it.”
The man who closed the capsule hatch on the astronauts before they departed from planet earth and headed for their moonwalk, Gunter Wednt, is old now. With is his deep German accent, he gave an opinion to the camera on this film. He said, “Of all the people I had been in contact with, may they be reporters, regular people, college eh… students, high school students, there was never a question raised as this was a fake or not. What kind of proof do you require? I mean, can you prove there was a World War II?”
Another man, Bob Tooley, who worked at NASA for thirty years, was interviewed in Rainens film. Tooley, after talking to the interviewer about racial problems he faced while working at NASA, told the camera, “…if there was any kind of problem, if there was any kind of fake thing going on, I would be the first one to expose them people; but hey, it’s true. It’s true; we did it!”
And in another video titled, Did We Really Land Men on the Moon, former astronaut Edgar Mitchell, from Apollo 14 declared to the interviewer, “We did exactly what we said we did.” He later added, “All this attempt to say the Apollo programs were fake is just shear nonsense.” As he was answering the interviewer, it became apparent that the person who asked for the interview asked under false pretenses. The footage also showed the former astronaut’s outrage and insult when he realized he was being interrogated because the interviewer believed it was a hoax! (Apparently Mitchell thought it was just a regular interview.) The camera man and interviewer could then be seen being escorted out of Mitchell’s living room, by Mitchell, as he repeatedly insisted the intruders leave his home. Now the viewer is left wondering, "What exactly did his reaction mean?"
Was Mitchell genuinely mad that he had been mislead and invited unwanted guests into his home, or was he lying to the camera once more and embarrassed when confronted with the truth?
To muddle up the already convoluted tale, (if you are able to follow along thus far) major news sources, including ABC and CNN on August 15, 2006, ran stories reporting that NASA's Goddard Space Center in Maryland had lost the original film footage of the first moon landing! It seems that seven hundred boxes of original transmissions from the Apollo lunar missions are missing and no one knows where the tapes have gone. The article said NASA has been searching for a year, but still can’t find them.
It was Australian news sources, not USA, which first reported that the films were “missing.” Their story said that NASA engineers hope that when the tapes are found they can be transferred to digital technology so that we can have a better quality version of the moonwalk than what we have today; after all, all we have today in circulation is copies of TV broadcasts. Why the films are missing, is a mystery, as is what the original films will reveal if they are ever found.
In the course of human history, as people of the past die off , as films are lost, stolen or destroyed, as pages of our history books turn to threads and shreds, he proof of whether or not man ever went to the moon, or not, may end up not being only a matter of opinion and belief. You might even say that one way or another, depending on who you trust to tell the truth, what you believe ultimately about the matter will take a giant step of faith.
For his work in space, Neil Armstrong was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It signifies his astronomical accomplishments and his contributions to the United States’ space program. But despite this recognition and despite the historical record etched in history books, despite the testimony of Armstrong's fellow Americans who worked on the space program, despite the fact that millions of people watched this incredible feat of human technology via television cameras and screens, some people still claim the US journey to the moon was a great hoax. They even believe the moon expedition never really happened at all.
On February 15th, 2001, Fox television aired a program called Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon? Another nationally televised program reaching millions of households, this one propositioned the idea that 1969 technology was not advanced enough to actually make such a thing as a lunar landing, possible. Producers behind this program asserted that America, anxious to send a person to the moon and beat the Soviets in the race for space, merely acted out the Apollo landings in some secret movie studio, and this for the purpose of impressing the Soviets and the world. As evidence, the program sights (as proof it never happened,) the absence of star-fields in the sky behind the spacecraft; the waving of a flag in an atmosphere where there is no wind; the curious deficiency of a blast crater beneath the lunar lander where it had just fired rockets and the danger there would have been of traveling through the killer electrons of the Van Allen radiation belt.
( Some believe that the Astronauts would have been killed if they would have passed through this field of radiation.)
Over-all, they believe that the moon buggy rides, the experiment of dropping a feather and a hammer, the collection of moon rocks, the flag ceremony, the momentous “first step into space” and even Al Shephard's golf shot was faked. The premise is that this was all done for tricking the minds of the soviets because they, (who ever THEY is,) believed that reaching the moon first was a sure way to prevent the enemy from dominating the world. Of the millions of viewers, some have latched on to this idea of believing the lunar landing was ahoax, but if the landing of man on the moon was faked, even those who believe it was would have to admit it was indeed a very elaborate one.
