Let’s Chant 108 times daily for Baba’s Health,till He recovers.
While a huge number of devotees from India and abroad prayed for his speedy recovery and well-being, the health condition of godman Sri Satya Saibaba continued to be critical on Sunday though the doctors attending on him claimed that he was stable.
“Saibaba is on ventilator. Dialysis was done to assist his kidney function,” said A N Safaya, director, Sri Satya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences. He said Baba’s respiration had improved since morning. Following serious lung and chest congestion, Saibaba was put on ventilator. “His response to the treatment is satisfactory,” doctors said. The 85-year-old Saibaba was admitted to Satyasai super-speciality hospital here on March 28 following pneumonia and respiratory problems.
With Saibaba sitting over assets worth hundreds of crores, rumours were rife about a succession battle within the portals of Prasanthi Nilayam, the abode of Saibaba, in this small town in the farthest corner of Andhra Pradesh.
Dhoni is believed to have made a commitment to do so before a deity close to his hometown in Ranchi before the World Cup began. The priest had advised him to shave off the head between 2.45 am and 3 am which is what he did.
The hair will now be offered at the Balaji temple in Tirupati.
….Incidentally, Dhoni had cut his long locks after India won the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa in 2007.
True, there might have been Jesus.(even the name means ‘son of God, not Jesus’s original name).
One has to understand the social and political conditions at the time of Jesus.
People were revolting against Roman Empire and the society had become corrupt and was oppressive.
There was a crisis of values.
Jesus was a social thinker .
He was also a rebel against the Romans.
He preached human values.
Constantine, to buttress his hold on the Empire, embraced Christianity , called for a meeting of people to organize the information on Jesus( nearly three hundred years after Jesus’s death),had an Anthology compiled and called it The Bible; laid down Rules for the election of Popes through a Conclave of Cardinals.
He wanted to ensure his hold on the population.
Hence he organized the Office of the Pope for he knew that people can be controlled under faith and made the Papacy to do his bidding.
However, The Bible, whatever be the intentions, is one of the greatest pieces on Ethics .
It is not important who said, but what is said.
To research into Christianity is welcome and at the same time it should be ensured that the moral values of The Bible(excepting Religious Conversion) are not demeaned.
Please read my blogs filed under Christianity.
Crossan says Jesus was an exploited “peasant with an attitude” who didn’t perform many miracles, physically rise from the dead or die as punishment for humanity’s sins.
Jesus was extraordinary because of how he lived, not died, says Crossan, one of the world’s top scholars on the “historical Jesus,” a field in which academics use historical evidence to reconstruct Jesus in his first-century setting.
“I cannot imagine a more miraculous life than nonviolent resistance to violence,” Crossan says. “I cannot imagine a bigger miracle than a man standing in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square.”
…..Crossan believes the public should be exposed to even the most divisive debates that scholars have had about Jesus and the Bible. He co-founded the Jesus Seminar, a controversial group of scholars who hold public forums that cast doubt on the authenticity of many sayings and deeds attributed to Jesus.
John Dominic Crossan
…The 77-year-old Crossan has built on the seminar’s mission by writing a series of best-selling books on Jesus and the Apostle Paul. With his silver Prince Valiant haircut and his pronounced Irish accent, he’s also appeared on documentaries such as PBS’s “From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians” and A&E’s “Mysteries of the Bible.”
…
Crucifixion meant that imperial power had won,” Crossan says. “Resurrection meant that divine justice had won. God is on the side of the crucified one. Rome‘s’ values are a dead issue to me.”
How about the stories of Jesus’ miracles, like raising the dead or stilling the storm?
John Dominic Crossan wanted to be a missionary priest as an Irish schoolboy.
Most were parables, too, Crossan says. But there were some exceptions.
“I’m completely convinced that Jesus was a major healer,” he says. “I don’t think anybody would talk about Jesus if all he did was talk.”
People like to talk about Scripture, but Christians should also know history to understand Jesus, Crossan says.
