Does Evil Exist

Does Evil Exist?
By Internet Story - sent in by Stephen T


The university professor challenged his students with this question...Did God create everything that exists?

A student bravely replied "yes, he did!”
”God created everything?" The professor asked.
"Yes sir," the student replied.
The professor answered, "If God created everything, then God created evil since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are then God is evil.”
The student became quiet before such an answer. The professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted to the students that he had proven once more that Christian faith was a myth.

Another student raised his hand and said, "Can I ask you a question professor?"
"Of course," replied the professor.

The student stood up and asked, "Professor, does cold exist?"
"What kind of a question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?" The students snickered at the young man's question.

The young man replied, "In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-460 degrees F) is the total absence of heat; all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat. "The student continued. "Professor, does darkness exist?"

The professor responded, "Of course it does."
The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn't this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present." Finally the young man asked the professor, "Sir, does evil exist?"

Now uncertain, the professor responded, "Of course, as I have already said. We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil."

To this the student replied, "Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith, or love that exist just as does light and heat. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light."

The professor sat down. The young mans name - Albert EINSTEIN.

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have many classes in different aspects of  Christianity, two in  Wicca, several in Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. I have been a proud member of the ULC for many years and the Seminary since its inception.

Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so become an ordained minister today!

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have enjoyed the new spiritual article directory.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.

FOUR GOSPELS

FOUR GOSPELS FINAL ESSAY

Rev. Michael Babb

Before taking the course on The Four Gospels, I had been exposed to them through Sunday School and Church Sermons. Having attended several different churches, I was confounded by the different interpretations that ministers put forth to their congregations. I started to read the scriptures on numerous occasions, but without common sense guidance, I was always left wondering about the meaning of various parables and examples of Jesus' teaching. I have listened to sermons that taught everything from the universal message of peace and love to eternal damnation as the center point. It always confused me how the teachings of one gentle and loving man could have so many divergent meanings, each preached with equal conviction. I now understand that these different viewpoints of Jesus' message are largely dependent upon which gospel one focuses upon. The book of John for example, lends itself to those who strictly interpret the only way to heaven is directly through Jesus, otherwise an eternity of damnation awaits he who is not "born again". As the supplemental material points out, this is the only book where Jesus gives himself credit for the miracles he performed as opposed to attributing these to the father God and he being the vessel that channeled the event. The real path follows the lessons and deeds of Jesus that lead us home to the father. As Jesus points out time and again, the kingdom of God is within us all. He shows us the way to reconnect with our heavenly father. Therefore, I have a real problem with a gospel that not only portrays Jesus as somewhat egocentric, but places himself above his own teachings. Love and harshness cannot dwell in the same house. The differences are evident, however, the important points seem to be fairly consistent.

There are lessons that I learned as I read and re-read the gospels and supplemental material, but the one I want to focus on is the idea of doing good in an anonymous way for the glory of God. This is opposed to doing good deeds for one's own sense of ego and outward goodness. This thread of teachings contains a real modern day lesson, to commit "acts of random kindness." In other words, Jesus sets the example of showing us how to help others without having to take public credit, but to attribute that credit to God. That it is his glory, not ours that the act is intended to honor. This first becomes evident when Jesus descended from the mountain and healed the leaper who asked to be healed. After the leaper was made whole, Jesus told him not to speak of the healing to anyone. As Jesus proceeded to heal people and drive out demons that plagued the mentally infirm, the evidence overwhelmingly shows that he gives the credit to God and down plays his role. When the woman who was plagued with continual bleeding touched his robe, he told her that it was her courage and faith that healed her, again refusing to take credit for the act. A final example is of the blind man/men, dependent upon which gospel recitation one uses, begged for his mercy and to give them sight. It was their profession of belief that restored their sight, the unequivocal belief that Jesus could perform such a miracle. Again, he told them to be silent about how they gained sight. These are all living examples of how Jesus demonstrated unbelievable kindness toward others without having to take credit for the deed. I believe his message to us here is to follow his example and perform our good deeds, but to give credit to God for blessing us with the opportunity to serve rather that pat ourselves on the back and say how righteous we are.

