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Tias posted:She has herself said she has bi-polar personality disorder, and seems to identify with it - but has also reported that her psychiatrist and psychologist now are in her family's clutches, and largely serve to tell her no and give her sedatives. There's also a huge difference between bipolar and the sort of conditions that the sort of conservatorship arrangement she had is designed to cover. Edit: I mean, poo poo, Dave Chapel had a mental health crisis of his own a few years before Spears did and was all over the media with the basic thrust of the reporting being "dave's gone crazy, is tanking his career." Their situations are more different than they're alike, but they do have in common mid-00s reporting focusing on them being "crazy," and a lot of ugly poo poo floating around about them being irresponsible and not cut out for managing their careers due to "reasons" that basically boiled down to racial and gender stereotypes. And Chapel isn't even a really extreme example of a celebrity going off the rails due to stress / mental health / drug and alcohol abuse or any other collection of things. Yet somehow Charlie Sheen and pre-ironman Robert Downey Jr. managed to avoid having control of their lives taken from them. Cyrano4747 fucked around with this message at 14:51 on Aug 9, 2021 |
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Aug 9, 2021 14:43
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I was wondering if anyone here has had an experience of receiving guidance from prayer. I was reading an article about someone who asked God if her family should get vaccinated and God said no. Also, for example, Bush saying that God told him to end the tyranny in Iraq. Both of these are negative examples, but I'm really not looking to judge. I just have never had an experience where I've prayed to God and like, gotten a reply. I wonder if anyone has a firsthand experience like that and how it feels.
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Aug 9, 2021 16:09
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Not so definitively, no. I'm wary of people who claim to get direct and simple guidance from praying. It's too easy to just confirm your own desires and fears.
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Aug 9, 2021 16:11
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For me, prayer is more about taking time to organise my thoughts on the thing I'm praying about - taking stock of the situation, trying to find clarity on the matter. But then, that's also the attitude I take when I do a tarot reading, or consult the I Ching - viewing it as an opportunity to find the answers I might already have, or to find a connection I didn't realise was there.
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Aug 9, 2021 16:22
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A couple of examples come in mind, where either myself or a person I know has received a confirmation about the course taken. Both things happened after the decisions in question had been made so these do not actually answer the question but eh. I'm also fully aware that both of those are possible to dismiss as coincidences but neither of us think they are. (Philosophically speaking, I really dislike the term anyway but that's besides the point.) One case involved a purchase of an apartment. The apartment seekers had prayed a lot and were thrilled to have a look at one place. They were certain it would be their future home since it matched their wishes really well. Only, they discovered it was actually in a disastrous shape. Back to the market it was. The seekers eventually found a place that they accepted and bought. After they had moved in, they later found the advertisement for the first apartment from inside a jacket pocket or somewhere. (They had cut it from a newspaper back then.) This time they turned it around and what do you know, on the flipside of that piece of paper had been an advertisement for their new home all along. The other case is about schools. I had managed to secure a place to study in higher education in exactly where I wanted. I then met a girl. It got serious. She was going to study in a whole other part of the country, though. Long story short, it was possible for me to apply to study in that same city as her, in the same field I was already accepted in. However, the way important dates happened to line up, I would have had to give up my already secure dream spot first. If I was rejected, I would be without school and on minimum social security for a year and couldn't afford to move. Well, since I'm telling this story, all worked out well in the end. After a year of studying we were allowed to see the exact points we had gotten from the entry exams/tests/interviews. Due to the nature of the tests it was almost literally impossible to get a full score but I had gotten it. I don't think anyone else can really understand how little I deserved to get that score so I interpret it as a sign that I had ended up where I was supposed to end up and could stop second guessing.
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Aug 9, 2021 20:23
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Kevin DuBrow posted:I was wondering if anyone here has had an experience of receiving guidance from prayer. I was reading an article about someone who asked God if her family should get vaccinated and God said no. Also, for example, Bush saying that God told him to end the tyranny in Iraq. Yes, once. It was deeply unsettling; I wasn't asking for an answer, basically yelling "God, I don't wanna [do such and such a thing]!" and I very, very clearly heard, "I don't want you to." So I didn't. I am glad that I didn't; given how much I did not want to do it, it is quite possible I would have not done it anyway. (I had gotten advice to do the thing, and was praying for confidence to do it.)
