Month: September 2014

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The Conflict between Science and Religion and Religion and Religion

America is very big on religions. In fact, sometimes it’s as if we turn everything into a religion when the opportunity arises. Instead of saying “I don’t understand how it could be true, but I’m open to it being possible” so many of us say, “It’s not part of my beliefs – what I’ve gotten from sources (including religions), therefore it’s not true.” What religions am I referring to? I’m referring to everything that enters the mind of Man -including the religion of politics, the religion of science, the religion of medicine, the religion of technology, psychology, philosophy, and even mathematics!  (Yes, I’m even including Atheism – but that’s easy to see.)

Have you heard someone say either of these – the equivalent of words that mean “It’s not part of the science that I know of, therefore I don’t believe it.” or “It’s not part of the medical knowledge that I know of, therefore there’s no way it can be possible.”  I have.  Then, all we have to do is exchange the words ‘science’ for ‘religion’ and vice versa, and we recognize the comment.

In fact, at times we’ve even heard the equivalent of “You believing differently than this is you being gullible, misguided, delusional, or outright fraudulent.”

This is widespread, and it shows that the person saying something to this effect has turned their beliefs and knowledge into a religion.

We’ve heard so often when people have said the equivalent to “It’s not part of my religious beliefs, therefore I don’t believe it-therefore you shouldn’t either, because only my beliefs are the truth.” We see examples of this in the U.S. and all around the world.

We also have people who have turned science, medicine and all the rest into religions, as well. Yet, it’s not just a current happening. This very process has been part of mankind for millennium.

Instead of considering that it’s our own knowledge and understanding that falls short, we tend to carry out the religious ritual of pointing to others saying the equivalent to “You’re wrong to believe differently than me. My knowledge may as well be sacred.”

Since this is very easy to see when looking at history, we don’t think of it as being a current process in our society. But, it’s happening now just as often as it ever has been. It’s just that we don’t think to put it in the context of science, medicine, technology or the rest, during today’s time. Too bad, because these have been religions for a long time. It always been the heretics of these “religions” that put forth the idea that “there is something beyond what we believe is true.”  (Heretics like the Wright Brothers and Albert Einstein who pursued what others believed wasn’t true, and oh, yeah – Jesus Christ.)

Yet, bridging what we know and what we don’t know has been a tremendously difficult bridge to build. Why? Because both sides of the bridge have held strongly to that which we know or believe to be possible only, and fought hard against that which we don’t know and don’t believe being possible.

It is rare that people speaking for religions ever make the comment “My beliefs are beliefs, not necessarily proven facts.” It is rare that science or medicine or even technology ever make the comment, “We’ve found this small part to be true, but we don’t know if it could also be false or if anything else in opposition to this or outside this paradigm that we’ve never conceptualized is true or not.”

It is rare that people entrenched in their beliefs say, “I don’t know how my beliefs can mesh with opposing beliefs, opposing knowledge, factual science, but I’m open to both being true somehow.” It’s rare when people representing science and medicine say, “I don’t know how things we haven’t proven may possibly be true, but I’m open to they being possible.”

Instead, we get, people saying “Science is the truth and anything else is a delusion.” We get, people saying “This medical information is true and anything else is fraud.” We get people saying, “My religious beliefs are true, and I won’t consider anything else possible.”

The Saving Grace

The world doesn’t revolve around any persons or groups who may be stuck in their own religion whether it’s traditional religions, Scientific, Medical, Technological or any other belief or knowledge system. The Earth is inhabited by more heretics than fanatics – more open minded people than close-minded people.  These heretics are saying, “There’s more than what you espouse to be true.  You have no belief or knowledge that is omniscient and complete. ”  Thank God.

PS.  Can you see how Politics has become a religion?  How about how “beliefs about money” has become a Religion?

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“Whoever believes the world will be saved by technology, doesn’t remember Atlantis.” (The Rainbow Cards, 2014, ©, Jodie Senkyrik)

“With God, all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)

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The Secret Life of Fear

Once, in giving a presentation about fear, I asked the audience to raise their hands to answer several different questions about who was afraid of what. My last question, of course, was, “Who has a fear of raising their hands to answer questions from a presenter?”

