Belief - Blog Posts
“A wise man can always be found alone. A weak man can always be found in a crowd.” -Bruce Lee The scripture says: the weak shell inherit the earth 🌍. How to understand the quote then, has one of the words different meaning, does it prophecies it and or makes it some better than others? #religion #bible #scripture #holy #quote #brucelee #jesus #god #prophecy #meaning #pray #truth #lord #belief (at Lakewood Church) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4Iya8poSok/?igshid=3auel8lsb6fk
Money 💵 is energy and you use energy to do stuff, so the more is done by you, the more money is available for you to use. #money #mind #energy #flow #move #life #entrepreneur #love #freedom #free #giveaway #positive #abundance #active #progressive #win #kind #humble #nature #belief #transcend (at Hamburg, Germany) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3rinYHo34s/?igshid=fm1z488481n9
Make A Fucking Difference, Share A Life With Someone New
Sigh... Guns aren't the issue; people are... Why is it that people refuse to realize that. Removing guns would be the same as taking a bully's food, in the end if he wants to beat a kid up, the fact that you took his food doesn't inspire any sort of responsibility on his part. Thousands of weapons are brought into this country illegally and sold to people who do not have the population's interest at heart. Looking at our society and the future that'll come I personally wish to have the right to carry a weapon while I travel and while I'm at home. I have a family to protect, and my own life to look forward to, I don't want to be unable to defend my interest should some asshole attempt to take advantage of me because I can't own a weapon. If people really want to make a difference they all need to petition for the evaluation of and the push for better care and earlier response for individuals of all mental states.
The ignorance and the disrespect towards individuals and to people in general is a large factor in causing the negative social issues we see today. Even more so in a society with such a large gap constantly growing in how one can connect and bond with their peers. There are always a few people who can't be stopped and will do horrible things to others regardless of what limits you place on them. But what about everyone else in the world we so happily share? Personally I think it’s time we look inside and realize how backwards our society has become and how we constantly evade taking ownership for own flaws. Instead of understanding and realizing how our behaviors are interconnected to the stimuli in our environment , we instead tell others to hold it in, or that there are limits and conditions for certain outlets of expression.
Instead of truly helping each other and working to support one another we get this retarded circle jerk of response. We get a large amount of people, who like to give “positive reinforcement” which is nothing more but a pat on the back and someone telling you how right you are when you most likely aren’t. That is our society today, and it’s not a directly bad thing to have. Yet when you think about it don’t you realize how fake that is? It’s so just too easy to push away and leave people on the sidelines; we reject so many for nothing at all. We avoid people we don’t like for reasons so petty that we have to actually find ways to justify our feelings. We refuse the idea of giving people chances at becoming something closer, we refuse to not only accept but to understand and become involved with another’s flaws. We refuse and are afraid of being told we are the issue and would rather latch on to any statement that pushes blame upon others.
Hell, I guarantee that very few people will even read this all the way through, but for those of you who have, I must ask you one thing. Do you talk to the odd kid at school? Have you’ve gone out of your way to interact with the person who seems kind of lonely? Do you actually try to have a meaningful discussion with that person who just seems to talk and talk all the time? How about the person who annoys you? Do you stop to try and get along with the people who piss you off? Have you’ve tried to get to know the person you make fun of? If you do, have you’ve ever thought about not making fun of them? Do you stop to have a moment with someone you’ve never spoken with before, and not some empty and brief way that ultimately meaningless? Saying hi and asking how someone is doing isn’t a true conversation, it’s a lead into a conversation but it hardly brings anything worthwhile. How about bringing up those social issues, or other now “Taboo” topics nobody seems to want to focus on? Since when should someone hide their opinions and beliefs from people who they wish to befriend? How is it so hard to accept that people are different from each other and that these differences aren’t reason to disown them or harm them? We find ways to distance ourselves from others and push them away and even shame them, and yet we wonder why there are an ever increasing number of disconnected individuals who commit heinous actions upon the innocent. Spread the word and Make A Fucking Difference, Share A Life With Someone New.