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Aug 9, 2021 21:38
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Kevin DuBrow posted:I was wondering if anyone here has had an experience of receiving guidance from prayer. I was reading an article about someone who asked God if her family should get vaccinated and God said no. Also, for example, Bush saying that God told him to end the tyranny in Iraq. Christian theology contains a pretty large body of theology about how to tell whether something is from God or not. It's clear that the "or not" category is very big, and causes a lot of problems for a lot of people. And yet people like to assume that their own preferences are actually the voice of God. If you look through the bible though, it seem like in the cases where God actually directly speaks to someone, it's only rarely news they want to hear. Personally I've never actually heard God in anything like a literal sense. I have often had experiences where after praying, something then happens in apparent answer that seems way too obvious to be coincidence. The "still small voice", as it were. But I admit, nothing that couldn't be written off by a skeptic as confirmation bias or Baader–Meinhof.
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Aug 10, 2021 01:51
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In Orthodoxy, there's even a term for thinking you're closer to God than you actually are: "prelest." Turns up all the time in the Philokalia. If you hear a voice or see a vision, it's perfectly reasonable to ask "Are you sure you're God?" That said, I've gotten good results from asking the Virgin Mary for help.
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Aug 10, 2021 02:35
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I have had quite the day. I was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea and given a prescription for a CPAP. This is pretty much exactly what I was hoping for as this is a treatment I know will help. Also, I had a call with the Vocations Director for a monastery I’ve been eyeing. At the end of the call he invited me to spend two weeks with the monks living in the monastery. Thank you and bless you all for your prayers. Today is a good day.
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Aug 12, 2021 18:51
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Happy for you Thirteen.
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Aug 12, 2021 21:22
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Praise God for answered prayers 13.
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Aug 13, 2021 00:26
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CPAP life is a good life. I've had a blackout since Wednesday and miss my air machine something fierce.
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Aug 13, 2021 20:34
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We have had a few students delay their bar or bat mitzvah celebrations because of the pandemic, and now it's becoming more and more apparent why we don't commonly have public celebrations of 14 year old girls.  They hate their bodies, they are more self conscious than last year, and that's without all the build up of pressure of this big family and community event. I'm trying to get parents to back off and center this experience around the young adult, because otherwise they aren't going to have a celebration at all. Send us good vibes, please, and Shabbat shalom to all.
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Aug 14, 2021 18:34
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WrenP-Complete posted:We have had a few students delay their bar or bat mitzvah celebrations because of the pandemic, and now it's becoming more and more apparent why we don't commonly have public celebrations of 14 year old girls. Blessed sabbath and good vibes to you. I'm glad the young ones have someone with your mindset as an example. E: power came back on and I had my first good night's sleep in days last night. CPAP showed nearly 10 hours of use.
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Aug 14, 2021 21:40
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Double post but prayers for Haiti where on top of everything else they just suffered a major earthquake stronger even than the devastating 2010 quake.
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Aug 14, 2021 23:02
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HopperUK posted:Not so definitively, no. I'm wary of people who claim to get direct and simple guidance from praying. It's too easy to just confirm your own desires and fears. My Pentecostal MIL does this all the time and it honestly drives me nuts. “God told me to gift you this side table.” “God is telling me to buy this brand of beans.” “God is telling me to talk to this person in the lobby and get their contact information to get them saved later.” “He will survive his cancer. God told me he will.” I’ve never felt God call me to do anything but repent and forgive and be thankful. 
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Aug 19, 2021 00:56
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ProperGanderPusher posted:My Pentecostal MIL does this all the time and it honestly drives me nuts. At least she isn't going "God told me you are going to give me the jewellery your gran gave you!" "God told me to remind you that you are not allowed to have long hair!" "God told me you are going to do all the cooking this week!" I do not trust people who claim God speaks to them in this way, no.
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Aug 19, 2021 11:41
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BattyKiara posted:At least she isn't going She has people in her family like that. Luckily she’s pretty sweet and free of NPD-like traits. She’s also not as quirky as her cousin who claims to have a miraculously everflowing bottle of Mountain Dew, among other things.