Bart Sibrel, producer of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Moon (1969); Bill Kaysing, author of We Never Went To The Moon: America’s Thirty Billion Dollar Swindle (1976) ; Mary Benette and David Percy, co-authors of Dark Moon: Apollo and the Whistle-Blowers (2001) ; and Ralph Rene, author of NASA Mooned America (1994) have all made it their business to announce to the world that trips to the moon were nothing more than a hoax. It’s an alluring accusation.There is a lot of money to be made if you can tickle people's ears. Not only that, if you believe that USA sent the first man to the moon... you obviously have a lot of faith in your US government, because after all, you didn't REALLY see it. You only saw transmitted photos of something they want you to believe really happened. But, did it?
And, how can you ever really know without evidence?
In Conspiracy Theory: Did We Land on the Moon?, film footage of the moon landing is reviewed with commentary about what is wrong with “that” picture, and several people candidly give their seemingly honest opinion that the United States never “really” went to the moon, leving one to really wonder if maybe they are all right. It quite hard NOT to wonder if the accusations they are making in this film are true. It leads one to ask if it is possible that it all never really happened, except in a remote, obscure and secretly hidden away television studio. You might believe it to be true if uou believe all the evidence they show you.
One problem with this “evidence” that it never happened, (true or false,) is that it is presented as "evidence" before an audience where no one under the current age of 40 can personally remember what took place 40 years ago at the time in history. This little casting of a "shadow of doubt,"is creating a landslide of people who believe the allegation that the moon landing that we all believed to have seen with our own eyes, never REALLY happened. Not only that, but those who actually worked on the space program, those who walked on the moon itself, have now become geriatric or perhaps even slipped the surly bonds of earth themselves in a more permanent way. The legacy of the space program has been left to a skeptical and suspicious world.
Defenders of the moon landing, using the same film footage, most frequently note the untrained observations of the scrutinizers. They have explanations for what is cast as "evidence" and give explanations, point by point, suggesting that those who say we never went there really just want to make a case against the United States or sell a book rather than know the truth- that we were there.
This is the way propaganda works in the media saturated world of this millennium. It seems that anyone with a tongue to wag in front of a camera, anyone willing to lash computer keyboard strokes across the continents, can have a voice if they want to. Their images and words, true or false, are broadcasted for all eyes to see and hears to hear. Like beauty in the eye of the beholder, a person sees, or hears, exactly what they want to. Seeing... is believing, but some never stop to even think that the eye and senses can be fooled.
Fact or fiction is not always so distinct and distinguishable, especially as we live in a digital day. Not only is our media mixed with both real and imaginary images, but people simply love controversy, and like having opinions. We laud people selling books that say what we want to hear, and are quick to forget that cameras, though what they say is word a thousand words, are not always candid.
People who were involved in the space projects from where their paycheck came consider the books and films crying “hoax” to be “nonsense.” They watched the historical event in their living rooms on the TV,. They saw it launch in person, they felt the ground shake when it roared into the sky. They worked on the mission, or stood behind the cameras, they acted as the media, and having lived it, breathed it, seen it for themselves, they simply believe it is impossible for man’s trip to the moon to be a hoax, and some wonder how it is that someone, anyone, could so earnestly assert that all the astronauts, employees of NASA, members of the civil government, the entire Department of Defense, the Russian space program leaders, large portions of the British government, amateur and professional astronomers, journalists, news reporters, broadcasters, investigators, radio engineers, and all the television viewers in that day, could possibly be so deviant so as to foll the rest of us, or so stupid to have been fooled by just a few.
In another related documentary film titled, Did We Go? (2000) Aron Ranen asked astronaut “Buzz” Aldrin, on camera, “Where were you, July 20th 1969?” Aldrin’s response was, “On the surface of the moon.” The interviewer then asked Aldrin, “What kind of proof can you offer us that you were there.” Alrdin replied, “I am an a honest person, and I tell you I was on the moon, if you choose not to believe me, forget it.”
The man who closed the capsule hatch on the astronauts before they departed from planet earth and headed for their moonwalk, Gunter Wednt, is old now. With is his deep German accent, he gave an opinion to the camera on this film. He said, “Of all the people I had been in contact with, may they be reporters, regular people, college eh… students, high school students, there was never a question raised as this was a fake or not. What kind of proof do you require? I mean, can you prove there was a World War II?”
