Hello everyone!

I have popped in here a few times and last night i managed to read through all of what has been expressed in here. I am so glad i did becuase it is all so interesting and all this has helped me to see that i have picked little bits from quite a few religions that i tend to follow, without really realising that i was.

Please know that my opinions are mearly "my opinions". I am quite open to hearing new ideas and i like it when i can be "proved Wrong" or given another perspective. As i am on a search for an entire truth and i beleive that every religion and culture somehow fits into a jigsaw puzzle, I need all the peices to make it work. At the moment i feel like i am just scratching the surface and i love hearing how other peoples ideas and beleifs fit into my theories and you would be suprised how often i have "thought" something only to research and find that i was on the right track- if maybe just a little off. And with all the new information, my theories take new twists and turns and i find myself fitting in more peices to my puzzle.


So here is a little of what my theory is so far. I understand if you dont want to read or if i am posting too much in the wrong place, but please if you arn't interested, just scroll down and ignore it, and if you are bored enought to read it all... then i would love some feedback on what you think.(besides that i am slightly crazy, coz i know that already!) Again, this is just what i think happened, based a little on what history i know. I know in some places i am probably way off the mark, but please just bear with my ideas, they are not set in stone, they are just thoughts.

I beleive in a Higher Power of some sort. I have trouble deciding whether i think that "Higher Power" has a conciousness, and especially after reading what Leasha has explained regarding Karma, i think i tend to fall somewhere in between. I feel like this higher power is an energy form, but that it has some sort of "Bigger Picture" knowledge and can in some way influence everything on this earth. And to do that tho, it needs some sort of conciousnes. So in this sense i feel this is really where my struggle lies. I beleive that this higher power is the creator and life flow of all living things.
Our spirits are our connection to this energy, and we all have just a little bit of it in us. It is this connection which forms our instinct and our inner conciousness.

I beleive that thousands of years ago in Ancient Greek times (3000BC), the Higher Power (going with the idea that it HAS a conciousness) sent down to earth the Guides to the Earths most relevant energies.(air waterfire earth, wind, love) These Guides where deemed Devine or God like, as they had a connection to this power and they were sent here in a sense to explain to people the basics of life on earth.
These Guides were sent in different forms to different cultures to explain it as they needed to hear it so that it made sense to them. (these are the gods such as Aphrodite:Venus Jupiter ;Zues etc) or they were passed on through stories which helped to teach ways of living life. What these teaching actually were, i am unsure.
I know that the Ancient Greeks had a few major rules, one was the
Hubris Rule, which was to limit ones pride in ones self.
One must never think that he or she is above the gods.
One can be good at something or do good things, but their reward is knowing that it was done to please the Gods or the people as a whole, never something selfish or self centered.
If one was to commit Hubris the gods would have swift actions either by their hands (accidents which cause death but are thought to be the gods weilding their hand) or that the gods will bring harm to those that you love. Or they would make you do something to harm yourself (from guilt?)(references, Antigone, The Bacchi, and of course Odepios)

This one simple rule seems pretty easy. Dont do what you know you shouldn't and always think about others and the effect what you do will have on them before you do it. Respect the natural way of things and fit yourself in as part of a whole picture, not as man- ruler of all. The confidence in the gods watching over you and making sure you were doing the right thing was a reasurring thing. If you felt in your heart (that little part of the Higher Power in you) that what you were doing was right, then generally it was, and the repurcutions were always justified. Negative or Positive.

The Greeks would hold festivals to worship their gods. My favourite is the God of Dionysius. He was the god of Food and Wine and all that is fun. And probably the most worshipped god of our day, with out people realising it. To worship him you need to let your hair down and have fun!! i have certainly held a few night in his honor!! LOL And these festivals where held at significant times. Plays were perfomed to remind people of the Gods and their stories. These plays and stories were all known and would be the smae ones repeated year after year and they would just re affirm peoples beliefs. The stories tell of the Days when the gods would walk amongst the people. So the people who are now watching and performing these plays hundreds of years on were related to the Real People who met the gods.
They followed strict rules in regard to burials and ceremonies. Coins must be layed on the eyes of the dead to pay their way on the Boat to their next destination. I am unsure about a Heaven or if your soul would then maybe travel to another life.

NOw this is where i loose the plot abit,(LOL for those who thought i lost it before that!!) i think this went ok for some time. Once the Gods had done their bit, they left people to their own devices to keep it going.(with the Festivals, each god had its time and place to be worshipped) And as it happens, generation after generation didn't have the same impact of memory of the gods actually being there, and combine that with the influence of other cultures and little things began to unravel.

I think that the Higher Power had a little plan for everyone to meet together and share all these wonderful stories and be all pretty much on the same track... but something went wrong, What exactly happened i dont know, i wasn;t there, haven't met anyone who was, but i feel like Man sort of said "Bugger you Gods that i dont know, i am a man and i have all the power!!!"

This is where i feel things went "wrong" and all the trouble started.
Some poeple tried to follow the old ways but Festivals and things where people would worship these gods got stopped and when you stop acknowleging these Guides, you loose your guidence and they stopped their bit as well.

However somewhere in there is the person who said "Bugger the Gods" and the ideas that have come from that person. I sort of fall back on the Romans from here. The Romans colonised alot of land which spand over many places. The Romans would incorporate all sorts of ideas and they allowed people to worship who and what they wanted as long as they worshipped their gods aswell. Now i think something happened along these lines...Please excuse my humour, but generally this is what i think happened...
someone said to the Romans.. "NAh, i'll just stick to me own one God dude, i like what i am doing here and its working for me so this is what we will do. I dont want to worship your gods, and if you want to hang here, you have to follow what im doing and listen about this one god and ignore all your others."

