Does God Exist ?

Though I have been told by many that God Does Not Exist. 
And given perfectly logical reasons which make a great deal of sense. I have found that faith is never a function of logic. Of the many different religions they all have several features, which tie men together in a form of Harmony. Love, Compassion,Kindness, And Generosity. These are features which almost all encompass. Qualities which can even be found in the animal kingdoms. To those who tell me God doesn't exist.....I can only tell you this. Not everyone gets to be touched by his hand. It can start by a near death experience. Which turns into a lifelong passion. Or simply little whispers in the night egging one on to something better. Even Albert Einstein had his own thoughts on the matter. Whatever the debate. I can tell you that a mission of Love, no matter where it comes from, can have a profound good effect on one's own life,

And Others. <3 span="">;-Gary

An abridgement of the letter from Albert Einstein to Eric Gutkind from Princeton in January 1954, translated from German by Joan Stambaugh. It will be sold at Bloomsbury auctions on Thursday

... I read a great deal in the last days of your book, and thank you very much for sending it to me. What especially struck me about it was this. With regard to the factual attitude to life and to the human community we have a great deal in common.

... The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this. These subtilised interpretations are highly manifold according to their nature and have almost nothing to do with the original text. For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything 'chosen' about them.

In general I find it painful that you claim a privileged position and try to defend it by two walls of pride, an external one as a man and an internal one as a Jew. As a man you claim, so to speak, a dispensation from causality otherwise accepted, as a Jew the privilege of monotheism. But a limited causality is no longer a causality at all, as our wonderful Spinoza recognized with all incision, probably as the first one. And the animistic interpretations of the religions of nature are in principle not annulled by monopolisation. With such walls we can only attain a certain self-deception, but our moral efforts are not furthered by them. On the contrary.

Now that I have quite openly stated our differences in intellectual convictions it is still clear to me that we are quite close to each other in essential things, ie in our evaluations of human behaviour. What separates us are only intellectual 'props' and 'rationalisation' in Freud's language. Therefore I think that we would understand each other quite well if we talked about concrete things. With friendly thanks and best wishes

Yours, A. Einstein

The world's 20 largest religions and their number of believers are:

Christianity (2.1 billion)

Islam (1.3 billion)

Nonreligious (Secular/Agnostic/Atheist) (1.1 billion)

Hinduism (900 million)

Chinese traditional religion (394 million)

Buddhism 376 million

Primal-indigenous (300 million)

African traditional and Diasporic (100 million)

Sikhism (23 million)

Juche (19 million)

Spiritism (15 million)

Judaism (14 million)

Bahai (7 million)

Jainism (4.2 million)

Shinto (4 million)

Cao Dai (4 million)

Zoroastrianism (2.6 million)

Tenrikyo (2 million)

Neo-Paganism (1 million)

Unitarian-Universalism (800,000)
 #minds #blogs #religion #god

Gary On Religious Faith

I do not feel that all good comes from religious faith. Any more than I think that religious faith makes everyone good. The Popes recent statement about atheists going to heaven has many scratching their heads. I find a twist there which is difficult to accept. But am not a Catholic. I have people on my friends list who do not share my beliefs. They are there because I must accept that all of us are allowed to choose. Even the worst man, can have some good in him
So I look for that. I do not have to agree, If one obeys the law, respects the rights of others, uses charity and good will in their thinking and actions. Then I can respect them. Salvation, that's a power beyond my providence. I leave that to a power far greater than my own.-Gary


It is not religion which is corrupt
It is evil men who twist religion.
Then convince others.

Leave Life In Gods Hands

Lately I have been worrying some about the future. I have been just tending to the present for it's own sake. But I feel better inside and out. If I have learned anything in Life, It is that having faith can cure whatever ails you, many feel this is false hope or irrational logic. But I have found that to "NOT" be the case in very real ways that are measurable in personal happiness and even mental health. Leaving your worries in Gods hands helps. Suicide becomes a silly option, even if your in pain. Open your heart and mind to the infinite possibilities. You'll never feel really blue again 

