Compassion is a Universal Value

TO ALL ATHEISTS:

WATCH THE GREATEST DEBATE OF THE 20TH CENTURY BETWEEN AN ATHEIST VERSUS A CATHOLIC.

IT IS A DEBATE BETWEEN CLARENCE DARROW THE FAMOUS SCOPE'S LAWYER WHO FACED WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYANT AND G.K. CHESTERTON.

SEE THE 30 MINUTE DOCUDRAMA AT 11:00 AM TODAY 11/19/0 TO ALL ATHEISTS:

WATCH THE GREATEST DEBATE OF THE 20TH CENTURY BETWEEN AN ATHEIST VERSUS A CATHOLIC.

IT IS A DEBATE BETWEEN CLARENCE DARROW THE FAMOUS SCOPE'S LAWYER WHO FACED WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYANT AND G.K. CHESTERTON.

SEE THE 30 MINUTE DOCUDRAMA AT 11:00 A.M. 11/19/08 ON THE LINK BELOW

http://www.ewtn.com/audiovideo/index.asp

Christ said the two great commandments are “Love your neighbor as you love yourself, and as Christ loves you,” and “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Augustine writes, “Lord you made us out of your love for us. Our hearts are restless, until we rest in thee.” The end of human life is to be in God and God in us.

God made us out of His love for us and He made man to His own image and likeness. He made man to love the Good. That is why the greatest love we can have on earth is to love one another because we are made in the image of God.

Jesus said that there is no greater love for another than one who lays down his life for another. God so love man that He gave His Son up so that man may be saved from eternal darkness and death.

Moreover, before Jesus ascended into heaven, He gave us the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes that directed man to love one another and the rewards that await you for doing so.

http://www.newadvent.org/bible/mat005.htm#verse3

In addition, God gave man the Ten Commandments that from the fourth to the tenth, they command man to be charitable to his neighbor by loving thy father and mother, not to lie, murder, commit adultery, or covet thy neighbor’s wife or his goods.

Although traditionally used as masculine form for description of God in Islam - Ms Taylor's reasoning can hold its weight in the most academic argument, because God in Islam is in the strictest sense Unique with none other sharing (His) attributes, i.e the attributes of Power, Glory, Holiness, Greatness, and the Source of all that exists

he or she?

QURAN s112 v 4,
and there is none co-equal or comparable unto him.

s 19 v 65,
do you know of any who is similar to him.

1-quran and sunna interpret and complement each other .

2-when the quran refer to ALLAH as none equal to and none similar to it means cleary that he is above the inscedence and the classification of male and female or any kind of gender.

3-the arabic language refer to the unknowing as hoowa (he) not heea (she) .

heism and sheism opend a huge stinking can of worms long time ago ,the greco-romanism classifyied god into god and godess, into appolo (masc) who can carry the earth ball on his head and shoulder ,and aphrodeit(fem) the godess of love and fertility!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Thomas, the "god-meeter" and Moses of the NT Baum,

See Professor JD Crossan and other historic Jesus exegetes' studies about the last days of the simple preacher e.g. as previously noted conclusions of Professor Crossan as found in his book, Who is Jesus????

MOMTOTSAN

You wrote, " No one ever complains that He misrepresents God as being male; invariably when I use She or It people do complain."

I didn't complain but I did point out that when I used any pronoun whether male, female or neuter that the pronoun was inadequate when speaking about God but as I also pointed out God-Incarnate was a Male.

God refers to Himself in both masculine and feminine qualities or attributes but as I said when the Second Person of the Trinity became One of Us, He became a Male and asked permission of a Lady to do so, even tho God is a BEING OF PURE LOVE and is neither a male, a female or an it.

Take care, Be ready.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

Just one correction, Hazocel, I was never Catholic. I was raised an atheist and remained an atheist until I embraced Islam.

As for pronouns... As many have pointed out Islam teaches that God is neither male nor female, since we don't have any good pronouns to denote that in English (Mandarin Chinese does, but not English) I try to once in a while throw in He/She/It or to use She from time to time so as to break up the association with God being masculine that comes from constantly using He. No one ever complains that He misrepresents God as being male; invariably when I use She or It people do complain.

Astoria,

Isnt it contrdiction in your advocacy ?

1-You say *Allah is neither male nor female*
If Virginian woman,Dear Pamela Taylor uses *She* pronoun,that means she depicts/describes/defines Allah as female,but you say *Allah is not female*.
Science fiction writer,Mrs.Taylor writes *She* pronoun and you say Allah is not female.
How can we inteprete this situation ?

