Do you see any benefits to religious faith?

[Arkilogue]

The "usable ore" has nothing to do with being in the Bible. If something in the Bible comports with reality, it does so on its own merit, not because it is in the Bible.  

And the fact that there are some things in the Bible that do comport with reality, does not in any way add any evidence that any other particular thing also does.  

And you know what the mindset of the Bible authors was?

Yes, but the phone book does not make claims as being inspired by the creator of the universe, with the added claims of accepting the contents or be punished for eternity.

Yes and I've found the same basic ores to work with in other "spiritual" books from other cultures. They are also naturally occurring but you have to dig on your own for those. People probably won't believe you when you tell then what you found but that's also not required, and not really the point of the endeavor (until much later).

I did mention coprolite yes?

I do by the words they use, how they describe their use and how they use them.

I'm not required to assert the same premise to find my own useful information in the conglomerate data set that is the bible and come to my own conclusions.

And quite to the point of "eternal punishment". that is a grievously erroneous mistranslation. In the Greek it's "kolasin aionion" which means "corrective chastisement (the root meaning, to prune a tree for better growth) for an age" which is a very long time with a definite beginning and end.


This is why I don't take populist and modern interpretations with these things. They are wrong in several KEY areas and often fatal to the original idea.

This is why I bring up "faith" so much and so vehemently. The current usage/meaning is in diametric/fatal opposition to it's original intention and trajectory of spiritual growth. It's like this: We are all a seed of potential growth covered in a protective shell, this is our ego and we paint the inside of this shell with all our beliefs/paradigms/world views, etc. The new meaning of "faith" says to paint the right picture and make that shell hard! Don't let anything else in!

The original meaning was to soften and let in the water. Yes you will lose your protection and grow quite beyond it's confines, yes all your cherished paintings will dissolve, but it will awaken you beyond your ability to do so for yourself and your full growth potential can be realized. That is the rebirth by water.



Even if you want to say the "faith authoring experience" they describe was a psychotic break, or ergot poisoning or hallucination brought on by sensory deprivation....the same functional definition of "faith" holds as they used it. The experience was not self generated, not produced out of one's own thoughts, it was an outside influence that persuaded them that something was so. And that something is usually described some kind of transcendental "God/heaven" experience that is way beyond one's normal everyday experience.