Posted by waterlily on August 30, 2002, at 22:33:50
In reply to A question, posted by Susan G on July 22, 2002, at 13:26:23
The following is a thought to chew on as I do not claim to know for sure about anything related to God:
According to "Conversations With God" by Neale Donald Walsch, in which he claims to have had the books dictated to him by God (hey, why not?), God says that your afterlife (which every soul has) is an extension of the consciousness in which you die. In other words, what you think, happens. If you think you will experience heaven, you will. If you think you will experience the opposite, you will. Of course, you can always change your 'mind' and when you do, you will instantly experience that state of mind. That is unlike in the realm of relativity (the 'mortal' world - as opposed to 'heaven', the realm of the absolute) in which the time between what you think and what you experience is much longer. Since in the realm of the absolute you are all goodness and are surrounded by it, there exists no opposite. In order to experience yourself as good, you voluntarily relinquish memory of heaven and enter our world, the realm of the relative, to 'remember' yourself and become in the relative what you were in the absolute. God is then all loving and does not punish anyone for anything. He likens it to putting your children out in the playground. You hope they won't get hurt, but you know you've put them in an environment that is very 'okay' and will let them make their own decisions about how to play. God has given us free will. We experience the natural results of our actions, even if they are painful. He never punishes us though. At one point, he even says that if there were such thing as 'sin' it would be to allow yourself to be what you are because of what others think of you.
I'm sorry that was all jumbled. This whole thing is so complicated that I cannot do it justice in such a short format. I'm not saying it's right. It makes since to me. If nothing else, reading the books, available in libraries, will give you food for thought.
poster:waterlily
thread:617
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faith/20020715/msgs/867.html