(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best religion & spirituality books

More or less, yes. There are a lot of great resources out there. I did have a friend who read them, but even though she got me into them, I really taught myself.

First, discard any and all nonsense about "you have to be gifted your deck" or "you have to bury your old deck in the ground." It's bull, really. A lot of Tarot "myths" like that are, mostly born from traditions passed down, I imagine. But you can absolutely buy your own deck, and used decks too. It's a great way to see if you like a style of deck without dropping a ton of money for nothing.

Some people recommend never reading for yourself, while others swear that they can only read themselves. In reality? Read for whoever you want.

The main thing is to realize that Tarot really is what you make of it. So many people have so many ideas of what it is, from communing with spirits/collective unconscious/gods, to psychology and Jungian archetypes, and I don't think any one way is right or wrong. Tarot is Tarot, whatever that means to you.

There are also a lot of decks out there. "Tarot" isn't limited to just Tarot; there's actually a lot of different types of cartomancy out there, like Lenormand and Oracle cards. I don't know Lenormand myself, and am only beginning on working with an Oracle deck.

And then you have different types of Tarot itself: Thoth Tarot decks and similar ones, mostly "invented" by Aleister Crowley; Rider-Waite/Rider-Waite-Smith decks, sometimes called RWS, commissioned by the Order of the Golden Dawn; historical decks, based off the tarrochi card game popular in the Renaissance; and some decks just barely following a Tarot deck and pretty much created by the author. None of them are better than another, it's all just based off of what you like and what you feel drawn to/comfortable with.

For good or for bad, there are many, many resources out there. Always critically examine what you're reading from.

Aecletic Tarot is a good first stop. Not only does it have listings of decks, from popular to rare, with pictures and sometimes reviews, but it has a lively forum section where you can find just about anything related to Tarot there.

Biddy Tarot is a site I have used in the past. Careful, though, it seems that they have been promoting their online Tarot course more and more. I've never taken it, so I can't say whether its bad or good, but I always feel a little wary about Tarot courses. I feel like you never know what kind of instructor you'd get -- there are some people out there who are a little too... "fluffy bunny" as it can be said at times. That is to say: no scholarship or scholarship based on poorly-researched books, often promoting an unbalanced and inaccurate worldview on the Roma people or Wiccans or anything else. I digress: if you stick to the free parts of the site with card meanings and spreads, its pretty good, and generally the first place I hit when I can't quite get the feel of a card.

Next, there's always reddit's very own /r/tarot. It's not terribly active, but there's good people there. Ask questions, read what is posted, and you can learn a lot. Everyone has different opinions, though, so keep that in mind. And plenty of people trade free readings there, so it's a good place to practice as well!

There are some wonderful Youtube channels out there as well. I'd like to link you this one in particular, because it's a great place to start learning how to discern sources. I also love Rose from The Cackling Moon, and she has a great Tumblr blog that could point you to a ton of good diviners there as well.

As for actual books, I had some around here, but its been so long since I read them that I don't know where they've gotten to. I know one was Tarot for Dummies, which was okay for a start. The other was Complete Book of Tarot Spreads, which I'd peg at intermediate. (That's probably the level I'm on myself). One I want but have yet to get is Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack. Again, Aecletic Tarot has a good list going, and you can always ask /r/tarot for their favorite books as well.

A few tips for getting your first deck:

• As I said above, there are so many out there, so pick one you like the best. That said, most resources out there are for Rider-Waite-Smith decks and their clones, so you might find that its easier to start out with in that. But there are a lot of varieties out there, so find a pretty one that draws you in. You'll be spending a long time studying them. For that matter, if you find one and don't "click," try another. I've had several different decks over the year, including one that I really ended up hating. I have one of my original RWS decks that I mainly read with, and it suits me just fine even after all these years.
  
  
• The Little White Book (often referred to affectionately as LWB) is good for starting out, but can seriously hold you back. It's just simple keywords and phrases that can be associated with the cards, but honestly you'll find that there's so much more than what can be expressed in a few words, especially when you take in a whole context of a spread.
  
  
• Conversely, don't be afraid to reach for resources when you do a reading. Seriously, don't put pressure on yourself to memorize all 78 card's meanings. Sometimes going through a couple different sources can a meaning stand out to you, especially when you start looking at the card less individually and more in combinations.
  
  
• Keep a journal. Write down your spreads and your interpretations of them. Not only will you be able to look back and see what you found was right, but you'll find common themes in certain cards or card combinations.
  
  
• Cards have different symbolism for different people. Sure, they may have general themes, such as The Tower being a card of disaster or sudden change, but we can all have an opinion or feeling of a card all our own. I highly recommend writing your thoughts on different cards down in your journal too: what jumps out at you, what you didn't notice at first glance, how the card makes you feel. Eventually, you'll impart your own meanings onto them.
  
  
• Don't be afraid of certain cards, though. Media likes to play up cards like Death or The Devil, but they aren't evil or scary, and they don't mean your going to die or get possessed by the devil or anything. Generally, the meanings are symbolic: Death is an ending (or sometimes, a new beginning), and the Devil can mean you let your passions and vices control you.
  
  
• No matter what they cards say, they are changeable. In fact, often the point of Tarot reading is to see where you are now and if you don't do anything, where you'll end up. It's generally a tool for great self-reflection more than predicting anything concrete in the future, I've found.
  
  
• After you've been reading for a while and shuffling your deck (regular card shuffling is okay, but the method doesn't really matter as long as they're shuffled well) and you find it getting difficult to read the cards, try putting them in "order" like it was freshly out of the box. It's kind of a reset button. I don't know if its psychological or "magical" but it works for me. There's lots of ways to "cleanse" a deck, though, so do what you feel is best.
  
  
• This one may be a tad advanced, but I feel like I should say something on it: research Tarot ethics. This is a big one when you start reading for other people. Ask yourself: what kind of questions would you be comfortable answering to the best of your ability? Generally, most readers avoid medical questions (including pregnancy-related) and legal ones, and many avoid reading about third parties without permission out of respect. And if there's a less than pleasant implication in the cards, how would you handle that? Would you tell the truth? What would you do if they reacted negatively? What would happen if they disregard it, it came to pass, and blamed you? It's a lot to consider. If you just read for yourself, obviously that's not a big deal, but keep it in mind if you ever read for someone else.
  
  Last but not least, I have to comment on your username... I love pugs! Sadly, the last pug in the family, my grandma's old guy, was put down tonight. I'm going to miss him, but it was his time to go to rest.
  
  Good luck with your journey into Tarot. I hope it pans out well for you, and that I was in some way helpful :)

>The point in my response was that I interpreted you to say that elimination of craving was not part of the path to reduce suffering, when it clearly is, as is evident if you read any introductory text on Buddhism, and I provided a quote from the Pali cannon to illustrate this.

>But now it seems to have morphed into a quibble over how to summarize the third noble truth.

If something has morphed its your argument and its because you morphed it. When I originally joined this thread this is the comment I responded to:

>I am asking about the second Noble truth. I am asking concretely, how one reduces/eliminates thirst in the context of meditation...

>It's as if I asked about how exactly to do step 4 of a recipe, to mix flour and butter together, and you responded with, follow the recipe. I'm asking specifically about one of the steps in the recipe.

This is you stating emphatically that you are talking about the Second Noble Truth.

I replied:

>The First Noble Truth is all life is suffering.

>The Second Noble Truth is suffering is caused by desire.

>The Third Noble Truth is there can be an end to suffering.

>The Fourth Noble Truth is that the end to suffering is in following the Eightfold Path.

>I know you've seen people here say that if you eliminate all desire you can end suffering, and maybe you've seen a website or even a book that says as much, and if you want to believe that too that's perfectly fine.

>>I am asking concretely, how one reduces/eliminates thirst in the context of meditation...

>You can't make a Turkey with salt. You can't extinguish desire with meditation. It takes more than that, but that can help.

To which you replied:

>The third Noble truth is more specific than you note

>>nirodha (cessation, ending) of this dukkha can be attained by eliminating all "craving, desire, and attachment";[7][8]

This is you mentioning the Third Noble Truth for the first time. I don't know why you brought up the Third Noble Truth. I think you're confused and I'm not here to "quibble", or to flex my ego, or to expose anyone so I simply wished you good luck.

You then replied with:

>Here is a short summary of the four noble truths from the Saṃyutta Nikāya of the Pali cannon, as quoted in The Foundations of Buddhism by Buddhist scholar Rupert Gethin.

>>This is the noble truth of suffering: birth is suffering, ageing is suffering, sickness is suffering, dying is suffering, sorrow, grief, pain, unhappiness, and unease are suffering; being united with what is not liked is suffering, separation from what is liked is suffering; not to get what one wants is suffering; in short, the five aggregates of grasping are suffering.

>>This is the noble truth of the origin of suffering: the thirst for repeated existence which, associated with delight and greed, delights in this and that, namely the thirst for the objects of sense desire, the thirst for existence, and the thirst for non-existence.

>>This is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering: the complete fading away and cessation of this very thirst its abandoning, relinquishing, releasing, letting go.

>>This is the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering: the noble eightfold path, namely right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

I don't know why you chose to share this translation, or how it advances your point. But I noticed that it is a workable translation so I replied:

>The second noble truth here doesn't look anything like what you described before. I'm not sure what point you're trying to make.

I thought that this would gently point out that you had switched from the Second Noble Truth to the Third Noble Truth, and I was trying to point out that even in the translation you quoted The Second Noble Truth is not how you described it here:

>I am asking about the second Noble truth. I am asking concretely, how one reduces/eliminates thirst in the context of meditation...

>It's as if I asked about how exactly to do step 4 of a recipe, to mix flour and butter together, and you responded with, follow the recipe. I'm asking specifically about one of the steps in the recipe.

1. One does not reduce or eliminate desire in the context of meditation
   
2. The Four Noble Truths are not like a recipe or step by step instructions
   
3. The Second Noble Truth only says that suffering is caused by desire. It does not describe or imply any action.
   
   But as a response you say:
   
   >That's because I was describing the third noble truth not the second. And the previous quote is in agreement with this quote from the Pali cannon. "Thirst" here is equivalent to craving.
   
   >>I know you've seen people here say that if you eliminate all desire you can end suffering, and maybe you've seen a website or even a book that says as much, and if you want to believe that too that's perfectly fine.
   
   >I am responding to this comment of yours, given that it is not something said only by "people" or found in a "website"/"book", but the pali cannon itself.
   
   I am not quibbling over how to summarize the Third Noble Truth. You are insisting that you have always been talking about the Third Noble Truth, and you have not. You also seem to be saying that your point is that The Third Noble Truth implies or describes some action, which it does not.
   
   So I reply:
   
   >The third noble truth says only that there can be an end to suffering.
   
   >You need to look at the discussion and really think about what you've said. I think you're confused. I know you are.
   
   Suggesting some of my suspicions and encouraging you to review the discussion which I've detailed above.
   
   And now this last reply from you:
   
   >The point in my response was that I interpreted you to say that elimination of craving was not part of the path to reduce suffering, when it clearly is, as is evident if you read any introductory text on Buddhism, and I provided a quote from the Pali cannon to illustrate this.
   
   >But now it seems to have morphed into a quibble over how to summarize the third noble truth.
   
   >>This is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering: the complete fading away and cessation of this very thirst its abandoning, relinquishing, releasing, letting go.
   
   >Sure you can summarize the third noble truth by saying that there is an end to suffering, but it is only gets at half point, as is evident above, that end can occur by removing the cause of suffering, namely thirst: "...the cessation of suffering:[is achieved by]...complete...cessation of...thirst [craving/strong desire]".
   
   >The noble truths as stated are just short descriptions of a general structure to the diagnosis of the state of things from a Buddhist perspective. The truths are expanded in great detail, in basically every element of Buddhism.
   
   Do you recall the story of the Buddha before he reached Enlightenment? He had become frustrated in his practice and decided that he would sit beneath a tree and do nothing but meditate until he reached Enlightenment. He was not able to reach Enlightenment in this way and you will not either. This is something I am absolutely sure of. Elimination of desire is part of the path, but it is not the whole or primary focus, and in the context of meditation it's not something to focus on in the way that you mean it. Nor is it suggested in any introductory text of Buddhism. You have misunderstood your reading.
   
   I am not quibbling over how to summarize the Third Noble Truth. It does not say what you think it says, or mean what you think it means. I am trying to have a discussion and address your questions.
   
   >Sure you can summarize the third noble truth by saying that there is an end to suffering, but it is only gets at half point, as is evident above, that end can occur by removing the cause of suffering, namely thirst: "...the cessation of suffering:[is achieved by]...complete...cessation of...thirst [craving/strong desire]".
   
   Bracketing in words you think should be there is not helping you understand. Let me be clear:
   
   The way to end suffering is by following the Eightfold Path. Meditation is a part of that path and being mindful of desire is a part of that path. Meditation on ending desire will not, in and of itself, bring you to Enlightenment.

Just to start off, its shabbos in much of the world so you won't get so many responses for a bit.

​

Lots and lots of people grew up with some Jewish identity, didn't do much, and later became religious. Seriously, its a whole movement. Of course everyone's situation is unique, but you aren't the first to struggle with this kinda thing. Thankfully, that has meant a ton of books and resources for people in your shoes, who want to learn more and do more but didn't grow up with it. Some of the biggest resources online are Aish and Chabad, I just found NJOP but it doesn't have as much on the site.

​

Now, as you know, the first step is to find a synagogue. I'd recommend looking for a Chabad or a young adults organization like a Young Jewish Professionals type of thing. They will have lots of classes for people from all sorts of backgrounds and will be super happy to help you find good resources, to teach you, etc. Chabad especially is everywhere, the joke is that only Coca-Cola and Chabad are worldwide. Next weekend is actually The Shabbos Project, which brings together people from all sorts of background to do a shabbos in a community. Actually one of these helped me really finalize my decision to become religious. And there are people here from all over who can recommend places.

​

So there are lots of basic books out there. One thing I would definitely recommend is to get a Chumash, I'd recommend the Stone Edition since its the most common but the Steinsaltz one also came out recently. A Chumash has the whole Torah and the Haftorot (the section from the Prophets read in synagogues every shabbos) with commentaries. Both the ones I linked have stuff from all sorts of commentators that help explain the text. One section of Torah is read every week on shabbos, so it makes for a great reading guide.

​

A good beginner book is To Be a Jew by Rabbi Hayim HeLevy Dovin. That one is absolutely classic. He also has another one, To Pray as a Jew, that's also excellent. Rabbi Joseph Telushkin also has a great one, Jewish Literacy, that goes through everything from Bible stories and characters to Jewish historical figures and writings. R' Teluskhin has tons of good stuff, I also have his A Code of Jewish Ethics, Jewish Wisdom, and a daily study book The Book of Jewish Values, they are all great learning resources. I'd also recommend Exploring Jewish Tradition, it really gets to the basics of Jewish practices. The 'Jewish Book of Why' set is also good, there are two volumes. There's no need to dive full on into halacha (Jewish law) and like books on Talmud right away, take the basics and then explore what is interesting to you. People sometimes burn out if they try too much too quick, but others love to just jump in full on and learn a bunch really quick (I'm the second but know people in the first category, both are totally ok ways to be).

​

If there is any specific thing you would like to read more about, I can recommend more stuff after shabbos. Its only been a year since I decided to become religious so I know the position you are in. And if you have any questions, there are lots of great resources online and lots of knowledgeable people here. Of course, as I'm sure your mother can attest, there are unhealthy Jewish communities. But I firmly believe for every bad one there are far more great ones. I'm pretty new to it but the couple places I have been are both very welcoming and I have made friends from most of the major areas. It does not have to be suffocating, and there's nothing wrong with learning and doing more at your own pace. If its ever too much, slow down and reassess before jumping in further. If you listen to what your neshama (soul) is saying it'll guide you right!

Before I start answering your questions, I want to point out that you are pretty fixated on magic in your questions. I think it should be noted that magic, while it does have a relationship with paganism and some pagan traditions use it very heavily, is separate and distinct from the religious practices of paganism. Not all pagan traditions practice magic and its debatable that this sub is meant for the the discussion of the religious aspects of paganism rather than discussion of magic. You should by all means feel welcome to seek information about paganism here, but if magic is what you are interested in, you might have more luck asking in more magic oriented subs like r/occult or subs like r/Wicca or /r/witchcraft that cater specifically to the traditions that do use magic. I should also mention that I'm by no means an expert on paganism or magic, but I know a thing or two about a thing or two. On to the answers!

1. I recommend you start by reading as much as you can. There is a lot of information out there, specifically for wicca but applying pretty broadly to paganism, that you can find for free on the internet that should serve as an adequate introduction to paganism and the pagan magical practices. As you read those and learn more, you will be able to better discern good information from less useful information and better choose for yourself which tradition you feel is right for you, but as a beginner I'm of the opinion that even bad information will serve its purpose and later be discarded. I specifically recommend this book as an introduction to paganism (I know you have issues with your family, but if you can get a hold of it I personally recommend this book): https://www.amazon.com/Paganism-Introduction-Earth-Centered-Religions/dp/0738702226. Books by Cunningham, Buckland, and Oberon Zell are also pretty beginner friendly, albeit somewhat specific to their traditions. For a digital source, I recommend this: http://www.witchology.com/contents/opensourcewicca/gardnerianindex.php. It is digital collection of (supposedly) Gardner's book of shadows and it should serve as a good launching point into Wicca. I also recommend this guide: http://bluefluke.deviantart.com/gallery/52627976/THE-PSYCHONAUT-FIELD-MANUAL. It's specific to Chaos Magic (I'll talk about it in a bit) and not really pagan, but it covers the basics of magic very eloquently and succinctly. Even if you plan on following a more involved tradition, I think this document is a pretty good launching point.
   
2. It's easy to get caught up in the different traditions of magic and I think its important to understand that magic is not a D&D class. Its a practice for spiritual growth and, sometimes, for obtaining material gain. As such, I recommend you don't get hung up on the differences between different magical traditions or try to master all of them. Try out as much as you want and find a path that feels right for you. Having said that, you seem to already to be familiar with witchcraft, as exemplified by Wicca and the less popular Stregheria. This is a folk tradition of magic, more pagan than other paths and based on using tools that are already on hand. The hermetic tradition, as exemplified by the Order of the Golden Dawn, is a tradition that supposedly was created by Hermes Trismegistus, was heavily influenced by Cabalah, passed through Platonic philosophy for a while, and was eventually rediscovered in the Enlightenment and heavily Christianized. It is a very western school of magic and is very abrahamic in flavor and ideally involves a lot of props, specific incantations, and steps. It's also worth noting that Gerald Gardner borrowed many elements from the hermetic tradition when he was founding Wicca and drafting his original book of shadows. Thelema is the magical tradition of Aleister Crowley and was started when he decided that the Order of the Golden Dawn just didn't have enough Crowley in it. I don't know much about this tradition, apart from the fact that originates in hermeticism, but that's definitely a name you'll see around. Chaos Magic is a relatively new paradigm in magic, originating with the Illuminates of Thanateros and emphasizing that it doesn't matter what trappings you use in magic as long as you personally believe that they will work. There are of course various indigenous practices of magic and you might find them interesting to read about, but I recommend you stay clear of them if you aren't a member of that culture. Its a respect thing and, if you're approaching these traditions as an outsider, there's a lot that you won't understand anyway. If you do seek out these traditions, I recommend you find a teacher who can properly initiate you, and one that is actually a member of the culture in question. I definitely recommend you don't seek out Shamanism unless you're called to it (and you'll know if you are).
   
3. Other people have said this, but Witchcraft and Wicca are actually not synonymous. Wicca is a tradition of witchcraft, as are other traditions like Stregheria and arguably Voodoo, but witchcraft itself is separate from these and there are many witches who prefer not to associate with such labels. You can call yourself a witch if you feel that the term applies to you. Or you can call yourself simply a pagan if you choose to generally follow a pagan path.

> Interestingly, if you look at the history, literalism/fundamentalism didn't arise until well after the Enlightenment. Literalism is best understood as an over-exaggerated response to the challenge posed to "easy" Christianity by the advancement of science.

I refuse to accept the idea that, say, 9th century monks or 15th century inquisitors did not believe the bible to be literally true. I accept, of course, that much of today's literalism is unthinking, childish backlash against scientific knowledge. However, literalism has always been around and was simply assumed prior to the enlightenment.

>Also, I was not stating my own beliefs, I was merely arguing that the OP presented few arguments which would be challenging to a Christian.

God's devil's advocate. Gotcha. What are your beliefs and why do you not find the arguments you present to be compelling?

> Christians don't believe that all beliefs require evidence.

Of course they don't, they'd have to believe something else if they did. They might have to be gasp agnostic or atheist.

> Telling them that faith-based beliefs "ought" to require evidence is merely an assertion of your own evidentialism;

That isn't what I'm doing. What I'm doing is suggesting that beliefs that are based on evidence are much more likely to be true than those that aren't. The Christian response which you are echoing here is, "I don't care what is more likely to be true, I care about believing in Christianity no matter how unlikely it may be."

> Responsible Christians, of which I know many, would not dispute that your hypothetical is plausible; they would simply say it isnot what they believe. Their belief is not based on plausibility, it is based on faith.

And it is this belief based on nothing but faith that is of absolutely no value. One can have faith in anything. There are an infinite number of things one can believe in. There is only one method for us to determine what we ought to believe in, via evidence. The only other way for us to know what we ought to believe is from supernatural inspiration of some kind. Of course, all the mutually incompatible religions that have ever existed have laid claim on divine inspiration. What to do???

> That number is higher than I would have thought. I guess the great majority of wackadoodle evangelicals happen to live in America. Even in America, something like 80% identify as Christian, so there are still quite a lot of non-YEC Christians.

Something just occurred to me. What right do you have of calling anyone a wackadoodle evangelical? Their faith is just as valid (or invalid) as any "responsible" Christian.

> I'm not sure what you mean here. I don't recall claiming that Christianity should get any credit for discovering natural selection.

I'm suggesting that Christians do not get any credit for accepting evolution. The power of evidence has shaken the foundations of the Christian faith. This was pushed onto Christianity from the outside.

>The point is that you can only justify this with an appeal to evidentialism, just as the Christian can only justify their belief with an appeal to God. You've only gotten back to where you started.

I reject your assertion that evidence is no better than faith as simply false.

> People who believe in miracles would dispute the assertion that they have never been shown to happen. The Catholic Church believes itself to hold a vast library of evidence of miracles. This is how they decide who gets to be a saint.

>Again, you and I think this is bunk, but it is not logically inconsistent for a Christian to believe it.

I disagree. Given that every mutually incompatible religion lays claims to miraculous events and given that all supposedly miraculous events that have ever been put forward have failed to maintain their divine luster in the hard light of rational examination, it is absolutely illogical for a Christian (or a person of any other religion) to believe in miracles. The best we can say is that there are unproven claims of miracles.

What's more, the entire subject of miracles completely belies your notion that the religious accept their religion on faith. Miracles, if they exist, must necessarily be the work of God (which God depends largely on which religion you were brought up to believe in). Miracles, as you pointed out, are used by various religions as evidence of God's existence. The only reason faith comes into play when discussing miracles is because there is not one single miracle that we know for a fact has happened and that cannot be denied. If there were even one miracle that was undeniably the work of the Christian God, then what choice would anyone have but to accept Christianity? People would be foolish not to.

>I'm not sure. If he is omnipotent then he can tell a lie. If he is omnibenevolent then he would tell a lie if circumstances were such that telling the lie did more good than telling the truth. I'm not sure if this situation could ever actually occur. I'm not sure if it's logically inconsistent with Christian beliefs for God to tell a lie. However, their faith is that he doesn't.

You evaded the point I was making and I think you realize that. My question what if the Christian God exists but is lying about the entire story. What if there is a pantheon of Gods competing for man's attention and the Christian God made a power play to gain dominance over the other gods?

The problem with faith is that this scenario is exactly as plausible as the entirety of the Christian religion. There is no good reason to believe Christianity over this bizarre pantheon of backstabbing deities. There's no good reason to believe Christianity over Islam or Hinduism. The only thing the religious have is a desire to believe and a desire to believe has clearly shown an ability to convince people that they should believe. Only those who value evidence and are open to any possibility have any shot at determining the truth about the world.

> They believe in him without a reason, as previously discussed.

Exactly. What other claim is there that people believe without reason? If someone came to us and declared that they believed the world was flat, we'd (rightly) think they were being irrational and may attempt to correct them by providing them the evidence that suggests otherwise. You're suggesting that religious belief (which is a truth claim about the universe) should not be held to this same standard. Why?

> Christians believe Jesus to be eternal. Only his physical form was temporal.

>This is not about what I personally believe. It is about whether the OP's points are strong arguments. Christians believe that "The Word" is eternal, so it existed prior to the Abrahamic religions. Again, this is a faith.

You dodged the question. It doesn't matter if Jesus (or "the word" whatever that means) always existed, what matters is that Christians haven't always existed. During this pre-abrahamic religion state of the world, when people had absolutely no concept of the tyrannical warrior god of Judea, where did they get their morals? Surely not from other Gods since the Abrahamic religions are clearly monotheistic religions and would preclude other gods from existing in the first place.

My point is that your rebuttals to the OP's points are weak and this is but one example of that. If Christians suggest that morality comes only from God, then morality could not have existed prior to human knowledge of God's existence. So how is it that humans survived these brutal, amoral millennia when there could not have been a single act of kindness?

> What I meant here is that evolutionary biology can tell us how humans behave and why they behave that way, but it is inherently incapable of telling us how they ought to behave. There is, and can be, no reasoning from biology to "ought."

I submit that this statement is simply false. I'll simply point you to The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris as this is exactly what he spends three hundred or so pages arguing against.

>No. I'm saying that you can tell an evolution-story to support any position. People frequently do. But without some sort of testable prediction and reproducible experiment, a consistent evidentialist would reject many of these stories.

Not having the answer to a question does not mean that any answer is of equal value.

>If Gaussian field theory is a product of natural selection, then everything is.

That's a non-answer.

