Comments by "June VanDerMark" (@junevandermark952) on "ReligionForBreakfast" channel.

  1. While conversing with another woman about religion, her defense was that those in churches give each other "support." I agreed, and when I asked her if what they teach within the church is based on truth, she informed me that "truth" comes in many layers. That was news to me, as I always thought that only lies came in layers. We can't search for truth, and at the same time, claim to know truth. The search for truth keeps us moving ... while claiming to know truth brings us to a halt in the egotistical mindset of, "I have arrived at my destination, so I don’t have to search any farther." Maybe it’s best to believe that truth (if it even exists) is always one step ahead of us.
    19
  2. Vain glories! Gnosticism is often defined as a "cult" of "secret knowledge" or to quote, "These gospels emphasize knowledge that initiates have and others do not." http://www.sullivan-county.com/id2/gnosticism.htm
    1
  3. Gnostic Christians believed that if they could (within theology) create a son of Jehovah, they would overshadow the Jews, whose story it was that they were Jehovah's chosen few. Religion always was based on "Out with the old story, and in with the new story." From the book, “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,” by Edward Gibbon, (Coyright 1963, by Frank C. Bourne … comes the following ... The Gnostics blended with the faith of Christ many sublime but obscure tenets, which they derived from oriental philosophy, and even from the religion of Zoroaster, concerning the eternity of matter, the existence of the two principles, and the mysterious hierarchy of the invisible world. As soon as they launched out into the vast abyss, they delivered themselves to the guidance of disordered imagination; and as the paths of error are various and infinite, the Gnostics were imperceptibly divided into more than fifty particular sects, of whom the most celebrated appear to have been the Basilidians, the Valentinians, the Marcionites, and, in a still later period, the Manichaeaens.
    1
  4. The infighting over whose religion was right and holy, and whose religion was "evil, was pulling the Roman Empire apart. Within a one hundred year span, approximately 25 emperors were assassinated. Constantine was certain that out of the many Gnostic Christian split factions, if he gave one group complete legal control, he would be able to pull the empire together. It just happened that he chose the Gnostic Catholics. That, of course, gave the popes control over all the other religious groups of that era. And of course the popes ruled that anyone not adhering to the Catholic religion was a heretic, and that "God" wanted all heretics put to death. At one time there were three popes all claiming to be the only authentic one. What a mess!
    1
  5. If those in religion taught that there is only one place to go in an afterlife, and it is a divine place, where every soul is treated with the utmost kindness, and nothing but love ... even though I am not any longer religious, I would think that the story couldn't do any harm. But the story doesn't end there. It goes on to state (as literal truth) that most souls will go to a very bad place in the
    1
  6. @Beecher's Hope When I was still under the spell of religion, I could never believe that other souls would go to a bad place in a hereafter, where those souls would suffer for eternity, while my soul would be rewarded with eternal bliss. At age 70, I left religion behind, and now believe that I am whole, just as I am, and that the universe always existed ... no creator involved. That was the belief of Stephen Hawking before he died, and I copied his system of belief. Since I became an Atheist, my behavior is neither better, nor worse, than when I was steeped in religious confusion.
    1
  7. @Beecher's Hope If, as children, we had all been taught, and had believed the following story, we wouldn’t have any fear of death. From the book Medicine Madams and Mounties … Stories of a Yukon Doctor * 1933-1947 ... Death is the final sleep ... The Indians I met were used to death and dying. They saw it daily as they slaughtered and trapped animals for their livelihood. For them everything had its time, ending in death, and they could not understand our fear of dying. “Why do white people fear death?” they often asked me. “Nobody fears the onset of the unconsciousness called sleep yet you are afraid of the final sleep, death.”
    1
  8. Within the many circles of theology ... if you are not faithful to Judaism, then don't expect Jesus to be faithful to you. From all mythological accounts, Jesus was a Jewish Rabbi ... Rabboni ... Great teacher of Judaism. I suggest that you don't try to change the "subject." Also, (within theology) if Jesus was born perfect as a baby Jew, to parents that practiced only Judaism, one can’t improve on “perfection.” I believe that Jesus was a fictitious character, "used" in the new testament, to in turn, start a new religion, foreign to, and offensive to ... Judaism.
    1
  9. All stories about gods and demons are myths, legends, fairy tales, meant to frighten people in to religion.
    1