gamnot

I should have done better in this opening post and used a better chose of words, maybe using the term archetypes rather than gods would have been better. An archetype is the central or organizing structure of a complex. Dionysus and Apollo were gods to the ancient Greeks, but they were false gods and that is the point that I was trying to make. .... It is a matter of semantics. ..... I appreciate your feedback.

Because of the decline of Christianity and Christian values, Secular professionals have taken over as secular priests that people listen to. There is also a secular doctrine of future things; the secular people are looking for aliens to come in and solve our problems.

There are two gods fighting it out with one another; Dionysus, the God of the vine and Apollo the God of structure and form. The religion of Dionysus corrupts into reckless license and the religion of Apollo corrupts into goose stepping legalism. ..... but the way to life is straight and narrow as it is stated in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

"Do not be overrighteous neither be overwise -- Why destroy yourself? Do not be overwicked, and do not be a fool -- Why die before your time? It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other. The man who fears God will avoid all extremes." Ecclesiastes 7: 16, 17, 18

It is best to find the straight and narrow path between sadism; the corruption of assertiveness and masochism; the corruption of compliance to one thing or another and to do this under God's direction and Biblical understanding. It is a matter of who or what you are obedient to. Feeling or emotions are fleeting, but sentiments or strong attitudes are long lasting.

True. We can love a person's innermost being without loving their bad behavior.

There is so much legalism in religion these days because there is so much license in spirituality. These two polarizations feed off of one another. Those of both poles are becoming unbalanced.

This post is relevant to our relation to our God as well as to our neighbor as well; Love grounded in fidelity, prudence, and temperance.

I have been on a lot of forums in which the word love is a hot topic. Some people do not believe that there is any such thing in the cold atheistic universe in which they live. The meme that someone started: "Love Wins" could be qualified to "grounded love wins" because some people take the meaning of the word to be pampering or the practice of telling everyone that they are really ok no matter what they do. Then it becomes a question of what groundedness means. Being grounded in such things as fidelity, prudence, temperance, etc. is what I would consider to be a good use of the word. ........................ The best of people and the worst of people frequently use the word love. The best of people use the word to communicate meaning and the worst of people use the word for purposes of manipulation and exploitation.

Some would say that "love of money" is the root of evil, others claim that the repression of sex and/or the denial of death is the root of evil. Ecclesiastes says that "God made man upright, but that men go in search of schemes." Schemes are to a great extent driven by money as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, and a store of value. Schemes devised by people can be productive, but more often than not become corrupted and brought into the service of evil.

I am not trying to teach hate. I am talking about awareness. The times are changing rapidly. The wolf is a symbol and the sheep is a symbol. I can love any person's inner most being, but I am talking about resistance to those who are attempting to use ignoble ends disguised as noble ends for purpose of deception, manipulation, and exploitation. Most people do in fact have respect for integrity, even bad people who would merely laugh at people who are naïve.

I was just about to elaborate further on the meaning on what I am trying to communicate and your comment is pretty much in line with what I was going to say. I have spent a lot of time on philosophy and psychology forums and the meaning of the word love is frequently discussed. ................. It is true that some people have the idea that love means pampering or telling others that whatever they do is ok. Love considered as pampering is a factor of corruption along with abuse and indifference. Those who are subjected to such things lose their common sense ability and end up living in unreal worlds. ..... The best of people and the worst of people frequently use the word love. The best of people use the word to communicate meaning; the worst of people use the term for manipulation and exploitation purposes. I believe that it is good that we should understand these things so as to be able to discern the one from the other. ... I have more to say on this topic and will get back to it soon.

It is true that many males are become unbalanced and getting on the Pollyanna track, but that is only half the story. ....Just as many males are becoming unbalanced in the opposite direction and are becoming misogynistic and sadistic toward females. This is especially true in the parallel world of the sexual exploitation industries. ........ The book of Ecclesiastes says that God hates all extremes and it is better to take hold of the one thing without letting go of the other. Shakespeare's Henry the fifth expresses the golden standard: "He was as full of valor as of kindness princely in both."

