The Great Dialogue

"China demands the  United States  abide by its promises to recognize that Tibet is part of China, not to support Tibetan independence and respect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and stop using the Tibet issue to interfere in China's internal relations."   SEE:   http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/07/china-calls-us-tibet-remarks-disgusting   …Does anyone else see it this way; China had the opportunity to come in, annex Tibet, but in a peaceful fashion and so much would now be different--can the countries of the world ever stop using murder, military occupation, and propaganda to take what they want?      

Wishing You All a Blessed Advent Season....

Heaven Is Real: A Doctor's Experience With the Afterlife See: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/10/07/proof-of-heaven-a-doctor-s-experience-with-the-afterlife.html

Hello,   The Christian Science Monitor is giving a quiz--see link below: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0105/Are-you-smarter-than-an-atheist-A-religious-quiz/When-does-the-Jewish-Sabbath-begin      I Just took it and got a 94% [one real error and one hasty answer I should have changed] Any challengers? "Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups in a 32-question survey of religious knowledge by the  Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life . On average, Americans got 16 of the 32 questions correct. Atheists and agnostics got an average of 20.9 correct answers. Jews (20.5) and Mormons (20.3). Protestants got 16 correct answers on average, while Catholics got 14.7 questions right. How will you do on the quiz?"

This made me want to cheer; see the video in the article at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/9666250/Malala-Yousafzais-father-thanks-global-well-wishers.html

SEE:  http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/world/bill-nye-creationism-video-the-science-guy-goes-viral-warns-of-creationisms-effect-on-mankind I must say, I am impressed with the statistics in this article, if not so much with the video...I see this as both helpful and harmful to people of different belief groups...He predicts the end of Creationism--I am not so certain that is going to happen...Thoughts?

"Are meditation, silence, introspection missing from the western Evangelical or Protestant Church sometimes? Yeah, definitely. Which is why I think one meets more and more folks who are trying to get back to that." ~ Excerpt from Interview with Sitarist, Chris Hale - SEE:  http://narniansocialist.com/interview-aradhna-yeshu-loving-bhakti-band/

Thanks...I appreciate the comments... Wayne Dr Schmoyer On Aug 3, 2012 8:45 PM, "Colleen" < noreply-comment@blogger.com > wrote: Colleen has left a new comment on your post " Free Will... ": While I have seen an increase in this behavior on Facebook, I believe it may be more noticeable on social media than in our everyday lives; nevertheless, passing off personal responsibility with blanket indictments of other groups (or those conveniently labeled as "other") is definitely a rising trend. One could argue that this is due to the weakening of moral indoctrination that began in the 20th century with mass industrialization and modern spiritual thought. And I am quite for some moral indoctrination, just to clarify. Posted by Colleen to The Great Dialogue at August 3, 2012 8:45 PM

Good Morning,   I have a motto: FREEWILL NEED NOT  BE SELF-WILL...I see the many things people post on the net and I wonder why everyone is so wrapped up in telling others what they should do, what they should think...what they should believe...where are those who worry more about their own choices, about their own responsibility? Has America and the world changed that much? Why not talk about what you will do, what you believe and why? AM I THE ONLY ONE SEEING THIS TREND?!

"I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." - Mahatma Gandhi --  ...Even Gandhi could at times be narrow minded...the Church is actually not at all the aggregate of the many denominations that call themselves "Christian." In fact, that is the problem--MANY non Christians attend many churches...so, in the end, truly devoted followers of Christ's "Way" become labeled wrongly..

"The Euthyphro dilemma has been addressed by many philosophers and theologians since the time of Plato, though not always with reference to the Platonic dialogue. According to scholar  Terence Irwin , the issue and its connection with Plato was revived by Ralph Cudworth and Samuel Clarke in the 17th and 18th centuries. [61]  More recently, it has received a great deal of attention from contemporary philosophers working in  metaethics  and the  philosophy of religion . Philosophers and theologians aiming to defend theism against the threat of the dilemma have developed a variety of responses." SEE:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthyphro_dilemma

SEE:  http://www.reasonrally.org/about/   Secularism is on the rise...