Another man, Bob Tooley, who worked at NASA for thirty years, was interviewed in Rainens film. Tooley, after talking to the interviewer about racial problems he faced while working at NASA, told the camera, “…if there was any kind of problem, if there was any kind of fake thing going on, I would be the first one to expose them people; but hey, it’s true. It’s true; we did it!”
And in another video titled, Did We Really Land Men on the Moon, former astronaut Edgar Mitchell, from Apollo 14 declared to the interviewer, “We did exactly what we said we did.” He later added, “All this attempt to say the Apollo programs were fake is just shear nonsense.” As he was answering the interviewer, it became apparent that the person who asked for the interview asked under false pretenses. The footage also showed the former astronaut’s outrage and insult when he realized he was being interrogated because the interviewer believed it was a hoax! (Apparently Mitchell thought it was just a regular interview.) The camera man and interviewer could then be seen being escorted out of Mitchell’s living room, by Mitchell, as he repeatedly insisted the intruders leave his home. Now the viewer is left wondering, "What exactly did his reaction mean?"
Was Mitchell genuinely mad that he had been mislead and invited unwanted guests into his home, or was he lying to the camera once more and embarrassed when confronted with the truth?
To muddle up the already convoluted tale, (if you are able to follow along thus far) major news sources, including ABC and CNN on August 15, 2006, ran stories reporting that NASA's Goddard Space Center in Maryland had lost the original film footage of the first moon landing! It seems that seven hundred boxes of original transmissions from the Apollo lunar missions are missing and no one knows where the tapes have gone. The article said NASA has been searching for a year, but still can’t find them.
It was Australian news sources, not USA, which first reported that the films were “missing.” Their story said that NASA engineers hope that when the tapes are found they can be transferred to digital technology so that we can have a better quality version of the moonwalk than what we have today; after all, all we have today in circulation is copies of TV broadcasts. Why the films are missing, is a mystery, as is what the original films will reveal if they are ever found.
In the course of human history, as people of the past die off , as films are lost, stolen or destroyed, as pages of our history books turn to threads and shreds, he proof of whether or not man ever went to the moon, or not, may end up not being only a matter of opinion and belief. You might even say that one way or another, depending on who you trust to tell the truth, what you believe ultimately about the matter will take a giant step of faith.
Spiritual Awakening
“Spiritual awakening” is a term that is commonly used in both religious and secular society to describe the experience a person has when they come to a new “realization, ”particularly in relation to their concept of who they are or in "self." It’s a generic term, often used describe a religious type of experience, but it can mean a variety of things to a variety of people. In religious circles it is arbitrary as to what exactly that "spirit" is, presumably it is something that is good, but it remains to be arbitray and defined best by the doctrines of the particular religious group.
The concept of “enlightenment” is often used interchangeably with “spiritual awakening.” In new age religions both terms refer to acquiring wisdom or even a new understanding about the spiritual world or worlds as well as self. Sometimes such definitions are intertwined with the Christian concept of being “born again,” making it all somewhat confusing.
Nicodemus wondered about this concept because Jesus called it being "born again." He asked Jesus, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?” Jesus answered, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” In the Christian sense, a "spiritual awakening" refers to this odd idea of a man being "born again." Nicodemus had the wisdom to ask Jesus his question.
Being "born again" is not just being spiritual. There are a lot of so called "spiritual" one can be immersed in, but not every spirit is from God. Jesus said that a man must be born of water and of the Spirit.... in order to enter the kingdom of God.
Some think they can enter the heavenly kingdom and spiritual realms belonging to God without going through the proper door. Jesus made it clear... he is the door. No one comes to the Father except through him. In fact, one must be "born again."
For some people, having what they call a "spiritual awakening" means realizing that they are not merely human, but that they are in fact God. To say the least, this is very different thing from realizing you are not and He is. In such theology, self is God. It is a bad theology because eventually, in the passage of time, they will, like those angels who left their first habitation, (Jude 1: 6.) Rejecting true light from true light, remaining in those occult places where truth could remain hidden and unknown, refusing to enter through the door, or to walk in the light as he is in the light, they will leave this world to find themselves exposed when the truth of God is revealed, for it is appointed once for man to die, and then the judgment.... and so we consider how it was that Jesus verily said, "You must be born again."
