On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 17:35:32 +0000, Larry wrote:

Peter Hendra wrote in
:

yet another later day prophet - maybe the message is for you Larry.
With your radio comms knowledge and abilities and my knowledge of the
scriptures and publice speaking - perhaps we should enter a business
partnership - a radio station that asks people to send money. I reckon
we would make a nice retirement income.

cheers
Peter



Rev Stair has that covered, already...

http://www.overcomerministry.org/

He also loves young girls on his commune....

http://www.rickross.com/groups/rgstair.html

He seems immune from prosecution....talking directly to God, like he
does....

---------------------------------------

I doubt you'd like me very well, at all.

Richard Dawkins is fairly close to my "truth":
http://richarddawkins.net/home


Larry
I don't know. I have friends from Christian to Hedonist - and even
Sybarites. You may say that my choice of friends is "catholic" -
everything. One of my closest friends I started school with at age 5
is Society of Mary - Jesuit, having spent most of his life at the
Vatican. Another grows pot in the Coromandel ranges in New Zealand.
Frankly, I couldn't care less what people's religion is or is not. It
is their relationship with me that matters most. I much prefer the
company of a sybaritic drunkard who guzzles the wine I keep for guests
to the righteous. They are more honest, usually have more character
and you can have a relationship not bound by "rules". Righteous people
can be very boring. Why spend time with those who blindly follow. How
are you ever going to formulate your own beliefs if there is not
dialogue and disagreement where you can agree to disagree - in an
honest fashion. That was the wonderful thing about parts of Medieval
Europe such as Moorish Spain and the Kingdom of Sicily - Jewish,
Christian and Moslem scholars and theologians worked and debated
together to establish common truths as well as to translate ancient
texts. I could bore you to tears about how (Saint) Thomas Aquinas and
(Saint) Albert Magnus of the University of Paris obtained the answer
from the nagging question of the time about faith and reason from the
Moslem theologans of Spain - now incorporated into Holy Church
doctrine. - but I won't. It wouldn't interest you apart from the
knowledge that if Marconi had been there to invent radio, they could
have chatted over the Ham waves instead of travelling and getting
frustrated by the delays of the then postal system.

It all depends on your theology. In the Sufic sect to which my family
has belonged over the generations - established by the father of
Jalaladdin Rumi of Konya in Turkey about 800 years ago, I would not
get into trouble if I stated my views that I don't know if there is a
God as such as most people view him/her. It doesn't really matter.
What is apparent to me is that heaven and hell as such are on this
earth which is almost identical to the Chinese/Japanese Zen philosophy
of cause and effect. Nothing to do with rewards in any hereafter. You
create your own heaven and hell by your actions in your life. - what
you do unto others will be done unto you. No external
reward/punishment system.

Prayer to me is similar to the Zen meditation i experienced in Japan
years ago - it is a way of talking and listening to yourself.

Here endith the lesson.
Amen.

I have read Dawkin's books, heard him speak in Sydney at a book
signing and agree with some of his views. He is merely stating in a
popular fashion what others have said before. Any first year Biology
student comes to their own realisation about the 'selfish gene' and
that we are merely vehicles for their perpetuation. If you don't
multiply, your ancestors will die off. - or:

"If your parents never had childfren, chances are that you won't
either". - anon

we could still make a lot of money

cheers
Peter