2-Have you ever seen anything or any translation such as *Allah and HER Messenger* ?
Everyone writes *Allah and HIS Messenger*

Lets not forget,Imam Pamela Taylor was a catholic till 22 year-old and she is still using her baptism name that was taken in the name of Trinity which means Father(God/He),Son,Holy Spirit.

ASTORIA

Hi, hope you're doing fine.

Something that I have said many times before, I repeat: God is a searcher of hearts and minds, not of religious affiliations or lack thereof and that it is important what one does and why one does it and what one knows.

Some people seem to think that God is an egomaniac and that KNOWING HIS NAME is more important than how we treat our brothers and sisters.

Some do not believe that God is Real and yet are closer to God in their hearts than some that believe that God is Real.

God's Plan is for ALL OF HUMANITY to be with Him in His Kingdom and it is sad that some do not believe this but it is much, much sadder that some do not even want this.

If there was a pronoun that was neither male, female nor neuter, I would use it, but since God is not even close to being an it but is a Being of Pure Love, I will use the He, Him, His, since Jesus, God-Incarnate, said to think of God the Father as ABBA which translates as Dad or Daddy which is much more intimate than Father.

See you and the rest of humanity in the Kingdom, the new heavens and the new earth, on the seventh day but remember the night of the sixth day will come before that.

Take care, be ready.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

CCNL

I can't always remember what different people say and there are some on these posts that seem to say both: that Jesus never existed and that Jesus did exist.

Thank You for letting me know that you do believe that Jesus was a historical person.

You wrote, "I do not presume that there were any high-level confrontations between Caiaphas and Pilate and Herod Antipas either about Jesus or with Jesus."

It does make sense that these "high-level confrontations" did happen considering that Caiaphas did not have the authority to put someone to death since the Jews lived in an occupied country and were under the authority of Rome in something such as this.

To get someone out of the way, they would have to have the government, that is the Roman authorities, to do this and to incite the crowd, mob mentality, into a frenzy.

As far as Pilate and Herod Antipas considering neither one, probably thought that this was no more than a religious disagreement, wanted to get involved so just like today, they tried to pass the buck, so to speak.

But really, was it a religious disagreement or was it a power thing with Caiaphas?

And, as I have said, since Caiaphas had not the authority, He would have had to go to the authorities and have it done for him.

Caiaphas may have thought he was doing what seemed best to him, doesn't it say somewhere, "It is better for one to die than for all to die".

The above sentence is very interesting considering that God can speak thru someone without that person even realizing it.

There are some things written in the bible that when someone first sees it or for that matter has seen it many, many times does not ring a bell, so to speak, but sometimes eventually does, but if someone has already deleted that out of their version, how can it?

You also wrote, " It is hard for us to imagine the casual brutality with which Jesus was probably taken and executed.".

I agree, sometimes we sanitize what happened considering that crucifiction came into being as a big time deterent since it was so horrible, so horrible that they, the Romans, would not use it on their own citizens.

Do you know that what is written that Jesus said on the cross, "It is finished", those words in the aramaic were found in an archeological dig on some kind of tax receipt and is translated as "PAID IN FULL", rather interesting I think, don't you?

Thank you also for your thoughtful comments.

I know that you do not believe that I met God and that is fine, it really came as quite a shock to me.

Take care, be ready.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

Thomas, the God in Islam, literally, ALLAH- is neither male nor female. we don't have a male, nor female incarnation of the god. So there is no distinction to be made.(not really)
thanks for your universal contribution to the conversation.
I know you know this, just elaborating.

Thanks Imam Taylor!
It is soooo good to have you here!!!

Thomas, the "god-meeter" and Moses of the NT, Baum,

No, never did say the simple preacher man did not exist. Actually, we have a detailed list of references proving that he did in case you are interested.

One of many conclusions by your favorite historical Jesus exegete, Professor JD Crossan, from his book, Who is Jesus?:

"That Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate, as the Creed states, is as certain as anything historical can ever be.

“ The Jewish historian, Josephus and the pagan historian Tacitus both agree that Jesus was executed by order of the Roman governor of Judea. And is very hard to imagine that Jesus' followers would have invented such a story unless it indeed happened.

“While the brute fact that of Jesus' death by crucifixion is historically certain, however, those detailed narratives in our present gospels are much more problematic. "

“My best historical reconstruction would be something like this. Jesus was arrested during the Passover festival, most likely in response to his action in the Temple. Those who were closest to him ran away for their own safety.