In some religions, enlightenment, or attaining enlightenment, carries the idea of being filled with “light” and spiritual wisdom. Many begin with the concept that man is divinity, only this divinity is something he has simply forgotten or not evolved into complete understanding such things yet. They hold the understanding that each individual, cloaked in humanity, sees a distortion of who he is until a spiritual awakening where he comes to the realization in his mind of how great he really is and practices the belief that he can attain anything, even acquire anything he so desires, using his own will to make it happen make his or her own reality. This is how he discovers true self, or discovers that he is God. But Christian enlightenment is different.
Christian enlightenment begins with the concept that man is mortal and has disobeyed God and justly deserves this punishment for sin, and the concept that mankind has even been justly removed from that place where man was once created to be and live, Eden. This mortal man, one who actually recognizes he is not God, understands that he needs God and is willing to subject his will to God's and be instructed by God and God's Holy Spirit, is he who can be enlightened, not with the light that is darkness, but with the true light... God.
The truely enlightened individual repents of evil, subjects himself to God. This is the one who is spiritually awakened...or born again. This is the one who is a new creation... and this because he has repented of sin and believes, through the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, (aka Holy Spirit) on the One God sent, Jesus Christ. (John 6:29)
The concept of “enlightenment” is often used interchangeably with “spiritual awakening.” In new age religions both terms refer to acquiring wisdom or even a new understanding about the spiritual world or worlds as well as self. Sometimes such definitions are intertwined with the Christian concept of being “born again,” making it all somewhat confusing.
Nicodemus wondered about this concept because Jesus called it being "born again." He asked Jesus, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?” Jesus answered, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” In the Christian sense, a "spiritual awakening" refers to this odd idea of a man being "born again." Nicodemus had the wisdom to ask Jesus his question.
Being "born again" is not just being spiritual. There are a lot of so called "spiritual" one can be immersed in, but not every spirit is from God. Jesus said that a man must be born of water and of the Spirit.... in order to enter the kingdom of God.
Some think they can enter the heavenly kingdom and spiritual realms belonging to God without going through the proper door. Jesus made it clear... he is the door. No one comes to the Father except through him. In fact, one must be "born again."
For some people, having what they call a "spiritual awakening" means realizing that they are not merely human, but that they are in fact God. To say the least, this is very different thing from realizing you are not and He is. In such theology, self is God. It is a bad theology because eventually, in the passage of time, they will, like those angels who left their first habitation, (Jude 1: 6.) Rejecting true light from true light, remaining in those occult places where truth could remain hidden and unknown, refusing to enter through the door, or to walk in the light as he is in the light, they will leave this world to find themselves exposed when the truth of God is revealed, for it is appointed once for man to die, and then the judgment.... and so we consider how it was that Jesus verily said, "You must be born again."
In some religions, enlightenment, or attaining enlightenment, carries the idea of being filled with “light” and spiritual wisdom. Many begin with the concept that man is divinity, only this divinity is something he has simply forgotten or not evolved into complete understanding such things yet. They hold the understanding that each individual, cloaked in humanity, sees a distortion of who he is until a spiritual awakening where he comes to the realization in his mind of how great he really is and practices the belief that he can attain anything, even acquire anything he so desires, using his own will to make it happen make his or her own reality. This is how he discovers true self, or discovers that he is God. But Christian enlightenment is different.
Christian enlightenment begins with the concept that man is mortal and has disobeyed God and justly deserves this punishment for sin, and the concept that mankind has even been justly removed from that place where man was once created to be and live, Eden. This mortal man, one who actually recognizes he is not God, understands that he needs God and is willing to subject his will to God's and be instructed by God and God's Holy Spirit, is he who can be enlightened, not with the light that is darkness, but with the true light... God.
The truely enlightened individual repents of evil, subjects himself to God. This is the one who is spiritually awakened...or born again. This is the one who is a new creation... and this because he has repented of sin and believes, through the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, (aka Holy Spirit) on the One God sent, Jesus Christ. (John 6:29)
The Second Coming of Jesus, Savior of the World... Messiah.