> All I'm saying is that this doesn't strike me as a productive argument for his non-existence.

It's a productive argument against part of His existence.

Here's a list of books I've read that have had a big impact on my journey.

First and foremost tho, you should learn to meditate. That's the most instrumental part of any spiritual path.

 Ram Dass – “Be Here Now” - https://www.amazon.com/Be-Here-Now-Ram-Dass/dp/0517543052 - Possibly the most important book in the list – was the biggest impact in my life.  Fuses Western and Eastern religions/ideas. Kinda whacky to read, but definitely #1

Ram Dass - “Journey Of Awakening” - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006L7R2EI - Another Ram Dass book - once I got more into Transcendental Meditation and wanted to learn other ways/types of meditation, this helped out.

 Clifford Pickover – “Sex, Drugs, Einstein & Elves…” - https://www.amazon.com/Sex-Drugs-Einstein-Elves-Transcendence/dp/1890572179/ - Somewhat random, frantic book – explores lots of ideas – planted a lot of seeds in my head that I followed up on in most of the books below

 Daniel Pinchbeck – “Breaking Open the Head” - https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Open-Head-Psychedelic-Contemporary/dp/0767907434 - First book I read to explore impact of psychedelics on our brains

 Jeremy Narby – “Cosmic Serpent” - https://www.amazon.com/Cosmic-Serpent-DNA-Origins-Knowledge/dp/0874779642/ - Got into this book from the above, explores Ayahuasca deeper and relevancy of serpent symbolism in our society and DNA

 Robert Forte – “Entheogens and the Future of Religion” - https://www.amazon.com/Entheogens-Future-Religion-Robert-Forte/dp/1594774382 - Collection of essays and speeches from scientists, religious leaders, etc., about the use of psychedelics (referred to as Entheogens) as the catalyst for religion/spirituality

 Clark Strand – “Waking up to the Dark” - https://www.amazon.com/Waking-Up-Dark-Ancient-Sleepless/dp/0812997727 - Explores human’s addiction to artificial light, also gets into femininity of religion as balance to masculine ideas in our society

 Lee Bolman – “Leading with Soul” - https://www.amazon.com/Leading-Soul-Uncommon-Journey-Spirit/dp/0470619007 - Discusses using spirituality to foster a better, more supportive and creative workplace – pivotal in my honesty/openness approach when chatting about life with coworkers

 Eben Alexander – “Proof of Heaven” - https://www.amazon.com/Proof-Heaven-Neurosurgeons-Journey-Afterlife/dp/1451695195 - A neurophysicist discusses his near death experience and his transformation from non-believer to believer (title is a little click-baity, but very insightful book.  His descriptions of his experience align very similarly to deep meditations I’ve had)

 Indries Shah – “Thinkers of the East” - https://www.amazon.com/Thinkers-East-Idries-Shah/dp/178479063X/ - A collection of parables and stories from Islamic scholars.  Got turned onto Islamic writings after my trip through Pakistan, this book is great for structure around our whole spiritual “journey”

 Whitley Strieber – “The Key: A True Encounter” - https://www.amazon.com/Key-True-Encounter-Whitley-Strieber/dp/1585428698 - A man’s recollection of a conversation with a spiritual creature visiting him in a hotel room.  Sort of out there, easy to dismiss, but the topics are pretty solid

 Mary Scott – “Kundalini in the Physical World” - https://www.amazon.com/Kundalini-Physical-World-Mary-Scott/dp/0710094175/ - Very dense, very difficult scientific book exploring Hinduism and metaphysics (wouldn’t recommend this for light reading, definitely something you’d want to save for later in your “journey”)

 Hermann Hesse – “Siddartha” - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/siddhartha-hermann-hesse/1116718450? – Short novel about a spiritual journey, coming of age type book.  Beautifully written, very enjoyable.

Reza Aslan - “Zealot” - https://www.amazon.com/ZEALOT-Life-Times-Jesus-Nazareth/dp/140006922X - Talks about the historical Jesus - helped me reconnect with Christianity in a way I didn’t have before

Reza Aslan - “No god but God” - https://www.amazon.com/god-but-God-Updated-Evolution/dp/0812982444 - Same as above, but in terms of Mohammad and Islam.  I’m starting to try to integrate the “truths” of our religions to try and form my own understanding

Thich Nhat Hanh - “Silence” - https://www.amazon.com/Silence-Power-Quiet-World-Noise-ebook/dp/B00MEIMCVG - Hanh’s a Vietnamese Buddhist monk - in this book he writes a lot about finding the beauty in silence, turning off the voice in our heads and lives, and living in peace.

Paulo Coelho - “The Alchemist” - https://www.amazon.com/Alchemist-Paulo-Coelho/dp/0062315005/ - Sort of a modern day exploration of “the path” similar to “Siddhartha.”  Very easy and a joy to read, good concepts of what it means to be on a “path”

Carlos Castaneda - "The Teachings of Don Juan" - The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge https://www.amazon.com/dp/0671600419 - Started exploring more into shamanism and indigenous spiritual work; this book was a great intro and written in an entertaining and accessible way. 

Jean-Yves Leloup - “The Gospel of Mary” - https://www.amazon.com/Gospel-Mary-Magdalene-Jean-Yves-Leloup/dp/0892819111/ - The book that finally opened my eyes to the potentiality of the teachings of Christ.  This book, combined with the one below, have been truly transformative in my belief system and accepting humanity and the power of love beyond what I’ve found so far in my journey.

Jean-Yves Leloup - “The Gospel of Philip” - https://www.amazon.com/Gospel-Philip-Magdalene-Gnosis-Sacred/dp/1594770220 - Really begins to dissect and dive into the metaphysical teachings of Christ, exploring the concept of marriage, human union and sexuality, and the power contained within.  This book, combined with the one above, have radically changed my perception of The Church as dissimilar and antithetical to what Christ actually taught.

Ram Dass - “Be Love Now” - https://www.amazon.com/Be-Love-Now-Path-Heart/dp/0061961388 - A follow-up to “Be Here Now” - gets more into the esoteric side of things, his relationship with his Guru, enlightenment, enlightened beings, etc.

Riane Eisler - “The Chalice and the Blade” - https://www.amazon.com/Chalice-Blade-Our-History-Future/dp/0062502891 - An anthropoligical book analyzing the dominative vs cooperative models in the history and pre-history of society and how our roots have been co-opted and rewritten by the dominative model to entrap society into accepting a false truth of violence and dominance as “the way it is”

> I have no idea if this post contains anything insulting/against the rules/breaking some secret taboo. I just want to become closer to the family of the man I love.

This last sentence just made me smile so big today. We're a pretty thick skinned bunch, and hearing that you want to come into this with an open heart and mind, prompted by a man and family whom you love, is an occasion for joy. Welcome! We're happy to have you here. Please stick around and ask as many questions as you wish!

I want to make this offer at the beginning of this post, so it doesn't get buried. As you embark upon this journey, please feel free to keep my username handy and DM with any specific questions that trip you up or pique your curiosity. I mean that, I'm happy to be a resource in addition to all the wonderful folks who help this subreddit tick.

I'm a cradle Catholic, 28 years old, and I, too, feel like there's an eternity's worth of stuff to discover about the faith. It's always overwhelming.

I'm going to first echo /u/Trubea's sentiments, Catholicism For Dummies is an excellent resource book and worth picking up.

Given that your SO has been sharing lots of biblical stories with you it would also make sense to buy a Bible. I'd recommend the following for a very readable Bible with awesome footnotes, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church as a teaching companion to reference against. It may take time to dig really deeply into those, but eventually you'll want them.

• Bible
  
• Catechism
  
  Two YouTube channels (finally I'm recommending something free, right?) where you'll find great short videos on what the Church teaches, pop culture, and everything in between are found here:
  
  
• Bishop Robert Barron's "Word On Fire" Channel
  
• Father Mike Schmitz on "Ascension Presents"
  
  Also, I've noticed you seem to be drawn to the "beauty" of the faith. The aforementioned Bishop Barron has some great media that I think you'd really enjoy.
  
  
• The Catholicism Video Series - A 10 episode documentary with some great cinematic work and soundtrack that break down some of the basics of the faith. A bit pricey for the whole thing, but something to consider. A trailer for the whole series can be found here and they did post a free, 53 min long episode on YouTube which can be found here.
  
  
• Bishop Barron's book that covers some of the same info as the video series, aptly named Catholicism.
  
  Before I recommend too many more options that break the bank, I'll leave you with that. :) There are lots of free resources to learn about the Catholic Church online, as well. The teachings, the stories, the lives of the saints, the miracles, you name it! Just let us know what is piquing your interest the most, and we'll do our best to direct you to something awesome on it.
  
  In the present, will say a prayer for your journey. Peace to you!
  
  

This is a fair question. A condition to practicing toward awakening is a desire to awaken, which comes from good teachings. For pragmatic dharma resources, I recommend you check out the sidebar links, particularly Daniel Ingram's MCTB and Ron Crouch's website (and, specifically, his post "Why Meditate?". Those inspired me to practice.

There are lots of other interesting books on the subject too, including Shinzen Young's recent book The Science of Enlightenment, Sam Harris's Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion, and Adyashanti's The End of Your World: Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment. Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now also is quite popular.

And, really, depending on your bent, you can't get any better than the original Buddhist teachings. On the subjects of Enlightenment, the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra are two of my personal favorites. (These are as translated by Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh.)

So, I'd recommend reading and seeing if you feel inspired by the teachings. For me, there was something about the very idea of "Enlightenment" that stirred a desire deep within my heart. It was palpable, and it started at an early age, sometime in middle school or high school when I had to do a project on religions and happened to be assigned Buddhism. Encyclopedia-like resources don't necessarily point you in the direction of Enlightenment, but the explanation of "Nirvana" had some sort of primal appeal to me.

Once pragmatic dharma teachers like Daniel Ingram and Ron Crouch started claiming that some form of "awakening" was actually possible for Average Joe Layperson (like me), I was intrigued, and I decided to give the experiment a shot. Of course I did.

What changes? It depends on how you define "stream entry" and who you ask. There are lots of different models for Enlightenment (as discussed in Daniel's MCTB). Using the pragmatic dharma definition, stream entry is defined as the first time a practitioner completes a fully cycle of insight (typically measured against the Progress of Insight maps) and experiences a "cessation" event. What changes varies from practitioner to practitioner, but on the Fetters Model, which I think is as good as any, three important "fetters" are dropped: (a) belief in self, (b) doubt about the Path, and (c) attachment to rites and rituals.

Concretely, based on my experience, the fetters model (filtered, of course, through my still sometimes cloudy conceptual lens) made a lot of sense. Regarding "self view," the "cessation" experience has a way of kicking you out of the linear way of looking at your life, as an existent self living chronologically in time. While often this insight fades for a while, it is pretty clear at the point of initial awakening, and I speculate that a part of your mind never forgets that. This insight deepens with further practice. Your perspective on your experience shifts from being caught typically in the horizontal dimension of time to instead tuning into the vertical dimension of "just this," in which time, like all things, including the self, is seen as just a concept, a particular way of looking at this immediate, obvious, and manifest reality. Seeing "just this," and recognizing that there is no permanent self that is just this or that provides tremendous relief. Most of our lives are spent trying to protect the self, improve it, make it happy. Seeing through this delusion, even for a moment, has a way of radically transforming one's perspective on experience.

Second, after you complete a cycle of insight, you don't really doubt "just this." There's a lot of work necessary to integrate and deepen that insight. But it feels like you have directly touched reality, the Tao, Nirvana, God, or whatever. Interestingly, in my experience, that which seems to remains when all else fades is all that you ever wanted to begin with. So, the value of this Path becomes obvious. Faith is no longer necessary. A deep part of your mind understands that "this is it."

Finally, the attachment to rites and rituals goes away because you realize that it's "just this." You might have done a lot of work to realize that, but once you do, it's all pretty simple. That realization can't be taken away from you. It's done. It's always available. As a practical matter, that realization tends to fade, come and go, which teaches us an interesting thing about "awakening experiences," a lesson we will have to learn well as we continue to deepen our practice. But generally speaking, after "stream entry," one realizes that awakening is not somehow external to one's present situation, indeed the very idea of internal and external is just another concept which has no concrete, permanent status (is ultimately empty). Thus, the need for rites and rituals is seen through.

All that said, these realizations may not be perfectly obvious at the conceptual level after stream entry. As a practical matter, people generally feel lighter, relieved, happier, at least for a time. But those states are just states, which are not permanent. Enlightenment, Awakening, Liberation, Nirvana, or whatever you want to call it is something that goes beyond particular states or this or that. Once you begin to open up to that dimension of being, you experience a much more profound and lasting sense of peace with just this existence, as it is. It's a nice spot to be in. :)

Hope that helps.

>I would also like to start 'working' with a higher entity. I'd like to make contact with my HGA, but am not adept enough to perform The Abramelin Operation (seems very scary).

The Abramelin Operation is a bit dated and a lot of people (not all though) use Crowley's Liber Samekh Ritual to establish contact with the HGA. It's supposed to be performed astrally several times a day. Lon Milo Duqette wrote a clearer explanation than Crowley did of how to perform the ritual in his book A Handbook of the Rituals of Thelema. However, that's not usually the first step in contacting the HGA. In Crowley's system, a person must :

1. Gain control over the body of light and rising on the planes. This is often assigned due to the fact that, as I already said, the ritual is not suppose to take place on the physical plane, rather in the astral one after rising on the planes.
   
   
2. Master Asana and Pranayama. Asana is being able to sit completely still in a single position without moving a single muscle for a prolonged period of time and Pranayama is breath control. This is because the HGA is often seen as your subconscious mind and these meditative practices are necessary to be able to quiet your conscious mind so that you may better hear and listen to your subconscious. If you'd like to read more about this, I'd recommend Liber ABA
   
   
3. Master ceremonial magick techniques (i.e. Star Ruby, Star Sapphire, lesser rituals of the pentagram and hexagram, greater rituals of the pentagram and hexagram, etc.) and develop a better understanding of ritual. This is obviously assigned due to the fact that in order to successfully perform a ritual to invoke the HGA, you need to have an understanding of ritual and ability to do it.
   
   
4. Perfect the art of Bhakti. Bhakti is complete devotion to a deity. It includes such things as devoting all acts (i.e. eating, drinking, sleeping, working, breathing, etc.) to the chosen deity, developing a mantra for the deity and reciting it constantly in your head every second of the day without stopping, developing an invocation to the deity, performing ritual service for the deity several times in a 24 hour period including the middle of the night, modeling yourself to behave like the chosen deity, etc. This is necessary as it helps develop the one-pointed focus and devotion needed to successful invoke the HGA. If you'd like, you can read more about this in Liber Astarte
   
   >I would love suggestions from you all regarding anything that would help me practice low-level ritual work!
   
   I'd recommend trying out
   
   The Star Sapphire
   
   The Star Ruby
   
   The Greater Ritual of the Hexagram
   
   The Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram
   
   The Solar Adorations
   
   The Threefold Eucharist
   
   The Mass of the Pheonix
   
   The Form of Hoor-pa-kraat
   
   >Are there any other ways to do this? I feel an affinity toward Angelic forces and have a keen interest in Enochian but am unsure where to begin.
   
   If you're looking to get into Enochian magick, (which I would highly recommend; it's one of my favoritae systems of magick) I'd recommend reading Enochian Magick in Theory and Enochian Magick in Practice by Frater Yechidah.
   
   >I have stayed away from Goetia thus far and would like to focus a little more on white magick (not because I think Goetia is 'wrong'; its just not for me right now). However, I am curious if The Key of Solomon would provide any use for someone wanting to learn about white magic? Am I correct in stating that the astrological pentacles are of use for the magus to use at their will?
   
   I wouldn't classify the Goetia as black magick. Demons in the occult are not the same as demons in Abrahramic religion. In fact, I (as well as others I have talked to) have noticed that the Enochian angels are very similar in character and personality to the Goetic demons. I would also not characterize the Key of Solomon pentacles and sigils as black magick.
   
   But to answer your questions; yes, anyone could use the pentacles (with or without conjuring any of the Goetic demons; the consecration rite for them does not include any evocation, just a blessing) and see results.
   
   As for general books I would recommend to a beginner:
   
   The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford by Lon Milo Duquette
   
   the Golden Dawn by Israel Regardie
   
   The Mystical and Magical System of the A .'. A .'. by James A. Eshelman
   
   777 And Other Qabalistic Writings by Aleister Crowley
   
   Gems From the Equinox by Aleister Crowley and edited by Israel Regardie
   
   
   
   

Please take notice of the reply that follows this for a continuation of my response.

I appreciate your kind approach and apparent openness to persuasion, which motivated me to write this. I hope you'll find it worthwhile. I'll try to start simply:

What is a philosophical argument? Think of it as a mechanism for deriving implications from certain observations of the natural world. If, from these, we arrive at theological implications, they are just as significant as any other information (say, from science...which is built upon philosophy anyhow) in that they are explanatory and represent an advance in knowledge. There has been a considerable change in the Anglo-American collegiate realm regarding Christian theism, especially in philosophy departments. The secularization of academia today was, in large part, due to the privatization of Christian institutions and advances in observational astronomy. The former because Christians left colleges for their own academic strongholds, and the latter because we began to see what had previously been thought of as astrological influences and personifications as what they really are: distant spheres of (hydrogen) gas (which should stop no one from considering Christianity, in light of the fact that our belief system distinguishes the radically contingent universe from a God who exists by the necessity of His own nature).

Since the late 1900s we have done away with positivism, and its attendant verification principle (the idea that only that which can be verified through the senses is true...an idea which cannot be verified through the senses. It's positively self- defeating, meaning that it is self-referentially incoherent) and the works of philosophers such as Alvin Plantinga (the most contributive philosopher of religion in recent years...before he retired he was the president of the American Philosophical Association and the Society of Christian Philosophers) in revamping classical arguments for God's existence (such as the Ontological Argument, which has now become an exercise in modal logic), refuting the argument for atheism from the existence of evil in both its logical and probabilistic forms, and defending the position that belief in God is an epistemologically warranted metaphysical initiative (meaning that, in the absence of a defeater for Christian theism, it qualifies as a belief that can be held without reference to anything in reality, wholly substantiated by the inner witness of the Holy Spirit). The following are some arguments for the existence of God that I have so far studied and found compelling, and consider them in cumulation as indicative of the supernatural and of an orthodoxly conceived monotheistic God or of whatever other theologically significant conclusion their exponents aspire to establish:

A Leibnizian Formulation of the Argument from Contingency (God best explains the universe's being existent rather than not), Arguments from our Moral Experience (we perceive an objective realm of moral values and duties that could not otherwise exist without God), from the coherency of the concept of God (the idea of God should not make sense unless He actually does exist. It's remarkable that it would be a rational idea. This is more popularly known as the Ontological argument, and I suggest you look into it as it is defended by William Lane Craig for an approachable start to studying it), from the probable origin of the universe (from which one may deduce a personal cause), from reason (One version would go like this: evolution selects on phenotypes, and by extension, on survival value, not truth value. Thus, we have a defeater for naturalism by its invalidation of our cognitive faculties, rendering the naturalistic conclusion invalid...however, this version is a combination of multiple arguments iferring from the existence of the reasoning process justification for rejecting naturalism in favor of a theistic alternative), from the inability for non-theism to correspond to one's participation in reality ((the consequences to atheism are so great that it seems we are forced, by our nature, to worship God. But to hold atheism is to not recognize God, conversely, holding theism is to recognize (worship) God. From a Christian perspective, should it surprise us that to draw away from the Source of Life in our greatest purpose--which would be to worship God AKA hold (Christian) theism--is to find a life unlivable?)), from religious experience, the historically and historiographically corroborated resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, from intentional states of consciousness, the phycological relevance of neurological confluence, etc. (see that paper on the argument from reason), from the "fine tuning" of initial cosmological and subsequent universal conditions for the development of intelligent life, from the applicability of mathematics to the physical world, from Certain Aspects of the Laws of Nature and more. (If ever you were to take an interest in Aristotelian metaphysics, Aquinas by Edward Feser would be a great introduction to Thomas Aquinas's "Five Ways" which you should certainly at least look into his blog for the basics. I'll recommend that you start with this post, patiently read to get the most out of it. As an analytic philosopher that became a Christian from atheism after studying Thomism, I think you'll find he argues from a higher standard, endeavoring to convince not Christians but atheists as adamant as he was)...you'll find further recommended reading on many of those arguments listed after their respective reference sections.

On Intelligent Design--Here's what I think...there's a a great deal of confusion regarding inferences from instantiations of biological complexity to an Intelligent Source. Many equate this with Young Earth Creationism, when it's entirely different. Some stop when they fail to see how it categorizes as science (it doesn't, and that's not what matters anyway). Here you will find arguments such as that from the existence of consciousness, the first cell of life, irreducible complexity, the linguistic properties of DNA, and the like. Antony Flew would be a good example of a world-famous atheist turned theist over these sorts of arguments from apparent design/teleology (the equivalent to Dawkins from the last generation however, but the difference would be in his having an informed opinion and philosophical excellence, in addition to his desire for meaningful discourse).

I think an honest assessment of each of these will show that they at each at least raise the probability that God exists on their own. Now, I want to guard against what keeps many from fully seeing the force behind natural theology: they are meant to be taken cumulatively, so that together they can raise the probability of theism's truth value such that it is rational to lend credence to it.

I get this a lot: "if there were evidence for Christianity, then everyone would be a Christian. Therefore, Christianity is not substantiated." I hope you can see why this should not be taken seriously. Firstly, it could be said of any worldview. If there is something evidently true on atheism, why isn't everyone an atheist? And so, if there truly is something rationally compelling about Christianity, I believe you will find it by earnestly seeking Christ where many others have found it (I've described some of these authentications below). Furthermore, college study is oriented towards specialization, which is decided by one's interests.

As for Christian evidences, I was originally convinced of Christianity by simply reading the Bible. If you are interested in pursuing truth, rather than arguments (which bear the inherently biased objective of discerning who's right rather than what's right) then I highly recommend that you seek God where He can be found: in His word, from which faith is derived, as it appears in the actions and words of Christians, and in the text itself. I think you'll find, in the person of Jesus Christ, that He knows us too well, and loves us far too much, to not be our Father. By this, I mean that there is something so true about Christianity: it makes too much sense. And way too much sense out of life and the world. As C.S. Lewis said, "I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else." After I earnestly sought God for the first time, like (I should hope) David ("a man after His own heart"), I found that the scales fell from my eyes, like Paul, and I gained an entirely new perspective of the world and was changed to so great an extent in ways that I can only regard as supernatural.

I apologize if I said hundreds of thousands of years. The events in the Bible seem to only cover the 4-8 thousand years leading up to Christ and the early church. No room for hundreds of thousands in there. What I meant to say is hundreds and thousands, though it would probably have been safer to say hundreds only. Many miraculous stories in the Bible and bookended by generations of Jews that experience no such miracles. My point was that miracles weren't necessarily a day to day occurrence in Biblical times either. When I used the parenting analogy I didn't mean to say that God has pulled back completely and is not present or active in the years since the early church. That would be bad parenting indeed! After Jesus ascended, Christians belive that God gave his Spirit to indwell his followers. This is an ongoing miracle for Christians who have experienced it and leaned on it. Christians definitely believe God is still active.
So now we're to the question about the flashy miracles like water into wine and resurrection of the dead. The point about the printing press and the internet is a common one. Why would the transference of information about Christ's miracles through one medium be superior to another? If the miracles happened pre-papyrus, we could wonder why the miracles didn't happen later during the age of scrolls. The miracles were recorded and shared not only orally but in book form in the gospels during the lifetimes of its eyewitnesses. What it really comes down to is: Why can't I see a miracle right now with my own eyes? And for that I fall back on what I wrote before. I don't know exactly and Christians differ. I personally think such revelation would undermine the free will of too many people. For the whole word to suddenly be made aware that God does exist and he is just as all powerful as ever, would lead to a mass conversion of people deprived of the chance to find God and instead motivated completely by fear. I doubt this is the sort of relationship God had in mind. Like I said before, using us to help the poor and the oppressed not only gets the job done for the victims but also grows us into the people He wants us to be.

According to the current Big Bang model, time, space, and matter all came into being at the Big Bang. The laws of physics and the universe deal exclusively with these three things. How could the law of gravity have existed before mass? How could the laws of electric fields exist before electrons? The laws of the universe are only applicable in a reality already containing time, space, and matter. Let's assume for a second that the fundamental laws DID somehow exist prior to the quantities they describe. Laws are abstract objects like numbers. Abstract objects can be helpful for describing the way things are, but they do not stand in causal relationship to anything (i.e. they cannot cause anything to happen or come into being).
Popular science articles do a great disservice when they talk about the possibility of something coming from nothing. The ideas you are referring to is evidence of atomic and subatomic particles 'popping' into existence from the quantum vacuum. This is highly misleading to laymen because the quantum vacuum isn't technically 'nothing'. It may not contain atoms or the subatomic particles we are aware of but it definitely contains energy fields and electromagnetic waves. From fluctuations in these energy fields it may appear that a subatomic particle 'pops' into existence but I can assure you that energy fields are not synonymous with 'nothing'. Nor is the quantum vacuum an accurate depiction of reality logically prior to the Big Bang. Before that first instance there was 'nothing', as in zip, no energy fields, no energy, no atoms, etc. There is still literally no theory for how something can come to exist out of pure nothingness and I wouldn't hold my breath either. Like the hypothesis of many worlds or other universes, scientific testing in this space is impossible. We have time, space, and matter at our disposal for testing which affords us no feasible glimpse outside of those realities. How can one use material tools (matter) to test or gain knowledge of a state prior to matter? Immaterial realities, such as the one prior to the Big Bang are unobservable which is the death sentence for scientific inquiry in that space. If you can't observe it, you can't test hypothesis. So now we're left with an immaterial cause of the material universe. It can't be natural laws of the universe because those describe the way things are inside the universe, not outside of it. So I ask myself, what is immaterial, powerful enough to create a universe, and intentional enough to create a universe fine-tuned to allow the evolution of life?

