>Why do you choose to label wht
>happened to you as Christianity? Because of a certain english language name
>that was used? Because of a certain human ritual that was used?
Uh, because we were all praying to Jesus? Is this a trick question?
>
>What if on say a bizzaro Earth you had to stand on your head, and pray to
>Dog. What if that manifested the exact same results? What does that mean to
>you?
>
We would have an all powerful Dog on our hands. (That's Dog, not dog)
>I guess I have a problem with (here I go again) finite beings choosing to
>define the infinite by creating a certain set of rules, then believing
>those rules to be the only rules that work. God is infinite, and as such
>cannot be defined.
>
I think you miss her point. I quote, " My belief in Christianity has very
little to do with what the Bible teaches. In other words, while I believe
the Bible, I do not use it as the basis of my faith."
The Bible and Christianity are the closests things that we have found to
identify with our beliefs. That does not mean that we think Thanh's Buddist
parents or you for that matter are "going to hell" or even wrong somehow.
We think that it is the height of arrogance for one man to say that another
is wrong about something that, by definition, neither of them can prove.
>Furthermore, what says God's hand was involved? Why couldn't that be a
>certain "tuning in" to the either's? Let me give you an example. Recently
>one of my dogs died. At 4:00 AM she woke up and went outside to die. At
>exactly the same time my other dog named Lizzy that is living over 45 miles
>away woke up and made her owner get out of bed, and at exactly the same
>time my friend on this list, Clover woke up having a nightmare that I was
>outside her living room pounding on the door to get in. Now the question is
>did God wake up a dog 45 miles away and a friend of mine 2 miles away? And
>if so did Shelia my dying dog make the call to God, or did I by waking to
>let her out?
I dunno.
Maybe you should pray about it to seek your answer. ;-)
>
>In summation what I'm trying to say is that yes I do believe in God. Yes I
>do believe ritual is necessary to set up the conditions to communicate with
>God. However, I also believe that their are many many levels of awareness
>that we can reach. Thousands. And I believe that if we had a better
>understanding of those levels, things such as you describe could be
>explained that way.
I agree, "Thousands" is probably correct, just ask any Hindu or Bahai how
many ways are there to their respective enlightenments. Rohit, you care to
comment?
JB