Dualism (Identity)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Thursday, March 26, 2015, 23:39 (3529 days ago) @ dhw

DHW: ...You have now attributed near-death experience of a conscious spirit to the work of Satan, and have offered biblical quotes in support of your argument. Among the quotes was Psalm 146, which appeared to contradict your belief in a memory stick containing all the information of the dead person. -Not just NDE's. All instances of communication with dead spirits. -
>DHW: I also quoted the Bible as regards Jesus's neighbour on the cross, and it was you who quibbled over the comma and now refuse to tell me if this “crystal clear” version of God's word is the work of Satan. -You, as someone who has done translation work (unless I am mistaken) certainly know the difference a comma, or lack of one, can make. When translating, you have to take the context into account as well. Yes, as you said, the 'selection committees', particularly the council of Nicea and those that closely followed did influence things, as both politics and church doctrine did later. Within 2 centuries after Christ's death, the 'church' had become a political creature, and its various councils and decisions were made as much, if not more, based off of worldly political concerns than anything scriptural. This is a well known and documented fact, it is also the reason I do not trust some of the earlier translations of the Bibles which were influenced by church doctrine which was in turn influenced by politics. Translations since the dead sea scrolls were found are much more accurate. -
>DWH: I cited the not insignificant example of Jesus, who apparently died but appeared as himself to the disciples. You have never responded to this. -
Christ was DEAD for three days prior to his resurrection to a spiritual form. While he was dead, he was not aware of anything. When he was resurrected, he did indeed inhabit a spiritual form. He was also the first person to ascend to heaven. (John 3:13) If all the dead go to heaven or hell, then that scripture would be a lie.-->DHW: If I draw your attention to biblical passages or events or interpretations that appear to contradict your very specific beliefs, bearing in mind your claim that every word is inspired by God, I don't know why this should be a sign of dishonesty on my part...You cannot take the Bible “as a whole” when you are dealing with individual issues. The Bible contains many statements about these issues, and if you maintain they are all the absolute truth, either you can sort out the discrepancies, or there has to be a flaw in your beliefs.-
Actually you can take the bible as a whole, even on specific issues, and it is the fact that people have NOT been doing this that causes so many problems. If you were to read a news paper and a fable one after the other, you would not say that the moral of the fable was any less potent because it wasn't couched in the context of a 100% literal news story. Yet, when you go quoting the bible, you often do just that. You take was is explicitly stated as a parable (fiction meant to teach a lesson) and try to read it like a news article. When taken as a whole, cross-referencing, and looking at the principles, those so-called discrepancies disappear.-
And sometimes I don't answer you because my time to research something thoroughly is very limited at the moment.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.