My personal favorite parable that exemplifies this concept concerns the leaders and wealthy members of the church outdoing each other with their monetary contributions to the church, beating their chests and bragging to each other about how much they gave. Then comes the poor widow who gives little in monetary value, but it was all she had. Jesus points out that she gave more than all of the church leaders combined because she gave all she had. The true measure of any deed is not in and of itself, but by the purity in which it honors God.

May you be blessed with love, abundance, and peace.

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Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so become an ordained minister today!

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have enjoyed the new spiritual article directory.

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Christian Studies

The prayer exercise is a variation of what I've been practicing for years with  small, yet positive effects in retraining the way my spirit views my existence.  I respectfully disagree with some of the basic ideas of this lesson.  From my own prospective, it is not the self-imposed separation from our mutual great creator that is the source of our "suffering".  I feel that  the the cause of our great mutual suffering has been wrought through the codification and delineation of religious intractability.  In my Christian upbringing, I was taught that I was an inherently flawed and spiritually weak being.  That left to my own devises and without adherence to the strict laws of the church, I would fall to the hold of the negative side, whatever name it is given.  I was taught that due to my having a birth father who was other than the man to which my mother was married to, and that I not being pure of race, that I as a result of my birth not only bore the mark of "sin", I was the cause of the "sin" itself.  My religious foundations providing these precepts taught me through man forms that I was less than human and that the only way I could find redemption and return to commune with our creator was to suffer for my "transgressions" and repent of all that was vile within me.  Yet, in truth, when born  was not of any form, other than a creation from the mind of our creator.  In many variations mainstream religion, not only Christianity,  this imposition of false guilt repeats and repeats again with the intended effect of the beating down of the soul into submission and subservience.  I myself did not begin to develop an awareness in me that this was the cause of my suffering till later in life  This is  when I realized that I was born without flaw, that my soul, created through the love of our creator was perfect.  Now all I had to do was convince my self of this.  Sounds easy, doesn't it.  It was my acceptance of all that I was told that I was, that made me flawed in my heart and soul.  This is not to say that I as an act of free will I have not transgressed upon the lives of others, as I have so without doubt have done so. I simply fulfilled the expectations of what those who I held as an authority figure in my sight had taught me that I was. I had accepted the negative self role and acted accordingly.  this is no excuses for my actions, as I have come to accept.  It takes two to tango. This brings me back to having constantly to remind my self that I am not now, nor have ever been  less that what our great creator designed.  It was but I that had accepted the negative role of self rather than listen to my true inner soul.  In rehabilitation the changing of self view is known as to stop the playing of the old tapes that run rampant in my mind and replace them with new tapes that will nourish the life of my soul.  Replacing my old tapes given through my acceptance of the teachings of evangelical and mainstream religions with an new set of tapes affirming my true self is a life long endeavor.  I believe few are ever totally free from this reaffirmation of life.   My convincing the skeptical me will always the a challenge and the only journey that will ever free me from the false beliefs of self shame and self denigration. This prayer exercise was the same ever so slow effective change of re-learning who I am. I respectfully disagree that our guilt and pain was caused by the decision to turn away from our great mutual creator.  I believe it comes from the codification and institutionalization of religious beliefs that set down what is accepted as "holy" and what is "evil".   From my rather negative personal experience with evangelical and mainstream Christianity, I was simply taught that i was not only flawed and so weak as to sin, that from the illigitemacy of having a birth father other than the one that was married to my mother at the time of my birth and being a child of misogyny, that I was not only born of sin, I was sin incarnate.  Fully responsible for my birth.  The years of denigration that followed taught me to believe that I was shameful, not worthy of forgiveness without servitude, suffering, that quite frankly , I was less than human.  That only through repenting my ill sinful self and accepting the "love" of Christ would I be restored.   No matter how much negative was imposed and self imposed, upon myself, nothing changed.  I repented like a trained animal, and yet still it seemed I had not achieved acceptance as it was initially flawed to begin with, and that was something that not even our creator could change.  In my well over half century life, I have met far to many who have experience the same life path.  This results in rage, and submission at the same time, giving reinforcement to shame, guilt, mental and emotional instability, violent unexpected outbursts and absolute separation from the Love of our mutual creator.  Eventually, unfortunately for most of those I have met, it has led us to travel down the path of mental illness.   Now back to the prayer exercise.  This is the retraining of my soul and spirit over the acceptance of teachings given my mind's ego.  For those who have also been in the life long proactive of rehabilitation, it is known as replacing the stinking thinking with new tapes, new thoughts, new ideas and acceptance of the belief that I was created from the thought of our great creator in the form of pure love, regardless of the physical body I inhabit.  Its like re-teaching and old dog new tricks.  This is not easily accomplished, yet it, hopefully before the end of this physical life it is achievable.  There goes that skeptic again with that stinking thinking!  By the why, yes I have always been long winded.  Just ask my adult children. Rev. Jim ******************** Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so become an ordained minister today! As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have enjoyed the new spiritual article directory. Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Master of Religion