smile emoticon -Gary Graefen

Shopp Electronics

An Open Mind and Open Heart

The tenants of being a good person are pretty clear. Obey the law, treat others with courtesy and kindness, respect others rights.
When it comes to religion things start getting muddy. If you are a buddist,christian,jew,hindu,muslim or any of the other 1000's of religions you are taught to believe that this way is the only way. Follow the tennets of "OUR" brand of faith and you will have everlasting life, or be reincarnated, or what ever else it teaches.
The problem becomes this. We are all unique-even twins become different over time. Each of us has our own experiances and values. So it becomes almost impossible to expect that each of us might have the same spiritual experiances, or be able to look at faith the same way. Though the teachings of the given religion are pretty clear, the way the believers follow those teachings becomes as unique as they are.
This is why we have some muslims out murdering in the name of jihad. The Christian crusades, and thousands of other historical references to "genocide" in the name of God.
If it is my Gods way-murder and rape is ok If its your Gods way you are a criminal.
In my life and on this blog are things I think, experiances which are true and that I have had. At 54 I do not apologize for what life has revealed to me. I have no need to lie about it or to create fiction I am not getting paid for this.
Some read what I have to say and decide that I am irrelvant because I do not fit into there narrow minded view about the universe and what it entails. I truly believe that all of us are here for a reason.
So what ever my purpose might be-It must entail who I am, how I got there, and one day I hope to be revealed why.
If you come to my profile I promise 3 things.
1. You will be responded to with courtesy and respect
2. You will read the truth about what I think, why I think it, and if autobiographical as close to the way it was, as I can remember.
3. If you write I will respond, and I will, as I can, post comments on your profile and on your blog as I have time. The right to a comment of your choice so long as it is not vulgar or in poor taste. I do have children which read my profile and my blog.
What you will not get from me is an identical view of the universe, ideas just like your own, a similar religious point of view, or really anything like you at all.
Because I am unique in experiance and life. Just Like you are!
Some of the friends I have here you might not approve of. They are friends because I saw something interesting in there profile. From being creative,attractive,witty,forceful,socially aware,politically correct, and politically incorrect,kind,thoughtful, and any number of hundreds of things. I as an individual am very open minded about almost everything.
You do not have to be-Just don't visit them if you don't like what you see.
The point is that if you want to be a friend here-READ about me, Open your mind some. And choose because you would like the little things I can send your way.
I only have cut two people, 1 because he was insanely narrow minded the other because I was getting myspace virus from there profile. "I had to change this policy because of lots of requests from unchild friendly" profiles. Don't take it personally. The world is hard enough for a young teen.
If you are a lady and somehow feel like I have neglected you, I apologize.
Let me know-I tend to favor those who choose to write me. I am not a magician, I need input to give output.

Certain Death and Dying

My wife and my children had decided that we needed to go to on a picnic. As usual with five children it was quite an ordeal. After bundling everybody up and loading the car, then stopping at the store to pick up food, we made our way to the freeway. As usual it was bumper to bumper all the way to Malibu Canyon Road. We finally arrived at the park after about one hour. After unloading the car and setting up the picnic table we decided to take a hike back through the mountains of Malibu Canyon. On our journey we found a small ghost town. This ghost town had been created for an old movie set; they used to do westerns here. We spent a couple of hours wandering in and out of the buildings and playing cowboy with children. The kids decided they were hungry, so Kathy left with them back to our picnic table. I decided that I wanted to continue up the canyon and see what was ahead. I walked for at least two hours, and came to a large part of canyon wall that had a giant cliff. The only way across was to cross the Cliff. By now it was about 6:00 p.m. and starting to get dark. I realized that if I tried to go back the way I came, it would be dark and I might get lost in the canyon. So the intelligent human that I am, I decided to cross the Cliff. I decided that in order to do it safely I needed to be on my back and crabwalk across the Cliff. Approximately half way across my foot slipped. I started to slide, I knew that if I fell off the Cliff I would be killed. The drop was at least 50 feet and covered with boulders at the bottom. One never really knows how frightened you can be until you're faced with what appears to be certain death. I screamed at the top of my lungs God help me I cannot die now I have five children to care for. My concern at that moment was really not about myself, I genuinely was worried about how my family would get along. I was struggling madly to try and slow my descent. Suddenly 1 1/2 feet before the edge of the Cliff I just stopped sliding. It was as if a giant hand reached out and grabbed me to keep me from going over the edge. My belief in God the Almighty was completely reinforced that day. I never questioned my belief in God again.
We live a world of scientific proof. I only believe if it can be repeated. People even doubt what they see with their own eyes. Many stories are told through centuries of time. But if I didn't see it or it never happened to me I do not believe. Faith is about belief from the heart-not the head. God answers when the heart is in the right place. And not until then.