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Aug 19, 2021 16:20
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ProperGanderPusher posted:She has people in her family like that. Luckily she’s pretty sweet and free of NPD-like traits.  I feel like that would be really, really easy to test."Drink your mountain dew. Ok so . . . . . see how it's empty?" edit: I mean, I'm not about questioning people's faiths, but if they claim to have a straight up miracle happening in front of them I want some level of proof. Show me the miracle.
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Aug 19, 2021 16:38
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Cyrano4747 posted:
I asked just now about its exact whereabouts (even my MIL thinks it’s weird and funny). It’s been passed between friends and nobody’s sure who currently possesses it this exact moment. It’s effectively been ark-of-the-covenant’d.
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Aug 20, 2021 03:37
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big soda could not let something like that just hang about now could they
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Aug 20, 2021 06:39
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BIG FLUFFY DOG posted:big soda could not let something like that just hang about now could they
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Aug 20, 2021 07:34
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In the past, I have expressed a certain affinity to original sin. I find it remarkably egalitarian - if we are all wicked and evil, that should promote tolerance. He who is without sin and all that. Sadly, looking at application of this doctrine in history, it's less that and more an excuse to hurt people who don't deserve it. Been reading a couple books on the history of children/childhood and it goes over this. quote:These images of innocent and natural childhood did not enjoy a wholesale and uncontested triumph. The challenge to them came from three directions. First, the Puritan emphasis on original sin remained alive. It made adults anxious about children, an anxiety quote:Unencumbered by any necessary traits, this emptiness called a child can be construed in about any way we like. One of the first ways to present itself figures the child's nature as the fallen nature we adults have left behind with the old Adam. Here, for instance, is a little lesson on politeness meant for children, an exemplum that becomes so caught up in the evil of its audience that it lets go of its own avowed purpose: I guess I didn't think through the full implications of the idea.
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Aug 22, 2021 10:18
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There is no concept so good it cannot be turned into something evil....
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Aug 22, 2021 12:02
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Are there any resident Calvinists in the thread since the last time I asked? I’m curious what the unapologetic Five Pointers have to say about that view of childhood and whether or not it’s survived in the more conservative denominations (I assume “The Presbyterian Church” refers to the PCUSA and its antecedents). One of my biggest criticisms of academics involved in religious studies is they always seem averse to actually interacting with the people they study and asking them to explain their beliefs.
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Aug 22, 2021 17:54
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BattyKiara posted:There is no concept so good it cannot be turned into something evil.... I'm not trying to be negative or attack anybody in here. I just spend a lot of time reading and don't really have anybody to share what I learn with so I figured somebody here might be interested. Here is the contrasting view of the child, for instance: quote:This was the central message of Romanticism, first articulated by William Blake, but it was quickly confused with another to which Wordsworth had given expression in his Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood. There he had envisaged the child as being born
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Aug 23, 2021 20:54
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But still, original sin does take different forms depending on which tradition you're dealing with. A lot of these negative views of children seem bound up in Total Depravity, which is why people brought up Calvinism. With Catholicism, Original Sin is washed away with baptism, which of course is not long after one is born. Orthodoxy also practices infant baptism, but views original sin as more ontological, with no implied guilt. Neither one as far as I know holds a child fully responsible for sin until later in childhood. Plus the Romantic poets come from an Anglican milieu, which traditionally avoided the extremes of Reformed theology, whereas the entire purpose of the Puritans was to oppose the more Catholic aspects of Anglicanism. Are there any passages about childhood among non-Protestants?
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Aug 23, 2021 22:39
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quote:‘are fresh from the hand of God, living blessings which have drifted down to us from the imperial palace of the love of God’ Nobody who's ever raised a toddler could say this with a straight face.
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Aug 23, 2021 22:39
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NikkolasKing posted:I'm not trying to be negative or attack anybody in here. I just spend a lot of time reading and don't really have anybody to share what I learn with so I figured somebody here might be interested. I meant in general, not your views on original sin. As in "No matter how good you think a concept is, someone out there has taken the same concept and turned it into something utterly horrible". This seems to be one of those unfortunate laws of human behaviour.
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Aug 24, 2021 00:55
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Pray for Religious Minorities in Afghanistan at this time. The article starts off focusing on Christians but touches on Shia, Hindus, and Buddhists living in Afghanistan as well.quote:Now the United States’ highly criticized withdrawal has left Afghan Christians with no choice but to join those who cooperated with the U.S. and Afghan governments in attempting to hide. The memories of public executions, floggings and amputations of Christians and other religious minorities under the Taliban’s previous rule remain vivid. As the Taliban is reportedly already working to track down the known Christians on its list, some local church leaders are counseling their communities to stay inside their homes, even though they know the best and perhaps only long-term hope is to somehow flee the country. Other Christians are reportedly escaping to the hills in attempts to find safety.