This was a Social Moral Evaluation Rant, brought to you by Common Sense… Common Sense! Everyone needs it, but many don’t have enough of it.
Question thyself and thou shalt livest free.
Be a raw and wild
Poison ivy
in this field full of
sensitive little touch-me-nots.
Be a witch ,
to those who try to hurt your soul,
and trust me honey,
then on you'll be invincible.
Life's tough,
but so are you.
Tough time never last
but tough people do...
You say you wanna be pretty,
so the world would love you ,
so the eyes would admire you,
so the lips would discuss you.
But , my dear,
don't ever forget,
love of this world has become cruel.
You'll be a pretty little flower,
just to make them happy,
and all they'll do is
stare, pluck, smell and throw.
So honey,
better be a Venus flytrap,
beautiful in its own,
but nobody ever can
stare,
pluck,
smell,
and throw.
Sure they won't like you,
but trust me, it's better than
being left alone to wilt,
only because they thought
you were the prettiest flower
in the garden...
~Who we want to be~ #deep #thoughts #realization #life #purpose #soul #radiation #energy #belief #cosmos #snow #solitude #nature #naturephotography #naturelovers #photooftheday #photography #travel #instatravel #discover #explore #observe #silence #cosmos #creation #winter #wanderlust #world #usa #natgeo #traveltheworld
Love.
I really dont believe in it anymore.
There was a time when I truly did...
I had thought that....
The butterflies I got in my stomach thinking about him
Me skipping a beat when I hear his voice
His one touch making me go numb
That one kiss that mesmerized me
I thought all that was love.
So wrong was I.
You truly do love the person
But for that person to love you back
With the same compassion, the same intensity
You got to be lucky for that
Bloddy damn lucky
My love is long lost in the midst of all those I gave it to.
I dont hope to get it back now from anyone anymore.
Coz in this world of mystery love remains solved to me
In a way I never hoped it to be
I wish I had known it all beforehand
I would not have loved
Atleast not the wrong person...
What if we rewrite the stars... (Say you were meant to be mine); Chapter Eight.
For a blur of time, Esther finds herself back in the normal rhythm of her life.
•
Where Esther has unwanted visitors in her house, which turn out to be the Fates.
read here in ao3.
Faith is like a flame. Sometimes it burns brightly, sometimes it's just a flicker. But, it's still there, always there, waiting to grow strong again....!✨
I will not survive. I will live.
Celebrate an Eco-Friendly Diwali: Embrace Greenery and Sacred Plants
When we say no to fireworks, we say a big yes to happiness and responsibility. This Diwali, go green. Diwali, the festival of lights, has always been about celebrating prosperity, happiness, and new beginnings. However, in today’s world, we must also be mindful of how we celebrate—ensuring that our traditions are in harmony with nature. This Diwali, let’s focus on eco-friendly choices and…
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Celebrate an Eco-Friendly Diwali: Embrace Greenery and Sacred Plants
When we say no to fireworks, we say a big yes to happiness and responsibility. This Diwali, go green. Diwali, the festival of lights, has always been about celebrating prosperity, happiness, and new beginnings. However, in today’s world, we must also be mindful of how we celebrate—ensuring that our traditions are in harmony with nature. This Diwali, let’s focus on eco-friendly choices and…
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Click for Etsy Shop and Get Your Live Tulsi Plant <3
"Do not leave me, for without you, I do not exist"
~ Andal
Andal amman, the great tamil bhakti poetess is one of my inspirations for madhurya bhava after Meerabai, she's the one who gets it!
Lord Ranganatha of Srirangam married Andal, who then merged with his idol. This divine marriage is celebrated annually.
