OT VIII "Confidential" Student Briefing

[Cat's Squirrel]

According to this poster on Reddit, the Holy Ghost is actually inside us rather than being in the room;

"The Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God who resides in believers in Christ and helps and guides us into all truth, gives us power to overcome sin, gives us the fruits of the Spirit which are love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, long-suffering, patience, conforms us slowly into the image of God. The Spirit brings to remembrance what we've read in the Bible and leads us in a very real way to know Christ and understand the Word of God or the Bible as we read it."

https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/unpft1/what_is_the_holy_ghost

I'm not saying that this is or is not true, just relaying what was said.

 

[Zertel]

The Historical Whitewash

OK, so when you pray you pray to something that isn't that Presence? Doesn't make sense to me really, because if you can feel the presence of God (the Holy Ghost) in the room, that's what you want to be praying to or communicating with surely?

Boy, I'm glad I didn't go to Catholic school.

The sequence might be, "Dear God (whoever or whatever you are) please (help me, save me etc.) The manifestation in the example is the appearance and presence of the Holy Spirit.

It's in the realm of peak, transcendental or religious experience and is transitory and future prayers would be to God or your Higher Power as you understand it as suggested in Alcoholics Anonymous and perhaps other practices, not to the "Ghost". lol

Some people have peak experiences and others don't. If you ask a thousand people if they believe a Divine Presence permeates the Universe a percentage would answer affirmatively. A follow up question of have they personally experienced such a percentage would also answer affirmatively.

Atheists and debunkers might suggest that religious experiences in moments of extreme travail or stress might be the result of the human brain releasing chemicals to prevent overload and mental damage. Could be.

 

[Cat's Squirrel]

The sequence might be, "Dear God (whoever or whatever you are) please (help me, save me etc.) The manifestation in the example is the appearance and presence of the Holy Spirit.

It's in the realm of peak, transcendental or religious experience and is transitory and future prayers would be to God or your Higher Power as you understand it as suggested in Alcoholics Anonymous and perhaps other practices, not to the "Ghost". lol

Some people have peak experiences and others don't. If you ask a thousand people if they believe a Divine Presence permeates the Universe a percentage would answer affirmatively. A follow up question of have they personally experienced such a percentage would also answer affirmatively.

Atheists and debunkers might suggest that religious experiences in moments of extreme travail or stress might the result of the human brain releasing chemicals to prevent overload and mental damage. Could be.

Oh I agree, and I'm not one of them. But if there is a God and he created us, I can't believe that he would give us a functioning brain and then tell us we can't use it to question His reality - it wouldn't make sense.

I've been reading an excellent couple of books recently by Anthony Campbell, who is a retired English doctor who in his early career as a writer wrote a couple of highly acclaimed books about TM (transcendental meditation). In the books I've read, he discusses the role religion plays in societies and how it came to be, and finishes by saying that he himself has come to a more or less atheist position - that is, he lives quite happily without a God in his life and doesn't really feel any need for the concept.