Ooooh! Got to love it. P.S. Ain't it the truth?

Thunderbear, Good Writing, and what a poignant description of the pain losing love can bring. You speak for us all. You said a lot.

Lady Valkyrie, thanks. What happened was, I was in this band that was booking a lot, and holding down a full time job as well, and I just up and passed away briefly. I had been drinking and chemically enhancing myself owing to the brutal hours I was working, and that one night I left my body and was suddenly in a courtyard that was pristine and beautiful. I saw a head and shoulder spirit with a single wing flying overhead, leaving trails of colored smoke; two friends of mine (who were actual live humans I knew) gave me a brief tour of the art and music of heaven, where we obviously were. The art and music that people come up with in heaven are beyond description. The friends told me at some point that there was someone who wanted to talk to me, and guided me to a door. My knees were shaking, I knew what was coming. But I went in the door, and the room was like the size of a law library, and there were bookshelves and at the far end was a black grand piano, atop which was a tiny orange and white object. The really interesting thing was that I have lousy vision, heavy astigmatism, but my dreams are in focus. On this occasion I could not see well, exactly as if I weren't wearing my glasses. So when Jesus raised his hand to me in greeting, I thought for a wild instant that he was flipping me off. And I knew I wasn't worthy to be in his presence, so had he been flipping me off, I would have thought it appropriate. But then I heard his voice, so clear and beautiful... he laughed, and said out loud, "No, I am not flipping you off. Come closer." So I got close to the piano, and there he was, like maybe an inch and a half tall. Such is his love, he knew I was scared to death of him; he made himself tiny, against a backdrop of bigness, if you will, to make me feel less frightened.
And he told me I was a good man, and that he loved me, and he promised me that someday I would understand the reason for every thing that I experienced in my life. He said I could stay there right now. I told him I didn't want my wife waking up next to a dead man. Actually, I was simply afraid to stay,I wasn't ready to quit life yet. But Jesus went along with the fiction, like a close friend would do. I know he knew. He said that he would be waiting for me next time, when I'm ready. He really was way past kind. I think nobody could miss knowing who he was, he radiated an energy that was unmistakable.
I came back to earth in woven colored light, with an orgasmic sensation that saturated me from toenails to the ends of my hair.

And not only that, if God knows all things from all times past and present and future, don't you think he would figure out what a dysfunctional bunch of turkeys mankind would ultimately prove to be? Why then would he set the standards of judgement so far above us? Does anyone think that God gets off on seeing failures?
In the Book of Revelations, mention is made of the 144,000 holy holy guys that will surround the Creator at the judgement;they are all abstainers from sex. Why are they off the hook, when they weren't fruitful and didn't multiply? (Rev. 14:4 KJV) Nope, not a cough in a carload, no contradictions here.
And people who say, "You aren't reading it with discernment" really mean, "You aren't accepting the word BEFORE you read it."

Tasselhoff- Right! Isn't it amusing, how many 'sins' are things that we are biologically designed to do?

Lady V. - As it turns out, I did die once and spoke with Jesus. I do believe that I saw him, but when I tell people about it, even Christians, they look at me as if they're trying to remember the number of that shrink their sister has been seeing... See, my experience doesn't count, it's not in the book. And I can't believe in him, according to pastors and ministers and priests, unless I believe everything in the Bible, which I can't, because there are still parts of my cerebrum that are functioning. I had way more faith before I got stupid and read the book, let me put it that way.
And if people find themselves incapable of believing my visit with Jesus, I sure as hell don't press them with the idea! It is what it is, a fabulous moment with Jesus that belongs to me. But if our souls are ultimately judged by how we reacted to the Bible alone, I'm toast. Does anyone think that God wants me to learn to dispense with logic, with personal honesty? The things that apologists come up with, to justify absolutist constructionalism of the bible, to me appear to be frantic men running amok with bailing wire and duct tape, trying to keep their story straight.

Dear Jarhead, Really, really enjoyed your comments. I was a gung-ho praise and worship team musician for a couple of years in this church down the street from here. I got so gung-ho, I went and read the bible. Big mistake. You have enumerated many of the problems a thinking person - thinking person - will run into whilst reading the inerrant word. It stunned me, bro. And you know what the funniest part of it was for me? The unbridled violence that God supposedly instructed the Jews to commit, all over the so-called holy land... I cannot get behind the God described in the Old Testament. "God told me to do it" justifies brutal action after brutal action. These guys with dynamite strapped to their bodies cause us unmitigated horror now -- and they all claim divine instruction, don't they? What makes the violence in the Old Testament somehow o.k., when we claim at least to abhor it these days? Andrea Yates killed her kids to insure their entrance into heaven, remember? Are we thrilled about her commitment to her faith? And are we now stoning people to death for working on the Sabbath, say, or committing adultery -- and if we're not, shouldn't we be, if we want to adhere to the Bible entirely? The Bible is knee-deep in inconsistencies, the Emperor is naked. The apologists have answers to every single little thing in the Bible, it has been honed to a razor's edge, a science of rebuttal, but in the end the 'supporting statements' come from the same book that causes the contention in the first place!
The motive? Manipulation! for power, for profit, for control. Think of it as prototypical politics. Can't beat your opponents in combat, fine, put the fear of hell fire in them. Bishops are powerful pieces on the chessboard, aren't they?

Motion seconded. The idea of 'a forum' suggests that varying opinions will be exchanged, weighed in the minds of the participants, and serve as a springboard to individual thoughts and/or conclusions about what and how to think about things. Word-for-word, lock-stepping Bible believers have the answer, and your opinion or life experience is rendered null and void. When I discuss any topic with anybody, I do my level best to hear what they are saying, and to understand why they are saying it. And I credit that person with at least the respect that he or she is attempting to share their reality with me. Regretfully, so many conversations with 'true believers' end up with you being regarded in their pious viewpoint as a poor misguided dufus because you can't stop committing the crime of thinking for yourself, feeling what you feel.

What was the name of the book Danny Sugarman wrote about the Doors?

Bob Dylan's first book? I was unaware that Mr. Zimmerman wrote books. What was it?

I would, if the coast was clear.

Would you eat bugs like that guy on Survivorman?

Tammy1968, I am new here (listed for a month or so, first time chatting room like this) and doing, for all intents and purposes, better than I would have thought -- kinda have stage fright? Is that possible, even? I guess it is because I don't quite know the rules, and am technilogically, how shall we say, uh, limited, yeah, that was it, limited; let me say for the record that it's too bad we live in an age when Kojak even has to say those obvious rules of engagement out loud, because guys are no longer really taught to be gentlemen... but back to the point, thanks for asking, I'm fine, and how are you? (Click...Over...buzzzzzz)

I really liked what lilrayray said! Good call! But having the spirit to try is admirable, no matter how experimental a site may be inherently in nature. My ignorance about these matters is boundless...