And I would also add the fundamental doctrines of Christianity.

. . . . . like mathematics, religion can grow from within, or decay. The Jew knows more than the Pagan, the Christian more than the Jew, the modern vaguely religious man less than any of the three. But, like mathematics, it remains simply itself, capable of being applied to any new theory of the material universe and outmoded by none.

When anyone comes into the presence of God they will find, whether they wish it or not, that all those things which seemed to make them so different from the people of other times, or even from their earlier self, have fallen off them. They are back where they always were, where everyone always is. Eadem sunt omnia semper (Everything is always the same). Do not let us deceive ourselves. No possible complexity which we can give to our picture of the universe can hide us from God: there is no copse, no forest no jungle thick enough to provide cover. We read in Revelation (20:11) of Him that sat on the throne 'from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away'. It may happen to any of us at any moment. In the twinkling of an eye, in a time too small to be measured, and in any place, all that seems to divide us from God can flee away, vanish, leaving us naked before Him, like the first man, like the only man, as if nothing but He and I existed. And since that contact cannot be avoided for long, and since it means either bliss or horror, the business of life is to learn to like it. That is the first and great commandment."

Luigi,
Moses laws were not about racial cleansing as his laws included protection of persons in their land. Jews are diverse in race but exclusive in religion. Joshua was involved in war against persons who posed a threat to their existence even as today with Hamas.

Please identify Moses laws that deal with racial cleansing!

Quote, "After all, it was God (or Yahweh) who promised Moses that he would ethnically cleanse the land of Canaan for his 'chosen people' ..., and who laid down all sorts of laws to the Israelites to keep themselves racially pure. ... Further religion has very little to do with morality. There's no coherent morality in either the Old Testament or the gospels."

Obviously you neither study or understand the Judea/Christian moral position presented in the gospels. You are rather ignorant of Christian morality. Most of our laws are based upon these principles. Christian morality reflected mush of previous balanced morality but dealt with heart attitudes.

Philo
In Deuteronomy 6 10-12 Moses says to his people: 'Then it shall come about when the LORD your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build, and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied,then watch yourself, that you do not forget the LORD who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.'

The clear implication is that those who planted the vineyards and trees, built and lived in the houses and produced all the good things are to be expelled, enslaved or exterminated. A clearer case of ethnic cleansing would be hard to find. And in case you're still not convinced, go to Deuteronomy 20: 10 - 18, in which Yahweh stipulates which ethnic groups are to be exterminated - 'you shall not let a soul remain alive', and who and what are to be counted as booty.

Modern law is largely a refinement and expansion of Roman law. It may have been influenced by Christian principles during its development, but I think you're right to say that Christianity reflected previous morality. The gospels, which I've read closely quite recently, don't present a clear, coherent morality, and morality isn't their primary concern. They're far more concerned about establishing Jesus as a religious figure by promoting his supernatural powers and the message of 'salvation' through belief in him. Morality is low on the agenda.

Thanks Martin - useful passage and as always - the closer one approaches 'truth' the greater the paradox - the only constant is change. When we let go of language, the paradox disappears and all that is left is NOW.

How does C. S. Lewis explain Jesus changing water into wine - or raising Lazarus from the dead - perhaps they are not miracles after all? "Growth" and "change" can be synonymous though it is interesting that the oak tree resembles not the acorn.

As Lewis points out the core of one's being is where real change takes place - the modern word to describe this phenomenon is 'realisation' - when we "know" - we understand. A new realisation alters our perspective, everything suddenly looks different - though of course, we are looking out on to the same world (but we cannot say we have not changed). When we realise we are no longer seven, and let go of the seven year old's mind, we “know” we are growing up - we "know" something has changed.

The only barrier to eternity is language - in our attempts to explain or describe phenomena, we imprison the mind. Read Frederich Jameson’s "The Prison-House of Language: a Critical Account of Russian Structuralism and Formalism".

All Christ can give us as a guide - a pointer towards the way is: "I am the alpha and the omega". The rest, we have to fill in for ourselves.

Its a long time since I read any Lewis - but I do remember him describing his experience of "seeing" the real tree once in one of his works - sorry, I can't remember which - “seeing” rather than “thinking” or ”verbally describing internally”.

As I've been saying all along – ‘religion’ and it’s overly pompous, self-righteousness attempts to control the mind rather than liberate the mind. It holds people back from discovering and being their ‘true’ selves. The Pope aint giving up the throne any time soon – the Church – give up its "glory" for a heavenly realm for all – fat chance.

Luigi, the following article may be of interest to you:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_thom_har_060905_thom_hartmann_3b_democ.htm

To TurnRightThenLeft,

I just came across your set of questions. They looked like fun, so why not give them a burl? Because of word limit, let’s start with questions 5 & 3.

Q5. Why do no world religions mention dinosaurs? doesn't this hint that perhaps the authors don't know everything after all?
Even if it was a practical joke and dinosaurs weren't real, there are some damn big chicken bones lying around. You'd think they deserve a mention.

A-There’s one world religion that mentions dinosaurs. Open the book of Job to chapters 40 and 41. In this ancient book, perhaps the oldest in the Bible, there are detailed descriptions of animals called the leviathan and the behemoth. Some translations give different names for the animals, but the descriptions are unmistakably dinosaur like. They couldn’t possibly be an elephant or hippo or crocodile as they do not match their descriptions, but do line up quite nicely with certain types of dinosaurs.

This is enough to suggest that dinosaurs still existed in Job’s day. There are other legends and stories from most cultures in every continent of terrible dragon like creatures. These might be called dinosaurs if discovered today.

Q3. Why is everyone so fussed about creation - by its very definition, we have no witnesses to say whether it is right or wrong.
So it's like arguing what happened at the kick off of a footy match no one saw. (my point is, most people would be content to know the results, and guess what - we do!)

A-If I came to a football match at half time, and found that one team was beating the other by seventy-five goals to zero, I would be asking questions why? This would not be a proper sporting contest, it would be an aberration. Something would be wrong, and until I knew what it was I would feel uncomfortable. Likewise, we can plainly see there is something wrong with our world. If we could know what what went wrong at the start, then we would have a better chance of fixing it up.