Master of Religion Lesson-19: Religious Denominations

   This Lesson 19, really breakdown what is a Denomination? A Denomination is a set of like 'brand' of Christianity. There are four Church groups, of that direction, they are the Catholic,Protestant, Lutheran or perhaps a Christian.
 The Denominations have been part of the Christian landscape since the Reformation. The Catholic and Orthodox Christians been around for more than hundreds of years before the seismic shift gave us the Lutherans, and the Reformed, the Anabaptist Brethren and the Mennonites.
 The Church began in the east among the Greek-speaking Jews, and the language of the ancient church was Greek. The rites of the Church, such as baptism and the Eucharist, were called *mysteries* of the church, and they are still in the Eastern Church. Mystery is a Greek word that was often used in philosophical and religious discussions to refer to knowledge that was once unclear, but is now revealed.
 The Ancient church called the mystery  of our**faith**, because they believed that the Old Testament had been teaching these doctrines all along, but they were only clear in Jesus Christ.
 Many people seen to believe that they have recieve Gods order to become Priest and to start their own Church. Most of them probably have not sufficent qualifications to do so, other think that being able to quote the Bible verus parts quote flently, thier disbality and lack of knowledge to actually perform the sacramental church procedures.
 Lets' talk about Money, some of these so-called churches appears to talk more about donations than God words, laws, statues, commandments, decrees. Most people I would guess are somewhat confuse with a Ordained Minister with a Business Manager. We all accept that a Church must receive donations and tithing, and gifts to exist and upkeep the ministry to continue the mission for the Lords will for us that lies in the heart of faith, inside our spirit and truths well-being on earth.
  Also lets' remember through everything we do in his church, to serve Him.  Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, It's his will to live by his words that are chosen for us to live a better life here internal and external for mankind on earth.
Amen

Minsiter PJWard



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Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button. 

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers and lots of free online sermons for your use. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.

 

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Four Gospels

Four Gospels Essay

Differing visions of Jesus by Luke and Matthew

By Rev. Peggy

In the discussion of the works of Luke the point is made that Matthew and Luke differed somewhat in their perspectives of Jesus. The difference discussed in one lesson states that Matthew who apparently had real time contact with Jesus saw Him acting and or reacting as most of us would. In other words he shows signs of losing his temper, suffering pangs of hunger as well as appreciating things of beauty.

Luke on the other hand did not see this regular human side of Jesus. He apparently has a differing view of the nature of Christ. He seems to believe that Jesus acted in a less human but more godlike manner in his dealings with people and situations.

This is understandable if one agrees with the idea that people want to see their heroes as Superheroes and their villains as really vile and terrible entities. And because this is so, this may explain why Luke did not want to see Jesus with any foibles or flaws. So perhaps he tried to erase any quirks or mannerisms that he felt did not suit his vision of Jesus Christ. Did he do this deliberately? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

History has been written and rewritten so many times that we do not know the truth of what really happened, when it happened, why it happened or where it happened. This seems a logical explanation of Luke’s vision of Christ. It appears that Luke may have needed a more spiritual, less human type of Savior.