I do not presume that there were any high-level confrontations between Caiaphas and Pilate and Herod Antipas either about Jesus or with Jesus. No doubt they would have agreed before the festival that fast action was to be taken against any disturbance and that a few examples by crucifixion might be especially useful at the outset. And I doubt very much if Jewish police or Roman soldiers needed to go too far up the chain of command in handling a Galilean peasant like Jesus. It is hard for us to imagine the casual brutality with which Jesus was probably taken and executed. All those "last week" details in our gospels, as distinct from the brute facts just mentioned, are prophecy turned into history, rather than history remembered."

See also Professor Crossan's reviews of the existence of Jesus in his other books especially, The Historical Jesus and also Excavating Jesus (with Professor Jonathan Reed doing the archeology discussion) .

CCNL

Hi, how you doing? Don't you sometimes say Jesus was just a simple preacher and other times say that Jesus did not even exist?

Jesus was truly human, just as human as you and I but He was also Truly God and the way I put it is that He emptied Himself of His Omni's.

As I have said, time will tell if what I say is true that God chose me to speak. I am not a "know it all" by any stretch but sometimes does it not seem that people can be so caught up in the details that they do not even seem to believe that there is a big picture, so to speak?

Take care, wish you well, be ready.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

Ahhh, Thomas, "god-meeter", all the answers, your saviour and Moses of the NT, Baum continues touting the dark age story line of Jesus being part of the phantom trinity.

The Age of Enlightenment has been with us since the likes of Albert Schweitzer began to evaluate the historical Jesus in the 1800's and early 1900's . What has been determined from exhaustive analyses of the known scriptural and non-scriptural documents from the first to third century CE is that Jesus was not deity but a simple preacher man embellished by the likes of P, M, M, L and J into some kind of messiah.

Common sense and reality are quite apparent in the works of these exegetes and not in the visions of Mr. Baum and those also suffering from being Bred, Born and Brainwashed in that old time religion.

pallasathena1

You wrote, " It is your divine right to use and refer to God as He! For that is your own intimate/personal relationship with the masculine energy/GOD."

That is not even what I wrote, I said that God is neither a male nor a female and definitely is not an it, even tho God-Incarnate was a Male.

What I said is that God is a BEING OF PURE LOVE, Love is not an attribute of God but is God's Very Being.

I have also said before and I repeat: God is a searcher of hearts and minds not of religious affiliations or lack thereof. God looks at us not at whatever label we apply to ourself.

Take care, be ready.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

Pamela, I love your words! Extremely beautiful and thought provoking.

As for THOMASBAUM:

We each have our own intimate relationship to The Divine. So, if one perfers to use the word "She" so be it...the art of compassion and understanding is to not enforce our own ideology onto another- especially if the title makes them happy (like using She). It is your divine right to use and refer to God as He! For that is your own intimate/personal relationship with the masculine energy/GOD.

However, for me-personally---I use She---I belive the kindness in our heart and our spirit outweighs our word use. These words are human words...words of the heart that are barely spoking is more and just as powerful.

Thank you Pam for this!

PAMELA TAYLOR

You wrote, "God is not only Loving and Compassionate -- She is also Splendorous, Majestic, Just, the Giver of Life and the Taker of Life," The Judge and the Ruler of all that is in the Heavens and the Earth. But one hadith sums it up succinctly: "My mercy outweighs my Wrath."

Even tho God-Incarnate was a male, God is not a male, a female or an it but is a BEING OF PURE LOVE, all of the fancy adjectives and titles do not impress God.

When God became One of Us, God had to be either a male or a female well He became a male but He asked permission of a female, Mary, to become One of Us.

Mary had free will just like the rest of us and she freely said YES.

It isn't that God's Mercy outweighs His Wrath, it is that they go hand in hand as in Divine Justice and Divine Mercy go hand in hand.

God's Plan is for ALL OF HIS PEOPLE which happens to be ALL OF HUMANITY to be with Him in His Kingdom, the new heavens and the new earth.

I happen to use the masculine pronoun because it comes in handy whereas a masculine, a feminine or a neuter pronoun is inadequate, when one uses the human language, one uses what is available even if all of the availability is inadequate.

Take care, be ready.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

The major obstacles to compassion amongst the religions:

We go into the Muslim mosque and find a call to violence against infidels and oppression to women.

We go into the Jewish synagogue and find myths and more calls to violence via the trumpets of Jericho.

We go into the Catholic/Christian church and find blood and body and pretty, wingie thingies but no Virgin Mary and a shout of being the only way to Heaven.

We go into Hindu temples and find cows and the lower class/caste cleaning up the dung.

We go into a Buddhist temple and find tributes to an obese and not so obese figurines and then there is that talk about reincarnation into one of ten realms of being.

Solution:

Eliminate the flaws and errors in the historical foundations of the major religions.

"Pink slip" all the bishops, priests, rabbis, monks and imams/clerics who spread the hate and false theologies.