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You believe that you have been born again and have been given the Holy Spirit.
From your perspective it's not Religion because of what you have been taught Religion to mean. Practitioners of Natural Religion Believe that Nature is the Highest Form of Existence and Live/Die their life as such.
Yes it would do because we are at Total Opposite ends of the Spectrum that Reveals the Inverse. I've never been remotely Committed to Life/Death in the Flesh, otherwise I would have Fornicated, Committed Adultery and taken Hard Drugs. Never Fornicated, Committed Adultery or taken Hard Drugs in my entire life. I got involved in Christendom when I was about twenty, although have never been a member of any Denominational or Non-Denominational Church.
To improve your life, from your Perspective is Total Devotion to the path you are on Being Whole Hearted. Total Devotion in your life is Marquis de Sade, Jacob Frank and Aleister Crowley. I don't know if your at the level of Commitment as these Practitioners.
Christian Gnostics Become Yeshua/Jesus and are not waiting for Yeshua/Jesus to return in the so-called Second Coming. In Christendom they have been waiting for over 2000 years for Yeshua/Jesus to return.
Almost every person on the planet is Content with the Natural Life. On a Few Really Believe in the Spiritual Working to Transcend the Natural.
Actually, I went through all that beginning in '73. It was the tripping over textual flaws and historical information as well as getting no "answers" as to why this was from God that rerouted my journey.
Christian Gnosticism is Superior to Baha'i Faith. In Christian Gnosticism you are Not allowed to Eat any Meat or Foods Derived from Animals.
Christian Gnosticism is Superior to all other Religions. Christian Gnosticism is Superior to the Bahai' Faith because Elohim/God has given us the Original teachings of Yeshua Messiah/Jesus Christ.
You have Revealed the Baháʼí Faith is Natural Religion. In Christian Gnosticism Enjoying the Natural is Rejecting the Spiritual. The 7.9 Billion enjoy the natural, so you Baháʼís are no different from any other person on the Planet. Only a Select Few Transcend the Natural for the Spiritual.
Therefore, now you are aware that you are taking Drugs. Coffee is a Recreational Drug. In Christian Gnosticism we are Not Allowed to take any Pharmaceutical Drugs or Recreational Drugs. Elohim/God is our Spiritual Doctor that keeps us Healthy.
Our teaching is Only for a Select Few. In Christian Gnosticism you cannot use Birth Control and Sex is Only for Procreation in a Marriage. In Baha'i Law you allow Recreational Sex in a Marriage.
The Body wants so Satisfy itself as this is Natural.
2 Timothy 3:12
This Reveals that the Baha'i Faith is not Strict Enough allowing Recreational Sex in a Marriage. Given that Baha'i man would expect Recreation Sex it shows that your Religion is Natural. Your Religion is Revealed by the Practitioners that it produces. Having Recreational Sex maintains Separation from Elohim/God because it Denies the Spiritual.
Like I said above:
I'm a few month shy of 70 yo.
I was raised in America, which government and laws are not based in the Ten Commandments. There are no laws about worshiping god or idols, none about honoring parents, none about coveting or adultery, and no law about observing a weekly day of rest, and most lying is legal. There are, however, laws against stealing and many kinds of killing, but the country isn't based on them and they don't appear in its constitution.
That's a good one. You're the typical zealous Abrahamist who has been taught to see atheistic humanists as unprincipled. I'm a happily married man of 33 years, and even if she allowed me other lovers, I wouldn't be interested.
I'm wondering if you meant gagged or gauged. Neither makes much sense there. But yes, I rely on my conscience for moral direction. Here's the thing: it rewards me when I meet my own standards, punishes me when I don't, and has been a reliable guide to date helping me to steer clear of contention and regret, so I have zero reason to defy it.
Atheists don't actually do that. We just ignore the people trying to tell us what to do using the literary device of an unseen god who allegedly commands and threatens us from outside of the universe. It's best not to conform to those rules. They weren't chosen because they're good for you. They were chosen because they induce submission and obedience in those that believe them.
There's more of your Abrahamic pessimism. Look at what you're imagining here. Mexico is and has been my home for fifteen years, and I have no desire to return to the States even for a visit.
I'm not looking for life advice. I recognize that name. The little I've heard from him is unappealing to me. Too conservative, too angry, and too preachy.