Christians talk about Jesus’ Second Coming, referring to the idea that Jesus Christ, who came once, (the first time,) into the world as a baby in manger, will come again as the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, supreme ruler of all that is seen and unseen, maker and sustain of both heaven and of Earth. It also refers to the idea that he first came as the Son of Man, but will come again as the Son of God, to rule and reign in righteousness and peace forever. Christians believe that at the time of Jesus' return to Earth there will be no mistake about who this person, Jesus Christ, is or isn't.
Christians believe Jesus Christ was indeed the One awaited for by the Jews... Messiah, and they believe they have been granted such salvation because, by them he was obviously rejected, even by those who should have recognized the time of their visitation, but they didn't. (All have sinned and fall short of the glory of almighty God.) No, the Jews,(who did not believe on the one sent by God to the little town of Bethlehem,) like the rest of the religious world, have stories of their own that they believe in. Like many other religious peoples they still await the "one," the one whom they heard was to come, but evidently, (or so they believe,) didn't.
The world is expecting. You can see this expectation in many religions as they look forward to the coming of a great leader upon the Earth, one hailed as a Messiah. This is probably due to the fact that, since the dawn of time, God has said that he would send the seed of the woman to redeem us from our sin in this fallen world. Some didn't keep the story straight, others simply refused to walk in the light of day; either way the end result is this idea... the idea of a "Messiah," a person who enlightens mankind spiritually and "saves" the world with peace, love and his (or her) great wisdom. It's a universal concept that has definitely made the rounds around the world.
Even scientifically minded atheists, like Carl Sagan, find themselves looking for someone or something to be the savior of the world. They search the sky for extraterrestrial space aliens, complete with whirring wheels, their magnificent flying machines, (aka UFO's,) Even they are expectantly hoping that some such beings will be contacted via computer or satellite dish, or land on planet Earth, even teach us technologically secrets about their advanced spacecraft and “be our friends.” Its a scientific dream, but atheists are not the only ones dreaming, and hoping, to find something or someone that will save us from ourselves; no, there is also the religious. There are many religions. All are waiting, hoping, looking forward to the arrival of someone who will save them, something they can see and touch and feel and finally believe in.
Moslems, for example, generally believe that one called the "leader of the faithful," or Madhi, will appear at the end of earthly time, but they do not believe in Jesus the way that Christians do. They do talk about “Jesus”, ( aka Isa or Essau,) and they say he is the son of a woman named Mary, and they believe that he was taken up to heaven... even believe that he will come, again; but they do not believe that when he came the first time he was anyone of particular importance.. In their belifs he is just another prophet. They even believe Jesus was "virgin born" but do not believe he is "Messiah," nor the "Son of GOd". Jesus, as revered as he may or may not be, is trumped by Muhammad who is to them the true and revered, most Holy messenger of Allah, (God.)
In the Bahai faith, the ultimate goal, and hope for all Bahai believers is to see the ushering in of a Golden Age upomn the Earth where the world will be unified under the “Promised One of all the ages.” According to their religious tradition, this person must be a descendant of King David, (of the Jews,) but they reject basic Christian concepts like how this Promised One was Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Jesus, in the Bahai faith, is viewed as only one of many manifestations of God that has taken place here on our planet. He may even be considered one of the prophets of The Divine, but to them, he is not God incarnate. They prefer to look to the coming of one they call "Baha'u'llah."
The Buddhists expect that an “exalted one,” one called "Maitreya," (“the world unifier,” ) or "Tathagata" (the Buddha who will come and bring "universal brightness" ) will someday arrive via the reincarnation of the Great Buddha on Earth again. They believe that it is this One who will lead the tribes and nations of the world into universal peace. Indians tribes and people like the Native American, Eskimo and Mayan also anticipate one “who is to come” from heaven. This one will be so different from them and so filled with light and brilliancy that he may even be white as snow, which is why so many historical white men encounters among these peoples were such that they believed they were being visited by their gods.
Mankind is pregnant with this "Messiah" idea.
Here we are, stuck here on the earth, making history with no where to go to. We are fighting wars on every front, remembering the great wars of the past, looking around at humanity's propensity for evil and considering the future, wonderding where all of this will lead to in the end. We are pregnant, and we are groaning, (Romans 8:22-26) yearning to be delivered from our plight. We are looking for the next great thing to come along and give us hope for our future and the future of our planet. We are hoping there will be some kind of miracle... a miracle that will give the world a "Messiah."