So the Romans went, "ah, i dunno, my gods can be pretty rutheless. i dont wanna upset them" and the other guy says "but mate, if you follow MY god, you'll be right. I made up all the rules, so its ok. We just cruise along and make our own rules up and we will face the consequences if we have to. You never met your gods did you, you just heard it from other people, what if they were just saying that stuff to scare you... you dont have to beleive if you dont want to, but you'll have to go somewhere else. Just give it a go..."

So the Romans went, "ok, but im gonna just change a few things here and there to suit me and we'll take it from there"
The other guy says "No worries mate, its sweet, just keep trying stuff out till your happy, as long as you dont upset me!"

And there we have the Roman Catholics.

From here in history i know there was alot of bloodshed and religion was a hot topic. The Romans Catholics would eventually deny every other aspect of religion besides their own. No longer was choice a free thing. You had to follow them or die. Festivals were banned and no one was allowed to express ideas or old stories. Due to this alot of information has been lost. i tend to think it was on purpose so that this Farce would never be found out. And if enough time went by that it would be forgotten and all would be as one person wanted it, with Man being the all mighty power. From the period 0-500AD all forms of religious festivals and worship were banned from any civilized group. It wasn;t until this new group decided that they needed to start spreading the new word that a fom of Laturgical Theatre was formed. Carriages of people telling the stories of biblical stories would pass through towns spreading the new beleifs. These stories were the basis of Catholic culture and formed the idea that we were made from Adam and Eve and that we were all sinners who would be harshly judged if we did not follow these new rules. If you were found to be worshipping the old gods, you were killed.
It wasn;t until about 1100 AD that any other form of theatre or expression was allowed. Only once it had been drummed into everyone were people allowed to have free thought.

It is around this time that Christianity i beleive had its first origins. I am unsure about how the Jewish and Islam religions were able to start, i think they were far away enough to do it in secret,(?) or they did it in a way that pleased the catholics

(any help in this part from someone who knows different would be appriciated)

For me these two religions stick out becuase i find them as a bit of a middle ground. These religions i beleive were formed based loosly on the catholics ideals, but with them managing to maintain some of their own true beliefs and i am curious as to how that managed to happen in these times. It means also that i feel these religions are so very important because this is one of those times where i believe the Higher Power was trying to help. I beleive these religions hold true many of the beliefs that are important and neccessary in our life.

Now another person i think who was sent to help was jesus. And i feel christianity is another form of a middle ground between what these people wanted everyone to beleive and what was really going on.

I feel that these religions were formed by people who wanted only good to come for everyone and with the basic ideas for us to follow. Unfortunatly over time, peoples intentions change, and life happens and sometimes people with good intentions still make a bit of a mess.

Now, for those of you who are still with me here, thankyou for your open mindedness and patience!!

I will admit i get lost between history, facts, fiction and everything in between. And that my ideas are all theories and from here i think the world is in a mess becuase people are struggling to deal with what is going on. I like to think there is a simple answer and that one day we can all either to agree to disagree or to at least be able to come to terms with the world. But part of my theory is that the Higher Power has Tried to send us help and we have either ignored it or miscontrude what was trying to be given to us. And part of me thinks that it is just waiting for us to all let go of our ideas and just ask for help. To realise that something is going on and to ask it for the answer. I feel like it needs to know we want its help, and that maybe it is better to admit we dont know then it is to follow something someone else said is right.

I would love to see something really dramatic, like a Guide to fall from the sky, as i think the way the world is now- a human like messiah would be no good as no one would believe them. It needs to be something huge, something no one can deny or misinterperate. Something or someone that can tell us what to do.
I am waiting, but i am loosing patience.
I want to be able to believe in something, but i want it to be the true "right thing"

In the meantime i guess i follow all sorts of ways of trying to please the Higher Power, and make it feel wanted so that it may try to help again.
I do prey, so to speak. I talk in my head and run through ideas and ask for guidence. I tell this "thing" that i am lost and i wish i knew what to do. I ask for strength to be a good person and to help me make the right decisions. I try not to do anything that gives me that "i know i shouldn't be doing this" feeling, and i try to listen to my inner voice for guidence.

But to be honest some days it is so hard when i haven't got the confidence that this "Higher Power" is even listening. The other side to my theory is that all the stories, including the ancient Greeks where ALL made up to find some sort of reasening in Nature. I tend to fall then into the energy side of it and think of the higher Power as just the balance of life. We are here because bacteria grew and we do have connections and everthing we do has an equal and oppisite reaction and that we are all just floating around to balance something else out. There is no Conciousness, just a balance. If one side falls, another side rises, just beacuse. Not becuase someone from above helped tip it over, just because.

So you can see my delema. I would love to believe the Higher Power has a conciousness, but then i would like to see more action from it. And if it doesn't have one, then we are all just doing what we need to do and the world will be as it will forever regardles of what we are doing, it will just take on what ever happens and react that way and grow or die as it will.

I would like a simple answer, but i guess that is what life is all about, finding some meaning and making the best out of whatever comes our way.

Thankyou for listening to my dribble, i hope that this thread continues and that maybe i have offered some food for thought.

And yes, one day i am going to write a book, but i need to find the ending first!!

Goodnight and Sweet Dreams
StarBright xoxox