Getting good ideas calls for thinking.

There is little profit in getting credulous, and next being made use of through it. As for bible matters, it helps somewhat to get a reliable and not all dated translation. Today's New International Version (TNIV) is as good as translations go these days. If you cannot make out the right things to think and do from the Bible medley of statements, Bible commentaries to look up, are on you.

Liberal and textual Bible criticism should not be overlooked. First-class information first, at least before you get conditioned into hard-core fundamentalist views - for they are not good for the humanist side to yourself, is the bet.

Those who are much schooled may avoid getting branded as more or less garrulous fellows. On the way up toward that, seek or find and stick to only the best sources at hand; fair treatment of the material and sources is called for too. It requires thinking, a sort of thinking that may be schooled! Still you may not have got something of value back for all the time and work you have invested, unless you are sound deep inside - there is that risk. For pet thoughts tend to talk of a person's id (libido, and if that is twisted and gnarled, may a straightforward outcome result, you think?

The words of the wise are like goads . . . Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them.

Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body. (Ecclesiastes 12:11-12)"

It says really wise words encourage many to do something of value. In addition to "what?" we may need simple designs or programs that answer "who, why, how, when, how long" and things like that. If you get content with less than good answers to "how", you may be stalled. Textual criticism may lead away from being a conform folly-guy, and trusting yourself deeply and well can be hard work at times, it should pay to strengthen yourself in the best way you can. It helps a lot to be discreet and take your sources into account.

You could go a long way and find you are tired of Bible words that serve others than yourself and nearest of kin, and further from there. "Aren't there other and better things to study?" you might ask before it is too late and senility is knocking at your door, if it is not death. Yes, Vedanta helps by relevant answers to "why" and "just how". Hence the handed-over teaching that to be born as a human is an opportunity to develop and thereby make the best of life, in addition to getting more worthy successes and being better able to do good. It happens to some.

Anyway, after getting awfully disillusioned with much, you may still manage to think and do something positive, also as an unhappily married guy or an unhappy divorcee. The right sort of positive thinking may slowly free you from much untoward. Mantra-thinking is fine. Also, the boatman gauges the waves and currents in the water to get to the shore safely and in one piece.

Hooked id followed by faulty projections, is that a problem? We may have got our id (libido) hooked on many sayings and tales from the years we were young and very impressionable. You may thus sit and hope that Jesus loves you even though you have not met him. That is one of the things id projections may do.

In the same vein you may think that God the Father is a benevolent and fit Father, even though Christian theology says he sacrificed his own Son-God, and otherwise stood for man-slaughter, slavery, sacrificing animals Through faulty id-identifications as to who are good or not, little ones may fall victims to godfalling with plots in the back pocket, so to speak.

Id projections may not be easily reclaimed. Manage to get in rapport with your delicate, Inner Child (archaic layers of the mind, or id) to have sound libido, which is capable of mastering and accomplishing much.

For Your Health: A Detox Look

A detox design, can it bring back your Inner Child and its vivacity? I hardly think so. But if you want to try, there may be something to struggle for and other things to go against.

How will you be?

Unhealthy —– Healthy (enough) Sheep —– Human Possessed —– Self-possessed Dry and barren —– Artistic Victim of madness-bringing plots —– Safe "Gamy-blamy" —– Sincere in main dealings at least

Write down your sincere responses. Next, go for the things in boldface before you come to harm.

Figure. Six Sliding Scales

CAPTION. Six choices on six slide scales. Mark off along the horizontal bars - the higher the numbers, the higher intensity, the stronger and more emphatic the "yes!". Then count your scores. Study your informal profile. Less than 4 on any score could suggest you are vulnerable to derangements or negative influences.

Going for better holistic health, consider each of the six dichotomies above, for example in the light of good Bible points like:

1. Healthy: Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous [not morally depraved ones], but sinners." [Mark 2:17; cf. Matthew 9:12-13].

2. Human: "How much more valuable is a man than a sheep!" [Matthew 12:12]. Compare "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me." [John 10:14]. "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me." [John 10:27] - "Simon . . . Take care of my sheep." [John 21:16]. Being human is better than being a sheep anyway, he says.

3. Self-possessed: Development into maturity consists in getting more and more steered from within, by such as a maturing conscience. Further, Abraham Maslow's study of outstanding persons confirm that they are far more inner-directed than conform ones he compares them with. There is much research that shows that meditation helps being self-controlled (self-possessed), whereas being taken over or ridden by some demon or other entity marked by glossolalia suggests being possessed (in a biblical sense), judged from the symptoms [More].

4. Artistic: Artistic ones manage to be independent of mind in some areas, at least. Ensnared, conform and duped ones on the other hand, may end up dry, barren or sterile. Many get focused on glamour instead of become nice craftspersons and so on, few master the educational ways that keep and develop zest for learning rather than becoming "dog-trainers" that molest young persons into conformism.

5. Safe: Do you follow Jesus if you don't do all he demands? Not that you have to, though [Acts 15 and 21:25]. But how can you be a Jewish-Christian follower without giving away to the poor all you have and own, since such largely self-destructive conduct is part of what he insists on for Jews? (Jesus said he was only for Jews, remember. [Matthew 15:24])

   If you do abandon all property and take no heed for tomorrow, you are mightily unfit for the tough business world, to say the least, where money and planning strategies are at its very core. Make sure you make no mistake, if you are under the Deal of Gentile followers. Acts 15 is about that. That Deal dispenses with all but four requirements. The commands of Jesus were not required, and the Bible not required reading either (There was not New Testament back then.)

   If you pay lip service to gospel sayings, doing one thing and saying another for Sunday uses, that cannot be good for you either. Stop that, for being whole-hearted counts a lot, and eases integrity as well.

