Also, happy anniversary to Kat and Lori, and happy birthday to Beverly.

I think Buddhists believe(Astarte knows more than I) that yes, we all get a piece of the divine and some life force, and when we, individually, die, life kind of gets it back. I like this, but gotta tell ya, part of my American soul is still like "But what about the part that's me?" And I don't know.

we all get a piece of the divine and some life force, and when we, individually, die, life kind of gets it back.

This makes total sense to me. Matter cannot be created or destroyed; also, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

Maybe I'm a stealth Buddhist. (So stealth I don't know it myself.)

Yeah...there's a web of life thing. It's pretty cool, and the God thing is answered by "We're all a little bit God." so whether there's a Switchboard In The Sky doesn't matter quite so much. Stop me before I get to the veil of illusion, y'all. So, which Bayliss thing will I take up next? Same-sex datage or blowing the heads of dirtbags?

I posted a more detailed version in my lj but I had a brief descusion about religon with a coworker. There's someon who's having a hard time dealing with a recent lost and we were talking about that. Coworker basically said that only people who are really strong in their faith with God will find solace and the abilitiy to move on. Not just any Christians but those who only go to God for help.

I hate that attitude because it's so -- competitive -- my belief is stronger than yours, so you'll suffer more. Or whatever.

She relayed a story about a friend who lost a family member and wanted to talk to my co worker, my co worker did some but told her to pray, that them talking wasn't going to help as much.

Again floored by this idea that any kind of outside assistance isn't from God.

So I pulled out the story of the guy who fell off the cliff and died rather than accepting help from a helicopter. Guy dies and questions God and God's answer is "Who do you think sent the helicopter."

I think some people, like my coworker, get really caught up in this idea of God's helping being something "not of this world" that even a burning bush and a flashing sign "God's Help Here!" would be met with doubt.

Plus, when I was a teenager and was wrestling with my depressions I heard a lot that I just had to trust in God and everything would be fine. It got really hard to believe when my life was filled with so much pain and no one could tell me why.

So I pulled out the story of the guy who fell off the cliff and died rather than accepting help from a helicopter. Guy dies and questions God and God's answer is "Who do you think sent the helicopter."

I think some people, like my coworker, get really caught up in this idea of God's helping being something "not of this world" that even a burning bush and a flashing sign "God's Help Here!" would be met with doubt.

In the FAC, they had a somewhat sensible attitude towards whether or not help/inspiration/etc. was from God -- they took the position that God is a practical Dude, and that as often as possible, He works through other people/modern medicine/etc.

Unfortunately, they *also* tended to take the position that just because you *thought* that assistance from other people was from God doesn't mean that it was. Which, okay, I can agree with. But my problem is that their criteria for whether or not assistance was from God just happened to be whether or not it fell into the category of what THEY believe is godly.

Which I think is a little unreliable.

Oh, jeez. I'm on page three of my 8-10 page paper, and I'm still on the first part (of three) of my first (of three) point. Eek.

Vw, wish we were on the same coast girlfriend, because I hate the Research...I'd love to pay you, give you topics and say "Knock yourself out!" Love that helicopter joke, askye.

Oh, erika! You'd have more research than you'd know what to do with! I'm not sure that's actually a good idea...

Is Erin around?