Consider these:

  1. Fear is like a huge pile of dirty dishes. Dirty dishes just sit there in the sink – not moving – not going anywhere – not disappearing – not getting washed – not doing anything. They just sit there staring at you – forever. Until the time comes that we get up and start washing the dishes.
    Fear just sits there, inside us – not moving – not going anywhere – not disappearing – not getting washed – not doing anything – until we get at it and start scrubbing away – cleaning it up – washing it. This is called – “doing the work that needs to be done.”
  2. Sure, it’s possible for us to choose of our own freewill to be afraid for all eternity. Is that how long to hold onto fear – eternity? Who would choose to live in fear for all eternity? Or we can ask God to help us “wash our dishes”.
  3. Fear is not the truth. Caution might be the truth – and is wise to take hold of. Responding might be the truth – and also can be wise to take hold of. But, fear is not the truth.
  4. Fear is the soul’s recognizing a situation where the soul in some form – once before – faced, stumbled, and failed. And as such, God has brought this situation back in that moment, and specifically meant for us to face in that moment under those present circumstances, so that we can find the better response – a response that will also bring God into the moment.
  5. God does not approach us with any criticism, nor judgement in His heart. When calling on Him for help, consider thinking of Him as a best friend, who has no criticism or judgment – only acceptance and loving kindness.
  6. What we fear is more often that which we’ve caused others to fear because of our actions towards them – most often from past lives, but sometimes in the present life. We get to understand the fear we caused, by “walking in their shoes,” and we then get to understand them – and then ourselves and the whys and wherefores of the fear we have.
  7. When we let go of needing others to be afraid of us, we can let go of being afraid of others.

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“When we can see a sunset in all its glory, there are no words to tell its story.” (Rainbow Cards, ©, 2003, Jodie Senkyrik)

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Predictions for 2015 – Weather

This is going to be a short prediction, because what I see is that we’re not going to have a winter like 2014, at all.  For most of the nation – “most” – the winter will be a lot milder than 2014.  The areas that will be extremely cold again in 2015, will be around the Great Lakes including west of Lake Michigan, and the northern New England states and cities.

The rest of the nation, including all the areas I haven’t mentioned and won’t be going into detail about, because there’s no need to – will be milder.  This is it.  There’s nothing dramatic and amazing about a mild winter.  That’s what most of the nation will have – mild.  There will be some cold weather in the central US, around Nebraska, but once again, not anywhere like 2014.

And if you don’t yet know what kind of winter it’s going to be in your area of the nation after reading the above prediction, the answer is “Milder.”

How does the famous catch phrase go that we’ve all heard over and over and over and over (and now here)???

“What part of “Milder” don’t you understand?”

Yeah, that’s it.  Imagine a winter designed by Disney – a little action and adventure, but a whole lot of “mildness”.  Rated PG because of the Great Lakes and the New England states.

My suggestion:  Plant a winter garden and tend it throughout. (I mention this because of what I blogged about food prices.)

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“We are alive, now, and we are alive, now, for eternity.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2014, Jodie Senkyrik)

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‘The Horrible News’ or ‘How to Save a Planet’

A friend asks, “What do we do with all the horrible news?”  I’m going to consider this a question about the news we hear around the world on the television, the news we read about in newspapers and on the Internet – news about wars, governments, disasters, pain, suffering, suicides, etc., and etc, and etc.

First, I will absolutely agree with anyone who says it can be and is overwhelming.  It is frustrating to hear all this news.  It is discouraging, sometimes bringing us to grief and despair even wondering how this world can be so full of insanity and horrors.  It can and does move us to feel sorrow for human beings, including ourselves.  It brings forth our pain, and can bring us to feel depressed, afraid, ever doubtful, and wondering if we should give up at even trying to offer some help.   After all, how can one person even make a dent in the insanity and horrors that is reported in the news every day.