There is no wisdom save in truth. Truth is everlasting, but our ideas about truth are changeable. Only a little of the first fruits of wisdom, only a few fragments of the boundless heights, breadths and depths of truth, have I been able to gather. Martin Luther  

Of the Hereafter [Modified from the Writer's Almanac for 11-29] After the death of his wife, Joy, in 1960, CS Lewis was devastated. He wrote a book, A Grief Observed (1961), which contained his thoughts, questions, and observations. It was so raw and personal that he published it under a pseudonym. Friends actually recommended the book to him, to help with his grief, unaware that he'd written it. His authorship wasn't made known until after his death in 1963. In the book, he writes that he doesn't believe people are reunited with their loved ones in the next life.  ~What do you think? Will we see our departed loved ones in heaven?

Martin Luther's advice to a friend who was depressed:  "Be strong and cheerful and cast out these monstrous thoughts. Whenever the devil harasses you thus, seek the company of men or drink more, or joke and talk nonsense, or do some other merry thing. Sometimes we must drink more, sport, recreate ourselves, aye, and even sin a little to spite the devil, so that we leave him no place for troubling our consciences with trifles. We are conquered if we try too conscientiously not to sin at all. So when the devil says to you: 'Do not drink,' answer him: 'I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me not to.' One must always do what Satan forbids. What other cause do you think that I have for drinking so much strong drink, talking so freely and making merry so often, except that I wish to mock and harass the devil who is wont to mock and harass me. Would that I could contrive some great sin to spite the devil, that he might understand that I would not eve...

U.S. Stands Alone In Its Embrace of Religion Among Wealthy Nations … OVERVIEW Religion is much more important to Americans than to people living in other wealthy nations. Six-in-ten (59%) people in the U.S. say religion plays a very important role in their lives. This is roughly twice the percentage of self-avowed religious people in Canada (30%), and an even higher proportion when compared with Japan and Western Europe. Americans' views are closer to people in developing nations than to the publics of developed nations. The 44-nation survey of the Pew Global Attitudes Project shows stark global regional divides over the personal importance of religion.[1] In Africa, no fewer than eight-in-ten in any country see religion as very important personally. Majorities in every Latin American country also subscribe to that view, with the exception of Argentina. More than nine-in-ten respondents in the predominantly Muslim nations of Indonesia, Pakistan, Mali and Senegal rate rel...

This all seems pretty obvious to me--not sure there's much to say. Yes, I think these things are pretty universal, though I think the last one about protecting the environment is not so well understood. Too many of us humans aren't farsighted enough to pay much attention to this one. Jim

Hello...see link below to the World Moral Code: http://www.universalmoralcode.com/code.html -- I would like to know what you each think...Thanx, Wayne

Hello,   Long time no see! :)   Below is from the Writer's Almanac today...Quite relevant to how the Dialogue operates! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It was on this day  in 1838 that Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered 'The Divinity School  Address' at Harvard. There were about 100 people in the audience,  including six of the seven graduates of Harvard Divinity School, as well as  faculty, ministers, and former graduates. Emerson had graduated from Harvard  Divinity in 1826, and the graduating students had chosen him as the speaker for  this event. The year before, he had given a lecture called 'The American  Scholar' to the Harvard Phi Beta Kappa society. It was controversial but  popular, and the students were eager to have him back.  Emerson had been a Unitarian minister, but he had resigned a few years earlier. He was skeptical  of the Communion ritual, and of the whole concept of public prayer &mdash;  he felt it should be a private, individual expression. Emerso...

Today I read "When the King Saved God" in the latest issue of Vanity Fair in which Christopher Hitchens, himself an unbeliever, argues that the King James translation of the Bible is essential to our American cultural literacy. Beyond this, he even asserts that this translation must surge ahead of the ever-burgeoning tide of lesser, more trendy texts to come along due to its timeless poetry and authoritative interpretations. While he highlights some of the infamously biased word choices of the great English translation, he maintains that it should still be considered the essential version of the Christian Bible. This begs the question of the Dialogue: Do you think there can or should be an essential translation of the Christian (or other religious) text, by which all others are measured?