andyh wrote:
Sounds a bit like catholic dogma tbh, ie we are born with sin.
If anything, its society that creates sinful children, after all, we're still using a fucked up monetary system so I'm not surprised we have crime and corruption. The kids learn it off us basically, so the various churches have created a dogma which makes excuses for a twisted society that benefits the rich. This has always been the churches role IMHO to prop up the elite and maintain the status quo, it was never about spirituality.
It's an interesting thought, but I agree with Andy, and I reckon it crops up through most major religions too.
After some reflection, I believe this to be a mechanism useful for both controlling followers of a certain faith and also for absolving oneself of any personal responsibility, to a degree.
I don't doubt some of these teachings re good and evil/light & dark started out well meaning, inasmuch as from our very limited perspective here on earth, there most definitely is an up and down/light and dark. However, 'universally speaking', if you will, no such opposites actually exist. As mentioned in a previous post elsewhere, in space, there very definitely is no up or down, for example.
I think the idea may have been hijacked over the centuries to manipulate and scare people into behaving a certain way. This certain way also changes over the centuries and eventually, 'we' find ourselves unable to stand on our heads in enough different ways to please everybody.
I agree 'we' are a physical representation of something, as is everything we can interpret with our physical senses. I don't believe this - whatever it is - to be inherently good or evil, however, as both are merely terms conjoured up by our brains to try and define something, and both are purely subjective. I believe that 'source' or God that so many people seek to find outside of themselves in very simple terms is 'all that is', here to experience itself through the myriad of different physical (and non-physical) incarnations 'it' is able to manifest as on this plane.
I also have no truck with reincarnation in the sense that past/future incarnations follow a linear timeline. I do believe the larger part of us may experience many different lifetimes, but it all happens simultaneously. It's a bit of a toughy to grasp at first, given the apparent limitations of existence and the way in which our physical senses perceive the world around us - and even the passage of time to an extent - but once you start really thinking about it, it can be quite illuminating.
Nice postage, btw.