It's a good question to ask why all the supposed waste in the universe, volcanoes on limitless other planets, etc. Did you know that for the superhot early material in the Big Bang to coalesce into stars and planets and stable solar systems necessary for life that we should actually expect the universe to have grown as big as it has and be as old as it is? It takes so many years to get a stable universe like that and then so many more for a sentient species to evolve. Not only that but I think you assume I believe that God did it all for us! I think that would be arrogant of me. The Bible itself mentions other sentient species completely separate from humanity and earth: angels. They're usually thought of in Christianity as purely spiritual beings but who's to say they are? What if they had their own planet out there? What if God's plan is so much bigger than just us? The Bible is God's revelation to humanity, but it doesn't tell us even a fraction of all we'd like to know about God or the universe out there. For one thing, I don't think they make books that big. For another, if my hope in Christ is sound, enternity is a long time, and there's lots to see.

As for the laws of physics seeming violent and random, this is another case where we wouldnt have our stable solar system if it weren't for the violent and spectacular collision of stars and asteroids and life and death of galaxies. Think of forrest fires. They seem pointless and destructive, but they are necessary for new life to grow. Through the violence and the chaos, new seeds are released by the agitated flora which give the forrest a new lease on existence. There are fundamental forces and quantities in our universe that if, at the Big Bang, they had turned out to be the tiniest fraction different from what they currently are, that stars wouldn't have formed? Change another and atoms wouldn't form into molecules. There are approximately 10^80 atoms in the entire universe. The amount needed to change one of these quantities to make life impossible in the universe is something like 1 part in 10^120. Inconceivable!

As for an asteroid hurtling towards Earth, I'm not too worried. The Bible is fairly ambiguous about how the Earth is going to end so if it's by asteroid.. I guess that's as good a way as any. Regardless of how the world ends or how I die, I am confident in my hope that God will gather me into his presence and the real adventure begins.

Whew, this post is looooong (and possibly boring so I apologize). Alright, home stretch. Why do we have to live on Earth if the end goal is Heaven? There's something important I want to get out of the way first. According to Christianity, Humans aren't destined for Heaven. Earth was created to be the home planet of Humanity whom God wanted to know and enter into a relationship with. With our sentience and free will came our responsibility to take care of this planet. By ditching God and using the Earth for our own selfish purposes, we have made it into kind of a crappy place sometimes. The Earth was supposed to be our ultimate home for all time. By turning from God, Christianity teaches that humanity brought ruin not only to ourselves but the Earth as well. The whole thing needs God's healing. Once those who have freely chosen to accept and enact God's healing have died, the world as we know it will end and a new Earth will be made as the final home for those who freely entered into a relationship with God. Heaven, is more of a temporary location for souls as they await the end. The Bible is not entirely clear if the old Earth will be abandoned and new one created or if the current planet will simply be restored and made 'like new'. This is all my personal interpretation of Christian eschatology of course but it basically coincides with mainstream Christian thought. In the meantime though, this is the Earth we have. It is still our responsibility to take care of it and take care of it's people.

Alright so I hope I didn't waste too much of your time with this post. I should probably stop responding since the post length is growing exponentially. However I would like to point you towards some other materials if you are interested.

On the existence of God: The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology - Various

http://www.amazon.com/Blackwell-Companion-Theology-Companions-Philosophy/dp/1444350854/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341437104&sr=1-1&keywords=blackwell+companion+to+natural+theology

On Old Testament Ethics: Is God a Moral Monster? - Paul Copan

http://www.amazon.com/Is-God-Moral-Monster-Testament/dp/0801072751/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341437061&sr=8-1&keywords=is+god+a+moral+monster

Miscellaneous websites:

http://www.reasonablefaith.org/

http://www.starcourse.org/jcp/ <--Ugly website but awesome man. Check the Q&A page.

I could list more, but the Bibliographies in these books will lead you to priceless resources on their own. Thank you for the questions, they were intelligent and clear.

p.s. I hope I rightly interpreted your 'dizzying intellect' line to be a reference to Princess Bride. Otherwise I probably just come off as a cocky jerk at the top of this post.

I'll take a stab at answering this. Credentials: I'm a PhD student in artificial intelligence who does philosophy as a hobby.

The short answer is that Feser's critiques are basically valid for current computers, but I'm highly skeptical that they would extend to full artificial general intelligences when we build such things.

First, some background. Feser is a neo-scholastic or neo-Thomist; his philosophy is grounded in an Aristotelian worldview as mapped out by Thomas Aquinas in the middle ages. Because of this tradition, he tends to focus a lot of analysis on Aristotle's four causes (material, formal, efficient, final) and their implications, and to use words like "substance," "artifact," and "causal powers." This worldview is a significant departure from most modern literature on philosophy of mind, and most philosophers of mind today would reflexively call his arguments confused and outdated (I tend to agree, although I think they have more merit than people give them credit for).

The modern philosopher who argues most similarly to Feser with regards to philosophy of mind is John Searle, whom Feser references several times in the article. Here, Feser is mostly trying to avoid using Aristotelian jargon, making an argument more in line with Searle's terminology and thus more intelligible to modern thinkers, though he still slips in a reference or two to "causal powers". (In fact, Feser believes that the human mind is immaterial and created directly by God, though he claims that this is irrelevant to the point he is making in the article; see his book The Last Superstition).

In the blog post, Feser is not refuting the best current philosophy of AI, but rather a strawman with a shallow pop-philosophy understanding of computation and mind. To be fair, these criticisms are warranted because many people actually do make the mistake of thinking that the brain is exactly like a computer, or that current AI programs actually have the beginnings of minds. Feser rightly points out that neither thing is true: the comparison between human brains and current computer architectures is merely superficial. Brains have many properties that we do not yet understand and do not capture in computers. Conversely, computers today, even those programmed with "artificial neural networks," are not remotely brainlike or conscious.

Quick sidebar: the usage of the word "intelligence." Feser seems to use the word "intelligence" interchangeably with "mind" or "consciousness," but I would not equate those things at all. They are separate axes of description. To an AI researcher, "intelligence" means something like "competence at achieving goals." It is clearly possible for machines to be more intelligent than humans in this sense: the program AlphaGo is more intelligent at playing the game of Go than human experts, though it does not understand what it is doing or have a mind per se. In the future, we will have machines that are more competent than humans at achieving nearly any goal, and this is what we would call an artificial general intelligence (AGI). What Feser (and also Searle) really means to argue is that such an AGI could never in principle have a mind or a consciousness, merely an unconscious simulation of those things.

Okay, finally, on to the actual arguments presented in the post!

Here Feser is using variations of one primary argument that was also made by John Searle: physical systems are never intrinsically computational because the very notion of "computation" is observer-dependent. In other words, whether or not something is called a "computer" is relative to how some observer is analyzing the physical system, and is not any intrinsic property of the system. Therefore, it is a category mistake to equate "mind" with "computation," because minds exist independently in reality but computation does not! For example, a Go-playing AI is only a computational system when we mentally associate the program's inputs and outputs with the state of a Go board; otherwise is it just an electrical circuit performing meaningless physical bit flips, an artifact, a dead thing. If we try hard enough, we can interpret any physical system as a computer: in some sense, a glass of water is a perfect computation of itself. Does than mean a glass of water is intrinsically computational? No, it's only computational with regards to how we are viewing it.

So the logic goes something like this:

1. Minds are real properties of some systems, like brains (we know this because we have minds).
   
2. Computation is not a real property of any system, because it is observer dependent. (Much like the property of being-a-hammer is relative to how humans are using a thing, and is not a real physical property of objects independent of humans).
   
3. Therefore, no system is a mind by virtue of being a computation.
   
4. Therefore, a computer, by definition, will never be a mind because of its relative computational properties, no matter how complex. If it somehow is a mind, it must be in virtue of something else, such as an unknown physical property (a la Searle) or direct endowment by God (a la Aquinas).
   
   So, does this succeed in proving that advanced artificial intelligences will never have minds? No, I don't think it does. What it does succeed in doing is pointing out how naively equating the mind with the concept of "computation" can lead to bad magical thinking.
   
   As an student working in AI, I can tell you that the way the word "computation" is used here is a bit simplistic and naive. Modern AI researchers do not think this way. It's true that computers and brains are extremely dissimilar in operation, but "computation" itself is a general conceptual model that can describe both. When we says that brains "compute" this or that, we are using mathematical models of computation to explain certain data and to make certain predictions about how the brain works. We are not saying that the brain is somehow fundamentally a computer; rather, that features of its operation can be understood as computational in a certain context. But that's also exactly how we treat computers! Fundamentally, what we call a computer is not some magical artifact performing some mystical metaphysical function of "computation"; rather, it is a physical system that can be mathematically understood as computational in certain contexts. But with computers, we have designed them to be hyper-optimized to align with our conceptual models of computation. Transistors are designed to have two physical states: "on" and "off", and this allows us to easily represent their state with the symbols 0 and 1, and perform analysis from there. The brain, designed by evolution, is not optimized for intelligibility, but nevertheless we can draw computational analogies with extra effort.
   
   So what we have are two physical systems, the brain and modern computers, both of which can be modeled computationally (one more easily than the other), neither of which are intrinsically computational as physical systems. So how do we decide whether one or the other is capable of being conscious?
   
   Clearly brains can be conscious, because we are brains and we have consciousness. But how do I, as a single brain, know that you, another brain, are actually conscious? I don't - this is the famous problem of Other Minds. I am making an inference to the best explanation - you have a brain like mine, and your behavior is like mine, so I am inferring that you probably have a mind like mine.
   
   But now suppose we have a highly intelligent computer which passes the Turing test. Does it have a mind? It's certainly acing the behavioral similarity criterion, but the problem comes when we try to use the physical similarity criterion - how do we score the similarity between a silicon architecture and a brainlike architecture? In one sense, the two are made of different materials and are nothing alike on a microscopic level, so we might think that there is no way to tell if the computer is conscious. On the other hand, we can draw higher-level computational analogies between our brains and the algorithm being run on the silicon. The fact that computational descriptions are observer-dependent is beside the point - all models are observer dependent - the point is that it can be argued that physical systems described by similar computational models probably share other properties as well, such as mental states. This is an inference to the best explanation. Given what our minds do when they represent concepts, we can build very close analogs to these processes into the operation of the AI. The more we learn about the brain, the more likely it seems that mental properties are invariant to different low-level descriptions of systems, depending only on higher-level causal properties easily modeled by computations; if so, then minds are multiply-realizable, and computers can have minds.
   
   (Continued in a reply to this comment because too long to fit in one post)

Whatever makes you happy, you are free to believe whatever you want.
I was just curious as to why people believe in god and that islam is the right religion. I do not deny that many people can find happiness and purpose in their lives by believing in God, but I do deny that that is the only way to find these things.

I think that's a very common prejudice against atheists. So you think my life has less meaning/no meaning in your eyes because I don't believe in your god that's very arrogant. It Made me think of this The fact of the matter is that religion does not have exclusive possession of qualities such as love, happiness, and purpose. These are basic and fundamental parts of what it means to be human, and no one belief system owns them. Though some theists may proclaim that those who do not follow their religion's tenets cannot feel these things, their authority to make such a statement is entirely lacking.

My life still has meaning without god and I am sure you can find meaning in your life even if god didn't exist.

"For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others." NeilDeGraseeTyson.

What good does it to raise children if they will die anyway? They may be raped, murdered, battered, and nobody would care. That's not true at all, humans do care about each other. Evolution has determined that the point of life is to reproduce and to be the most successful species. that is the meaning of life for all creatures. If it was not their point in life that species would've died off long ago. (mainly it is the urge to pass along your own genes).


Yes we are all going to die. "We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here."


What if I am wrong ?


I Recommend this Book!

http://www.amazon.com/Sense-Goodness-Without-God-Metaphysical/dp/1420802933

If there is no afterlife, then this life is the only one we will ever have, and our only chance to be happy is now. This means that, in fact atheism is the worldview that makes our life the most precious thing there is and imbues our goals in it with the greatest importance. The afterlife by comparison, has little reason to believe that anything we accomplish now matters in the long run. Any work of art one wanted to create, any great book one wanted to write or read, any other task one might have wanted to achieve - there will be all the time anyone could ever need to do these things in Heaven. There would be no point in packing all these things into this fleeting mortal life. Likewise, this view removes all the urgency, all the importance, from any quest to improve this world for our descendants, to establish justice, or to ease the burden of human suffering. Why bother, if such things will be taken care of in the end anyway?

If this life is all we have, then whatever we want to do to improve ourselves, we have to do it now or miss the opportunity forever. Likewise, if there is no afterlife where the good will be rewarded and the evildoers punished, we have a real reason to work our hardest to decrease suffering and ensure justice. If there is no god we can count on to do these things, then it is up to us.

an atheist who lives by the Golden Rule and the kind of far-looking compassion that makes us human has every reason to set long-term goals such as securing human rights around the world, improving the health of the planet or advancing the state of scientific knowledge, goals whose full benefits may not be realized during an individual's lifetime. Our descendants will one day inherit this world, and we owe it to them to provide them with the best one we can possibly give. This is the only way to pay back the debt we owe to previous generations who likewise fought and died for our sake, and furthermore, it is the right thing to do. Likewise, since there will be no great meeting of the minds in an imaginary afterlife, we have an obligation to preserve our own intellects and discoveries for the benefit of future generations as best as possible, through literature, science or invention. These things are the gifts we can give to people who are not yet born.

Our eventual non-existence does not make any of these things meaningless. They have meaning for us now, and they will have meaning when their benefits are realized in the future, and that is more than enough. They are worthwhile. What is not worthwhile is spending this life, the only and the most precious gift anyone could ever have, in a state of abject obedience, submitting your body, your mind, your thoughts to the will of another and groveling before shadows and phantoms of your own imagination. It is not worthwhile to forsake the full power of the free mind and the full extent of all the happiness a person can have to live a life of passive unawareness, fear, and pointless self-denial. It is not worthwhile to shut out contrary opinions, refuse to question, refuse to investigate and instead meekly accept the pronouncements of self-declared authority figures. It is not worthwhile to divide, to hate, to wage war, and to conquer in the name of God. These things are horrendous wastes of the priceless chance each of us has only once.

> if anyone has any experience with college kids and what they like to ask.

First off, your typical college kid has not read anything on religion as sophisticated C.S. Lewis et al. I think it will be less the kids and more the professors that might ask tough questions. I think /r/atheism is about as sophisticated as college kids will be. So, not that I would encourage you to check out that sub, but those are mainly college kids posting overly simplistic things like "religion starts wars" or "faith is inconsistent with science", "The religious are bigots" etc...

Some professors may have read significantly more sophisticated things then typically show up on the sophomoric memes of /r/atheism. But for every one of them, there is someone like those I list below that have just as sophisticated counterpoint.

With that said here is my advice:

1. Don't close your mind at college. There are many great truths the "secular world" knows and you need to treasure them all up. Don't become the Christian who thinks humans rode dinosaurs like horses. Be prepared to learn and work hard to learn.
   
   
2. Though I argue way too much, be careful when arguing/debating about religion that you never lose your cool. Always be civil and respectful. I have seen more people converted by "good examples" then by intellectual argument.
   
   
3. When you see intellectual things tugging at your faith, please allow the Christian Philosophers to also give their side of the story. Some here troubling things and give up way faster than they should. Some notable Christian Philosophers to follow: William Lane Craig, Alvin Plantinga, Richard Swinburne, Alexander Pruss, basically the several authors of the chapters of this book which are all top notch philosophers and deeply faithful, this site has some contributors that are top notch, etc...
   
   And some of them like William Lane Craig have sections of their website devoted to answering questions so if you have any tough questions do be afraid to ask these people. Just please, no matter what confusing question you run into, know that there are incredibly smart and respected intellectuals who have already addressed that confusing issue.
   
   Also, follow their blogs, newsletters, youtube debates and websites (as well as check out their books) so you always stay on top of the latest Christian arguments.
   
   
4. The sophomoric posts of /r/atheism are literally being posted often by college kids so that sub is a good example of what you will find other kids bring up.
   
   
5. And what ever you do, always make sure you do the "little things" like pray and read the scriptures. One danger intellectuals sometimes have is ignoring these little things that bring power like a grain of mustard seed.
   
   

It's more or less a waiting game but does require upwards of 45-60 mins to reach the vibrations stage (your experiences may vary). Depending on how you meditate could also affect this. Since you were meditating in bed, here are some other tips to help you move past just simply meditating and progress on.

• Make yourself slightly uncomfortable, be it laying in a different position, or even placing a board under your heels. You'll need to be in a slight discomfort to help keep your mind active enough not to fall asleep and to continue past just meditating.
  
  
• Counting out breaths, mantras, or even focusing on belly breathing or your breath, in general, are great ways to keep your brain active enough.
  
  
• Wear loose clothing, undo belts, and don't completely cover your self with heavy blankets. Light blankets are okay but you don't want to trick your brain into thinking its bed time.
  
  
• Propping yourself up to a 45° in bed is a good idea as well.
  
  
• Also tensing muscle groups then releasing, over the entire body, before meditation, trance work, or an AP session are great to do as well.
  
  What you should notice as you progress along to an astral projection:
  
  

1. Eventual loss of sensation to hands, feet, and limbs. The chest and head are usually last to "go." This tends to feel like a metal blanket being pulled over you.
   
   
2. Vibrations or Sleep Paralysis come next. Generally, limbs are unable to be moved and it might be difficult to breathe deeply (don't panic, you'll be fine, shallow breathing is expected). Vibrations feel like low (or sometimes high) intensity energy surging through parts or all of your body†.
   
   
3. From this point, wait for vibrations to pass, you may then either experience 3D darkness (where all senses shut off) or you could move into astral sight††.
   
   
4. In either event, once you've reached step three, exit techniques can now be applied to "leave" your body. There are many different techniques but the best ones deal with motion, climbing ropes or ladders, thinking of roller coasters, etc.
   
   These are the basic steps of reaching an astral projection. I haven't completed one yet but I've been studying, practicing, and meditating on a regular basis. I've linked a book below that has been a huge help in understanding what to expect and how to go about completing an AP, I highly recommend it. This link here will also link to other comments I've made on other posts with other tips, suggestions, and even YouTubers that can help explain. Good Luck!
   
   † - Author Robert Bruce describes the vibrations stage as your energy double being created from the physical double as it takes a lot of energy to get this energy double ready to astral project.
   
   †† - Recently, I tried some light trance work from Robert Bruce's book, "Astral Dynamics." I set myself up in a seated position, as suggested, and focused on belly breathing, with a 22 min timer (as I had other things to do). I went through the motions taught in the book and began noticing sensations of my previous astral sessions, heavy warm body, vibrations forming in my arms & legs. Eventually, the darkness behind my eyes started to go away and was replaced by bright white. This was odd to me because I had made the room relatively dark for 11:30 am. I could have sworn I started to see objects out in the distance in this new white light behind my closed eye lids. Eventually, my meditation music kicked off due to WiFi issues and I had thought my alarm went off. I then ended my session and was surprised to see my room wasn't any brighter. From the looks of it, I may have been on the verge of astral sight and possibly an exit.
   

I actually deconverted from Catholicism in college. I'm a revert.

I never got into into the party culture. I'm really against drinking and doing drugs, and I've always been skeptical of sex outside of a committed relationship and those morals stuck with me even after I deconverted from Christianity. What I did encounter was a lot of intellectual arguments against religion that I couldn't answer. However, what I also eventually discovered was that most of those objections had been heard before and responded to, at least in some manner.

So, here's my semi-comprehensive list of apologetics apologetics resources that I've accumulated over the years.

IMHO, the following books cover all the essentials very well and are probably must reads. You can buy used or online copies of them relatively cheaply, under 20 dollars if you're in the US. Check out Trent Horn's Answering Atheism, How the Catholic Church Built Western Civ, Mere Christianity by CS Lewis (you can probably get Mere Christianity at your at public library), and What is Marriage? Man and Woman a Defense for defending the concept of natural marriage. You should also read How to Argue which is a free pdf. I haven't researched abortion apologetics as extensively as other areas but I know Trent Horn has some books on those.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm not going to say you should read all of my remaining recommendations but I'm putting the rest out there for you so you know they exist.

Now, no list of apologtics is going to cover every argument about Christianity so I would also recommend some online resources. www.reddit.com/r/Catholicism is an amazing forum. It has tons of Catholics who are way more knowledgable and experienced that me who can answer questions and stuff. You may or may not have heard of it ;). I also recommend William Lane Craig's site: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/question-answer. Again, Craig is a protestant so don't look to him for a defense of Catholicism. However, he's good when it comes to defending the basics of Christianity from atheism. Catholic Answers is good. Fr Barron is good. Strange Notions can be good, I link to it in my last paragraph.

The exact relationship between faith and reason was my biggest stumbling block on the road back to Catholicism, so I have some good recommendations on that topic. I recommend the papal encycle Fides et Ratio and How the Catholic Church Built Western Civ. Plantinga's book Where the Conflict Really Lies is also popular and uses evolution to make an interesting argument against materialism. Plantinga's not a Catholic so I don't know how well they would square with Catholic philosophies like Thomism, but, yeah, he exists. He also wrote this giant essay on faith and science, which was helpful. The book God and the Philosophers is pretty good too, it's an anthology of different Christian philosophers and talks about how they converted to Christianity.

Some comprehensive (but expensive) books by non-Catholics include The Blackwell Companion to natural theology by William Lane Craig (not a Catholic). I've heard good things about Richard Swinburne's apologetics trilogy The Coherence of Theism, The Existence of God, and Faith and Reason. Swinburne is Eastern Orthodox, just for the record.

I want to give a special shoutout to Edward Fesser. He's a secular atheist philosopher who converted to Catholicism. You can read his conversion story here. He also has a blog that you can google. Fesser also wrote a bunch of books that are highly recommended by people on this sub, although I haven't read them.

Hey man, sorry for the too long delay in getting this information to you. Hopefully you haven't given up hope :)

Anyway, in terms of meditation I'm going to recommend the following sources which are my personal favorite.

1. Here are some good techniques from the Open Source Order of the Golden Dawn (weird name I know, but they do quality work). When it talks about "taking Refuge" and that sort of thing they're talking about a ritual opening they borrowed from Buddhist traditions. Really any sort of ritual opening you like (ex. reading from a holy book of your choice, visualizing a white light surrounding you, banishing etc.) will work.
   
   That page has a good general system that's borrowed from the old Order of the Golden Dawn. It might not click with you personally in it's entirety but take from it what you will.
   
   
2. My absolute favorite beginners text for spirituality of any sort though is Israel Regardie's "Art of True Healing." The key to this one is really working through the system methodically. I don't know what your previous experience is, but I found that even with my years of practices of different sorts just refocusing on rhythmic breathing and that alone did wonders for me. Take your time. Make haste slowly and don't underestimate the importance of simply focusing on your breath. The rest of the text is a guided visualization that's borrowed in part from the Golden Dawn and in part from Eastern techniques. The technique can be adapted easily to other traditions though.
   
   
3. I'm also a huge fan of Alan Watts. You can find a really excellent talk of his about meditation here. It's long but it's good.
   
   There's a start for you. I have some books I'd also recommend but it seems like you are primarily starting by internet research (which if fine, but you'll find it to be somewhat limited). But if you liked the JoS stuff, you'd probably like where they stole it from even better. Which would be this book: http://www.amazon.com/Initiation-into-Hermetics-Franz-Bardon/dp/1885928122
   
   Anyway, glad I could be of help and I wish you well on your path. Feel free to message me if you'd like to chat more.
   

You might be familiar with some of this already, but I'm going to explain it as though you have no familiarity with this subject.

Philosophy of religion explores topics such as the existence of God, concepts of God, religious language, religious belief, miracles, and so on. Philosophyofreligion.info presents a good primer for the subject.

It seems like your primary interest is in the existence of God. Natural theology, although the approach of doing theology without the assistance of special, divine revelation, in philosophical circles is basically synonymous with arguments for the existence of God. Natural atheological arguments, as some have put it (i.e. Plantinga), are arguments for atheism.

Popular arguments for the existence of God would be the various cosmological, teleological, ontological, and axiological arguments. There's almost too many of them to keep track. Popular arguments against the existence of God would be the various kinds of the problem of evil, divine hiddenness, and attacks on the coherence of theism.

"The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology" is perhaps the best single resource on arguments for and against the existence of God, although it is highly advanced. "The Cambridge Companion to Atheism" is also a very solid resource. "The Existence of God" by Swinburne is classic, as is his "Coherence of Theism." Again, all of those are fairly advanced. Swinburne has a shorter, more popular level version of "The Existence of God" titled "Is There a God?" Stephen Davis also has a similar book titled "God, Reason and Theistic Proofs." If you're going to be reading Oppy and Sobel, I recommend reading their counterparts in any of these books above (barring the "Cambridge Companion to Atheism," of course), that way you have a good balance of perspectives.

With regards to the philosophy of religion a bit more broadly, William Rowe, C. Stephen Evans, and Brian Davies each have solid, brief introduction books. Michael Murray and Eleonore Stump have a more thorough introduction; Louis Pojman and Michael Rea have a great anthology; and William Lane Craig, J. P. Moreland, and Michael Rea have perhaps the greatest single resource on this subject.

Moreover, William Lane Craig has dozens of debates on topics concerning the existence of God (and other topics) available on YouTube. Here is a fantastic list of his debates with links available in the table. You'll see some popular figures in the list that aren't good philosophers (i.e. Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Lawrence Krauss, etc.), but there are quite a few very high caliber philosophers on that list too (i.e. Michael Tooley, Quentin Smith, Peter Millican, Stephen Law, etc.).

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Good luck!

The question is not whether you feel close to god. The question is do you believe in God?

If the answer is, as I suspect it might be, "I don't know," then that is what you need to tackle first. You would have to remove all the questions of halal and haram, whether you can drink alcohol or not, eat bacon or not, because at this point they are irrelevant. They are details of what God has asked us to do, which mean nothing if you don't believe in God.