Again, we must remember that the human psyche does play a role in how one accepts Jesus; how one tends to envision his

personality and how we then use that acceptance, that vision in our daily life and how we use it in the practice of our spiritual life.

Therefore whether we want a more earthy type of Savior or a more angelic, ethereal personage will influence which of these two gospels we are more apt to believe and in which we put our faith .

So does it really matter to each of us in our quest for salvation that there seems to be differences of opinion among those earlier followers of Jesus of Nazareth? If it really does matter, then does that not tell us more about our own beliefs and our own needs for understanding Jesus according to those needs? No, it does not matter one iota. What really matters is that we do believe in Jesus Christ the Savior.

By Peggy

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. I have been a proud member of the ULC for many years and the Seminary since its inception.

The Universal Life Church offers hand-fasting ceremonies, funeral ceremonies and free minister training.

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge selection of Universal Life Church  minister supplies. Since being ordained with the Universal Life Church for so many years and it's Seminary since the beginning, I've watch the huge change and growth that has continued to happen.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Master of Religion

Master of Religion : Lesson 15-History of the Church

    History of the Christianity begins with Christ actually with the birth of Jesus, or whenever the scripture started to report about him.  The old testament, the people holding these scriptures were Jesus not Christians. The First Christians were the followers of Jesus himself, more than 2000 years of history. Just read the different bibles and studies that God has place mankind to write from his will.

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Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button. 

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers and lots of free online sermons for your use. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.
 

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The Four Gospels

Essay for The Four Gospels Course, By Stuart J. Malkin, D.D., Ph.D.

So much of the story of Jesus and Christianity is known to the world

that it is difficult to write a short essay. Mostly, it is a matter of

detail, and there is plenty of detail in the Four Gospels. And I had

never read them in their entirety, and doing so created in my mind some

“camera angles” which I relate here. Some of this is material that I

captured from earlier studies and resources.

Jesus only had a three year ministry. He was baptized at 30 and died

at 33. Women held an unconventionally high place in his following, and

not all of them were very respectable. His disciples only dimly

understood him. He was tried on a charge of blasphemy and executed by

crucifixion, the barbaric method reserved for slaves and rebels. On his

death, the belief was that Jesus made the sacrifice and the system of

animal sacrifice was no longer necessary.

The Christian faith is directly descended from the religion of the

Jews. The following are the original characteristics: Belief in the

existence of one God, human beings are made in the image of God, God is

gracious and merciful, God revealed himself to the nation of Israel,

God would someday establish His rule in a sinful world, and, the

practice of a moral life.

The earliest church, for about 40 years, was essentially a Jewish sect.

The church is a school for sinners rather than a club for saints. One

of the strengths of the church has been the capacity for repeated

renewal and revival.

The doctrines of the Trinity and the incarnation have caused

difficulty. The nature of God lies beyond the scope of our finite

understanding. This leads to a variety of attempts to simplify the

doctrine of God by restricting full divinity to the Father or by

regarding the three persons simply as three different aspects of one

God.

Christian history is full of religious tribalism. Because people were

unwilling to believe anything good about other faiths all sorts of

inaccuracies and distortions became accepted as fact. The depletion of

financial resources available to churches has diminished because of the

growth of parachurch organizations. The loss of church members in many

Western nations is also causing financial pressure.

I will add that the current difficulties in the Catholic church over

the conduct of priests with sexual perversions has caused both

administrative and spiritual questions. And documentaries such as the

“Magdalene Sisters” reveal that the church has had some practices which

were contrary to the Teachings, if not actually criminal. The

Inquisition is well known as a black time in the church’s history, but

there have been other events as well. It is not surprising that New Age

religions flourish in this environment.

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The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have many classes in different aspects of  Christianity, two in  Wicca, several in Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. I have been a proud member of the ULC for many years and the Seminary since its inception.

Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so become an ordained minister today!

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have enjoyed the new spiritual article directory.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.