This so romantic 💕TvT
An Argument for God - The Genuine Nature of Christianity
This post is a product of a heated conversation I’ve had very recently. The argument I will present is in no way a proof, rather a compelling line of reasoning, supporting the legitimacy of the Christian faith.
First of all, religious beliefs have been present since the naissance of our race, as evident from numerous archeological findings of ritual items. Although primitive iterations of different faiths can be connected to the lack of scientific understanding. For example it could seem logical for groups of humans to praise the sun, as they had no distant idea of its inner workings, and as something beyond their comprehension, yet observably powerful, it appeared to be an entity far above them, ergo a god of sorts. Similar patterns can be found in countless natural religions, as usually their objects are things or persons of immense influence and/or outside the intellectual and physical grasp of their subjects. This mode of religious faith (or fear) is thus very natural, almost inherent to the unknowing masses of the distant past. Opposite to this, the Judeo-Christian tradition had an original birth, meaning it was not connected to observable objects, rather an entity outside of the physical and intellectual realms, through revelation through a long line of prophets and inspired people. In comparison the natural religions had an understandable reason to be invented because their objects were things overpowering humans, whereas Christianity’s roots came from a place outside of the boundaries of rationality, ergo, as far as religions are concerned, the birth of Christianity is genuine.
Secondly, in the stratum of religions from revelation, there is a great amount of corruption and an even greater amount of dubious sources. Many faiths come from the preaching of inspired individuals, who have claimed to have some supernatural knowledge, and usually these persons even had miraculous happenings in their close proximity. Whenever one such individual could amass a cult, a new religion was born and very often their teachings remained the core of their religion ever after. Now this is problematic because the only convincing power of these faiths is that of their missionary’s, the original prophet (or anyone called by any name, serving as such) is completely at the mercy of the skills of the coming teachers and preachers of given religion. Even more severely so, when history discredits the original bringers of revelation. Probably the most outstanding example of this is the case of Mohammad, the prophet of Islam. First, his first amanuensis left him. It is extremely alarming, when the person, who writes down the words of a prophet reports that he lost his faith in the prophet’s revelation’s genuineness. Second, when the prophet’s teachings became self-contradictory, evidently along the lines of personal interest, a large group of people left the prophet. Third, the prophet had to discard parts of his teachings, attributing it to deception from Satan, when its contents found no popular acceptance. Mohammad thus seems like a hardly credible source. Of course his revelations are very compelling to many people, who choose to overlook all these three discrediting instances. The Bible, at the same time, has been created in the span of thousands of years, written by many dozens of inspired people. The revelation, to be so spread out, is quite unique in this manner, unlike any other out there. It can be thus said that, in comparison, Christianity’s revelation -- again, as far as religions from revelations go -- is genuine.
Thirdly, the Judeo-Christian revelation claims to have been proven and fulfilled. Like religions in a large percentage, Christianity also operates with many prophecies. Yet, it is quite exquisite in that its prophecies have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ(1). This is some two thousand years worth of texts, which have been completed in a real persons life and death and his message. Now at this point, to accept the above sentence, it requires faith, however, the fact that the Judeo-Christian tradition counts Jesus Christ as fulfillment to its prophecies and expectations is very unique and can be counted as a genuine basis of faith.
And lastly, the inspiration behind the text is very credible. Most likely in connection with the long time span, the revelation of the Bible doesn’t follow lines of interest. Quite the contrary, often great historical influences were opposed by actual revelations and sacred guidance. Even socio-economic contexts were ignored or opposed time and time again, which again, proves that the revelations are genuine. Now whether or not to believe them still can be a question but not whether or not the claims are genuine.
Note: I’m aware of the possibility my above argumentation might be plagiaristic but as this is not published as a scholarly work I feel I don’t need to go source-hunting. Originally the basic concepts presented here are used in a novella I’m still trying to write and I put it out here in this shape and form because I’ve been deeply inspired by a personal conversation (see preface).