Humanity believes in the concept of "Messiah"... yes.... but to believe Jesus is the Messiah, is "absurd" to them. It cannot be proven and besides it seems a tad bit, "narrow minded." So professing belief in broadmindedness, they reject the narrow view of salvation from sin and death through Jesus alone; believing instead that everyone who is religious, no matter their beliefs, is really worshiping the same unseen, unapproachable, mysterious and unknowable "God." In fact, some are so broadminded that they spew out hatred for Christianity because Christians not only say that Jesus is the way the truth and the life, but even that Jesus only, is way to God. (John 14:6)
The bible describes the same humanity as spiritually blind, as men, who in utter darkness grope about... trying to understand. It says they stagger like drunkards, (Job 12:25; Deut 29:26-29; ) looking, searching for answers to life... groping at the mysterious, secret things of God. It tells the reader that God did this, (Acts 17:27,) so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him.
In our searching we have unraveled nearly all the universe, even "tasted" the flavors of the tiniest of particles, the neutrino, and we have come up with many theories, even the Theory of Everything, that is, that everything that is, is held together by one great unifying string.
We have uncovered the undeniable truth that every human being of all nations and races has inherited his or her mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), from one human, living person, a person who lived long ago. and even named that person “Eve,” and told us in our textbooks and television shows how this “mtDNA” has been traced back through time, that it has been passed generation to generation from mothers to their offspring, and this as if it was some kind of ovarian seed. We think we can see, even thought was are groping about. We believe we are close to knowing everything there is know about everything, even God.
And as for Christianity's belief about God, Jesus Christ... and the Bible, we like to say, "Is a nice little religious myth, a story. In fact, it's a completely different reality... one we really do not want to have hamper our "scientific" thinking.
But blessed is the blind man who realizes his need for light. Blessed is the one who recognizes he has a beam called sin, before almighty God. Blessed is he because he asks God for healing from his malady of being utterly blind and naked, wretched, and miserable, and poor, doomed to destruction, living in fear of the unknown and despair. Blessed are the meek and humble, who like teachable children, learn of Him and believe in things they do not understand, simply because God has spoken and said it to be so. Blessed is the humble who receive the gift of God, forgiveness of sin and who, clothed with truth, will enter into eternal life, because of Jesus, the savior of the world...
Messiah.
He will come again, he will return with power and great glory. (Luke 21:27; NIV) And, "every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him." (Rev. 1:7)
Christians believe Jesus Christ was indeed the One awaited for by the Jews... Messiah, and they believe they have been granted such salvation because, by them he was obviously rejected, even by those who should have recognized the time of their visitation, but they didn't. (All have sinned and fall short of the glory of almighty God.) No, the Jews,(who did not believe on the one sent by God to the little town of Bethlehem,) like the rest of the religious world, have stories of their own that they believe in. Like many other religious peoples they still await the "one," the one whom they heard was to come, but evidently, (or so they believe,) didn't.
The world is expecting. You can see this expectation in many religions as they look forward to the coming of a great leader upon the Earth, one hailed as a Messiah. This is probably due to the fact that, since the dawn of time, God has said that he would send the seed of the woman to redeem us from our sin in this fallen world. Some didn't keep the story straight, others simply refused to walk in the light of day; either way the end result is this idea... the idea of a "Messiah," a person who enlightens mankind spiritually and "saves" the world with peace, love and his (or her) great wisdom. It's a universal concept that has definitely made the rounds around the world.
Even scientifically minded atheists, like Carl Sagan, find themselves looking for someone or something to be the savior of the world. They search the sky for extraterrestrial space aliens, complete with whirring wheels, their magnificent flying machines, (aka UFO's,) Even they are expectantly hoping that some such beings will be contacted via computer or satellite dish, or land on planet Earth, even teach us technologically secrets about their advanced spacecraft and “be our friends.” Its a scientific dream, but atheists are not the only ones dreaming, and hoping, to find something or someone that will save us from ourselves; no, there is also the religious. There are many religions. All are waiting, hoping, looking forward to the arrival of someone who will save them, something they can see and touch and feel and finally believe in.
