Geez, Alex, I thought you had just mutated into Jehovah! Scary, Scary! Thank God I was mistaken! :-D

Wesley - GREAT POST! Bravo!

Sorcha - you postulated the theory of a "God" as someone who's "in charge" of everything. But...if God's in charge, then where does that leave free will?

I would suggest that God is the process itself (and the source of the process), rather than a being separate from the process and in charge of it. So, rather than being separate from his/her/its creations, God is part and parcel of each one of them...which is why we have free will. Free will is God's creative use of each conscious situation, through each conscious individual, in a totally unique fashion in every case...which is why, in a sense, we are all God/Goddess...expressing itself.

Ummm...that's just my opinion, of course...

Pretty cool, eh? In this scenario there are, ultimately, no bad guys...although they might seem bad from someone else's point of view...and they certainly might unleash destructive effects on others, for sure, in their misguided use of free will. No question of that. It happens frequently. Still, I find most people behave reasonably well under most circumstances...except when DRIVING!!! :-D Then they turn into maniacs. What's the hurry, is what I want to know? They must think it's a competitive game or something...

As for Jesus and Buddha being God's delegates...yes, you could indeed say that. But we actually are ALL God's delegates. Jesus and Buddha were just WAY better at it than most of us are, so they became spiritual teachers for whoever was willing first to listen, and then to follow their example. To worship them is to miss the point. They did not come to be worshipped, but to set an example of good conduct for others to learn from.

Jesus was able to forgive even the most awful things people did to him...because he had a clear overview of life, and saw that we are all sons and daughters of the divine, all of great value, all of equal importance. Gandhi had a similar overview. I think that Martin Luther King did as well. More power to them.

Each one of them is an inspiration to me.

- LH

p.s. in that previous posting way up there I meant to say "heat and cold", not "head and cold". Sheesh! Gotta blow my node.