Big Think

Norman McDowell on January 31, 2008, 6:01 AM

Perfectly put. “terrorism is a tactic”, not an ideology.

eileen fleming on March 4, 2008, 5:24 PM

It has been said that evolution is being held up by fundamental religiosity which runs through all faith paths and is fueled by fear of ‘the other’ and arrogance.

According to the 1987 classic, “The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace,” Dr. Scott Peck defines the spiritual life as fluid and that one may pass back and forth repeatedly through any of the four-probably more-stages of the soul.

Stage one upon this journey -that begins from within-is essentially our infancy in the spiritual life. Stage one people may claim to love others, but their behavior reflects they love their own pleasure, money, power, prestige, and security above any other. For stage one people, it really is all about them.


Stage two souls seek to “let their light shine” and will live virtuous lives and do many good works. They also can be judgmental of others, self-righteous, rigid of thought, cold of heart, legalistic concrete literal thinkers and may even be guilty of a lukewarm faith.

Stage two souls have not yet been set fully free and prefer the security of a higher human authority than themselves for guidance. They submit to institutions, scripture, dogma, ritual, ministers, or gurus.

Stage three souls have not just fearlessly awoken, they have evolved! This evolution has led them to the realization of what Christ was really talking about in the Sermon of the Mount AKA: The Beatitudes which sound like crazy promises, but are all about waking people up to The Divine.

A stage three soul may well reject Christ as God, but often agree with the philosophy of Jesus, which Thomas Jefferson laid out when he weeded out the miracle stories from the gospels and clarified the teachings and ethics of Christ in: THE LIFE AND MORALS of JESUS of NAZARETH

Stage three souls often become activists for social justice and reform and the increasing wave of humanitarian secularism verses the bondage of religious dogma just may be the way to change the world as we now know it.

Then there is Stage four-and maybe more…

Excerpted from the 3rd in WAWA’s
A GREATER AWAKENING series:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/

Misa Bakajic on November 17, 2008, 7:43 PM

Perhaps we should have more emphasis on WHAT we are we fighting rather than WHO we are fighting, its unfortunate how a couple of small words can change a speech dramatically and shift the focus from possible solutions to creating scapegoats.

Kevin Wirtz on December 30, 2008, 6:11 PM

It is a war of beliefs.

Many in the secular world are at the brink with dogmatic theocracies right to exist.

Consider akin to the motives of the Bolshevik revolution. The oppressed wanted a fair shot in the world so they created the only resolve, which was to eradicate the dictators. The people were right to remove Louis, Hitler, Mussolini, Ziggy Stardust, King George, the Vatican, and the list goes on, from their existence.

No man who has ever existed has mystically granted powers another does not. Claiming you do is a farce and the number 1 rule you don’t break as a human.

Most folks in the secular nations who are well provided for see how the people of poorer nations are duped by their leaders. Whether celestial or flesh.

So yes, it’s very much in many ways, a war against Islam and it’s refusal to coexist with a secular world.

Only an ignorant child would think this is a war on the Arab people or any other of the tribes of the region.

You and every other person born should have the right to develop and prosper today.