Moslems, for example, generally believe that one called the "leader of the faithful," or Madhi, will appear at the end of earthly time, but they do not believe in Jesus the way that Christians do. They do talk about “Jesus”, ( aka Isa or Essau,) and they say he is the son of a woman named Mary, and they believe that he was taken up to heaven... even believe that he will come, again; but they do not believe that when he came the first time he was anyone of particular importance.. In their belifs he is just another prophet. They even believe Jesus was "virgin born" but do not believe he is "Messiah," nor the "Son of GOd". Jesus, as revered as he may or may not be, is trumped by Muhammad who is to them the true and revered, most Holy messenger of Allah, (God.)
In the Bahai faith, the ultimate goal, and hope for all Bahai believers is to see the ushering in of a Golden Age upomn the Earth where the world will be unified under the “Promised One of all the ages.” According to their religious tradition, this person must be a descendant of King David, (of the Jews,) but they reject basic Christian concepts like how this Promised One was Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Jesus, in the Bahai faith, is viewed as only one of many manifestations of God that has taken place here on our planet. He may even be considered one of the prophets of The Divine, but to them, he is not God incarnate. They prefer to look to the coming of one they call "Baha'u'llah."
The Buddhists expect that an “exalted one,” one called "Maitreya," (“the world unifier,” ) or "Tathagata" (the Buddha who will come and bring "universal brightness" ) will someday arrive via the reincarnation of the Great Buddha on Earth again. They believe that it is this One who will lead the tribes and nations of the world into universal peace. Indians tribes and people like the Native American, Eskimo and Mayan also anticipate one “who is to come” from heaven. This one will be so different from them and so filled with light and brilliancy that he may even be white as snow, which is why so many historical white men encounters among these peoples were such that they believed they were being visited by their gods.
Mankind is pregnant with this "Messiah" idea.
Here we are, stuck here on the earth, making history with no where to go to. We are fighting wars on every front, remembering the great wars of the past, looking around at humanity's propensity for evil and considering the future, wonderding where all of this will lead to in the end. We are pregnant, and we are groaning, (Romans 8:22-26) yearning to be delivered from our plight. We are looking for the next great thing to come along and give us hope for our future and the future of our planet. We are hoping there will be some kind of miracle... a miracle that will give the world a "Messiah."
Humanity believes in the concept of "Messiah"... yes.... but to believe Jesus is the Messiah, is "absurd" to them. It cannot be proven and besides it seems a tad bit, "narrow minded." So professing belief in broadmindedness, they reject the narrow view of salvation from sin and death through Jesus alone; believing instead that everyone who is religious, no matter their beliefs, is really worshiping the same unseen, unapproachable, mysterious and unknowable "God." In fact, some are so broadminded that they spew out hatred for Christianity because Christians not only say that Jesus is the way the truth and the life, but even that Jesus only, is way to God. (John 14:6)
The bible describes the same humanity as spiritually blind, as men, who in utter darkness grope about... trying to understand. It says they stagger like drunkards, (Job 12:25; Deut 29:26-29; ) looking, searching for answers to life... groping at the mysterious, secret things of God. It tells the reader that God did this, (Acts 17:27,) so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him.
In our searching we have unraveled nearly all the universe, even "tasted" the flavors of the tiniest of particles, the neutrino, and we have come up with many theories, even the Theory of Everything, that is, that everything that is, is held together by one great unifying string.
We have uncovered the undeniable truth that every human being of all nations and races has inherited his or her mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), from one human, living person, a person who lived long ago. and even named that person “Eve,” and told us in our textbooks and television shows how this “mtDNA” has been traced back through time, that it has been passed generation to generation from mothers to their offspring, and this as if it was some kind of ovarian seed. We think we can see, even thought was are groping about. We believe we are close to knowing everything there is know about everything, even God.
And as for Christianity's belief about God, Jesus Christ... and the Bible, we like to say, "Is a nice little religious myth, a story. In fact, it's a completely different reality... one we really do not want to have hamper our "scientific" thinking.
But blessed is the blind man who realizes his need for light. Blessed is the one who recognizes he has a beam called sin, before almighty God. Blessed is he because he asks God for healing from his malady of being utterly blind and naked, wretched, and miserable, and poor, doomed to destruction, living in fear of the unknown and despair. Blessed are the meek and humble, who like teachable children, learn of Him and believe in things they do not understand, simply because God has spoken and said it to be so. Blessed is the humble who receive the gift of God, forgiveness of sin and who, clothed with truth, will enter into eternal life, because of Jesus, the savior of the world...