(1) Jesus is, historically, better recorded than Julius Caesar, so his earthly existence can be regarded as historical fact (as long as one accepts such things, since they can sometimes seem questionable), his metaphysical significance and the truth of his message is what is usually argued.
Beliefs
"Doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs" sings Jon Foreman. This is a great advice to us, modern-day people. We let ourselves be shaken by nearly everything: science, new religions, even the opinions that aren't identical to ours. Nowadays people are lacking confidence and mostly confidence in what they believe. In what WE believe.
On the contrary, when we don't believe in something, we mostly have absolutely no idea what that thing's about. We don't read the literature of the religions we don't agree with, so this means we are very far away from being given the right to disagree, since we aren't informed. When someone denies evolution, or science, they don't have a physics, chemistry or biology degree, they just are willingly ignorant.
At the end of the day, we don't have strong faith or strong doubt, but even when we do, it's based on nothing. But why is that? It's because we can't listen to all debates, read every book, perform each experiments to support our beliefs or doubts. In fact it would be impossible, since humanity hasn't yet answered every questions, we are too young a specie to know it all. This means that every faith and doubt will be open for discussion for an exceedingly long time.
Opinions and beliefs make us, people, so diverse and it's wonderful. However, it's quite trivial that in the end only one faith will prevail and on a distant-enough day we will know who was right because every single belief system, no matter if they say it differently, excludes every other. You can try and model religions as different paths to the same place but it doesn't work. They're contradicting each other. If one's true, the other is inevitably false.
I know there have been countless flame wars generated by religious differences. You might even bring up the crusades as a fine example, however, the crusades are so much opposed to how christianity is defined that the "holy crusades" were acts of the least christian roots. Just saying... But where am I going with this? Fighting over who's right or who's wrong is folly. Think about it, truth will prevail. Forcing your ideals on others will never produce new believers, only averse souls. I, for one, am a believer of Jesus Christ. And yes, I'm convinced that I'm right about what I have faith in. I stongly think that everyone should believe in what I do, STILL, my onlytool to achieve this is live my life by the principles I believe in. You have the choice to disagree. I'm sad if you do but it's completely up to you.
Cheers :)
Conspiracies: Anthropology lenses
Discovering the dreaded conspiracy theory through an anthropological lens, these notes basically ask the question of where and how people created theories based on their mistrust of systemic agencies, or unexplainable events.
When asked, im an atheist, but it feels so weird and vain to explain my worldview through wether I believe in deities or not when the possible existense of deities does not even cross my mind when I consider my belief system.
There's something about atheism that I've repeatedly tried and failed to put into words on several posts on this blog but I think I finally got it.
Atheists are the only religious minority who, even (or sometimes even *especially*) in ostensibly progressive spaces are not allowed to ever act like they're sure of their beliefs.
In the 21st century, they began building pyramids again. It was a decision not really taken by any authority, but it was commonly very popular. It's hard to say if it was caused by lack of believable Gods; many had been worshipped with a huge amount of followers for hundreds if not thousands of years. So maybe it was a response, or rather result, of the increasing single high-rises. Usually placed where they would do most harm. In the sense of being extremely ugly, and at the same time standing so you couldn't get free of the sight. It was a new and very effective form of prisons. You had to either stay inside with curtains drawn, or simply walk around with your eyes closed very hard. To avoid being caught in that devastating ugliness. Maybe that was why. If there had to be those sky-scratching buildings, then why not give them a purpose? Put something inside. So it happened. New pyramids. Filled with whatever you wanted. Your dreams, your destiny, your future… Your freedom. At night they were lit with hope. From and for every single soul. Most about escaping the new high-rise prisons. To live with open eyes. It actually made sense… #mantelmomento #danielmantel #laurieandthestoryof (Always...) #primeiroproximopasso (Also...) #udenfilter #pyramids #modernage #belief #buildings #gellerup #highrise #hope #fiction #reality #prose #whythefuckmysmalltownisbeingdestroyedbycommercialhighrisebuildingsisimplycantunderstand (Usual one-off hashtag) (her: Aarhus, Denmark)
People who need people are threatened by people who don’t. The idea of seeking contentment alone is heretical, for society steadfastly decrees that our completeness lies in others.