I wasn't taught what religion is. My definition is my own and no doubt differs from yours. I don't consider a naturalistic worldview like atheistic humanism a religion. It has no supernaturalism, no gods, no rituals, and no holy books.
I believe that nature may be the only form of existence, that, that all that exists does so naturally and is thus a part of nature.
Surveys tell us that most people believe in some form of supernaturalism.
And what is their reward for holding such a belief? Dozens of RF posters have made claims of seeing further and arriving at spiritual truths and great insights, but I'm done asking them for examples. They have none, just the claim. It seems that having that belief satisfies some need that's foreign to me, maybe a need for there being magic in the world that I also don't seem to have.
So are you a Christian or not? Have you received the Holy Spirit or do you understand doctrine mentally? The latter is a "belief system", the former is not.
It's good that you don't care if you're believed, because I don't believe you. I don't think you're knowingly lying, but I do think that you've misinterpreted your experiences. Just because you believe something doesn't make it truth. Truth has other qualities. An idea must be demonstrably (empirically) correct to deserve to be called correct or truth or knowledge.
I understand exactly what happened to you. I also believe that you don't. Here's my story and why I say and believe what I do as well as why I am so emphatically opposed to belief by faith. It led to my making the biggest mistake of my life.
Experiences of this sort (what people call spiritual experiences) began when I was five ... and I was told "the Catholic Church is wrong." 18 years later the research into what this all meant began. I was not given ANY data, I had to figure this out myself. Why? There is a big difference between classical teaching and constructivism ... classical teaching hands you all the answers (and at this point, if your experience is "spiritual" you can easily be lied to). The constructivist methodology make YOU do all the work and figure it all out yourself, piece by piece, for as long as it takes.
So you know how to cut & paste. Great!
Do you seriously expect me (and others) to accept your baseless opinion that Christianity is wrong? I have personally "figured it all out", even though your statement implies intellectual activity instead of spiritual "knowledge". If you don't have faith and/or believe Christian doctrine, that is your loss.
My approach is not "baseless." And since you have "figured it all out" perhaps you would like to give a counter explanation regarding all the history involved and how it's wrong, and the fact that this "return and end" according to what's written in the text, was supposed to happen back in their day - and - it never did.
Actually, I know how to think.
I accept his conclusion since it's mine as well (and hardly baseless), and it's perfectly OK that you disagree.
No such thing. All you have are unfalsifiable guesses. I suppose that's why you put knowledge in scare quotes.
You have nothing to show for the choices you've made except for the hope of going to heaven, which you can have by faith without bothering with Christianity or praying or Bibles or church Sundays or tithing. Here watch: "I declare that I'm going to heaven." It seems the loss is yours.
I have no idea what you're talking about. What is your explanation for all the history involved and how it's wrong? Where is "return and end" written in the text? And what was "supposed to happen back in their day - and - it never did"?
You have no need because you can't ... this is the usual approach from those who are so confused and lack so much data they don't know what to say. And as far as what was allegedly supposed to happen (Where is "return and end" written in the text?):
What I said was that the imagery of the ten commandments are on the Supreme Court Building. The writers of the Constitution of the U.S. were mostly Christians, many born of parents fleeing Europe to have free expression of their religion, and free choice on how to worship God. You did well in the shadow of the laws they produced. America is now sliding away from those precepts, into the unfettered Progressive Marxist Atheistic ideals. As for the American dollars you use, they read "In God We Trust". That the retirement money you use is borrowed against the wages of the unborn, which you compromise more, by supporting the killing additional numbers of unborn, to increase the burden by way of your use of unfunded social security. The 10 commandments, that say you should not steal, lie, murder, or covet your neighbors' goods, is the standards of U.S. law. Now that the Progressives are in power, there is little curb on theft, murder, or lying, and the Progressive cities portray those values. The ultimate law is to do to others as you would have them to do you. You are permitting the killing of the unborn. Now, when Trump gets elected, and the Cartels are cut off from their billions in revenue due to their human trade, the cartels probably can find out where you live, and drop in for a loan on your part. If you don't make them happy, they may make you sad. That would be called Karma.
a) A personal insult shows who you really are. **mod edit**
Stereotypical dodge.
Stereotypical nasty comment. Is that where your "faith" leads you? (The answer is obvious)