[Heretic]

well I feel somewhat responsible too for the derailment of this thread, yet I think that if you bring any religious topics to a forum it will happen anyway. we had a good 2 or 3 pages though and thats great!

so in the spirit of this thread I will post my background as well:

my religious background is a rather adulterated one. My first exposure was southern baptist but only briefly yet I remember I was not comfortable and really didn't get the importance for all this religious mumbo jumbo

then I ran into one of the rainbow new age religions promoting ascended masters with Hindu, Buddhist, and new age color, overtones. I was also studying kung Fu by then and meditation became a key element in my life. This was the Elizabeth Clare Prophet stuff at church Universal and Triumphant place in California.

The exposure to Hindu and Buddhist ideologies led me to study them in depth and the kung fu led me to Taoism, Confucianism, and Shinto. Now I didn't stay in these any longer than maybe 3-4 years so I cannot say I am an expert on the inner teachings.

Of course Christianity was something I did alot of work with, and studied the church histories which led me to various religious orders. Gnostic Christianity, several forms of orthodoxy with an emphasis on eastern orthodoxy, particularly Russian interpretations. I worked with the Catholic ideologies and then studied the differences between many of the protestant sects, with an emphasis on the Eucharistic compatible orders. I also studied the apophrical texts as well but only in a comparative manner. Some may not know it but reincarnation has been alive and well in Christianity from the earliest days.

I later studied Calvinism, Lutherism, the Watchtower Society(Jehovah Witness) and Mormonism in depth and eventually started looking into any religion that came my way that I showed an interest in including Scientology (read Dianetics in the 80s and just a bit of info here and there on the net). The only religion I haven't studied in depth is Islam (just a smattering of the Koran) and only a small working knowledge of fundamental Judaism centered around kabbalistic practices and alchemy. I checked out the sacred texts to a degree like the enuma elish, vedic texts, bhagavagita.

I was always a rebel in any of these religions and enjoyed challenging their views that I found narrow and short sighted. I was heavy into liturgy and had a fascination concerning end time prophecy. I have also read up on the satanic church, temple of Set, secret occult orders and various forms of magic that was not pretentious, like the greater and lesser keys of Solomon, withcraft (lucifarian and wicca) , Egyptian book of the dead, and researched madame blavatsky and alister crowley a bit.

I also have my eye open to some of the new churches that are popping up and have been over the last 20 years but most are saying the same thing, just a mildly different approach. I was obsessed for sure but I never became a fundamentalist, nor did I endorse only one religion as all have merit.

Some may say they are traps, but traps are everywhere in every religion because it isn't the information that is the trap but the viewpoint of the practitioner. They are paths, and there are many paths and I believe none have the advantage over the other. I don't believe in "one truth", and I think those that do believe this have shut themselves in a box, a box they will eventually evolve away from which can be a painful experience for the highly devoted.

My friend who was going through all of this with me for about 20 years, eventually got his masters and a doctorate degree in new testament theology with a minor in the history around the time, or something like that, to be honest the name of the degree such a long name I cant even remember it. needless to say he is one of the "scholars" so I feel lucky to have someone i can call whenever I want to pick his brain and run thoughts by him. But I have to slap him after the third hour of his lectures to my simple questions. he knows, well he had to learn Greek, Sanskrit, Latin, and some other language I can't remember. Funny enough he is no longer Christian either due to his career studies and the info he learned working through school.

I am now divorced from any established religion or messiah figure and that happened long before Zeitgeist as there have been others who came out with doubts long before the movie or acharya s. Some may not want to hear this but there is a high percentage of scholars who have found there is little to no historical evidence for Jesus, and there is a spiritual crisis going on at the very core of Christianity itself. You wont hear this from the establishment because these scholars have devoted their life to their profession and wont do this publicly for the obvious reasons.

paths rock...and I try not to point a finger at a person and say "your path is flawed and you are going to SUFFER if you do not do what I do" and anyone who does this is a hypocrite to their own faith.

Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way. Romans 14:13

Judge not, that ye be not judged. Matthew 7:1

Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man. John 8:15

of course, there are tons of different "interpretations" on these verses alone based on contextual references but reguardless I think they and about another 50 or so biblical verses support the idea of keeping your self-righteous beliefs from interfering with someone else's spiritual progression and let God sort it all out

IMHO if someone or some religion professes that they have THE "one and only truth"

Run!