Messiah.
He will come again, he will return with power and great glory. (Luke 21:27; NIV) And, "every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him." (Rev. 1:7)
Neutrinos
A neutrino is a subatomic particle. This means that it is smaller than an atom. These tiny particles, we are told, are produced by the same nuclear reactions that power the Sun, other stars, and supernovae. Nuetrinos are everywhere, they are moving at the speed of light and they seem to be unhindered by mass because they have very little. This means that they can pass through things like your body.
A neutrino has very little mass and no electric charge. Literally, the name, "neutrino," means “little neutral one.” They are amazing things in a world of opposites because they are neither positive nor negative and yet, neutrinos are very much involved in the exchanges that occur between protons and neutrons in nuclear interactions, like the ones that take place in the stars. Types of neutrinos are identified in what is called, "flavors," these are electron, muon, and tau; (tau being the heaviest and the smallest.neutrinos that there are.
These things called neutrinos “were discovered” in the 1950’s when observed in a radioactive decay. Before that, (presumably,) no one knew that they existed.And even thought no one KNEW that they existed, they were there... being neutrinos doing what neutrinos do.
In the quantum realm of science, people have liked to study neutrinos, leptons, glutinos, bosons, sleptons, winos, zinos, fermions, hadrons, squarks and higgsinos not only for the interesting sounds you get to make when you talk about them with your colleagues, but also because they are elusive, somewhat mysterious things. Besides, the scientific community believes that the secrets of the universe lies in these miniscule and elusive particles waiting to be discovered.
There seems to be a hope in the scientific community that their incredible discoveries about atoms, neutrinoes, dark matter and the like, may lead to even greater discoveries, even the greatest discovery of all… the discovering the true meaning of life, or the discovery of who or what mankind"really" is and where he came from. The hope is tha tone day, someday, mnkind will at last dicover who and what he really is, maybe even find a way to prolong this thing called life, find cures to the diseases that plagues humanity and even never have to die.
No one really knows where this search into the minuscule world of the tiniest of particles will lead us, but many are hopeful that it will lead us on to greater answers about our origins, and the origin of all life on our planet, even maybe the entire universe. Perhaps it will lead us into a greater awareness of how powerful we humans really are and in the end we may even get a closer look at the answer to the most pressing question ever, the question that has plagued man since the dawn of time. That is...who... or what, God is, and isn't.
A neutrino has very little mass and no electric charge. Literally, the name, "neutrino," means “little neutral one.” They are amazing things in a world of opposites because they are neither positive nor negative and yet, neutrinos are very much involved in the exchanges that occur between protons and neutrons in nuclear interactions, like the ones that take place in the stars. Types of neutrinos are identified in what is called, "flavors," these are electron, muon, and tau; (tau being the heaviest and the smallest.neutrinos that there are.
These things called neutrinos “were discovered” in the 1950’s when observed in a radioactive decay. Before that, (presumably,) no one knew that they existed.And even thought no one KNEW that they existed, they were there... being neutrinos doing what neutrinos do.
In the quantum realm of science, people have liked to study neutrinos, leptons, glutinos, bosons, sleptons, winos, zinos, fermions, hadrons, squarks and higgsinos not only for the interesting sounds you get to make when you talk about them with your colleagues, but also because they are elusive, somewhat mysterious things. Besides, the scientific community believes that the secrets of the universe lies in these miniscule and elusive particles waiting to be discovered.
There seems to be a hope in the scientific community that their incredible discoveries about atoms, neutrinoes, dark matter and the like, may lead to even greater discoveries, even the greatest discovery of all… the discovering the true meaning of life, or the discovery of who or what mankind"really" is and where he came from. The hope is tha tone day, someday, mnkind will at last dicover who and what he really is, maybe even find a way to prolong this thing called life, find cures to the diseases that plagues humanity and even never have to die.
No one really knows where this search into the minuscule world of the tiniest of particles will lead us, but many are hopeful that it will lead us on to greater answers about our origins, and the origin of all life on our planet, even maybe the entire universe. Perhaps it will lead us into a greater awareness of how powerful we humans really are and in the end we may even get a closer look at the answer to the most pressing question ever, the question that has plagued man since the dawn of time. That is...who... or what, God is, and isn't.
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