You have to assess whether you believe in God without involving your wants and desires into it. Then you'll have to face a very important and difficult decision: if you do believe in God, and become convinced it is the truth despite your emotions, are you willing to act upon that truth?

That statement you said about taking off the hijab and feeling the wind in your hair was me. I was lost. I too had read the Qur'an so many times with no real comprehension. I was in a swamp of doubt drowning in emotions and desires of what I wanted to do but which Islam was preventing me from doing. It was all Islam's fault you see, why everything was wrong, and everything would become so much better without it, because then I'd be in control of my life and decisions. I would do all the nice and fun things I couldn't otherwise do. See, that's what shaytan does, he masks the real issue in shallow wants and delusions of control that distract you from the real problem in hopes that you go completely off course.

I had a total emotional and faith breakdown one day complete with tears, as I came to the realization that I rationally believe that God absolutely exists and could not lie to myself, even though my heart felt emotionally empty of that belief. I had that breakdown because I thought myself too weak emotionally to face that belief and its consequences, that I almost didn't want to. But I did, I begged Allah for help, put my reason in charge of my emotions, and... I slowly got over it. I won't say I magically overnight went from resentful to pious, it has been a journey of many years. But with every small effort I made to stick with my deen, it became much easier and more good came my way. It still requires daily effort but now, alhamdulillah, my belief is no longer just rational and emotionally empty, but incredibly rich and filled with utter love for my Creator. The more love I have for Allah (swt) the more those wants and desires I used have feel like they were the prison and that now I feel the joy of freedom that only one who was in a prison can feel.

Some of the things that seem to have helped for me and for my younger sister (who went through what I went through a couple of years after me, but her faith was emotional and she needed to work on the rational part) that may help you too: Reading some philosophical works: reading the kalam cosmological argument helped me, she's currently reading There is a God by Anthony Flew (a famous atheist who ended up believing late in life). She also started a Qur'an club among a group of friends who were interested and we meet every other Sunday to discuss a surah. That has helped tremendously for us to connect with the Qur'an on a personal level. Listening to Nouman Ali Khan discuss the Qur'an has also helped us understand it a lot. Also, I feel like I'm sharing this video a lot these days, but here goes: Jeffrey Lang - The purpose of life.

My point is, find whatever works for you.

I pray Allah (swt) will guide you and make things clearer for you.

Edit: added some resources/links. I hope they help!

If you like philosophy, check out the Summa Theologiae. For shorter intros to Thomism, check out Ed Feser's Aquinas or his more polemical The Last Superstition.

Essentially, Christianity is based on the historical event of the resurrection, which really convinced me. [These] (https://www.youtube.com/user/InspiringPhilosophy) videos offer a short introduction, but [this] (https://www.amazon.com/Resurrection-Jesus-New-Historiographical-Approach/dp/0830827196) book is a great book just from a historical, non-faith based viewpoint.

If you don't have a hardy, solid Catholic Bible check out the [Didache Bible] (https://www.amazon.com/Didache-Bible-James-Socias/dp/1939231140/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1494110408&sr=1-1&keywords=didache+bible)

If you don't have a kindle, you should get one. There are tons of fantastic book collections under $5, including patristics, Chesterton, Aquinas, and more.

Book recommendations:

Mere Christianity, CS Lewis (Almost-Catholic Anglican)

The Abolition of Man, CS Lewis

Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton (Catholic)

The Orthodox Way, Kallistos Ware (Orthodox; especially useful if you are interested in Eastern/Byzantine Catholicism)

The Lamb's Supper by Scott Hahn

Jesus of Nazareth by Josef Cardinal Ratzinger (AKA Pope Benedict XVI)

On Being Catholic by Thomas Howard

Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen

Confessions of St. Augustine by St. Augustine

Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales

Frankly anything by Scott Hahn, Brant Pitre, Robert Barron, GK Chesterton, or CS Lewis.

Even more [here] (http://brandonvogt.com/best-catholic-books-of-all-time/).

Protestantism is easily discerned to be false (Jesus started One Church in 33 AD, not thousands in 1517), but The Fathers Know Best, Catholicism and Fundamentalism, and The Protestant's Dilemma by Devin Rose ought to do it.


I'm an ex-agnostic too, so DM me if you need any advice.


>As my username suggests, I’m searching for truth and I know that the scientific method is an exceptionally good method of doing that. Especially in the fields of basic science, medicine, and engineering it is extremely effective at sorting out all the bullshit and pseudoscience that is out there.

Fantastic! Catholicism believes that truth is truth and that all truth leads us to Christ. The founder of genetics was a Monk, for example, and the discoverer of the Big Bang theory was a Priest. Check out the pontifical academy of the sciences.




Oh! I almost forgot! You'll love Bishop Barron. [Here] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zMf_8hkCdc) is him commenting on David Bently Hart's book, which you read, and [here] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtcKV65-9uY) is one of my favorite videos from him.

His Catholicism film is brilliant, as well as his books Vibrant Paradoxes, Exploring Catholic Theology, and Catholicism: Journey to the Heart of Faith

>See, the thing is, none of them are impossible, and all of them are very likely.

No, the fact is none of them have been proven. None. And just because none are “impossible” that doesn’t mean that they are likely.

> We're just not sure exactly how it happened, but we have very good reasons to think that it did, in fact, happen.

You are sure it happened naturalistic-ally, not because of the scientific data but because of your commitment to naturalism/atheism. Again there is no viable theory of how life originated. None.

Physicist Fred Hoyle: "A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question." source

This was kinda like the argument Antony Flew which convinced him about the existence of God. The odds of information in DNA developing “naturally are so astronomic” that they for all intents and purposes zero.

Flew’s argument is that if one tries to produce a 488 letter sonnet by chance it would be take one to the ~10^690 chances to get it right [that is 1 with 690 zeros after it] The number of particles in the universe is only ~10^80. There are not enough particles in the universe to write down the trials; you’d be off by a factor of 10 to the 600th.

If you took the entire universe and converted it to computer chips each one weighing a millionth of a gram and had each computer chip able to spin out 488 trials at, say, a million times a second; if you turn the entire universe into these microcomputer chips and these chips were spinning a million times a second producing random letters, the number of trials you would get since the beginning of time would be 10 to the 90th trials.

It would be off again by a factor of 10 to the 600th. You will never get a that paragraph by chance. The universe would have to be 10 to the 600th times larger. Yet atheists/naturalists say the info in DNA just happened by "chance". And remember the 10^690 chance is just for a 488 letter sonnet, not the much more complex 3 million base pair of DNA.

But we don’t have since the beginning of time [~13.8 billion years] for life to come about naturally, Earth was formed ~4.5 billion years ago and life first appeared ~3.5 billion years ago. So “chance” had only 1 billion years to bring about life naturally.

Furthermore “chance” has no causal powers, there must be some mechanism.

The comeback for naturalists is usually "we don't know" or, “well, it’s not zero so it still possible” so my question would be how is naturalism falsified? If it can’t be then it is simply dogma.

If one took a million chances a second since the beginning of time you’d only have 10^90 chances where as a 488 letter sonnet would need 10^690 chances. And DNA is more complex than the 488 letter sonnet. But it happened by “chance” with no known mechanism! Yes it does take faith to be an atheist/naturalist.

>Contrast with any and all religious explanations, which have no evidence whatsoever and rely entirely on philosophical claims.

You do realize that science has as its foundation philosophy? I listed ten of them previously. If one gives a philosophical argument against naturalism/atheism or for theism the one comeback that cannot be spoken is “but it’s not science” because what doe science has as it foundation? PHILOSOPHY!

So if you try to discount “any and all religious explanations” because they rely entirely on philosophical claims then you’d have to discount science as well since it relies entirely on philosophical claims for its foundation. Otherwise it’s just special pleading

>Let me google that for you. This link in particular seems like a good start.

Except I never said anything about "adding" info. I said the “origin of info in DNA.

>...you do realize that dozens of scientists the world over have dedicated their lives to answering this question, right? They don't just make this shit up, they study for thousands of hours the genetic code of every living thing they can find, study intensely how DNA changes, and try to come up with the most likely scenarios to explain evolution.

There is a difference between “how DNA works” and ‘how DNA originated”. And if scientists are commited to only naturalistic explanations how likely are they to find anything other than naturalistic explanations?

>It doesn't. It's just one more explanation that atheism/naturalism found, that super-naturalism hasn't even bothered trying to research before asserting nonsense answers.

So philosophy is nonsense? But science has philosophy as it foundation! Remember supernatural explanations are philosophical in nature. Sounds like a special pleading fallacy; science utilizes philosophy but super-naturalism cannot.

>Absolutely! You study and you study, and you eventually find out that the results you get make no sense whatsoever in light of naturalism, and results consistently and repeatedly go against naturalism.

That is the result! Given the current scientific knowledge a naturalistic explanation of the origin of life, the universe, the info in DNA in untenable. A naturalistic understanding of how the brain developed means that it isn’t reliable.

>In 300 years of science, that hasn't happened, ever. You need more than just the odd statistical outlier, you need massive, continuous results from all the fields of science, that are inconsistent with naturalism.

You think only science can inform us on this? but as has been pointed out: science has philosophy as it foundation so philosophical arguments against naturalism have as much merit as any scientific arguments for naturalism ...Oh, wait there can be no scientific evidence for naturalism since science assumes naturalism, and it is a fallacy to assume to be true what you are trying to prove to be true; it’s circular logic

None of your “analysis” of the ten assumptions that I listed earlier do nothing to show that there are not philosophical assumptions that science uses but cannot prove.

For example for “3) the knowability of the external world” you say, “No idea what you mean by that. I look outside, I see rain fall from clouds, I can know that rain falls from clouds.” But the success of the scientific method assumes not only that reality has the quality of rationality, but that it is also knowable. That is, it is conceivable that my mind/brain is rational, but I could be irrational, and not able to form valid conclusions about reality - which is the implications of a brain that evolved for survivability and not rational thought. Per evolution/atheism our brains are organs for survivability, not pipelines to the truth. The scientist cannot prove that his or her mind is capable of anything more than utilitarian problem solving that may or may not speak actual truth.

>Under supernaturalism, if you make a new anti-cancer drug, how can you tell if the drug actually works, only works in 50% of patients, or if it's just a god messing with your results and that you have no way of knowing whether or not they are messing with you?

As I said if God set up the world as orderly then science could work. Now you want to say “if it isn’t orderly” then it wouldn’t work. Well, yes but that isn’t what I said. So you are using a strawman.

>We have never known anything remotely as accurate as this. Science can...

This isn’t science vs religion. As I’ve said before science can work without naturalism, if we have an orderly universe. In fact science did work without the presumption of naturalism.

>Saying I don't know is far better than pretending to know with made-up answers and mythological stories.

This is another strawman.

>It doesn't show naturalism false, it shows that our knowledge is incomplete.
if any failing of naturalism can be answered by saying, ”I don’t know” or “*we haven’t figured it out yet” how then is naturalism ever falsified?

Even if all the data pointed to an intelligent designer, such an hypothesis is excluded from science not because of a lack of data but because it is not naturalistic. all that would have to be said is, “We haven’t figured out how this date conforms to a naturalistic model of the world.”

>What would prove naturalism false is again, irrefutable evidence that there is more than just the natural, that there is a supernatural realm affecting our reality in demonstrable, clear, repeatable ways.

Irrefutable evidence? You do realize that nothing in all of science is irrefutable, don’t you? All scientific knowledge is open to inquiry, and can change given enough data.

But you put the bar for supernaturalism to Irrefutable, that’s another special pleading fallacy from you. And why does it have to be repeatable? Do we know that WWII happened? Yes. Is it repeatable? No. So we can know things even of they are not repeatable.

>Since we already covered that ground, I'd like to ask you what you think of a god that would make us deliberately with a brain that isn't great at math, logic, and figuring out what's true.

Already answered. He didn’t, an unreliable brain is only a problem if it came about, as atheists/naturalists believe, by an unguided, purposeless process.

Don't drive yourself too crazy about it. I went in full speed and spent many boring shabbos days by myself with nothing to do because I didn't live near a shul or other Jews. No reason to go in 100% at first, especially if you are a convert-to-be so there's no actual prohibition for you now. If you can go to a synagogue, do so! Don't stress about not knowing what is going on, just go and listen and absorb the atmosphere.

My recommendation is to focus on the spirit of Shabbat rather than the nitty-gritty, especially for the first time. Light your Shabbat candles at the right time, crack open a bottle of wine, have some bread, eat some dinner, and read read read. You are starting to observe Shabbat but aren't sure all of the details, so might I suggest a book about Shabbat observance? The Sabbath by Heschel is also a beautiful poetic book about Shabbat that may help you get into the spirit of it. To Be A Jew, To Pray as a Jew, and Becoming a Jew are all great beginner books, the last geared towards converts. They all explain various aspects and details of observance, including Shabbat observance. You say you've read all you can, but these books all include very detailed information on exactly the timeline of events.

Since I became observant with no synagogue nearby, I found my Shabbat mornings to be much more meaningful when I would go outside to pray (in whatever capacity I was able-- either in Hebrew or English or just from the heart). There is something lovely about the Californian sunshine in that regard, I guess! Shabbat days are really long and boring by yourself, and I'd have non-Jewish friends come visit me and we'd take walks or just hang out in the backyard. I wouldn't do anything I'm not allowed, and they would obviously do whatever. We just wouldn't pick our activities as anything electronic-based, money-based, etc.

I wouldn't worry too much about details like blessings unless you want to say them in English. I felt really awkward doing that at first, but maybe you won't. If you know something isn't allowed, try not to do it. If you know something isn't allowed but it's really a burden and taking away from the spirit of Shabbat this weekend (like you left your bedroom light on), deal with it, but acknowledge that when you are 100% shabbat observant you can't do that. No reason to be miserable your very first Shabbat, or maybe you'll get a bad impression :) It gets easier the more comfortable you are with it. Depending on how this week goes, next week, add one or two more observances.

To answer your question about specific dinners, well, my husband and I eat anything on Shabbat. We are not stringent to only eat meat or fish, so sometimes we eat dairy. To me, the food you have on Shabbat should be a delight, something you are excited to eat or something you don't eat often. We make very normal typical dinners, usually, and I never ever make cholent or most of the 'traditional' foods. This week (for just the 2 of us) I am making shredded chicken build-your-own tacos for dinner and a big pasta salad full of lots and lots of veggies and grilled chicken for lunch. When we have company, it would be more traditional a meat-starch-2 or 3 vegetable meal.

If you have any more specific questions, I'd be happy to answer as someone who has kind of been there and done that!

> All of these weird things started at the same time, so I’m wondering if any of it can be accounted for by the awakening process.

Always see a doctor if you're concerned, but yes. Everything you're saying sounds very familiar to my own experience.

My own theory about it is that egoic mind takes up a lot of energy (or attention), so when that energy is freed up, it goes elsewhere. The body becomes more sensitive and open.

> I’m not tired when I wake up, but it’s still somehow unsatisfying.

I know exactly what you mean here, and can empathize. For me, a lot of that unsatisfactoriness was my mind not accepting the 'weirdness' of the situation. "I'm only getting 3 hours of sleep per night! This can't be healthy!" Etc.

Physically I felt fine, and the doctor confirmed I was very healthy. Eventually (after hearing Adyashanti talk about something similar) I quit mentally arguing with the reality of the situation, and accepted that even though things were a bit weird, they were find. Mind is used to our bodies being a certain way, and when that changes it takes a bit for mind to get onboard, in other words.

I can only speak to my own experience, but for me at one point it all just settled. I was getting ~3 hours of a sleep per night (and like you beautiful phrased, it felt more like a 'trance of being-ness'), weird physical sensations (including profuse sweating at night) and a whole lot of other stuff, then one day there was another 'shift' (not dissimilar to the awakening itself), and it was like a switch was turned off and a bunch of the 'weird' stuff disappeared (though others showed up, heh).

The yoga and healthiness are your friends. If your diet is really light, it may be helpful to introduce heavier, 'grounding' foods like beets, sweet potatoes, etc, but listen to your body here. Bodies are mysteriously wise, and know what they need - it's more a question of how much we can get out of the way.

All of that to say: you're not alone and what you're describing could certainly be related to the awakening.

If you haven't already, I'd strongly recommend reading Adyashanti's book The End of Your World. There's a lot of helpful info inside.

Hey BouncingBettie! Congratulations and well done on digging your way out of that intellectual hole, and welcome to the rapidly growing club!

Thanks also for your shout out. I pour a lot of myself into this place and often earn criticism for being so hardnosed. I'm happy to hear some people like it and, most importantly, benefit from what I do.

In that spirit, a couple of three posts of mine that might help you a bit:

• Advantages of being an atheist
  
• NukeThePope on purpose (love that title)
  
• Dying for after fun and profit - the Disneyland analogy.
  
  If you have any questions about anything, by all means post here!
  
  Hey, is your hubby a cerebral type? The kind that would read a philosophy book for fun and enlightenment? My current favorite is Sense & Goodness Without God by Richard Carrier; I hope to be writing up a book review on it soon. This is a nice book to give someone if you want them to consider a different world view and don't want to hammer them over the head with the (relatively) confrontational The God Delusion. The nice thing about S&GWG is that it doesn't just tell you to kick God to the curb (in fact, I think it never explicitly advises this); it instead tells you the whole inter-relating story of how stuff works in the real world, including the Big Bang, Evolution, language, human brains, logic, thinking, love, and so on. In other words, a whole world view, not just one with a God-shaped hole in it. Recommended, obviously. I love Richard Carrier for being one of the minds behind the historical proposition that Jesus never even existed.

"I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance." -Luke 15:7

You are never further away from the Church than one confession. Take 20 minutes and do a solid examination of conscience. This is not an exercise in beating yourself up. It is a way to do a thorough job of taking out the garbage, because we don't want any of it around anymore. One of the amazing things about Christ is that while we can give him beautiful gifts, we can also give him our baggage, and it its place he will give us peace. Don't be anxious if you're not sure how many times you committed a sin or if you can't remember other exact details. God knows your heart and what you are repenting of. Your local parish should hear confessions every Saturday, but you can probably also call them up and request a confession by appointment (face to face or in private) at another time.

"Once, St. Teresa was overwhelmed with God's Goodness and asked Our Lord "How can I thank you?" Our Lord replied, "ATTEND ONE MASS."

In addition to going to confession, I cannot recommend strongly enough that you begin attending mass on Sundays. Christ is the center of our faith, and he is present with us, as though he were standing behind a veil, at every mass.


I don't have a quote for this last bit of advice, but ask questions! I have at times had questions which gnawed at me like a junkyard dog, so I gnawed at the Church with the same tenacity, and I have always eventually found a completely satisfying answer.

This applies your political beliefs in particular. Our obligation as Catholics is to continually form our conscience, not to simply parrot the Church line. You're not a bad Catholic if you aren't immediately on board with everything the Church teaches. I'd suggest turning your energies to charitable but forceful questions on these topics.

The answers you receive might be a good way to explain your change of heart to your friends and family. For example, "I thought Dawkins and Hitchens were pretty convincing until I learned that they don't even engage actual Christian scholasticism." I'd recommend Edward Feser for those two.

> To me it sounds like you're trying to put a spin on it to make it more meaningful than it really is.

Not just me. The Church. There is so much packed into Genesis, that you can find entire Masters level courses dedicated to just Genesis. In the NAB, Genesis is 85 pages long, but you can find commentaries out there on Genesis which are over 1000 pages long. So you can see, there is a lot going on. If you want to know more about the Bible and the Catholic interpretation of the Bible. I suggest you get a Study Bible. Here are two recommendations:

• Catholic Study Bible, Personal Edition
  
• The Didache Bible
  
  I don't own the Didache Bible yet (I'm waiting for the forthcoming leather edition), but it looks awesome and it uses the Catechism of the Catholic Church as its commentary.
  
  > What am I supposed to get out of it? (I don't need a huge explanation, you can be concise and to the point).
  
  The concise version by request:
  
  
• There is only one God
  
• He created everything
  
• He created us in his image and likeness
  
• He created us to be paired (man and woman)
  
• The first humans disobeyed God
  
• This disobedience damaged our human nature
  
• This damage separates us from God
  
• There is hope as we will be redeemed
  
  That is as concise as I can get it. As you can see, there are a lot of foundational beliefs there.
  
  > And of course eating the fruit supposedly gave Adam the knowledge of right and wrong, which would suggest that he was incapable of even following God's instructions to begin with.
  
  Obedience is not a matter of right and wrong. It is a matter of trust. A child may not understand why you don't want him playing with a pocket knife, but if he is obedient he will trust your judgement in the matter and not do it.
  
  One of the major themes of the Bible is: Do you trust God?
  
  > So what does God do? He decides to punish all people who will be born ever.
  
  The fall was not a punishment. It was a consequence of our free will decision to turn away from God.
  
  > And God knew this would happen before he did it.
  
  Of course he did and he still created us. Would you do that? If you knew that someday you would have to let your own child nail you to a cross, would you create him? Probably not. But God did. He created us even though he knew we would turn on him. That is love.
  
  > And somehow this is a beautiful story?
  
  There is beauty in it, but overall it isn't meant to be beautiful. It is meant to be instructional.

What are your goals? Do you want to learn Catholic teaching? Know and understand the Bible stories? Do you want to read casually or do you want to put in some serious study?

If you just plan on using it every so often but are curious to learn more about Catholicism, there's the New Catholic Answer Bible. It's a New American Bible translation, which most of us on here don't like. This Bible has lots of inserts that answer common questions about Catholicism (Why do we confess to a priest? Why do we think Jesus is God? Why do we venerate Mary? What are saints? etc). My parish uses this Bible as the textbook for those in the RCIA program (the class for adults who want to join the Catholic Church), so it's a good way to learn.

If you want to learn the Bible story in an easy to read way-- The Great Adventure Bible just came out and breaks down the story of salvation into an easy to understand narrative. It helps you see how the Old Testament and the New fit together. If you want to really understand the Bible and want to commit to reading through a good chunk of it, this is the one to get (they have you start off with what they believe to be the 14 most important books to the story of salvation and then you can go back and read the "supplementary" books). **It's sold out right now, but it may be worth waiting for if you really want to learn the Bible story.

If you really plan on doing some serious study of Catholicism and putting time into it, get the Didache Bible. It cross-references the Catechism and is a good way to learn Catholic teaching in a more in depth way, but it's not nicely laid out for you like the other two I suggested. You have to be willing to do a lot more work going back and forth to the Catechism.

Either way, I suggest getting a Catechism to go along with your Bible. Ideally you should be going back and forth between the two as the Catechism explains the Catholic applications of the Bible. You can also find the complete Catechism online for free (you can find the Bible online for free, too), but I prefer the physical book.

> My grandfather's death was not the only occurrence similar to this, but MANY times i've "seen" death.

How many misses? How good were the hits, really? Those are the questions I would ask.

> You use yourself and your environment to change your inner self, thereby changing how YOU act in the world.

This is where I find your perspective somewhat confusing.

You talk about a "spiritual" experience involving "energy", but when you say things like this, it sounds like most of your view is compatible with there being nothing actually mystical going on. I could say I change my inner self and change how I act in the world, though I most often use much more mundane tools to do so, like studying, and learning to admit when I'm wrong.

> while it's true that saying "i don't know" can be freeing or an easy way out, an even better way to look at it is "i don't know, but i look forward to knowing one day". Understanding yourself takes a lifetime, and i'm not done yet. Just because there is no god doesn't mean i've stopped thinking about things i don't understand, or trying to understand my inner self. Just stopping everything having to do with self discovery is a stagnant way to live.

What I've stopped doing is looking for supernatural explanations. I've only done this as a shortcut, not because I think one should never look for such explanations, but because it seems so unlikely to be true that I can find so many better things to do with my time.

Saying "I don't know," especially coupled with "and I'd like to find out," makes sense. But there is a difference between keeping an open mind and being deliberately agnostic about everything. Take Russel's Teapot -- I don't know for sure whether or not that exists, any more than I know whether or not a god exists, or whether or not the spirit exists, but I wouldn't seriously entertain the idea that it does.

> because why not? I have no idea if you're even checking back on this...

I'm not sure if I will be, though I'll notice if you reply. I just had a relatively full day, took me awhile to get back to you.

But why not what? Why not follow a religion? Well, if I think it's false, that would be a reason not to. Or if I think it's probably false.

> If we're talking about philosophy, i'm a fan of Taoism, but not Taoists. The Tao Te Ching was one of the more enjoyable reads i've come across.

Interesting way of putting it. Just the Tao Te Ching, then, as opposed to the weird interpretations people have added over the years?

> I've also read several atheist writings, but sometimes they get a bit angry or aggressive for me. Not enjoyable (Penn Jillette is an exception for me). Atheist FICTION is fun, though, and i like it a lot.

I have a few things to recommend, then, if you're looking for less-aggressive, more thoughtful approaches...

Richard Carrier's Sense and Goodness Without God is so far my favorite book on the topic. Like many atheists, he is not afraid to speak his mind, but the theme, tone, and purpose of this book is to explain his entire world-view. I don't think I've seen a complete world-view presented and defended so clearly before.

The "Without God", and the religion, is a relatively small part of what the book is really about. Mostly, it is there to answer objections a theist might pose. For example, when he puts forth his own morality -- a fairly complete and well-defended moral theory, I think -- he of course must compare and contrast it with common religion ideas of morality, and defend it against common attacks made by the religious.

I've also found several YouTube channels to be quitely thoughtful. Evid3nc3 has a series on his deconversion, telling one of the most complete and sympathetic stories I've seen of a Christian slowly losing his faith. One point often missed is that for most of the process, he was still a Christian.

Philhelenes has quite a few videos, some silly, some argumentative... But there are a few which stand alone as truly astounding: Science Saved My Soul, Why Didn't Anybody Tell Me?, She Sparkled, and a few others I'll probably remember later.

And AronRa is entertaining and informative, though confrontational without apology. I enjoy him more than Penn Gillette, anyway. I'd start here.

