Dear Paul,

The need for a purpose is another indicator for the frailty of the human mind. People are supposed to never act without a purpose, always busy trying to get from point A to point B, but surely such a limitation does not apply to God, who lacks nothing.

Those who go to church on Sunday and take part in the rituals, are in fact relating to God, only they do so indirectly, through an imaginary image which they created. Why do so? because if done properly, it opens one's heart and helps to improve one's character in preparation for the real thing.

It is possible to relate directly with God, but not as long as one tries to use their limited minds for it, and one cannot avoid using their minds (except perhaps for a graceful split-second here and there) so long as they have an ego, that is so long as they identify themselves with a limited body/mind.

Improving one's character is essential because good habits help us eradicate this notion of being a limited body/mind, while bad/egoistic habits reinforce that notion, thus stand in the way of being able to relate with God directly.

How do you know whether you relate to God directly?
So long as you have any doubt, so long as you have any fear, any discomfort, any worry, so long as your experience is anything less than ecstatic and permanent bliss, you are not yet there.

'When Muslim runner shows up and starts making a nuisance of himself, I'll be happy to argue with him - but when he's not here there's nobody to argue with, and one looks a bit mental arguing with people who aren't there.'

no Toni they don't need to. Enough usefull or useless idiots/apologist on the abc and left doing the job for them.

Hi Paul & Yuyutsu,

It's so much easier with a 'perfect' religion, one with all the answers: you will never have to think or reflect or analyse ever again (and you will never be allowed to). Because that book is the literal word of a god, never to be changed or modified. Except for later hadiths which abrogate what came before. And later hadiths abrogating earlier ones too. And so on.

It's easier still if almost no-one reads that book, which would be harder to do if it's placed in the highest part of the house, and written in an archaic language which few understand. If I were an absolute dictator, that religion would be ideal.

But in the modern, blooming-buzzing, world, 1400 years away from desert tribal life ....... ?

Joe

Dear Joe,

A perfect religion would still expect you to reflect and analyse your own attitudes and actions, then one could use books as checklists.

Imperfect claims for being a religion abound. It's best not to waste our time on them and continue to inspect ourselves and our own faults rather than the faults of their authors.

// from the bits and pieces" of information that are available, about halal certification: it does seem as if the only food products that we buy in supermarkets which are NOT halal-certified, for which we pay, would be pork, roo and fish...

...As you request, quite rightly, asserters need to provide "Evidence or it never happened."//

Well, go on then. Present this evidence you have that everything in supermarkets except the pig, roo and fish is halal-certified. Why would you hold out on us? What do you hope to achieve by hoarding your evidence? Hard proof that there are Muslim organisations charging crop farmers for certification when all vegetables are automatically regarded as halal would be pretty damming, right Joe? So let's see some documents, some information from first sources to support this highly dubious claim.

Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.

@Foxy, Wednesday, 12 April 2017 1:21:35 PM

Planning papers such as the one given below have been provided as sources on OLO many times before,

'Indonesia in Australian Defence Planning"
http://www.regionalsecurity.org.au/Resources/Files/vol3no4DibbandBrabinSmith.pdf