If you feel anything like these feelings, just know you’re not alone.  Being on a planet where all these things happen, generating all these feelings is a most truly difficult and challenging thing.  Many of us succumb to the shear weight of the sorrow, pain, suffering, insanity and daily news.

However,…

I know of no soul that came into this planet that did not come with a purpose – the purpose of moving forward in their soul’s growth.   Yet, it is not difficult to lose being on the path of one’s soul’s growth.  All we have to do is think of our own benefit and well-being as being more important than anyone else’s.  All we have to do to get off our path is be selfish and putting our self first.  See?  That’s how easy it is.

And we’ve all done it.  We’ve all acted selfishly in small ways and sometimes in great huge ways.  If you doubt that you’ve ever done anything on the same level that you see on the news, then just look at your past lives.  Don’t remember them?  Guess why.

How do we get back on the path?  This is the challenge of any of the souls that want to move ourselves, our species, and our planet forward.

We start with prayer and meditation.  Or we can start with prayer by itself.  Or we can start with meditation by itself.  In both of these, we send out our call to God to help the life/lives on this planet.  Why start this way?  Because, to save a planet, we need unity and purpose.  We need guidance and love.  We need fortitude and persistence.  We get all of this and more when God is involved with us, and the One called on to help us.

When we hear the news stories, not that many people use it as a call to prayer, but that’s what it is.  We are being told of who needs our prayers and who needs Light sent to them.

Sure, everyone around the globe needs prayers and everyone around the globe needs Light and energy sent to them.   But, I caution anyone to think that they and they alone are the ones to save those poor souls.

Remember, souls are here to work on ourselves, and we have many lifetimes to grow, learn and work on ourselves.  We have been given freewill and we use it many times to decide to not grow, not learn and not work on ourselves.  These are decisions that humans make.  And we see the result of these decisions impacts in the world.  However, at the same time, we can and do also see the results of when we, (of our own freewill) choose to learn, to grow, to work on ourselves – to be kind to someone, to forgive someone, to be patient with someone, to be more understanding of someone, to show mercy to someone.

It is unfortunate that we don’t yet have news casts that report on where our prayers have helped.  No newscaster reports, “The prayers of last week helped the country of …. when they had to face ….”  Maybe one day.

For anyone who is willing, we are here to strive, to dig in, to bring forth that Light that helps to change whole planets.  We are here to do that which we are doing – bring forth change.  And we do that by changing ourselves, first.   We do this by leaning on each other.  We do this by needing each other.  We do this by helping each other.  We are not here to coast or tread water, or to sleep away the life we live.  We – a certain number of us – have chosen to go forward – to wake up – and not go back to sleep.

We do this all within the context of cooperating with God, because in truth, it is the Spirit of Infinite Love that we have inside our hearts – sometimes without remember this.  It is the Spirit of Infinite Forgiveness that helps us to see beyond anyone’s actions to them still being a soul that needs help in some way.  It is in the Spirit of Infinite Patience that helps us to wake up in the morning and start thinking, “What can I do on this one day that may help one person?”  Maybe, we’ll say the prayer, “God, help me remember you, today.  Help me remember Love, today.  Help me remember kindness, today.  Help me remember who I am, today.  Today, God, help me remember that I love.”

Through this, we move forward one day at a time.  It has always been thus, and it will always be thus.  And it won’t all happen in one lifetime.

So, to answer the question, “What do we do with all the horrible news?” – perhaps it is a call for prayers – prayers like, “God, what can I do to help You with Your work of Loving?”

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“If God is involved, EVERYTHING is possible.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1995-2014, Jodie Senkyrik)

“Disappointment in others occurs when there is a low level of our assistance for them to reach a high level of our expectation.” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 1995-2014, Jodie Senkyrik)

“Pray for those that are judged by any person to be unworthy of prayers.  This prayer usually comes out, ‘God, help us all.’ ” (The Rainbow Cards, ©, 2014, Jodie Senkyrik)