> In case some don't know, Religious-traditional Jew or not a Jew is still a Jew forever, that's what the covenant is about,

I recognize this point of view, though I do not necessarily subscribe to it myself. I say "necessarily", because I'm not intrinsically opposed to the idea either, but I suspect I use these terms quite differently from you.

>but I understand you got the impression i a speaking from a religious point of view because many Christians see Christianity as a faith in Jesus and religion, these seals mix some gospel stuff too which does not work with Judaism, nit even messianic texts.

Again, it's a lot more helpful to describe my outlook on faith as pragmatheism than anything else. I believe in what works. From this point of view, there's no difficulty in syncretizing various traditions even though their original adherents wouldn't be able to make it work like that for themselves. To each his own.


> It may upset some rabbis and provoke curiosity if they see anyone sharing what iam with other nations who may be seeking to use the light from the Jewish nation to bond, communicate and pack with unseen beings hashem banished during creation billions of years ago,

I'm very happy that you're willing to have this conversation, and I hope the downvotes won't put you off. Our perspectives may vary, but we've got plenty to learn from each other, and I wish I could be more helpful in answering your questions.

> Th g-d of Israel is one and everyone's g-d and creator, those who use hashems names to conjure or invoke unseen beings who where banished are using the names in vain, especially if they are Christian and no way around during solomons time, it would mean a pagan is trying to trick hashem or the spirit into a service., and it was the Arabs who wrote stories about Solomon and his ring blending it all with Arabian nights, the gienie in the bottle etc, Arabs believe these spirits get burned for coming near a living person (especially ones thousand of years old) and so they will only do so as long as that person proves them they lower the grace of hashem, his angels and names to their level, some times even mocking, sacrificing something or sharing their own blood to pack or connect with them.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm taking the Holy Names in vain through my practices, but I'm not worried about it. My approach to these names and the Hebrew alphabet is quite Hermetic (or Chicken-ish, if you will), and they work just fine without the dogmatic framework of Judaism. This video gives a good intro to the perspectives I'm describing, please forgive the blatant heresy.

> But since they are banished it's called praying using hashems name in vain.
> But if your a Jew you talk to hashem and ask permission which is how it should be done, that's the point of the names of hashem, but I guess depending on what someone is asking it's gonna be hard to go that route,
>
> Anyway, so the Latin text and other esoteric writing on Solomon's seals was contributed by who?

I wish I could answer your final question. I believe the texts are traced back to the 1500s, but I'm in no way sure. There are people frequenting this subreddit that are way better versed in the Solomonic tradition than I am, Here's hoping some of them will chime in.

^^Paging ^^dr. ^^/u/Lucifereus!

One last comment but I want to share this with you. You already have a lot to read so definitely don't start out with this. This book, assembled by the heavyweights in the philosophy of religion, is basically the gold standard for apologetics.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Blackwell-Companion-Natural-Theology/dp/1444350854

Just want to show you how the professionals think and write. After you've read through the other suggestions, maybe you can get your hands on it through interlibrary loan or on Kindle.

Lastly, the first commentator on Amazon had some great things to say that are also relevant:

>This is a fantastic book. But is it the "greatest defense of theism" ever assembled? No. Why? Because it is (in general) not defensive; rather, this would fall under the category of "offensive" apologetics. In general, this book attempts to prove God through Kalam, ontological, etc. But to say that this is a defense of theism simply shows the other reviewer's misunderstanding of philosophy. A defense of theism is when atheists attempt, through logic, to disprove God, and the theist "defends" theism by showing that the atheist's proofs are false (this is where theism is at its strongest). Disproving an argument FOR God does not disprove God. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

>And when a reviewer writes that they will be "dismantling" the arguments shown here, simply disregard this. The philosophers and theologians who write essays in this book are top notch; atheist philosophers have a hard enough time trying to rebut them, and a 3rd year civil engineer student is attempting to? He is simply preaching to the choir (ironically, an atheist choir). I have witnessed quite a few layman try to disprove the Kalam, or the Modal, etc., only to use faulty logic or completely misunderstand the arguments. Christopher Hitchens admitted to being beat by William Lane Craig in a debate, and renowned atheist philosopher Walter Sinnot-Armstrong admitted to the coherency of theism during another Craig debate, and yet the average layman believes he has a chance??? Go look on Reasonablefaith.org to read all the poor attempts at outsmarting Craig.

>My main point is this: Do not obsess. I went through a time when I was rampantly reading apologetics, and then I would turn around to read atheistic literature. I did this because I was constantly in a state of, "But what if Craig/Plantinga/Moreland/etc. is wrong?? Look at all the atheists today! Surely they can't ALL be wrong!" This line of thinking is natural, though can be very detrimental. Even the great Socrates recognizes the problem here: "I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing. And that is that I know nothing." We cannot know the answer to every question or every objection. Do not constantly worry about atheists attempting to disprove God, for this leads no where. Eventually you will have to make a choice, and stick with it without having to worry about possible objections.

The last sentence sounds like intellectual dishonesty (at least to me it did, at first.). But I have found that it is true that at some point, you have to make a commitment to yourself to assume X position is true, at least until some stronger argument against it can be found. That sounds like common sense but the above mindset is something that one can get wrapped up in (as I did), so I feel that that piece of advice is worth remembering at times.

In a sense, enlightenment is not in your hands at all. In another, equally true sense, you really can beckon the solution.

The best advice I have found for people trying to beckon the solution is to work in cycles. You need to know spiritual truths - that desire breeds anger, that life without attachment to worldly things is better than life bound to the ups and downs of the world - in every cell of your body. You need to know them with your heart, with your stomach, with your intellect, with your emotions. This means, read spiritual works and meditate like it was the last thing on earth you could do. But then go out and live them, get your hands dirty on life, let those ideas really digest, let them sink in deeply. Figure things out through experience, through seeing things as they really are. Then go back and meditate more, read more, see what new truths are uncovered through this cyclical learning process.

Clearing your mind of these false notions of salvation/happiness creates an incredible amount of space. In this space of non-grasping, of not-doing, clarity is born. Clarity is the means and the end of the spiritual path. You see life as it really is. With true clarity, there is no hope or fear at all. Clarity turns into transcendent knowledge; knowledge without words, without the limits of language, without reason. Silent knowledge composed of pure certainties. One day you will feel a click.


If you want to study some beautiful, simple, universal (as in, it isn't dogma) eastern philosophy, check out the Bhagavad Gita. It is as close to perfection of the path to self-knowledge as I have found.

We see Arjuna on the battlefield, this impressive warrior, bent, burdened, eyes glistening, pleading for the meaning of life.


Krishna, totally calm, responds in effect, "Oh, you really want to know?"


http://www.amazon.com/The-Bhagavad-Gita-Walkthrough-Westerners/dp/1608680142



Another good book at the beginning/middle of the path is The Power of Now, by Eckhart Tolle. He frames the awake state in a very persuasive, intuitive manner: as an alternative to the mind's insistence of living in the past or the future. It shows you the power of clarity, of living fully in the present moment.

If you are far on the path already, then I suggest these two books to help fine-tune your search:

http://www.amazon.com/The-End-Your-World-Enlightenment/dp/1591797799

http://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Spiritual-Materialism-Shambhala-Classics/dp/1570629579/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412001113&sr=1-1&keywords=cutting+through+spiritual+materialism+by+chogyam+trungpa

Good luck/shoot me a PM if you have questions

ps: tripping can be a tool, but it is limited. any realizations you have under the influence of psychedelics, you will have to re-realize while sober. sometimes this is incredibly easy, but sometimes not so much. if you depend too much on them, the realizations while on drugs will never be there when you really need them. think of psychedelics as "advance scouts" into your consciousness - showing you what level of clarity is possible if you keep on this path, showing you what silent knowledge feels like. they don't give you that level of clarity, but they show you that it is possible, and give you faith and determination to see it become your natural state.

I'm not sure how much my words will be of use for you, as I am myself not yet Catholic (I'm currently going through RCIA). However, I can relate with regard to a lack of Catholic friends. I'm an immigrant from India who was raised in a Hindu family; most of my friends are Indian and nominally Hindu. I've had only a couple of Christian friends in my life and never a Catholic friend. Reading and researching through books, articles, podcasts, videos, etc. have led me to the faith.

Oftentimes, in defending the faith, I have debated my family, my friends, and others close to me. It became clear to me that I needed a systematic plan if I was going to do this with any shred of ability. Here's mine. Perhaps it will be of use to you or somebody else who clicks on your post because they can relate.

1. Learn logic. I'm working through Socratic Logic by Peter Kreeft right now. It's clear, readable, has plenty of examples, many of which are from interesting works, such as those of G.K. Chesterton or C.S. Lewis. It's an investment, to be sure, as it's running for ~ $20 online, but it's well worth it.
   
   
2. Study Aristotelian-Thomistic philosophy. St. Thomas Aquinas is the universal doctor of the Catholic Church. You're not going to find a better source of philosophy, theology, and wisdom than this saint. Now, I don't recommend jumping right into the Summa Theologica or the Summa Contra Gentiles, at least not without a study guide, primarily because modern thought holds assumptions which Aquinas would have rejected. Therefore, to understand Aquinas' arguments, and really the arguments of any philosopher before Descartes, you need to understand the basic metaphysics (the understanding of being as being) of the classical (Aristotle, Plato, etc.) and medieval (Augustine, Aquinas, etc.) philosophers. Edward Feser is an American analytical philosopher who is also an orthodox Roman Catholic. He's written two books which I would highly recommend. First, and foremost, I think you will be well served by his The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism (I'm sure you can see why). It's very readable but also deep. It's also polemical; you'll laugh out loud quite a bit. Second, I would recommend his Aquinas: A Beginner's Guide. This is an introduction to Thomistic philosophy. It goes over the metaphysical foundations, Aquinas' Five Ways to demonstrate the existence of God, Aquinas' philosophy of ethics, and Aquinas' philosophy of psychology.
   
   
3. Once you have worked through these three books, I think you'll be ready to work through the more difficult works. However, and this is key, the vast, vast, vast majority of atheists and skeptics you'll come across and meet in your journey through this world can be easily and completely refuted if you familiarize yourself with and understand and think through the arguments laid out by Feser in these two books. Depending on your intelligence level and the availability of time, going through these three books might take you a bit of time. Don't worry. Take it slow. Once you understand their relevance and validity, you'll be able to both defend the faith and also show how atheism is false, incoherent, and dangerous.
   
   In summary, I'd recommend reading the following books in this order:
   
4. The Last Superstition by Edward Feser: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Superstition-Refutation-New-Atheism-ebook/dp/B00D40EGCQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504537006&sr=8-1&keywords=the+last+superstition
   
5. Aquinas: A Beginner's Guide by Edward Feser: https://www.amazon.com/Aquinas-Beginners-Guide-Guides-ebook/dp/B00O0G3BEW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1504537006&sr=8-2&keywords=the+last+superstition
   
6. Socratic Logic by Peter Kreeft: https://www.amazon.com/Socratic-Logic-Questions-Aristotelian-Principles/dp/1587318083/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8
   
   God Bless and take care.

If you really want to dig into this buy a Thoth Tarot deck, Crowley's book, and probably also Duquette's book to give you a good primer on Crowley.

Modern Tarot decks are visual representations of the Tree Of Life because almost all modern decks are based on either the Rider-Waite-Smith deck or the Thoth Deck. Waite and Crowley were members of the Hermetic Order Of The Golden Dawn which used the tarot as a tool for learning Kaballah(among other things). I'm suggesting the Thoth because it's better in almost every way and you will really appreciate the artwork. The small cards are the sephiroths (ace=kether, 2=chokmah... 10=malkuth, the suit of wands represents the tree of life in the kabbalistic world of atziluth(the classical element fire and the first Yod in the Tetragrammaton) etc...) and the major arcana represent the 22 paths between the sephiroths(Atu 0 The Fool connects Kether and Chokhmah, Atu 1 The Magus connect Kether and Binah, etc...). Here is some of the artwork The Magus, The Universe, The Ace Of Cups. The cards will give you more to meditate on then you could possibly get through in a single lifetime.

Also Malkuth means Kingdom and is related to the physical world. The Knowledge and Conversation Of The Holy Guardian Angel is attributed Tipheret.

I'm glad to see some conversation about the occult on here. I don't think anyone would argue that all occult and mystical practices arise from the type of shamanism the people in this forum practice. The two types of approaches go great together whether you are into Kabballah, Buddhism, Daoism, or any other system.

The Tree Of Life is just a map created by people who have been there before. It might be fun to just storm off into the wilderness without knowing where you are going, but your chances of finding something interesting will increase greatly with the help. I've had great luck performing a little ritual where I get into a trance, take a hit of hash, invoke one of the cards, and experience it's energy. It's much more powerful than just taking a drug to see what will happen and all kinds of interesting synchronicities will start appearing in your life.

Good luck! If you have any questions I can try to answer them.

Hi, not Wiccan, but eclectic druid, which is also a subset of Paganism. There are loads of online communities to check out! Firstly, I'd say browse the r/wicca, r/pagan, and r/druidism (shameless plug lol) subreddits, as they're filled with loads of info and opinions. Be warned on r/pagan, since there are LOADS of different types of pagans, you'll get some wildly different opinions. There's plenty of other subreddits (r/witchcraft, for example), but those were the ones I started with.

I also love the Pagan channel on Patheos, which if you haven't browsed before, is a really interesting conglomeration of religious blogs. While I don't use it very often, WitchVox is also referenced as a really good online hub for finding local groups.

For books, this one is a fucking fantastic introduction to Paganism as a whole. It was my first real read on the topic. For Wicca in particular, Scott Cunningham is typically the one people point to for learning how to practice solitary. I also found Wicca for Beginners to be a super quick but useful intro. If you want a more general history of witchy goddess nature-worshipy religions, I am currently reading Drawing Down the Moon and love it.

Finally, if you have any Unitarian churches in your area, reach out-- they frequently have pagan or earth-centered study groups you can always visit!

Like I said before, I'm way more druidy, so if you want suggestions for learning about that (or just want to talk pagan-y things to admittedly a baby pagan), lemme know! :)

Rupert Gethin's Foundations of Buddhism is a thorough introduction to Buddhism. For starting reading the Pāli discourses, there's Bhikkhu Bodhi's In the Buddha's Words - this is a selection of discourses serving as an entry point.

Then you can start with the discourses directly: start with the Majjima Nikāya and then you can also go through The Dīgha Nikāya and the Samyutta Nikāya. And then the last but not least: Aṇguttara Nikāya and the Khuddhaka Nikāya (search on Amazon). These texts would be important references for the rest of your life if you seriously pursue Buddhism.

Regarding insight meditation, Bhikkhu Anālayo's Satipaṭṭāna book is the best modern day commentary available. Highly recommend it. His "Excursions into the Pāli Discourses" Part 1 and Part 2 are also very useful since they summarize many of the topics discusses in the discourses.

Books by Shaila Catherine or Ajāhn Brahmavaṃso would be good texts regarding samatha meditation.

There are the various texts written by the Ledi Sayādaw and Mahāsi Sayadaw - two Burmese scholar-practitioners who popularized insight meditation in the last century. You can go through Ven. Ledi Sayādaw's Vipassanā Dīpani (Manual of Insight) and you can find Ven. Mahāsi Sayadaw's books here.

Bhikkhu K. Ñānānanda has many books discussing deep questions about dependent arising, the nature of nirvāna, and so forth. You can find them here.

I'll let others recommend Mahāyāna, Vajrayāna and Zen material. In general, Reginald Rays books on Tibetan Buddhism are great entry points to Tibetan Buddhism, and then there's Gampopa's Jewel Ornament Of Liberation. There's also Shantidēva's Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra, useful for any Mahāyāna practitioner. With Zen there's always Dōgen Zenji's Shōbōgenzō.

You should be able to find all of the above by googling if it's available for free or on Amazon (or a University library) otherwise.

I will give you some tips. The first tip is very few people actually know what they’re talking about when it comes to this so be very cautious trusting anyone talking about this subject.

Book knowledge does NOT equate actual magical ability. Armchair sorcerers (people who like to read/talk about magic, but couldn’t make the wind blow if they wanted) often can quote from ancient and modern tomes of magic and make themselves sound deeply practiced. But honestly, almost no one is willing to put the work in anymore to actually train practice magic. It’s a full time job.

You don’t need anything in magic other than your mind. The rest is just theater. Don’t worry about crystals and oils and anything else. A rock you get from outside, or the oil you cook with, or a stick from the tree in your yard, can become the most powerful magical items if you make them into that. Certainly more powerful than something some random company pumps out.

A “book of shadows”, or whatever you want to call yours, can be useful to write down recipes or things you don’t often use. More important would be a dream journal, a meditation journal and a historic ritual journal. The HRJ is different than the BoS. Because you are writing down the details of your magical experiments and their results. After you find success in one that’s when it would go into your spell book it you wanted l/needed it to.

All religion is man made, there is no one true religion. mix it however you want, with these things in mind, you cannot go into the deep mysteries if you are too spread out onto the water to sink down. and does that tradition bring great harm to the world? If it does. Avoid it.

When it comes to herbs, each local has its plants and magical history of those plants. You don’t need to use anything other than what’s around you.

Some witches use runes and the like, it’s just what you like to use or not.

There are almost no websites or books worth anything on this subject. There are a few of course but not many, and even fewer are in English.

What country in Asia are you in if you don’t mind me asking?

Additionally your gender is really irrelevant as far as magic is concerned.

If you want a good training guide, I recommend Initiation into Hermetics . It’s the best training manual available to the public I have ever seen. There maybe something more culturally specific in your native language, but as far as I have seen, there is nothing better than Initiation into Hermetics for basic legit magical training. Remember training is a full time job (or at least should be worked as a part time job)

I am a recovering Christian (grew up Southern baptist, eventually went non-denominational) who is looking for a path of some kind.

My wife has always related to and followed paganism and very easily went back to it after our schism from the church. My mother very strongly associated with Celtic beliefs (our family way back was from the Isles) but she passed away before I was able to talk to her about them in depth. I'm struggling to define what I feel, believe, and desire.

I mention my previous Christianity because that is all I've ever known. I practiced for 39 years of my life by devoting myself to one figure head, reading from one specific book, and channeling one specific spirit. The switch to paganism and its leniency on such practices is both freeing but also a huge adjustment for me to make. I'm not saying I want to devote, read, or channel paganism the same way I did Christianity but I just don't know where to begin. I would love to meditate and see visions of something to lead me where I should be or have dreams that introduce me to something or someone to guide me.

My apologies if this comes off as more of a word vomit than anything else. I would love and appreciate some insight or advice on how to begin this journey. The Seeking website linked above is already open in my browser and I plan to read that. I've also been reading Paganism: An Introduction to Earth- Centered Religions as well. But nothing beats Reddit and hearing from people who have been there themselves.

I understand some of your situation pretty well. I came from a background of no religion at all and a negative feeling of what I thought organized religion was about before becoming a Jew. Also my wife came from a very traditional Buddhist background before becoming a Jew and she also shared concerns about this "getting in the way of a normal life".

The rabbi we first met with insisted that if I was interested in the conversion process that even before starting I had to bring her to meet with him because so much of being a Jew is family oriented so if I wanted to do this, his condition was that we both had to learn. He happens to be Conservative but of the old school variety, closer to what we would now call Modern Orthodox. The thing was that I was very fortunate that my wife was at least willing to learn with me for the sake of learning what this thing I was interested in was about. Even more fortunately she came to her own conclusion that this was for her as well. I cant say if this will be the same for you and your partner or not, but if you two communicate well then perhaps they may be willing as my wife was to see what is what just because it is important to you. As it turns out we ended up affiliating with the local Orthodox community as time went on but thats another story.

The books LazarA mentioned are all great. All I might add would be:

• God, Jews & History by Max Dimont. This is not a religious text per se but gives a decent overview of our history as a people in context of where we have been. Being a Jew isnt just about religious practice, its about being part of a people with a complex history and that history has very much shaped our practice.
  
  
• To Be a Jew by Hayim H. Donin was a decent overview as I recall. It covered about the events of the Jewish calendar and lifecycle among other topics.
  
  If you live in an area with several types of Jewish communities, I'd say meet with several rabbis if possible. Even you think now that you might look at Conservative Judaism, there's a range within that as well as within Orthodoxy and I assume but dont know for myself about the other flavors as well.
  
  Feel free to ask us here any and I do mean any questions you may have as well. I'm also available to answer questions by PM as I'm sure are several other of the regulars here in case you feel you dont want to ask in public. You may get conflicting answers but that is perfectly normal. We have a saying to the effect of if you ask two Jews you will get three opinions.

> I'm fine with granting that the Universe forming is a miracle.

That's cool. What is it about the Universe that leads you to think it could be a miracle? For me, it is the amazing structure of the laws of physics.

I ask you because, what is it about DNA, ribosomes and the amazing structures within biology that make you then think they are "natural"? To me, microbiology is even more amazing than the cosmological argument. Anthony Flew was the most famous atheist of the 20th century. After he studied DNA and the amazing interplay of physics, chemistry, he became a theist. He wrote "There is a God. How the world's most notorious atheist changed his mind" : https://www.amazon.com/There-God-Notorious-Atheist-Changed/dp/0061335304

> Darwin's small changes : Source, please.

See link below. Stephen Jay' Gould's "punctuated equilibrium" is where the evidence leads, and large changes are required to advanced beyond the local minimum: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitness_landscape

http://sciencenordic.com/suggesting-answers-one-darwin%E2%80%99s-mysteries

Here's Darwin on small changes ("slight modifications") from Origin of Species : “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed, which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down. But I can find no such case.”

> Until you can show HOW it was "designed", the notion that it IS designed is nonsense.

Huh? That's my whole point. It is a miracle. Atheists often ask for signs, and in microbiology you can see many amazing machines.

Your response sounds like this logically: "unless I think it is not a miracle, I'm not going to believe it is a miracle".

> Second, variation in traits IS evolution by definition.

Unfortunately, the word "evolution" is heavily overloaded. The term "evolution" is used sloppily to apply to mutation, speciation and even abiogenesis. Those are each very distinct concepts. Darwin's book is "Origin of Species", not "new traits". Do you think that blondes are different species than brunettes? Species are things like cats versus dogs. If you love science half as much as I do, please stop trying to confuse the concepts.

Personally speaking, I use the Crowley Thoth deck. You are probably on the right track in regards to dumping the R-W deck for this colossus of Tarot. It is a bit intimidating to get all the symbols and their meanings in the Thoth deck but hang in there. Should you need any help along the way, there is this book-
http://www.amazon.ca/Understanding-Aleister-Crowleys-Thoth-Tarot/dp/1578632765
As well as other resources. So far as how it all relates, I think it relates somewhat nicely. There is still debate as to how the Tarot Cards got lumped together with the Tree of Life, but I'm not going to get into that. For me, I found the relation to the Paths a very helpful one. The meanings/relationship to the Tree of Life and the elements, from the Tarot are yours to interpret, yours to discover and make your own. This is what is both maddening and wonderful about the Tarot. In many ways, it's rudderless nature allows for the person working with it to make up the story for themselves And there's the beauty! No need to worry about forcing meaning when it is not relevant. If it feels relevant to you, meaningful to you, go for it. That's magic.
I'll give a quick example. To me, Tiphereth/Beauty is the highest human point on the Tree of life. Before that we have Netzach/Victory. Connecting the two is path 24 Death- which for all intents and purposes is Change. How do I connect these? Again, to me Netzach is a highly emotional Sephiroth, it's chief gods being that of Love- Venus, Aphrodite, etc. Love prompts one to feel a great deal of emotions, some good and some bad and some very very bad. This is why I equate it to this Sephiroth, among other reasons. Alright, so this isn't a short example but bear with me. So, how does one get to the higher Sephiroth Tiphereth? Death. Change. Killing those lower base things within us that hold us back. All the petty emotions; the ones that sully the name of love. Cut 'em down. Conquer your emotions, claim Victory over them. Then, one can get to a place of greater understanding; A place of Beauty- Tiphereth. Crowley, when writing about this card put it this way- 'The Universe is Change; every Change is the effect of an Act of Love; all Acts of Love contain Pure Joy. Die daily!'
To me, this makes sense. It carries meaning.
Hope this helps.

I would recommend staying away from the polemics. Authors like Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris all have books worth reading, but not really if you want a primer on atheistic alternatives in the areas of worldview, ethics, etc. I will say that Dawkins's earlier works on science would be good, but God Delusion is not an exposition of an atheistic worldview, but rather an attack on religion, and a messy, at times ignorant and oversimplified one at that (I bet I'll get crucified for saying that). As one religious studies student to another, it is a book that gets awfully frustrating every time you realize that he has a horrible grasp of the relevant data.

Books that would be really great to read:

George H. Smith's Atheism: The Case Against God is an approachable critique of some of the more popular arguments for God's existence.

Julian Baggini's Atheism: A Brief Insight is a really good and thorough survey of the explanation, arguments, history, and ethics of atheism.

Greg Epstein's Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe really gets into where someone goes once he/she has already concluded that God doesn't exist. He looks at how one builds a nonreligious life of meaning. Epstein is definitely in the "friendly atheist" category. As the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard (strange, oxymoronic titles aside) he has done a great deal of work with the Pluralism Project in their School of Divinity. He has even worked with inter-religious groups like the InterFaith Youth Core.

A long, but very much worth the time and highly recommended book is Jennifer Michael Hecht's Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson. In it, she goes very thoroughly through the long history of religious skepticism. She looks at the lives and questions of philosophers, scientists, poets, politicians, even some religious figures who have gone through the "dark night of the soul." This is a book that I think every atheist should read to learn that religious folks aren't the only ones with a long and storied tradition. It is a good grounding in history for secularists.

These are four books and a lecture series that would certainly be good at getting you started, all of them are academic rigor level, so not something that you'll be able to flip through at the bus stop. They take a bit of time to digest.