Lionel Fisher (via middlenameconfused)
christinemarieparker:
A.D. Hope
A.U.C. 334: about this date, For a sexual misdemeanour which she denied, The vestal virgin Postumia was tried; Livy records it among affairs of state.
They let her off: it seems she was perfectly pure; The charge arose because some thought her talk Too witty for a young girl, her eyes, her walk Too lively, her clothes too smart to be demure.
The Pontifex Maximus, summing up the case, Warned her in future to abstain from jokes, To wear less modish and more pious frocks. She left the court reprieved, but in disgrace.
Read More
Advice to Young Ladies
cheshicat:
Courtyard of the Vestal Virgins
The Virgins were chosen as young girls. They had to be free of defects, physically & mentally, have 2 living parents, and had to be daughters of citizens of Rome. The Virgins had a highly sacred and important job. Awarded many privileges, the Virgins were also given great responsibility and failure to live up to their job could mean a punishment as severe as death
harvestheart:
Vestal Virgins
The priestesses of the goddess Vesta were known as the Vestal Virgins. They were responsible for maintaining the sacred fire within the Temple of Vesta on the Forum Romanum. Other duties included performing rituals in regards to the Goddess Vesta, and baking the sacred salt cake to be used at numerous ceremonies in the year. They were the only female priests within the roman religious system. The head of the college of Vesta was called the Virgo Vestalis Maxima, and she was under the direct authority of the Pontifex Maximus.
The college of Vesta had 18 members, though 6 were considered actual Vestal Virgins at any given time. They were selected from distinguished patrician families at an age from three to ten, and such appointments were considered a top honor for any family to receive. They each served thirty years, the first ten years as novices, then ten years as actual vestal virgins, and finally ten years as supervisors responsible for training the novices. After the thirty years of duty they were released from their duties and could then maintain a private life, including the right to marry. For men, arranging a marriage with a former vestal virgin was highly prestigious, regardless of age or the ability to have children.
The vestals vowed to live in chastity for the thirty years their tenure lasted. In return they were allowed many privileges not given to ordinary Roman women. As one example, the vestals were not subject to the pater potestas of their fathers. Essentially they were allowed to handle their own properties and engage in legal contracts, they were allowed to travel around the city in a carriage and they had special seats in the front row at the various games, where, in contrast women were normally relegated to the back seats. They were considered inviolable and sacred and their blood could not be spilt without fear of terrible repercussion from the gods. So sacred and divine-like were these priestesses, that if a person sentenced to death met a vestal virgin on his way to the execution, he would be automatically pardoned. Of course, special care would be taken to prevent or to make sure this would happen, depending on the circumstances.
While enjoying many benefits, including a rather luxurious life in the House of Vestal Virgins, punishment for breaking the rules were severe. The punishment for breaking the vow of chastity was death by burial alive as this was the adopted to kill a vestal without shedding her blood. Such executions would take place in the “Evil Fields”, or Campus Sceleratus, just outside the Servian Wall. Their lover would be flogged to death on the Comitium. While these executions took place several times, it was obviously a rare event that carried all sorts of negative omens with it.
While the Pontifex Maximus continues to the present day as an office of the higher order in the Catholic Church, the order of the vestals was disbanded in 394 AD, when non-Christian cults were banned by Theodosius. The Church, wisely trying to keep the general population with a sense of familiarity, readily adopted the use of convents and position of nuns that held many of the same rules and customs as the Vestals.
http://www.unrv.com/culture/vestal-virgins.php
quietlyrebellious:
I’ve lived in my house for years and I’ve never noticed this stone in my front yard..feels like a little blessing =]