The high today in Atlanta, Georgia near where I live was in the twenties and in Anchorage, Alaska it was 40 degrees. The experts say that the polar vortex or the jet stream that circles the north pole has been dropping south in the winter months into the lower 48 states east of the rocky mountains and this phenomena is caused by global warming.

When the wolf in sheep's clothing comes up to you and says: "If you don't fall in line with all of the good things that I am teaching you about love, peace, and understanding that would prove that you are not a real Christian." What would your response be? If you have not encountered him yet, you will soon enough. It is a sign of the times.

Many people who are without the possibility of choosing the best option, fall back on choosing the lesser evil. It can difficult for some people to determine whether the arrogance of power or wimpyness is the lesser evil. I figure that the best that can be done is to pray for potus and for ourselves in these trying times.

The term for that is bias confirmation.

It is true that stereotyping or constellatory thinking has a partial blinding effect on people. I have been guilty of that myself. When I was younger decades ago, a person walked up to me and said: "here is mud in your eye, you only see human beings as trees and not as the unique individual persons which they are." It is certainly true that every person should claim responsibility for their own lives without attempting to justify their unbalanced and corrupted behavior through the way that they were raised.

Legalism is a corruption of religion or sound doctrine without the balancing effect of spirituality; license is a corruption of spirituality without sound doctrine; and carnality without good boundaries results in the corruption of destructive obsessiveness. but as the bible says; "The way to life is straight and narrow." May the grace of God be with you.

In situations where the husband is abusive toward the wife physically and/or psychologically, the maturing young male might tend to identify with the father and consider the mother as an exploitation object and generalize this to all other women and become a gender chauvinist. Ironically this is associated with a fixation on the mother. It is the mommy's boy that tends to be abusive toward females as if he is trying to break away from the fixation. ....... It is written in Genesis that "A man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave unto his wife and the two shall be as one," but this is difficult to do for a person with a strong fixation for the mother or father. A person can leave his father and mother physically without being able to break loose from the psychological fixation.

Some people are more dumb and confused than they are malignant in contrast with those who want to build a Trojan inside of Christianity and destroy it from within. It requires discernment to deal with the two types. This topic reminds me of the passage in Proverbs 25: 26 -- "A righteous man falling down before the wicked is a troubled fountain, a corrupt spring." Some want to promote the bad idea that sexual revolution is progress and that Christianity is an obstacle to progress and for that reason would tend to do whatever they can to break the back of Christian religion and spirituality.

Nowadays, many people are becoming caught up in sex addictions, love addictions, and power addictions. It is the power addicts that can best be seen as wolves in sheep's clothing. They use the exploitation mechanisms of love, peace, and understanding; the age of Aquarius package that sounds so good and it is attractive to so many people. But love, peace, and understanding that not grounded in the deep Christian rootedness makes people vulnerable to those who are caught up in a power agenda.

I have a yard garden this year and I am glad that you have started this thread. I am pretty much a novice at gardening. I made mistakes this year that I intend to correct next season. I planted a number of different things: bulb onions, carrots, a type of hybrid corn, tomatoes, and peppers. I planted some red potatoes that came out well, but I believe that I did not break up the soil deep enough and with this and the other things that I planted, I figure that I planted them too close together. I planted so many sugar baby watermelons that I could not eat them or give them away fast enough. I didn't plant enough potatoes; after I harvested them they only lasted for a few days. I didn't organize my plants well; I could not cut the grass around them and I could not get to the sections in order to weed them.

There has been contention in academic circles as to whether human corruption is a result of genetics or character rooted passions. I side with the character rooted passions notion. The book of Ecclesiastes says that God created man upright, but men have gone in search of schemes. The schemes that men become involved in using such things as money as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, and a store of value can be productive yielding good fruit or malignant yielding bad fruit depending on the character and competence of those who are doing the scheming or who are engaging in projects of one kind or another.

I believe that the two rational functions: thinking and feeling need to be synthesized and work together in order to be on target with what we say.