• Evidence that Demands a Verdict- good summary of the reasons we have to think that Christianity is historically true.
  
  https://www.amazon.com/New-Evidence-That-Demands-Verdict/dp/0785242198
  
  
• Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology- Natural theology, the arguments from reason for why we have good reason to think that there is a God. Written by academic philosophers.
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Blackwell-Companion-Natural-Theology/dp/1444350854
  
  
• Philosophical Foundations of the Christian Worldview- Another excellent book providing a systematic narrative from the ground up.
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Philosophical-Foundations-Christian-Worldview-Moreland/dp/0830851879/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=6HXK5P412QMRNR2XB37B
  
  
• New Essays on Divine Hiddeness- If God is real, then why doesn't he just appear to me? This collection of essays from both atheists and Christians explores that argument and offers (what I think) are some pretty good responses.
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Divine-Hiddenness-Essays-Daniel-Howard-Snyder/dp/0521006104
  
  
• Faith and Reason Lectures by Peter Kreeft- Excellent lecture series by a philosopher who approaches the topic of religion from an introductory level and takes the time to examine the arguments for and against. A great place to start since it covers everything from a general perspective.
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Modern-Scholar-Reason-Philosophy-Religion/dp/B001JHT8DI

The strongest thing that keeps people going is a strong sense of purpose that they give themselves.

My motivation is doing good for good's sake. I try to make every day a day where I did something meaningful and to try and experience empathy for someone or something and attempt to show some decency and dignity towards them/it. This can come in many ways but that is the gist of it. Living in a big city leaves a multitude of possible things for me to do. Sometimes I'm dropping off some food+soda to a small group of homeless folks. Other times it's just being able to sit down and listen to someone's troubles. Your life is your responsibility (too adult sounding sorry!) and it's important to find purpose and meaning in it. Human beings are unique and no two are alike and even with the same dna they can become different people. Each human life therefor is priceless and we must find it in ourselves to do justice and dignity to each other because once someone is gone we will never see that person ever again. I don't like thinking about shoulda woulda coulda guilt trips when I see I had failed to do something in hind sight. But I always feel at peace when I do the right thing for someone.

A good book to read sometime is Good Without God. It is a book about secular humanism and really helped me when I was looking for some answers and insight into the way I felt but didn't have all the words to explain it more clearly.

Another thing that keeps me rolling is learning new things about the world around me. When I was a kid I wanted to learn everything I could about everything. Even though kids in school were always mean to me I always had a friend in learning. After I graduated high school there was a time I felt comfortable with all that I knew and didn't feel it was important to learn. I lost something along the way. Ever since I became an atheist I have that strong urge to learn again, like a rekindled fire. i have been rebuilding my math skills using khan academy and have been reading science and technology websites every day so I can learn new things and feel that small sense of accomplishment from learning.

TL:DR
I have a sense of purpose that I assigned myself as a means to self motivate and my life is better for it.

Alright here are some of the best resources I know as a Catholic. Hope they help!

Edward Feser's blog as well as his The Last Superstition and 5 Proofs of the Existence of God

Stephen Barr's Modern Physics and Ancient Faith

Francis Collin's The Language of God

Anthony Flew's There Is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind

Thomas Wood's How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization

Brant Pitre's The Case For Jesus

Tim O Neill on the Church and science, the Inquisition and the Galileo affair

Jenny Hawkins on Jesus and God, early Christianity and form criticism

Al Moritz on the Fine Tuning Argument

>There is a reason someone should believe in the supernatural and mystical aspects of Christianity. This is a large issue for me. Solely based on supernatural and mystical ideas, from an outsider perspective, Christianity is no different than animism or Buddhism. I can't have faith alone.

Well when you look at the world's religions, Christianity has a clear and impressive advantage in the miracles/mystical department. Historically, in Christianity, there have been numerous cases of Eucharistic miracles, Marian apparitions, miraculous healings and the spiritual gifts and religious experiences of countless Christian saints -- men and women of great virtue whose admirable character only add to the credibility of their testimony. Examples of these include Paul, Benedict of Nursia, Francis of Assisi, Dominic, Hildegard of Bingen, Anthony of Padua, Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Siena, Vincent Ferrer, Joan of Arc, Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Catherine Emmerich, John Vianney, Anna Maria Taigi, Genma Galangi, Faustina Kowalska and Padre Pio. We also have a pair of impressive relics, the shroud of Turin and the sudarium of Orvieto. I'll also throw in Catholic exorcisms.

And these Eucharistic miracles, Marian apparitions and religious/mystical experiences continue to happen today.

What do Buddhism and animism have in comparison?

>Anything that discusses and argues against some common tropes from atheists such as Mother Teresa being a vile, sadistic person.

Honestly, I'm quite stunned at the portrait atheists have painted of her. At worst, she wasn't perfect and made mistakes. She cannot be a vile monster like Hitchens claims she was, that's ridiculous. Here are some articles that defend Mother Teresa -- here, here, here and here.

Check out any of Mother Teresa's personal writings (e.g. No Greater Love, A Simple Path, Come Be Thy Light) to see what she believed in, what she valued and how she saw the world. Check out books written by people who actually knew her such as that of Malcolm Muggeridge, an agnostic BBC reporter who ended up converting to Catholicism because of Teresa and ended up becoming a lifelong friend of hers. Or that of her priest, friend and confessor, Leo Maasburg, who was able to recall 50 inspiring stories of Mother Teresa. Or that of Conroy, a person who actually worked with her. Or any biography of hers. Find out what she was like according to the people around her. Then afterwards, determine for yourself if she resembles Hitchen's "monster" or the Catholic Church's "saint".

There is good old John Chang, in the Magus of Java books. While John Chang is an interesting dude, don't expect anything practical from the books.

Chronicles of Tao is fiction, but an entertaining story. His writing is esoterically accurate in that he draws from other teachers. For example, the different planes described in Astral Dynamics are things he sees while in deep meditation. This absolutely blew my mind at the time until I read a little more about the guy who the books is about. Now I've come to the conclusion that he draws from other authors and teachers.

The author Hua Ching Ni writes a lot of books. He has an acupuncture school in Los Angeles called Yo San University. Some of his stuff is pretty esoteric, but not much practical instruction.

It's definitely worth it to learn some TCM theory.

I honestly haven't come across any good qigong books. I took a class with one of this guy's students, it had a good breadth of standard stances. The book would probably make a good introduction. I'm pretty sure that book is available online somewhere if you are willing to violate copyright laws.

I read a pdf of this book on Taoist Sorcery. It gave some insight to some of the esoteric spirit petitioning crazyness. A lot of ritual and burning of yellow paper.

Other than that it is a lot of meeting different teachers, learning their practices, then going home and working on that stuff. You shouldn't need to keep paying someone in order to keep practicing.

Hi Porkgreen,

It sounds like you're having an awakening. Strap in, buckle up, and take some deep breaths, but I can assure you that in the end everything will be just fine.

There are basically three levels on which things begin to restructure themselves such that your whole being is brought more into alignment with the truth of things. And when things are changing on all these levels it can feel quite disorienting. The three levels are the physio-energetic (aka the body, aka traditional kundalini), your external life (job, relationships, etc.), and your internal life (your sense of who and what you are).

When people begin to awaken, there are two main reasons they suffer. First, awakening brings phases of great change which most have a tendency to resist at least initially. Resisting 'What Is' will always bring suffering. Thus it's important to learn to surrender to, and trust in what is happening. You will need to meet your experience as it arises and learn to open to it, however it may reveal itself.

The second main reason people suffer during an awakening is that they feel disoriented as identities and external circumstances begins to change/fall away because they do not have a conceptual framework for understanding what is happening. This is where spiritual teachings can be helpful. A good teacher, even if a personal relationship isn't possible is extremely helpful. I recommend this book, and in general the Non-dual teachings of Adyashanti. He won't steer you wrong.

Weird energetic phenomena (pressure, vibrations, tingling, etc) and visions are normal. The important point here is not to indulge in them too much, and don't believe them (the visions especially). But if they arise, allow them to happen and just witness what is going on without believing or identifying with them.

If you live among close minded people, it may not be necessary to tell them about kundalini. However, act how you feel you should. Feel free to let me know if you have any more questions.

Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe might be a start. Check your local library.

> Questions about the role of God and religion in today's world have never been more relevant or felt more powerfully. Many of us are searching for a place where we can find not only facts and scientific reason but also hope and moral courage. For some, answers are found in the divine. For others, including the New Atheists, religion is an "enemy."

> But in Good Without God, Greg Epstein presents another, more balanced and inclusive response: Humanism. He highlights humanity's potential for goodness and the ways in which Humanists lead lives of purpose and compassion. Humanism can offer the sense of community we want and often need in good times and bad—and it teaches us that we can lead good and moral lives without the supernatural, without higher powers . . . without God.

My post in the book recommendations to the right:

>For all Buddhists:

> The Majjhima Nikaya: The Middle Length Discources of the Buddha
> The Digha Nikaya: The Long Length Discourses of the Buddha

>For Mahayana Buddhists:

> The Nectar of Manjushri's Speech: A Detailed Commentary on Shantideva's Way of the Bodhisattva

>For Vajrayana Buddhists:

> Words of my Perfect Teacher by Patrul Rinpoche

>Nothing in particular after that.

>There are a TON of misconceptions out there about what the Buddha taught and the presentation of the basic Buddhist path. Not reading the Digha/Majjhima Nikaya and calling yourself a Buddhist is the same as calling yourself a Christian without ever reading the Bible.

>Similarly, not having read the Bodhicharyavatara (a commentary really helps on this one, which is why I linked the best one) and calling yourself a Mahayana Buddhist is the same.

>Words of my Perfect teacher is simply an excellent introduction to the Vajrayana path, so I think it should be on there as well. Maybe not as necessary as the previous 3 (because in Vajrayana it's most important to learn from a qualified guru), it's still an excellent book. And if you haven't found a teacher yet, it would certainly help in finding a good one.

>1.Different schools of Buddhism? I understand that their are different ones, are there a lot of differences? For example, Zen, Tibetan, etc.

Lots of differences. But, that's not so important right now. Just look at everything. Finding the right style of practice, and more importantly, the right teacher, is like falling in love. You can't plan it, you can't prepare for it, but if you're open to it, it will happen. For now, commit to nothing but honesty and curiosity and look at everything you can find.

>2.Best beginner book for Buddhism? Something that can teach me a lot about Buddhism, and books to explore different sects.

I'd advise anyone to read Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche's "What Makes You Not A Buddhist". Very good introduction, from a Tibetan background. As with everything in the Dharma, the purpose is more to learn about you than about Buddhism, though ;)

>3.What are you. supposed to do when you mediate? Some compare it to lucid dreaming, the ability to do whatever, but what exactly are you supposed to do? Aren't you supposed to focus on being awakened, if so, how?

Best (only) way is to learn face-to-face. And there are many many techniques, which may or may not work for you. For now, sit up straight, but relaxed. Breathe in. Breathe out. Repeat. If you get distracted, no problem, just breathe in again. You're not "supposed to" feel this way or that way. Just breathe, be present and come what may. Start with 5 minutes a day, every day.

>4.How would you know if you were "Awakened"?

Dunno, I'm not. Not worrying seems to be a factor.

>5.What school of Buddhism do you prefer and why?

Karma Kagyu, one of the Tibetan "schools", because that's what my teachers teach me. And my teachers are my teachers because when I think of them I can't think of being anything but their student.

>6.How do I become a Buddhist?

By sending me $ 3.50! ;) No, if you feel Lord Buddha is your guide, his teaching (the Dharma) is your path, and his students (the Sangha) are your homeboys, you're a Buddhist. Different schools may have different rituals to confirm this, which is fine but unimportant.

Keep your doubt! It's useful. Keep your faith too, for the same reason. Feeling strongly about something does not make you right, and being right does not make you kind, which is arguably the best thing to be. Investigate everything (with the exception of non-prescription opiates and asshattery) and enjoy yourself! Good luck!

Thoreau: Walden, although non-fiction, may be the closest.

Ram Dass: How Can I Help, also non-fiction, has stories that are perhaps what you are looking for.

Ken Wilber One Taste. Wilber's meditative "journal" for a year. It's one of my 5 top books ever.

Ken Wilber: Grace and Grit. "Here is a deeply moving account of a couple's struggle with cancer and their journey to spiritual healing."

In another area are Carlos Castenedas books, which came out as non-fiction but there have been arguments they are fiction, and I don't know or mind either way. They are based on shamanistic drug use, but I believe it all is possible without drugs.

The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge

I have not read (Lila) Kate Wheeler's works, but I have heard of them. I've not read them mostly because if I can't get them at the library, I am too cheap to buy them.

Not Where I Started From

Nixon Under the Bodhi Tree is a collection of works and the authors there might lead you to more of their works.

I did read Bangkok Tatoo which has some Buddhist meditation themes in it, but it wasn't really to my liking.

The Four Agreements is said to be like Carlos Casteneda's books, but I have not read it.

Bottom line, I've read a lot, and I can't find any matches in my memory for Herman Hesse's Siddhartha. If I think of any I'll add it as an edit.

If you find anything interesting, please pm me, no matter how far in the future it is!

---

Edit: as per the reply below, I've added here if anyone has "saved" this post:

I thought of two more, these actually should be higher on my earlier list:

The Life of Milarepa : "The Life of Milarepa is the most beloved story of the Tibetan people amd one of the greatest source books for the contemplative life in all world literature. This biography, a true folk tale from a culture now in crisis, can be read on several levels.... "

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance which was the start of all books titled, "Zen and the Art of ____." "One of the most important and influential books written in the past half-century, Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a powerful, moving, and penetrating examination of how we live . . . and a breathtaking meditation on how to live better."

The Following list is taken from the Witches & Warlocks FB page. (This is Christian Day's group)

Witches and Warlocks Recommended Reading List
This is a collection of books recommended by our admins and participants in the group. Books must be approved by the admins so if you'd like to see one added to the last, please post it in the comments at the bottom of this list and, if it's something we think is appropriate, we'll add it! We provide links to Amazon so folks can read more about the book but we encourage you to shop at your local occult shop whenever possible! :)


BEGINNER'S WITCHCRAFT BOOKS

Buckland's Complete Book of Witchcraft
by Raymond Buckland
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0875420508

Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America
by Margot Adler
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0143038192

Grimoire of the Thorn-Blooded Witch: Mastering the Five Arts of Old World Witchery
by Raven Grimassi
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1578635500

The Inner Temple of Witchcraft: Magick, Meditation and Psychic Development
by Christopher Penczak
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0738702765

The Kybalion: The Definitive Edition
by William Walker Atkinson (Three Initiates)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1585428744

Lid Off the Cauldron: A Wicca Handbook
by Patricia Crowther
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1861630328

Mastering Witchcraft
by Paul Huson
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0595420060

Natural Magic
by Doreen Valiente
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0919345808

Natural Witchery: Intuitive, Personal & Practical Magick
by Ellen Dugan
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0738709220

Old World Witchcraft: Ancient Ways for Modern Days
by Raven Grimassi
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1578635055

The Outer Temple of Witchcraft: Circles, Spells and Rituals
by Christopher Penczak
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0738705314

Power of the Witch: The Earth, the Moon, and the Magical Path to Enlightenment
by Laurie Cabot
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385301898

Solitary Witch: The Ultimate Book of Shadows for the New Generation
by Silver RavenWolf
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0738703192

Spirit of the Witch: Religion & Spirituality in Contemporary Witchcraft
by Raven Grimassi
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0738703389

Witch: A Magickal Journey
by Fiona Horne
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0007121326

Witchcraft for Tomorrow
by Doreen Valiente
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0709052448

Witchcraft Today
by Gerald Gardner
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0806525932
The Witches' Craft: The Roots of Witchcraft & Magical Transformation
by Raven Grimassi
http://www.amazon.com/dp/073870265X
The Witching Way of the Hollow Hill
by Robin Artisson
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0982031882

WITCHCRAFT HISTORY AND RESOURCE BOOKS

Aradia or The Gospel of the Witches
by Charles Godfrey Leland
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0982432356

Encyclopedia of Mystics, Saints & Sages: A Guide to Asking for Protection, Wealth, Happiness, and Everything Else!
by Judika Illes
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0062009575

The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca
by Rosemary Ellen Guiley
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0816071047

Etruscan Roman Remains
by Charles Godfrey Leland
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1494302519

The God of the Witches
by Margaret Murray
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0195012704

The Weiser Field Guide to Witches, The: From Hexes to Hermione Granger, From Salem to the Land of Oz
by Judika Illes
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1578634792

ADVANCED BOOKS ON WITCHCRAFT AND MAGIC

Blood Sorcery Bible Volume 1: Rituals in Necromancy
by Sorceress Cagliastro
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1935150812

The Deep Heart of Witchcraft: Expanding the Core of Magickal Practice
by David Salisbury
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1780999208

Teen Spirit Wicca
by David Salisbury
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1782790594

Enchantment: The Witch's Art of Manipulation by Gesture, Gaze and Glamour
by Peter Paddon
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1936922517

Initiation into Hermetics
by Franz Bardon
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1885928122

Letters from the Devil's Forest: An Anthology of Writings on Traditional Witchcraft, Spiritual Ecology and Provenance Traditionalism
by Robin Artisson
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500796360

Magical Use of Thought Forms: A Proven System of Mental & Spiritual Empowerment
by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowick and J.H. Brennan
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1567180841

Magick in Theory and Practice
by Aleister Crowley
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1500380679

The Plant Spirit Familiar
by Christopher Penczak
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0982774311

Protection and Reversal Magick
by Jason Miller
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1564148793
Psychic Self-Defense
by Dion Fortune
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1578635098
The Ritual Magic Workbook: A Practical Course of Self-Initiation
by Dolores Ashcroft-Norwicki
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1578630452
The Roebuck in the Thicket: An Anthology of the Robert Cochrane Witchcraft Tradition
by Evan John Jones, Robert Cochrane and Michael Howard
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1861631553

The Satanic Witch
by Anton Szandor LaVey
http://www.amazon.com/Satanic-Witch-Anton-Szandor-LaVey/dp/0922915849
Shadow Magick Compendium: Exploring Darker Aspects of Magickal Spirituality
by Raven Digitalis
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003VS0N5K
The Tree of Enchantment: Ancient Wisdom and Magic Practices of the Faery Tradition
by Orion Foxwood
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1578634075
The Underworld Initiation: A journey towards psychic transformation
by R.J. Stewart
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1892137038

HERBALISM, CANDLES, INCENSE, OILS, FORMULARIES, AND STONES

A Compendium of Herbal Magic
by Paul Beyerl
http://www.amazon.com/dp/091934545X

Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs
by Scott Cunningham
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0875421229

The Enchanted Candle: Crafting and Casting Magickal Light
by Lady Rhea
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0806525789

The Enchanted Formulary: Blending Magickal Oils for Love, Prosperity, and Healing
by Lady Maeve Rhea
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0806527048

Incense: Crafting and Use of Magickal Scents
by Carl F. Neal
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0738703362

Magickal Formulary Spellbook Book 1
by Herman Slater
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0939708000

Magickal Formulary Spellbook: Book II
by Herman Slater
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0939708108


SPELLCASTING AND SPELLBOOKS
Crone's Book of Charms & Spells
by Valerie Worth
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1567188117

Crone's Book of Magical Words
by Valerie Worth
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1567188257

Encyclopedia of 5,000 Spells
by Judika Illes
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0061711233

Everyday Magic: Spells & Rituals for Modern Living
by Dorothy Morrison
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1567184693

Pure Magic: A Complete Course in Spellcasting
by Judika Illes
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1578633915
Utterly Wicked: Curses, Hexes & Other Unsavory Notions
by Dorothy Morrison
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0979453313
The Voodoo Hoodoo Spellbook
by Denise Alvarado
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1578635136

The Voodoo Doll Spellbook: A Compendium of Ancient and Contemporary Spells and Rituals
by Denise Alvarado
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1578635543


THE ANCESTORS AND WORKING WITH THE DEAD
The Cauldron of Memory: Retrieving Ancestral Knowledge & Wisdom
by Raven Grimassi
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0738715751

The Mighty Dead
by Christopher Penczak
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0982774370

Speak with the Dead: Seven Methods for Spirit Communication
by Konstantinos
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0738705225
The Witches' Book of the Dead
by Christian Day
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1578635063
_____
TAROT

78 Degrees of Wisdom
by Rachel Pollack
http://www.amazon.com/dp/157863408

Your mind needs a break. You have to allow yourself to take one.

I get the exhaustion. I struggled with faith vs. atheism but eventually had a spiritual/emotional experience that convicted me in holding fast to my faith. But years later I encountered materialist philosophy and my world was rocked. So as you mention, I was missing a logical link. I just finished Robert Spitzer's "The Soul's Upward Yearning". It's one of the most comprehensive books I've ever read on the evidence/clues for our transcendent nature. Edward Feser's "The Last Superstition" is good too.

But even if you don't read those....know at a basic level that atheism/materialist/eliminative materialist philosophy has a veritable s***-ton to answer for and are not nearly as strong of positions as they make themselves out to be. Catholicism is unique in that it has a robust philosophical root going back to Aristotle/Plato. Give your head a break, let your heart talk to God and give it a go when you feel ready again. Faith is a gift, remember that. You have to ask for it.

Drops a truckload of Trent on you

Jokes aside, the Catholic Church has the advantage of writing down basically everything she's ever done, so you can look to those sources for details on what she says (like the Papal Bull Ineffabilis Deus which declared that Mary's Immaculate Conception was to be held as doctrine).

However, popewords can be hard to understand, especially if you don't have a background in Thomistic thought, so there are other books that may interest you, perhaps conversion stories like Rome Sweet Home and No Price Too High - it's interesting to see the similarities and differences between their paths.

For details on what Catholics believe, there is the recent Catechism of the Catholic Church which is written in a pretty easy language, with lots of references.

There's also the various creeds, of which my personal favorite is the Athanatian Creed which goes into so much detail on the Trinity that we've had very few Christological heresies since.

If you're interested in a non-Catholic take on the history of early Christianity, which was written against the New Atheism, you may like Atheist Delusions - if you want someone to absolutely demolist the New Atheists, you're looking for The Last Superstition, which is also a good introduction to Thomism.

I should also warn you that Catholics believe that baptism by beer is invalid:

>447 Since as we have learned from your report, it sometimes happens because of the scarcity of water, that infants of your lands are baptized in beer, we reply to you in the tenor of those present that, since according to evangelical doctrine it is necessary "to be reborn from water and the Holy Spirit" [ John 3:5] they are not to be considered rightly baptized who are baptized in beer.

If you want to understand our Mass, you can watch this 2 hour video about the Latin (Extraordinary Form or old, Tridentine) Mass, much of what is said will apply to the newer OF.

I normally avoid discussion religion and atheism outside of /r/atheism, but I wanted to respond to your comment because I think it's missing the point of why atheists tend to make these statements.

The point the atheists are trying to make when they bring up certain passages is not to deny that there is good content mixed in with the bad, or to argue about whether the bible on the whole has more good vs bad content. The real argument is that if you read the bible you find plenty of both, and that when people try to claim it is an infallibly good book, it simply isn't true. Atheists do not believe the bible is the divine word of God, and pointing out the many contradictions in the bible (various facts, historical inconsistencies and contradicting moral directives) is just one way of providing evidence of this. When we hear people claiming that other people should "read and follow the bible", we ask "which part?" as a way of reminding them of the problems inherent to their suggestion.

We recognize there is plenty of good in the bible, but that there is obviously bad stuff too. We do not believe it is the inspired divine word of God, rather we generally think it is just a very interesting collection of ideas and stories put together by ancient authors. If the original 'good book' was really just written by ancient men as an attempt to provide a moral guide for their people, why shouldn't we as modern men come up with new versions of morality to live by today; ones that aren't internally and externally inconsistent, and which reflect the vast amount of knowledge we've gained in the interim? Ones that remove ideas about sexism, racism, and homophobia?

To sum up, when it comes to morality, many atheists are in the secular humanist camp - basically the idea is that as modern, self-reflecting, philosophical, intelligent humans we should define what is moral in a modern context, rather than relying on cultural traditions forged in ancient history, from a book that clearly has a large number of moral and factual contradictions throughout it. If you're at all interested to see one view of what this modern reanalysis of morals might look like, I'd highly recommend The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris.

Mahayana is a much bigger beast than Theravada. Rather than a general introduction to all of Mahayana, you would be better off looking for introductions to particular traditions- Zen, Tibetan, Pure Land, etc. Mahayana Buddhists generally accept as canonical the full variety of Mahayana texts, but specific texts are more emphasized by particular traditions.

In addition, there has been a kind of 'reconstruction' movement within the Theravada that sought to reform the tradition to conform more closely to the canonical texts. That movement came about in part because of critique and contact with Western theology, which emphasizes the primacy of source texts. In other traditions, post-canonical texts may be more important- rather than tackling the source texts, monks and lay students are taught from summaries and commentaries that contain the views of the oral tradition and prominent teachers.

Something like Words of My Perfect Teacher contains a pretty comprehensive overview of the Tibetan tradition as derived from the traditional sources... In the Zen tradition, The Platform Sutra is primarily a biography/hagiography of the Patriarch Hui Neng, but also contains information on how the Zen tradition regarded the teachings of various popular sutras.

> Q: How could science guide us on the moral landscape?

> Harris: Insofar as we can understand human wellbeing, we will understand the conditions that best secure it. Some are obvious, of course. Positive social emotions like compassion and empathy are generally good for us, and we want to encourage them. But do we know how to most reliably raise children to care about the suffering of other people? I’m not sure we do. Are there genes that make certain people more compassionate than others? What social systems and institutions could maximize our sense of connectedness to the rest of humanity? These questions have answers, and only a science of morality could deliver them.
-- Sam Harris

>He told me that he has never felt more calm and happy. [...] He says he is having an insight that no one else can possibly imagine because he says it scares them.

I've experienced just that. He will most likely come out of it. Like kirkirus said, just give him time to sort things out and he'll become more responsive.

Whatever he's thinking about, tell him that he is most likely not alone. Human beings in all cultures have spent months contemplating in isolation, and a lot of them have used psychedelic substances.

I would actually be very interested in hearing what your friend has to say. But well! Let him rest, and make sure to tell him you love him! Best of luck.