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Aug 25, 2021 16:15
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Is this the best place on SA to ask about Taoism? I'm curious about it and want to learn more, but it seems like there's not a lot of resources for Americans who want to learn other than Tai Chi classes and hippy dippy New Age stuff that lumps all Eastern religions/philosophies together as basically the same.
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Aug 26, 2021 16:48
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Nehru the Damaja posted:Is this the best place on SA to ask about Taoism? I'm curious about it and want to learn more, but it seems like there's not a lot of resources for Americans who want to learn other than Tai Chi classes and hippy dippy New Age stuff that lumps all Eastern religions/philosophies together as basically the same. I'd say go for it! We've had a lot of good conversation in here on non-Christian faiths.
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Aug 26, 2021 17:19
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Pershing posted:I'd say go for it! We've had a lot of good conversation in here on non-Christian faiths. I don't really have anything to offer. I'm looking for someone who does or did practice to tell me what they got out of it, how they practice with or without a community for it, and if it challenged them to be a more moral/ethical person. Strictly speaking, I'm agnostic, and while I've been looking for something to develop as a moral being and subsume myself in something greater, orthodoxy is a real big hurdle for me. I guess what makes me curious about Taoism is the possibility of a practice that makes few of the kind of big demands of faith the way many religions do.
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Aug 26, 2021 17:52
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BattyKiara posted:There is no concept so good it cannot be turned into something evil.... Concepts are without morality they are tools. But we can raise an idea/concept to ultimacy, universalize it, sacrifice to it, and treat it as if it was the ineffable Real. That’s evil.
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Aug 27, 2021 01:25
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Nondenominational Christian checking in! Just recently came back into my faith after what I call my rebellious teenage years of agnosticism. And when I say "came back into", I mean it. Bible study every other night with journaling (and I break my normal rule against writing in books with my KJV that I highlight), wear a cross necklace with the Lord's Prayer on it, and I have a half-hour playlist of Christian music that I listen to every morning after the Morning Mindset devotional podcast. Won't say I never get down anymore thinking about the past and things that led me out of my "teenage" years into the light, but I'm more peeking into that dim hallway now, rather than living in it, so to speak. Glad I found this thread, I wasn't sure religiousgoons even existed. 
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Aug 27, 2021 14:38
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Welcome, friend!
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Aug 27, 2021 17:49
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Nehru the Damaja posted:I don't really have anything to offer. I'm looking for someone who does or did practice to tell me what they got out of it, how they practice with or without a community for it, and if it challenged them to be a more moral/ethical person. Strictly speaking, I'm agnostic, and while I've been looking for something to develop as a moral being and subsume myself in something greater, orthodoxy is a real big hurdle for me. I guess what makes me curious about Taoism is the possibility of a practice that makes few of the kind of big demands of faith the way many religions do. I don't remember any actual Taoist introducing themselves here but that would be interesting to read for sure. Taoism is the "world religion" I know least about. I think we had like one chapter's worth of information about it in school. And also welcome to the new person!
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Aug 28, 2021 06:24
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Welcome! 
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Aug 28, 2021 09:02
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If I may rant a bit in regards to ministry, some parents have asked about wanting programs to return(or to appear) to the church for their children because they want fellowship for their kids and there's a feeling that the church doesn't do that at the moment. I wonder if it's still too much to worry about covid and having a group of people gathering together. The pandemic is a big reason why we haven't had separate childrens/teenager worship services. These particular parents cite other churches having programs at this time and I guess that's a fair argument. I am sorry for the rant, I hope to pray for wisdom in how to talk to head of the youth ministry about implementing programs and patience in dealing with parents asking for things and repentance to devote myself better to ministry. Have any of you had programs at your church/place of worship during these times?
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Aug 30, 2021 04:30
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Our church paused for a few months after the initial outbeak but things have been back to normal for a long time which is probably typical around here. The congregation is some mix of vaccinated/wear a mask/social distance/none of the above.
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Aug 30, 2021 05:48
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