In Jesus’ time, Rome was forcing many Jewish families into destitution, with high taxes and land seizures. Some Jews advocated violent rebellion, but others opted for non-violent resistance.
Jesus called for nonviolent resistance to Rome and just distribution of land and food. He was crucified because he threatened Roman stability — not as a sacrifice to God for humanity’s sins, Crossan says.
If you believe in a God that uses violence to “save” humanity, you’ll start believing that violence is permissible in certain circumstances, such as suicide bombing or invading other countries to spread democracy, Crossan says.
Very mature approach to Religion. This is reinforced by the adverse comments this post has received. World needs such balanced approach to religion,which ,after all is to enhance one’s spirituality and Humaneness.
Follow the link and read the comments on this story.
Story:
I’m a Muslim, from a Muslim family. This is what I bothers me about most religions, including the Abrahamic triplet (Judaism-Christianity-Islam):
1) Organized religion seems always to be run by blockheads, devoid of any capability for logical thinking and unyielding to any argument to “change their tradition”. i.e. they are against innovation and progress. “why? well just so!”
In this context, organized religion seems always to clash with science and advancements of the human race. New discoveries that clash with teir scriptures and tradition are seen not as attacks on their own tradition but upon the very existence of god (who btw is so weak that he needs constant protection).
2) The “Heaven is ours” principle by which most religious people live. i.e. “Because we belong to this religious group and because we believe in this dogma, heaven has been promised to us. Nobody else is allowed in”. They act as if they fucking own the place and behave like real-estate agents through which you can buy some heavenly land.
3) The idea of a petty god. AFAIK Abrahamic religions, either through scripture or tradition, seem to emphasize a petty god, who is a jealous, vindictive and whiny little bitch. Oh, be careful or the force that created the multiverse, everything that you know, don’t know yet and will never know; who put logic and challenge in his entire creation so that we may marvel about it by using our brains; who has given us life and sustenance when we were not will burn us in hell, eternally, for eating pork or believing in a slightly different version of its creation story. i.e. god = übertroll?
But fear not! God is a retard who can be easily fooled, because his followers can come up with “loop-holes” to circumvent his laws (e.g. the “one night marriages” in Saudi Arabia, whereby a man is not commiting adultery because he legally married a woman (prostitue) for a night… WHAT A JOKE!). This way resourceful believers can enjoy both this world and the next!
Dear people of /r/atheism. I believe in god, but I do not believe in religion. That is why I feel much closer to (reasonable) atheists than to (unreasonable) religious people. Don’t worry… the god that I believe in will also happily give atheists a nice house in heaven… and it will certainly not smite anybody for not capitalizing its “name”.
Content of Faith is more important than form. Question of practicing and non practicing is more of analysis of of our Faith than actual Faith we have. Faith is tested belief and as such it does not need reassurance of the same. Religion as such is meant to enhance the spiritual level of the individual. When prescribed practices are set in a regular form, human nature rebels and one develops a guilty feeling when they do not conform to what has been prescribed.This is not necessary. As you have remarked if you have a comfortable feeling with yourself, you are on course.Unalloyed reactions for what we have done or nor done indicates whether we are right or not.Only when we tinker with rationalization we have problems. All these conflicts arise when you have a standard ,prescribed format of procedures for realizing God. But if these barriers are removed, it is easy to live the life than practice what we believe in. Hinduism does not have standard text books to follow. You can either follow or not. You deny existence of God, you may not practice , yet you are a Hindu. In fact the name Hindu denotes geographical identity You are given the freedom to pursue your course of action.
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Some religions do some very smart things and state things in logical ways. For example I like a phrase the Catholics use, they are either practicing or non-practicing. As a young girl, my friend’s mom told me she was a “non-practicing Catholic”. I had no idea what that meant. I knew Maria in the Sound of Music was a Catholic, so non-practicing Catholic must be someone who didn’t act like Maria. Someone who wasn’t good and probably didn’t go to church or spin on a mountain singing about the hills being alive to a big 100+ musician orchestra.
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