---
Also, The End of Your World by Adyashanti may be useful to him, or even to you! And perhaps this television series by Alan Watts for a different cultural context.

okay, I do have some recommendations for people just looking around. Check out this page which listed some of the best books for beginners. Within the list I would strongly recommend "Rebel Buddha" by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche (a really modern look at the teaching of the Buddha at its core), and "What Makes You Not a Buddhist" by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche (A really no-nonsense book by a thoroughly modern and renowned teacher). These two gurus are famous for their no-bullshit teaching style and their familiarity with Westerners and these two books really gets to the heart of Buddhist teachings. If you are interested in meditations, I would recommend The Joy of Living by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. This book is shows you how to meditate w/o any religious affiliations and it has help thousands who use meditation as self-help. It also offer a way to understand beginning Buddhist meditation. You can't go wrong with any of these books.

Before anyone think I'm being too sectarian, I am a Tibetan Buddhist and this is what I know well. I'm sure there are other books which I heard are great like many works by the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh but I've not had any first hand experience with their work. I can only recommend what I've read and practiced myself.

Before starting on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, you might want a survey book of Buddhism. Although not at all complete, I do think the book The Buddha and His Teaching is a great academic survey covering many foundations of Buddhism including the Buddha's story, Karma, the eightfold path, ego, attachment, and meditation. It mainly follows the Tibetan model in organization: Part 1: Hinayana, Part 2: Mahayana, Part 3: Vajrayana, excluding focus on schools like Zen and Theravada. All in all, though, an excellent read.

There are also a number of contemporary readings that will explain Dharma through a modern lens. What Makes You Not a Buddhist? was recommended to me awhile back.

Also, if you'd like to get to the heart of it, start meditating. You only need 10 minutes a day of basic shamatha and vippasana practice to start becoming a student of your own mind.

Good luck

EDIT: it just dawned on me that Shamatha and Vippasana might be foreign terms to you. You can do a google search, or you can PM me and I'd be happy to help

I'm unfamiliar with Schopenhauer's work, especially as it relates to Buddhism, but I have read a few books on Buddhism, the best of which was Rupert Gethin's The Foundations of Buddhism, which I highly recommend as an introduction to Buddhism.

It is worth noting that some Buddhists reject rebirth, and have a more "non-magical" take of the Buddha's teachings. Interestingly the truth of karma and rebirth is said to be discoverable when one is developed enough in their meditative practices, and indeed that is how the Buddha is supposed to have discovered it, along with everything else he taught.

Buddhism has some very interesting things to say about the human condition, much of which I can see manifesting itself in my own life, and in some ways many of those truths are being discovered by modern science. See here and here.

So many of the suggestions so far seem to be of the Theravada or Mahayana lineages. It's important to understand that buddhist teachings vary depending on the lineage you follow. The lineages generally coexist respectfully, recognizing that "there are many ways up the mountain".

I just wanted throw my hat into the ring and suggest What makes you not a Budhhist by Dzangsar Khyentse. It comes from the Vajrayana lineage of teachings, and I love the author's pithy style. I think it's the best introduction to Buddhist teachings I have read so far, but it should be coupled with something more conceptually comprehensive.

In contrast I found What the Buddha Taught to be informative, but slightly dry. It was well worth the read, but I struggled to translate what I learned there into my daily practice. Just something to be aware of.

By far the best thing I did was to find an authentic teacher and supportive Sangha. Reading and learning is good, but this path requires so much more of you than just knowledge. I think that finding a qualified teacher is one of the most important tasks that a novice has in front of them, because there are a lot of unqualified teachers in the west who will inadvertently lead you astray.

Because the book mentioned relates to the topic being discussed by technothrasher and ojfrown. It is not uncommon for one person on Reddit to recommend a book he himself, or herself, has found relevant to a topic being discussed and feels the other person might find interesting as well.

Since you appear to think Sam Harris is just "some random guy", I'll add a little biographical material:

>Sam Harris is the author of the New York Times bestsellers, The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, and The Moral Landscape. The End of Faith won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction.
>
>Mr. Harris' writing has been published in over fifteen languages. He and his work have been discussed in Newsweek, TIME, The New York Times, Scientific American, Nature, Rolling Stone, and many other journals. His writing has appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Economist, The Times (London), The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, The Annals of Neurology, and elsewhere.
>
>Mr. Harris is a Co-Founder and CEO of Project Reason, a nonprofit foundation devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and secular values in society. He received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA.

Should you wish to learn more about the book, see The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values.

Some people are willing to read the works of authors who might have opinions that differ from their own.

From a post I made awhile back:

If you want to go for a scholastic/western positive apologetics approach check out: The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology.

If you want to go for a scholastic/western negative apologetics approach check out Alvin Plantinga's God and Other Minds. This is the work that actually re-kindled serious philosophical debate on the existence of God in Anglophone philosophical circles according to Quinten Smith (a notable atheist philosopher btw). From there you could also check out Alvin Plantinga's warrant trilogy in order: Warrant: The Current Debate, Warrant and Proper Function, and Warranted Christian Belief.

Personally I'm skeptical of the scholastic/western approach in general and I favor the Eastern/Mystical approach. I think the scholastic/western approach cannot escape radical skepticism, and I mean this in terms of secular and religious. If one takes seriously the scholastic/western approach in general, whether one is atheist or theist, radical skepticism follows. This video from a radical skeptic that goes by the user name Carneades.org does a good job of demonstrating this: Arguments of the Indirect Skeptic

The Orthodox approach has always been mystical rather than scholastic all the way from the beginnings of Christianity. From Jesus, to the apostles, to the church fathers, to right now we still have the original apostolic faith in the Orthodox Church. Check out this short documentary to learn more: Holy Orthodoxy: The Ancient Church of Acts in the 21st Century.

Fr. Vladimir Berzonsky explains the Eastern/Mystical approach: "To properly understand the Orthodox approach to the Fathers, one must first of all understand the mystical characteristic of Orthodox theology and the tradition of the apophatic approach to an understanding-if "understanding" is indeed the proper word-of what the hidden God in Trinity reveals to us. This needs to be combined with the insight that what is incomprehensible to our reason inspires us to rise above every attempt at philosophical limitation and to reach for an experience beyond the limits of the intellect. The experience of God is a transcendence born from union with the divine-henosis (oneness with God) being the ultimate goal of existence. This makes the requirement of true knowledge (gnosis) the abandoning of all hope of the conventional subject-object approach to discovery. It requires setting aside the dead ends of Scholasticism, nominalism, and the limits set by such Kantian paradigms as noumena/phenomena. One must return to, or better yet, find in one's heart (or nous, the soul's eye) union with the Holy Trinity, which has never been lost in the Orthodox Church."

Source: Fr. Vladimir Berzonsky, (2004). Three Views on Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism. p. 178. Zondervan, Grand Rapids

As for Tibetan Buddhism, I remember that Words of My Perfect Teacher says that the number of hell beings compared to pretas is like the stars visible at night compared to stars visible in the day. The same analogy applies for the number of pretas vs. animals, and the number of animals compared to humans.

The Pansu Suttas say the number of sentient beings who get bad rebirths as opposed to good rebirths is like the dirt under your fingernail compared to the size of the planet Earth. That's from the Pali Canon, so it should apply to all traditions.

>Then the Blessed One, picking up a little bit of dust with the tip of his fingernail, said to the monks, "What do you think, monks? Which is greater: the little bit of dust I have picked up with the tip of my fingernail, or the great earth?"

>"The great earth is far greater, lord. The little bit of dust the Blessed One has picked up with the tip of his fingernail is next to nothing. It doesn't even count. It's no comparison. It's not even a fraction, this little bit of dust the Blessed One has picked up with the tip of his fingernail, when compared with the great earth.

>"In the same way, monks, few are the beings who, on passing away from the human realm, are reborn among human beings. Far more are the beings who, on passing away from the human realm, are reborn in hell.

I completely agree with your comment.

The Thoth tarot is wonderfully deep, if you are also interested in studying the occult symbology.

If you prefer a gentler approach to learning, then other decks - especially R/W are a good starting point.

I only came to love the Thoth deck after using RW for tarot for several years, and, in addition, studying occult disciplines. And I read The Book of Thoth before I read "Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot"

Rider-Waite is a fantastic learning tarot, and far, far more powerful as a teaching deck than most others on the market today IMHO.

I'm an atheist, and most will hate me for this, but I don't recommend The God Delusion. There are better books, and Dawkins is much better when he writes about biology.

Atheist worldview book: I recommend Sense and Goodness without God by Richard Carrier

Books about Christianity (there are so many to recommend, but these are some favorites):

• The Christian Delusion by various authors.
  
• Gospel Fictions by Randel Helms
  
  I'm a big fan of Spong, so I would recommend any of his books. Also Robert M. Price is worth looking into, he has lots of free sermons and writings available from when he was a liberal pastor and theologian, which he is not anymore.
  
  

Discussions on free will always raise my ire. It seems that the majority of philosophers in the field are compatibilists but theists seem to always be ignorant of the last 300 years of philosophical thought in the area of free will. Appeals to quantum mechanics strike me just as absurd as libertarian free will. Random effects at the quantum level do not degrees of freedom in action make.


Unfortunately most people are stuck in the determinism vs libertarian mindset. Compatibilism offers an amazingly powerful argument to the contrary. Other good resources (besides the stanford philosophical dictionary I linked above) are the discussion on free will in Richard Carrier's Sense and Goodness Without God and Daniel Dennett's Elbow Room: The Varieties of Free Will Worth Having.

Magick is for all, I would recommend working on the kabbalah for a start, or reading the liber 4, not necessarily in that order, maybe try liber 4 and then A Garden of Pomegranates by Israel Rgardie and Mystical Kabbalah by Dion Fortune. The Hardcover edition of Liber 4 is a great edition. I have it and it is amazing, and not as complex as most of his writings. This book has a lot of appendixes too, that helps. Having the Thoth Tarot deck and the Book of Thoth and studying its correspondencies with the tree of life is very helpful too.

Fascinating readings anyway.

About what he is in relation to mankind, better judge yourself from his writings.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Thoth-Egyptians-Equinox/dp/0877282684/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_z

http://www.amazon.com/Thoth-Tarot-Deck-Aleister-Crowley/dp/1572815108/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422560601&sr=1-1&keywords=thoth+tarot+deck


http://www.amazon.com/Magick-Liber-ABA-Book-4/dp/0877289190/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1422560336&sr=1-2&keywords=magick

http://www.amazon.com/Garden-Pomegranates-Skrying-Tree-Life/dp/1567181414

http://www.amazon.com/Mystical-Qabalah-Dion-Fortune/dp/1578631505/ref=pd_sim_b_4?ie=UTF8&refRID=0TNF7RPG3Y67DX4G00QH

The Mystical Kaballah by Dion Fortune is probably the best book on the subject, if you are looking to learn directly about the tree of life.

From there I recommend looking further into kaballah through the tarot (literally the tree of life sorted into cards), Liber 777 and Liber ABA (and really most of the thelemic works) by Crowley, and maybe some less "religious" sources, like The Chicken Kaballah..

Above all, I recommend trying to work with the model and apply it to yourself and your meditation. That is the most important thing; the tree can be applied to pretty much anything, and Liber 777 is a great starting point for correspondences for home-made sigils, seals, and rituals :)

Good question. Another one is: What Makes You Not a Buddhist? Actually, this is the title of a great book for beginners on the path:

https://www.amazon.com/What-Makes-You-Not-Buddhist/dp/1590305701

> So you think you're a Buddhist? Think again. Tibetan Buddhist master Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse, one of the most creative and innovative lamas teaching today, throws down the gauntlet to the Buddhist world, challenging common misconceptions, stereotypes, and fantasies. With wit and irony, Khyentse urges readers to move beyond the superficial trappings of Buddhism—beyond the romance with beads, incense, or exotic robes—straight to the heart of what the Buddha taught.

> God wants you to "be good" because He has given you the ability to do so. That is, be good for the sake of being good.

If that were true, there would be no reason for heaven and hell. Just admit it -- "God" is a "father" figure for people who cannot grow up. You need a system of punishments and rewards in order to behave... because you can't trust yourself to behave.

> Santa is an icon for the commercialization of Christmas and nothing more.

No argument here. And you can certainly argue that "presents vs. coal" in the stocking is a system of rewards/punishments for good behavior. But I'm still looking in the Bible for the passage that says "Be good for goodness sake."

While you may believe that God = "Good," many people believe that Morality can exist without some external, transcendent basis.

http://www.amazon.com/Sense-Goodness-Without-God-Metaphysical/dp/1420802933

http://rondam.blogspot.com/2008/05/can-morality-exist-without-god.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthyphro_dilemma%20rel=

For a Bible, I'd recommend https://www.amazon.com/Didache-Bible-James-Socias/dp/1939231140, and the Catechism to the Catholic Church. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0898704510/. It's a great Buble translation and has footnotes that reference the CCC which explains what the Church teaches and why. They're an excellent pair. As for Mass? Others have given excellent advice. As a convert myself, I found The Catholic Church to hold the fullness of truth.

God bless you in your search for truth.

I think most people here are confusing alternate reality/ethereal/astral entities with physical aliens from other planets. The difference being that humans can relatively easily contact alternate reality entities as we can enter their realms where space/time are not limiting. We've been doing this since the time of the earliest humans have walked on Earth. Wherein, physical aliens from other planets, we can't visit them as we lack the technology (faster than light physical travel and/or teleportation machines). That said, some advanced techniques of Astral travel allow objective human consciousness (but not physical body) to travel infinite distances and witness physical realities without needing to be physically present... Well I should mention there's claims of spiritual masters able to physically materialize anywhere but I digress...

If you want to contact alternate reality type entities, then you may want to pickup some books on "magick" and specifically magical evocation. One of the better books might be "The practice of magical evocation" by Franz Bardon. Warning though, this is not for neophytes, and you're playing with fire if you start playing with this stuff. Much like people to play with Weegee boards, then endup having their houses and lives haunted. Read a lot and understand WTF you are getting into before actually doing anything. You can fulfil your curiosity by learning. Don't jump into the car and drive down the highway before you take lessons from experts in a parking lot.

A safer way to contact and interact with ethereal entities is through Astral Projection. I suggest reading "Astral Dynamics" by Robert Bruce

Lastly, if you want to contact real live physical aliens, (and why in the world would you want to do this since many seem to have a habit of doing ungodly things with humans), then you may want to start by visiting the UFO hotspots of the world. You can google around for that. There's definitely some. Then after that perhaps consider Greer's CS5 protocols to make contact in those hotspots - though I have a feeling he's mostly making contact with Ethereal entities not physical aliens.

Good luck, and stay safe!

PS. Stay away from all drugs, unless you really know what you are doing. Staying sane is the only way to have objective experiences. Taking drugs leads to easy experiences but most are going to be highly subjective like a dream where everything is made up by your mind, not an actual reality - though your brain will interpret it as such - then you become insane, or at minimum start believing in things that your own mind created. You'd be losing your mind as you let the crazy out ;-)

It's important to be able to stand up for the Church, so you need to learn history and apologetics. This book points how indefensibly silly New Atheism is. Don't be afraid to ask particular questions on here as pretty much every accusation that can be leveled against Catholics has been used on reddit. Take whatever good things your oldest demands and show them how the Church nurtures them and maintains them. If he wants freedom, teach him of the slavery of sin.

Pray for strength, knowledge, and patience. It's your demonstration of Christian love that will be the greatest help in bringing them back to life. Otherwise you leave it to the Spirit to call them back in time.

Honestly one of the best books I've found for starting is Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollack

https://www.amazon.ca/Seventy-Eight-Degrees-Wisdom-Book-Tarot/dp/1578634083

It gives a great fundamental look at the history of the cards as well as teasing some more advanced topics, so you can really take any topic from the book and go wild with your journey. It works with the RWS deck which most people start with I would say, but the wisdom is universal. It's a great resource and I've never stopped sourcing it even though I've gone through tons of other books since reading this one.

I would just follow the series.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Teachings-Don-Juan-Knowledge/dp/0671600419

It's fiction but based on truths. It's filled with these actually. The later books aren't as powerful. Warning! these books will inspire a vision quest! Have fun and be safe if you do. (Have someone watching over you).

Yeah. I am thinking about having a little piece that goes something like.

For people who have just known (or thought to have known) that God existed, the idea of him possibly not being there is daunting. This is because for these people, their world view was delicately interweaved with their religion. Questions such as how did we get here? Does my life have meaning? Why should I be good? had answers. However, by taking God and religion out of the equation, the world view built around those mainstays is shattered. These questions again come to the forefront.

Luckily, there are many godless world views. These are ways to view life, and its questions, that do not need to invoke the existence of God. Two popular views that members of this subreddit subscribe to are Naturalism and Secular Humanism. These philosophical standpoints are grounded in the natural world, they use science, logic and reasoning to arrive at conclusions about the nature of self, life and the universe.

For a more in depth read on an aethistic philosophy, see Richard Carrier's Sense and Goodness Without God: A Defense of Metaphysical Naturalism .

EDIT: Made changes suggested by NTP below.

I liked What Makes You Not a Buddhist for a bit of a twist on learning some basics.

Despite his critics I’ve always enjoyed Brad Warner’s books. He does a pretty good job of weaving Dogen’s teachings into his own narratives.

The Dhammapada is probably the most widely known of Buddha’s teachings.

The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh is also a great book.

> Why are customs the way they are?

It would depend on which specific custom you had in mind. Many practices are quite a bit more than "custom" actually, and are required as a matter of Halakha. The two major classes of Halakha are biblical (d'oraisa) and rabbinic (d'rabanan).

> How come people who leave Judaism do not talk about it?

There are people who unfortunately leave Judaism and are rather vocal about it... however if I wanted to generalize about those who refrain and/or evade discussion of Judaism, I'd say most likely they were stigmatized in some way and that the same reasons they sought to abandon Judaism in the first place is the same reasons they seek to avoid discussing it in the present. It probably brings up memories and emotions that they find too painful to confront within themselves.

> I want to know the deeper meaning behind everything... Just anything and everything.

A proselyte once asked Rabbi Hillel (c.110 BCE) to teach him the entire Torah whilst standing on one foot... God-willing with patience and time you will come to understand quite a bit in greater depth :)

> Why do some families keep kosher and some do not.

With the advent of the Haskalah (the Jewish Enlightenment) in the 18th/19th c. many Jews for the first time had the doors of Western society open to their integration. Many Jews seeking acceptance simply abandoned Judaism altogether, others sought to reform Judaism in order to facilitate greater acceptance within modern society without given up everything (this is where the origins of most of the liberal denominations can be traced back to). Accordingly during this period many Jews stepped away from Judaism's traditional practices, including the dietary laws. This in addition to the eventual deep and profound trauma of the Holocaust which has contributed to the face of modern Jewry largely not reflect the practices of their ancestors.

> Wikipedia has not been helpful at all.

Unless you have a very specific topic in mind, wikipedia can indeed be too daunting a source to get any kind of real comprehensive view. A general introductions to Judaism can be found in Hayim Halevi Donin's book "To Be A Jew: A Guide To Jewish Observance In Contemporary Life." I've heard that it is very good and very accessible (an easy read). I see that you can find used copies on Amazon for as little as a penny! A work like this or something of a similar nature would probably be the best place for you to start. If you read something you don't understand there, or would like to understand in greater depth, feel free to let us know :)

You''re trying to equate someones personal respect (in my case) for other people to me being forced to do something for a religion... that's not the case. There is no Muslim morality when you get down to it, Sam Harris might be able to explain it better to you than I can.

Frankly I think nudity laws are stupid, and repressive. I think it's silly a man can be topless and a woman cannot, if some African ladies told me it was repressive I couldn't walk around topless I would agree with them. However if I wanted to walk around topless, there are cities and places I can go to where the law is actually ok with me walking around topless/nude. You better bet that if these Muslim women tried to walk around not in full body cover anywhere there would be a shit storm coming right at them.

I think that like most things there is a time and a place for everything, and if they chose to wear these full body and face covering clothes that would even be ok, if it wasn't in conjunction with all the other things that oppress these women. If it was "These women are treated as equal but out of respect for their religion wear these garments" fine, but any religion that is based around keeping women down and glorifying men is clearly not acting in the women best interest, and anything stemming from it is going to be put in a negative light regardless.

It's easiest to think of the astral plane as a real place, lower levels of which roughly correspond to our physical plane (while even lower levels could correspond to some people's ideas of 'hell'), while other higher aspects can be like alternate realms/worlds. When you sleep, a part of you often floats above your physical body like a boat tied in the harbor. If you train yourself to see through that floating astral body, you can do 'astral work' i.e. have a presence in the land of dreams, and then see just how real that land can truly be, especially around the 'real-time zone' (in the part that corresponds to the physical world you know).

Because I've dealt with spirits for years, I would say that what you experienced was an astral encounter with helpful spirits, the results of which became apparent after you woke up. It's not uncommon to become suddenly more aware while dreaming and then have a dream turn into a fully conscious astral event. I've been pulled out many times by spirits and human mentors. Welcome to our world! It only gets weirder and more fascinating from here. ;)

Edit: Buy or download this book. It will tell you everything you need to know.

Oh wow. As to specific books. Hmm. That's sort of all over the place but each one had something to offer. The ones I remember are:

• Conversations with God books 1 and 2.
  
  
• The Power of Now
  
  
• Sacred Heart Yoga
  
  
• Change You Aura Change Your Life
  
  
• Children Who Remember Previous Lives
  
  
• Old Souls
  
  
• Dreams, Evolution and Value Fulfillment
  
  
• A New Earth
  
  
• Practicing the Power of Now
  
  
• The Chakra Deck and The Walking Deck
  
  
• Some books by Doreen Virtue
  
  
• Some books by Deepak Chopra
  
  Books on my list to read:
  
  
• The Mind Made Prison
  
  
• The Untethered Soul
  
  
• The 7 Ancient Keys to Happiness
  
  
• Zen and the Perception of Happiness
  
  
• Making Sense of People
  
  
• The End of Your World
  
  
• Flow
  
  
• Starting from the End
  
  
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Dummies
  
  I have also dabbled in the study of Zen and a few types of Buddhism, Tao, other Eastern Religions and philosophies as well as some Western religions, ho'oponopono, mindfulness and reiki.
  
  Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle have some good techniques for separating yourself from your ego.

First. You need to take a deep breath. You’re doing great.

if you are worried about a meal tonight find A Chabad in walking distance call and email the Rabbi ASAP. Chabad specializes in people with very little background and will love to have you for dinner

Second this is a life long journey. Consult with a Rabbi you like and trust on which siddur to buy as well as the direction of your study.

As far as code of jewish law start more basic that that probably with To be a Jew https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0465086322/ref=tmm_pap_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=&sr= five dollars shipped A kitzur is nice but may not be applicable to your community depending.

Another good book for neophytes is Jewish literacy for less than ten dollars shipped https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B001F0R9HQ/ref=tmm_hrd_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&qid=&sr=

Again, take a deep breath, you’re doing awesome.

This book has been sitting in my to read stack a while: http://www.amazon.com/The-Occult-Colin-Wilson/dp/1842931075, and is supposed to be an excellent book on what you mention. He also wrote another book, The Outsider, with more of a philosophical bent that I've partially that's the reason I know about him. Another one you might want to consider is:

http://www.amazon.com/Teachings-Don-Juan-Yaqui-Knowledge/dp/0671600419/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410349123&sr=1-1&keywords=don+juan+carlos+castaneda

which was undertaken originally as an anthropological study of shamanism but became more of an examination of black magic.

If you're interested in more general ideas of why people think about gods and monsters then I would definitely check out William James' Varieties of Religious Experience, which talks about the possible psychological underpinnings of mystical thinking. This lecture along similar lines https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WwAQqWUkpI is also fantastic.

My brother has read a lot more concerning this and has many more books that I could ask him about if you'd be interested. I mostly just dabble.

What are you interested in? Wicca, candle magick, hermeticism and alchemy, Setianism, Qabalah, tarot, mythology, astrology, goetia, esoteric christianity? A little bit of everything?

My recommendation is to start with something you're really interested in and pick up that one thing. If you're interested in Crowley, then you might be interested in tarot. My suggestion is getting a simple book by a laymen's author like Amber Jayanti on the tarot. As you read the book, circle, highlight or write down (or add to a shopping list) sources to which that author refers - Jayanti may cite Paul Foster Case a lot. Once you read some Case books, then you'll start to see Crowley pop up. Pick up Lon Milo DuQuette's book on Crowley's Tarot. Then you can probably read Crowley's Book of Thoth.

My other advice is not to worry about not picking up every little detail of every book. You won't have the schema necessary for every small detail in every book, and part of reading in the occult is rediscovering the deeper meaning of something you thought you already knew, like a spiral upward.

Well this is a bit exhaustive, I would suggest reaching out to more than one person, perhaps making a thread in this sub or really many other subs as the abrahamic framework and the monotheistic framework is a point of belief in many mediums.

>Why does being a creator mean that?

well first we would have to define what the creator even means, how familiar are you with Kalam and Plato's ideas of God and greek logic overall?

>morality is about improving the lives and existences of humans

well we would all hope that as well, but one should be wary of utilitarianism and its shortcomings.

You should really seek out questions like the origin of reason, and philosophical commentary on the matter.

If you want to go deeper here are some books that may be worthwhile to read/ take a look at. like this one or this one

I've been on the looks for one myself, and I think this one suggested for me seems pretty great: https://www.amazon.com/Didache-Bible-James-Socias/dp/1939231140

Coupled with the Catechism it should be great.

> Ideal for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the Catholic faith and intended to be accessible by all Catholics in its level of scriptural scholarship.

> I had especially in mind free resources from the internet.

All of these books are interesting in places: sacred texts tarot

The best ones I have read are not online:

The Thursday Night Tarot: Weekly Talks on the Wisdom of the Major Arcana by Jason Lotterhand
and
Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Book of Tarot by Rachel Pollack

Not entirely sure if this is what you're looking for, but, there's a handful of books that people have written that attempt to explore the symbolism and meaning of Crowley's deck.