   Among men and in variable non-generous climates, general safety is had by handy rules of living that are followed day in, day out, whereas lots of commands by Jesus make you self-maiming, self-impoverishing victims of what looks like destructive plots. But perhaps you decide to be one of those condemned to hell by Jesus for hypocrisy by telling you "follow Jesus" without actually doing it in all matters? Well, those who called Jesus "Lord, Lord", without doing what he said, he condemned to hell, frankly.

   But rejoice it this: there is hope anyhow, for words and deeds by Jesus were intended "for Jews only," he said [Matthew 15:24]. However, when the Father's plan with Jews failed, and Jesus was killed to very little avail as compared to those plans, the sect spread to Gentile guys. The requirements were only four for non-Jewish followers. [Acts 15, confirmed in Acts 21:25]. The four requirements for non-Jewish Christians, are no-no to blood food and adultery, no to eating certain remnants, and no to food from animals who had died without being slaughtered. But paying attention to self-maimer sayings of Jesus and other demands that are too hard are luckily not required (most of his disciples deserted him for that reason. And the twelve that remained with him, did not dare to stand up for him when he was caught in the garden of Getsemaneh.).

   Anyway, you don't have to profess vainly, boastingly, while you don't really live up to it more than a bit. You should be glad that you don't have to profess and fail, profess and fail, considering what hypocrisy does to a man or woman.

6. Sincere in main dealings: Jesus blamed Pharisees heavily and repeatedly for being hypocrites, he said the Law of Moses was valid, and broke it. Later followers followed up by blaming others, for example for adultery, while they themselves kept on eating blood food against the word of God and all the apostles [Acts 15] It's a bizarre world.

   Restrictive, confused persons are not good role models, and they do not get really better when they crucify and sacrifice innocent victims. That is a major fault with the Christian: he or she hails vicarious sacrifice as splendid, while it is brutish, corrupt, and against the law in civilized societies.

SO: From this you should get an inkling of what you are up to . . . or do you? First, for Gentile followers, all the apostles and the Holy Spirit disregarded all the commands of Jesus, and settled on just four requirements for non-Jewish followers, and "no to blood food" is one of them. Acts 15 is about all that, and it is conformed in Acts 21:25.

Also, unless you are a circumcised, Saturday-resting Jew, there should be no reason to chew on sayings and commands of Jesus, for he "was only for Jews," he informed [Matthew 15:24]. He aspired to save them together with his Father, but it failed so badly. Afterwards, the "fisher net" was cast over Gentiles. Acts tell of it. According to the freedom (from Jesus) in Acts, you might avoid becoming one of those "hypocrites who says yes to Jesus" but without being of Jewish origin, and without showing all the signs of a real Jesusian [Jesusian hallmarks].

It should help to realise that "following Jesus" has been outdated for nearly 2000 years, since about 50 AD, when the rules of Christianity were laid down by the Holy Ghost in all the apostles: The Apostolic Decree, or Jerusalem Quadrilateral came into being, and it was simple. [WP, "Council of Jerusalem"]

Christianity for non-Jews is about getting the Holy Spirit and align to the four requirements for non-Jews (Acts 15:13-29 and 21:25). Building on that, the Second Vatican council declares that the Church rejects nothing that is holy and true in Buddhism and Vedanta (Hinduism), and exhorts her sons [and why not daughters] to recognise, preserve and promote the good things found - ways of life meant for enlightening, spiritual and moral precepts and teachings:

In Hinduism, men contemplate the divine mystery . . . through an inexhaustible abundance of myths and through searching philosophical inquiry. They seek freedom . . . through . . . profound meditation . . . Buddhism, in its various forms, . . . . teaches a way by which men . . . may be able either to acquire . . . perfect liberation, or attain, by their own efforts or through higher help, supreme illumination. . . . The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions . . . [For many] ways of conduct and of life, . . . precepts and teachings . . . often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men. The Church, therefore, exhorts her sons [and daughters to] recognize, preserve and promote the good things, spiritual and moral, as well as the socio-cultural values found . . . 5. . . . This sacred synod ardently implores the Christian faithful to "maintain good fellowship among the nations" (1 Peter 2:12), and, if possible, to live for their part in peace with all men [etc.]. Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions. Nostra Aetate. Proclaimed by HH Pope Paul VI on October 28, 1965. B. [◦The complete Declaration]

The Church exhorts to adequate efforts towards great illumination, the Second Vatican Counsil says.

Themes Covered in this Compilation

Here are main areas covered on the pages of this compilation of essays:

Astrology ❇ Bible absurdities ❇ Bible history ❇ Bible inconsistencies ❇ Black pudding ❇ Christian and saving sex ❇ Cults ❇ Divination ❇ Farcical divorce ❇ Gnostic texts ❇ Gross cannibalism and church sacraments ❇ Hebrews were Canaanites ❇ How to hinder the end of the world ❇ Hyssop ❇ Invented tales of the Old Testament ❇ Jesus insanity and diagnostic tests ❇ Jesusism, the inferior religion ❇ King dangers ❇ Ogre righteousness ❇ Omens ❇ Pagan sides to Christianity ❇ Paul against Jesus ❇ Penance ❇ Pigs and Jesus ❇ Portents ❇ Prophet abuse ❇ Road test ❇ Saving sex ❇ Silly faith ❇ Surveys of insanity ❇ The faulty sayings of Jesus about mustard ❇ The greatness of Buddhism by contrast ❇ The two Bible versions of the death of Judas ❇ The unrighteous God ❇ Thomas ❇ Tongues ❇ Unsound Christianity ❇ What the Bible's God is like ❇ Wisdom.