A friend of mine, a member of the local OTO Lodge and EGC, has several. I know these two are in his library for sure:

- Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot
- The Thoth Companion

There's also the old stand-by, Crowley's own exploration and essay about the deck:

- The Book of Thoth

Apologies if these aren't what you're looking for, and I hope someone comes along that can answer your questions more satisfactorily.

I recommend giving Carlos Castaneda's "Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge" a read. Some dispute it's authenticity, but many of the teachings in it line up with indigenous Mexican brujos' and diableros' use of entheogenic substances and divination.

Don Juan, the Yaqui sorcerer the author apprenticed under, speaks in an animist language, personifying the spirit of the plant as a teacher and ally in the sorcerer's descent into the world of spirits. He refers to peyote not just as a cactus that "makes you trip balls" but as the body of Mescalito, the spirit of the cactus that has a life of its own. It is certainly an interesting way to approach to the topic, one that is shared by many indigenous cultures that live closer to the earth.

These two are good for all levels: A book on the Tao, A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are by Byron Katie. For using journaling to support meditation: Quiet Mind, Open Heart. Lots of thought provoking questions, as well as meditation practices.

For people who have practiced a while: The End of Your World: Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment. It can really help give direction beyond basics.

>How is that possible?

Israeli beer. Kashrus info etc.

>go to synagogue coz you haven't been there for year" or what?

I'll tell you that.

>What to do?

Go to shul. Daven, do mitzvos, learn torah. Drink a peach snapple. I love Peach.

>Is it possible for Hashem to give us signs in modern times? Or only Prophets were able to see them? Like Salomon for example.

It all happened so you could post this on reddit, and become closer to Hashem.


Recommended Reading:

To Be A Jew: A Guide To Jewish Observance In Contemporary Life

On Judaism: Conversations on Being Jewish

Judaism for the Rite Reasons

Becoming a Jew

This Is My God

There are two amazing resources available to help you.

TorahMates and Partners in Torah.

Do not hesitate to make use of them.

And stick around this awesome sub!

>I'm half-Jewish

No such thing. Either Jewish or not.

> my mother being secular but ethnically Jewish.

Jewishness is passed strictly along the maternal line. Was her mother Jewish also? If so you are 100% Jewish.

> I'm eager to find more of a connection with Judaism and Jewish history


Recommended Reading:

To Be A Jew: A Guide To Jewish Observance In Contemporary Life

On Judaism: Conversations on Being Jewish

Judaism for the Rite Reasons

Becoming a Jew

This Is My God
>Would people raised with more of a connection to the community and the faith find it unusual or inappropriate that someone like me might take interest or identify with the Jewish community?

Nope, happens all the time.

Check out Torah Mates, and Partners in Torah.

• Focused and Fearless. A Meditator's Guide to States of Deep Joy, Calm, and Clarity by Shaila Catherine. Beginning to Intermediate.
  
• Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond. A Meditator's Handbook. by Ajahn Brahm. All Levels.
  
• The Attention Revolution. Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind by B. Alan Wallace. All Levels.
  
• The Open-Focus Brain. Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body. by Les Fehmi. Beginner.
  
• Emptiness Dancing. by Adyashanti. Intermediate.
  
• The End of Your World: Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment by Adyashanti. Intermediate/Advanced.

Please, please, don't take this the wrong way or be offended, but reading this made me extremely sad -- especially the part about giving up and moving to chaos theory instead.

If you want to understand the basics of the structure of the Tarot and learn some simple rituals, then I would strongly suggest this book and deck by the Ciceros.

Without a firm grasp of the basic Tarot, I feel that Crowley's Thoth deck and book will be too confusing. If you insist on learning the Thoth before the basic Tarot, then I would suggest supplementing Crowley's text with this book by Duquette.

Please don't give up... just study a lot more theory! Good luck!

P.S. PM me if you'd like and I can point you copies of these books online.

EDIT: You may also be interested in this other book by the Ciceros. I have a copy but I've only flipped through it. Don't let the cover or title turn you off. Check out the Table of Contents and you'll see it hits a lot of important topics and provides a lot of example rituals.

The foundations of buddhism by Rupert Gethin is a good start. I think it provides a very solid ground to build upon, as it provides historical information on the development of buddhism, aswell as doctrinal information on both theravada and mahayana. It's basic, or rather, it's written for beginners, but it still contains a lot of very good information. It has very good reviews on amazon too (link), so many people evidently like the book.

Of the four, I'd probably recommend Harris. Given the freedom, I wouldn't recommend any of them if you're trying to expand a theist's mind.

Suggestion 1 from me is Guy Harrison's "50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God". He goes through the 50 most common reasons people gave him when he asked, and explained why an average skeptic/atheist doesn't find those reasons compelling.

Suggestion 2 is probably a volume on naturalism (for example "Encountering Naturalism" or Carrier's "Sense and Goodness Without God"). Firmly establishing a coherent, complete worldview that doesn't require gods can be a valuable step.

Ok. Start with these books. And know that despite what you’ll learn, it is still 100% okay for you to enjoy Tarot without using them for divination. Lots of people do and that’s a wonderful thing.


The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination

Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Book of Tarot

Tarot - The Open Reading

I lost my faith as a Protestant and spent a while as an agnostic/atheist before becoming Catholic. My advice would be to really work at keeping an open, receptive mind and a real desire to know the truth. A little prayer wouldn't hurt either -- whatever you can muster, even to the God you're not really sure exists. Christians believe that Truth is a living person and He's reaching out to you. If you are seeking Truth, you will find Him.

I don't know if you're a reader, but a book that helped me immensely was Orthodoxy. It's G. K. Chesterton's recounting of his transition from agnosticism to Christianity. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Chesterton will change your life. Another good book --the best modern refutation of atheism -- is The Last Superstition by Ed Feser.

Edit: typos

I decided to cruise the town one day and check out all the local occult shops. One was mostly focused on wicca. I happened to put my address on their e-mailing list, and one day I received an e-mail from them about a series of beginner tarot classes that would be held nearby for $30, presumably taught by an acquaintance of the owner of the shop.

I didn't attend these particular classes, but my point is you might try finding local community stuff in a similar manner, by poking your head in an occult shop and asking around.

I have consulted these sources:

• The Book of Thoth on Hermetic.com - Crowley's approach to tarot is syncretic, throwing qabalah and astrology into the mix among other things. If you're wanting to work with popular Rider-Waite-style decks maybe skip this one and check out:
  
  
• Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom - A popular reference. Pretty dry, IMO, but comprehensive.
  
  
• The Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages - Paul Foster Case knows his shit. I just got this one, haven't started it yet. Also a syncretic approach tying in other disciplines.

Sidebar and wiki, obviously. You might also want to try out a couple books and resources to get you started. I'm partial to Paganism: An Introduction to Earth-Centered Religions to give an overview of all of the various aspects of nature-based religions (so it covers Wicca, modern druidism, and other paths).

If you're looking for more of a magical introduction, though, Lisa Chamberlain's Wiccan series isn't abominable. "Wicca for Beginners" is a good read in particular if you're looking for more on specifically Wicca.

Be aware that there seem to be as many interpretations of the Wiccan path and magic practice overall as there are stars in the sky and so you'll run across people who will disagree/despise any book you pick up. Also, for many, Wicca is a religious practice, not just a magic path. (For me, magic and religion are deeply intertwined.) So it's not just "sorcery" or a magic path that you're going to be exploring--you'll also be learning about deities and spirits that many practitioners truly believe exist and should be respected/worshiped for magic to "work."

... and then you'll run across Wiccans who say the gods are allegorical and it's all just a symbolic way to think about cosmic energy. It runs the gamut.

So yeah, start there, and it ought to give you a pretty good foundation from which to continue your magical and spiritual explorations.

You mentioned in this thread that you were interested in WLC. There are several works that might be helpful to you:

Reasonable Faith

and if you have a lot of time

Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology (Craig and Moreland, but includes a large collection of topics from many modern philosophers)

Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (Craig and Moreland)

Again, these last two are rather extensive, but you may find them to be useful if you're interested in the philosophical/scientific aspects of Christianity. Hope this helps!

The Words of My Perfect Teacher is a great book on the preliminary practices in the Nyingma tradition. The preliminaries aren't much different from tradition to tradition, so it's pretty applicable regardless of the school. This book will give you a crystal clear idea of what your practice would be like for the first X,XXX hours of practice if you happen to begin a Vajrayana practice.

If you're keen on Dzogchen, you could also check out The Crystal and the Way of Light.

What would an "effect" look like to you? Are you chasing after a feeling? I'm going to repost something I already posted today:

> In the Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas argues that we do not change God through our prayers; rather, by praying, we “obtain what God has appointed.” Basically be the change you wish to see and use prayer to find out what that change is.

Also if you are curious about strengthening your faith I always recommend this book. Be warned, there is some HEAVY metaphysics in there.

Bart Ehrman's books & videos are a great start for the accuracy of the Bible. He is very clear especially considering he's an academic. Forged would be the best one specifically about the accuracy of the Bible. His books are linked at his website: http://www.bartdehrman.com/books.htm

There are no historical documents of Jesus' life, only a few references to Christians from later documents. Nobody disputes that people believed in Jesus, so those don't really prove anything. It's clear that people believed in Thor and Zeus too. That doesn't mean a thing.

Whether faith is helpful or good, can't help you there. I think it's totally useless except to control sociopaths with low IQs.

For morality, check out Good without God: http://www.amazon.com/Good-Without-God-Billion-Nonreligious/dp/006167012X

or Sam Harris The Moral Landscape: http://www.samharris.org/the-moral-landscape

Science vs religion: that's kind of apples & oranges despite what believers keep saying. Science is a method of investigating hunches. Religion is subservience to an unproven deity.

How about the science of religion? Try Michael Shermer: The Science of Good and Evil: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0805077693/ or The Believing Brain: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1250008808/ or Why We Believe Weird Things: http://www.amazon.com/People-Believe-Weird-Things-Pseudoscience/dp/0805070893/

Thanks for visiting. An unexamined belief system is not worth believing!

Crowley's Book of Thoth is also available online for free as it's now public domain. There's also an excellent thoth book by Don Milo that's almost required reading if you're into Crowley mysticism as it relates to the Thoth tarot: https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Aleister-Crowleys-Thoth-Tarot/dp/1578632765

I'd recommend getting the large format Thoth deck, there's a ton of tiny detail that kind of gets lost in the smaller reprints.


That said, the Rider-Waite deck comes from the same Hermetic tradition and has much of the same symbolism. The imagery is a little less... dense? Surreal? and a bit easier to relate to at first (plus all the pip cards are illustrated, making the minor arcana easier to learn). There are also a bunch of excellent resources for the RW since its sort of the "default" deck.

Yes, I don't believe however that moral-good is any sort of divine or supernatural concept, but merely a set of constructs by which we can minimize human suffering and maximize happiness.

What do you think?

Edit: The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris describes pretty much what I am describing but in much greater detail and clarity.

>For instance, nobody desires to be a true sociopath (ie: physically and chemically cannot feel good or evil), and those who are true sociopaths... well... many do not function well in society. Like it or not, what God defines as good... really is good

That is not a sociopath. Sociopaths lack empathy, but they may be acutely aware of societal norms. Jon Ronson just wrote a book about socio/psychopaths. I would suggest you read up on the Euthyphro dilemma. We can debate all day about the meaning of "good", but the god in the bible is not it. Condoning rape, commanding genocide, condemning though crime, those are the acts of the god of the bible. Those are not in any way good. If you want to know a little more about modern views of morality you should read up on the evolutionary causes of morality. Sam Harris wrote a very good book about it recently

>How much evil should God get rid of divinely?

Well, none of it according to the bible. Isiah 45:6-7 (Young's literal translation but you can look it up in whichever version you like)

>So that they know from the rising of the sun, And from the west, that there is none besides Me, I [am] Jehovah, and there is none else, Forming light, and preparing darkness, Making peace, and preparing evil, I [am] Jehovah, doing all these things.'

Not novels, but -

[The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Electric-Kool-Aid-Acid-Test/dp/031242759X) - a very readable account of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters by Tom Wolfe

[The Teachings of Don Juan] (http://www.amazon.com/Teachings-Don-Juan-Yaqui-Knowledge/dp/0671600419/ref=la_B000APXVFG_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404522090&sr=1-1) - presented at the time as research/non-fiction, since questioned, but still pretty fascinating

Please read this book, it will help you a lot: https://www.amazon.com/End-Your-World-Uncensored-Enlightenment/dp/1591797799. It's basically written for you - you will relate, just like I did.

What I learned from it is what you're experiencing is normal - he says most people lose it before they gain it for good. And even then it's somewhat possible to lose it haha. What he says is it's all part of the process, it's important not to fight it, not to resist it, because the more you fight something the more you get of it.

I don't feel I'm gonna lose it, but I could be wrong and I don't much care either way. I was already pretty happy before it happened through openness and honesty. I had 1.5 years of the worst depression in my life before I learned to be happy. I'm not in a position to give advice (I feel like a newborn), but if I was forced to, I'd say: don't sweat over it, "sweating" is what ego does best, don't give it that power.

As for me, I meditate every day for 20-30 minutes because I find it enjoyable and I like the process of quieting my mind. I am also going to Vipassana in about a month. Mostly I plan to just chill and unfold with the flow. I distinctly feel that the fear of losing it is counter-productive. It's all ego talking.

Here are some works that might interest you: (Introduction wise, not as a systematic defense)

Plantinga, Alvin. God and Other Minds. Cornell University Press, 1990.

Feser, Edward. The Last Superstition: a Refutation of the New Atheism. St. Augustine's Press, 2011.

Plantinga, Alvin. Knowledge and Christian Belief. Eerdmans, 2015.

Pitre, Brant. The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ. Image, 2016.

Feser, Edward. Five Proofs of the Existence of God. Ignatius Press, 2017.

10 second simplified/short version:

1.) Theism is almost certainly true. (See Feser and Plantinga)

2.) Christianity best fits #1. (See Plantinga and Pitre)

I found the section. The misspellings are not present in my translation. In fact all of the language is different in my book. It seems like your PDF and my book had different translators.

You can preview it and see the same section on Amazon at the link below.

https://www.amazon.com/Initiation-into-Hermetics-Franz-Bardon/dp/1885928122

It's called the "Human Being: The Body" in the book. In the book, it reads:

\> The external visible appearance of the body resembles a beautiful garment, and beauty with all its aspects is...

The rest goes on like that. In the book it's grammatically correct and doesn't have spelling errors.

not a grimoire per say but i find franz bardons book initiation into hermetics a good place to start for energy work.

one thing it talks about is drawing life force and/or white light from the universe or yourself and impregnating it with your wish or desire. One thing to keep in mind working with life force, if its for yourself use you own lifeforce. if its for someone else draw it from the universe.

bardon says to do this because if you use your own engery on someone else you might take on a bit of their karma due to a connection i think.

https://www.amazon.com/Initiation-into-Hermetics-Franz-Bardon/dp/1885928122/

After some unique meditative experience and a couple rabbit holes thanks to r/conspiracy I've been practicing, so I am by no means a seasoned astralnaut. I'm reading the following right now and it's been very helpful. I've had some mediocre success but the symptoms I've experienced align with what I've been reading. /r/AstralProjection is a great place to start.

Astral Dynamics: The Complete Book of Out-of-Body Experiences by Robert Bruce

IIRC this book (intentionally) left out the inner order rituals of the R.R. et A.C., as did Cicero's "Self-Initiation" book on the GD, which I would also recommend. These inner order rituals can be now accessed, at least the amended version used by the subsequent Alpha et Omega group (one of the few true G.D. lineages) in "Secret Inner Order Rituals of the Golden Dawn" by Pat Zalewski, much to the dismay of contemporary G.D. groups. You can also find a more novel and elaborate (and equally exclusive) reproduction of the Whare-Ra version of an Enochian manuscript from their Inner Order known as "Ritual X" once you've gone over the other material, or should you wish to add it to your collection.


Whether these will be of any use to you is debatable. If you feel a particular connection with the G.D. current and curriculum give it a shot and see how it resonates with you. If it does not, you can always go the A.A. route and see if Thelema (or your take on it) is your thing.

For a more practical approach, I would recommend "Initiation Into Hermetics" by Franz Bardon first, followed by "Modern Magick: Twelve Lessons in the High Magickal Arts" by Donald Michael Kraig. Then decide which path, or lackthereof, you would like to explore from there.

I thought that orthodox accept conservative conversions, but not reform. I'm familiar with the conversion process. Two book that I would recommend, which might be helpful in your journey, are To Life! and To Be A Jew. Hope this helps!

Check out [this book](Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot https://www.amazon.com/dp/1578632765/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_RnwAyb7JQ3T1Q) instead. It's basically The Book of Thoth rewritten to be more easily understood. Liber Theta is also available for free as an online resource.

Honestly, you don't need to feel connected to your deck immediately. That connection sometimes doesn't develop until you've been using it for a while and have really gotten to know it. I'd suggest continuing to study with your Thoth deck while you research other Thoth based decks until you find one you like. Tabula Mundi is my personal favorite.

> The consensus is many are forgeries.

The consensus 'amongst people you subscribe to' is many are forgeries. Most of their ideas are quite frankly full of suspicion and more like conspiracy theories than a search for truth.

The consensus over the past two thousand years is overwhelmingly in favour of traditional authorship.

>I don't necessarily agree with that. I know that's the orthodox view, but I don't mind being outside of orthodoxy. I'd rather be outside of the traditional orthodoxy, since I find it often incorrect.

I'm hardly surprised to see you write that.

You do essentially deny all that makes Christianity Christianity.

I suspect your view stems from the doubts you have over the existence of God and anything miraculous such as the bodily resurrection of Christ.

In relation to these two issues, let me ask if you have considered the 'argument from fine-tuning' as evidence for the existence of God? It is the argument which caused prominent atheist professor Anthony Flew to change his mind about the existence of God (so much that he wrote a book about it ).

The second is related to the resurrection of Christ. Apologist Dr. Gary Habermas has compiled a list of twelve historical facts on which most critical scholars agree with regards to the death and resurrection of Christ. There is enough evidence here to affirm the truth of the event if you are really looking for the truth, rather that trying to doubt it.

> If we had writings of them clearly doing so, I'd certainly appraise him differently. We don't have that though, and we do have evidence of them fighting back and forth.

So you don't consider Galatians 2 to be evidence of this?

> It's not about what I "like", it's about truth.

That isn't how it appears I am afraid.

By the way, I am still interested to hear your response from here.

You wrote this:

> I follow Jesus. I follow him as best as I can despite us having flawed accounts.

I responded with this:

> What exactly do you follow?

> If the accounts are flawed, how can you trust any of it?

> Which parts do you adhere to and how do you choose them?

I am very interested to hear your responses please.

I would personally recommend The Didache Bible from Ignatius Press. It has lots of references to the Catechism in the footnotes, and I've found it super helpful to connect the historical context as well as presenting how the Old Testament and New Testament connect very fluidly. Its translation is RSV-CE, which I also appreciate for being more readable than the DR (which I love, but is certainly more difficult to read). Here's an Amazon link if you're interested!

The Didache Bible: With Commentaries Based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church https://www.amazon.com/dp/1939231140/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_k9bxDbDEB8SK1

If you're interested, I recommend picking up a copy of Astral Dynamics. In it the author describes common phenomenon like your closed door being open when you were projecting, which he calls a "reality fluctuation".

I say to read this because it is in depth but it also has the great suggestion of how to objectively verify an experience. It's simple: just take a playing card and place it face up on a surface you can't look at normally such as the top of a book shelf or something similar. I did this (but using two cards as I still that the probability of 1 out of 52 was still too high for verification purposes) and was flabergasted when I flew back into my body, checked the cards and saw that they were the same as the ones I saw while I was projecting.

Refuge is a bit like Christian conversion, but more importantly it's a continuous thing. Every Vajrayana practice kicks off with taking Refuge for example, and it's also a practice in itself. Here's a teaching by Chögyam Trungpa on this topic. For a classical in depth look I recommend the relevant chapters in Gampopa's Jewel Ornament and Patrül Rinpoche's Words of My Perfect Teacher.

My brother, I feel your pain and struggle. You are losing the only foundation you’ve known and are in free fall regarding your faith, or lack thereof. This struggle is actually good, but painful to go through.

I’m not qualified to tell you what to become, or to believe. That depends on your research and desire. I found solace through Humanism (as an agnostic atheist) and it’s not a sad grumpy existence at all. Others have channeled their faith into other religions. Sadly, others have transitioned to other cults, but that’s a different story by itself.

I highly recommend a book called Good Without God by Greg Epstein. I think it may clarify some things for you.

Maybe others can recommend resources for those inclined to remain faithful to the concept of a deity but in a healthier way.

Good Without God on Amazon

Richard Carrier used to consider himself a Taoist before giving that up as well in favor of simple atheism.

Do check out his book "Sense and Goodness Without God; a Defense of Metaphysical Naturalism" it is quite good and he talks a bit about his history with Taoism as well as the ethics of non-belief.

http://www.amazon.com/Sense-Goodness-Without-God-Metaphysical/dp/1420802933

The Preciousness of Human Birth is a good reminder for me. Walking and contemplating these ideas makes every step, every breath and every thought I have feel a bit like a miracle. I forget the name of the teachings they gave on retreat, but it was from this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Words-Perfect-Teacher-Translation-Introduction/dp/0300165323

I also find the 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva to be very helpful on bad days.

Good luck to you.

>However, several people have told me that I would never "truly" be accepted as a jew due to my not having been raised in the culture.

This is not true.


> Also where are good places to get further information on conversion

The side bar FAQ


This reading list is pretty good but overwhelming


>but would like more practical info

To be a Jew is a good place to start and you can get a copy for four dollars after shipping from Amazon (not to mention it's probably in your local library)

This is my favorite book on the Major Arcana.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Fools-Pilgrimage-Kabbalistic-Meditations/dp/0835608395

I think the author is Donald Tyson, but Portable Magic is a great book on constructing rituals for tarot.

As for learning card meanings almost any is fine to get yourself started. I usually recommend starting with whatever your local library has on it instead of spending money or searching for a .pdf.

However if you get a Thoth Deck this is the most reccomended book on it.

http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Aleister-Crowleys-Thoth-Tarot/dp/1578632765

I am not really qualified to represent a scientific explanation of altruism. However, I have read books and some research done. We take care of disabled people because humans have evolved empathy and sympathy. This fits into our evolution as a social species. Our species was stronger with these traits and it benefited our over all survival, or it probably would have evolved away. Sure a blind man may not be useful for physical jobs and required care and attention, however they tend to have usefulness anyways in some cases. Blind people can still teach for example. Evolution doesn't have anything that contradicts taking care of cripples or people who would seem to put a disadvantage to our resources.

The moral landscape goes into good lengths to apply science to moral values.

/u/kempff recommended starting with Aristotle's Physics. This wouldn't be my own main recommendation for an apologetics work, though. Aristotle's surviving works are rather cryptic in style (they are generally believed to be lecture notes not intended for publication) and do not engage with modern materialist views.

I'm going to recommend two books. Neither is a source of detailed technical arguments; each gives a fairly broad overview of the arguments for theism that the authors find most convincing. Maybe they'll open up some new avenues of exploration.

The first is There Is a God by Antony Flew and Roy Varghese. Antony Flew was one of the most prominent atheist intellectuals of his era. At the age of 81, he made the shocking announcement that he had become persuaded of the existence of God, though he still denied the existence of an afterlife or any claims of divine revelation. This book was his major public statement on what had caused him to change his mind (though he doesn't really get down to this until halfway through the book). Many in the atheist community reacted to Flew's new deism with denial and speculation about Flew's mental faculties in his old age, and it was alleged in the press that a senile Flew was being exploited by his Christian coauthor; Flew publicly confirmed multiple times before his death that this book represented his own opinions.

The second is The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss. The author is a Christian, but this book only goes so far as to defend the God of Aristotle and Flew, drawing on pagan, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh writers as comfortably as Western and Eastern Christians. He says he only aims to provide a definition of the word "God," but a great deal of ink is spent heaping scorn upon naturalism.

The best general introductory work is The Foundations of Buddhism by Rupert Gethin: http://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Buddhism-OPUS-Rupert-Gethin/dp/0192892231 It's very readable and is a thorough introduction to the history, practice, and theory of Buddhism. It's widely recommended as the first book you should read by scholars in the field. Starting with a solid rational and diverse understanding of Buddhism is definitely valuable.

I just mentioned it in my big check-in post in the Lesson 2 topic, but thought I should give you a personal recommendation for Lon Milo duQuette's Chicken Qabalah. He's got a nicely tongue-in-cheek humor about the whole thing which really helped me feel more comfortable with it all.

It helps to have more specific questions, but of course, having specific questions usually requires some basic level of knowledge.

jewfaq.org is pretty good. we have some decentish resources in our wiki. there's a judaism stackexchange, but like stackexchange as a whole it tends a bit towards elitist, high-level, and unfriendly to beginners.

The standard book recommendations when this situation comes up is To Be a Jew and Jewish Literacy.

Also possibly relevant, depending on your tastes, This is My God by Herman Wouk. Was reminded of this book by this Ask the Rabbi, which also recommends Partners in Torah -- possibly relevant, depending on your level of investment in learning more (sets you up with a weekly study partner)

---

did a quick google, this looks relevant: https://www.xojane.com/it-happened-to-me/found-out-jewish-ancestry-in-20s

So does the book Suddenly Jewish, which I found via this article

oh and there's this post from a day ago: judaism for beginners

---

also, for your perusal, the search results for "found out jewish" on this sub

I was doing the Franz Bardon Initiation into Hermetics method.

I just got to the "clear your mind" part. That is hard, but rewarding, as I have had some success with it and helped me get control of my emotions, but that was just a side-effect because I didn't even know that would happen.

Many here are correct on the specific translations to use. I also will push that if you are looking for a study bible that I am finding a lot of success with the Didache Bible. It is the RSV-2CE translation which I like as it is a much more literal or true translation. The footnotes help me to understand where the scripture, church teachings, and catechism meet.