I have beliefs that don’t fit in any church or religion.

1. I remember before I was born. That I know of, the only religion that comes close to that is the Mormons who believes that before we were born we were in a very nice place. We are sent here basically to earn our way back, however, they believe that you don’t remember it, well I do.

2. The Christians believe in a rapture that is to happen before Jesus returns, I agree, but believe that it already happened. I base this on a tour I took of the Catacombs of Rome while I was in the Navy. I was fortunate to have a real historian conduct our tour who gave us pretty much the history of the Roman empire. Rome murdered Christians horribly just for sport in their spectator stadium. To escape, the Christians hid down in the Catacombs. They etched things in the walls of the Catacombs like fish, birds, anchors and other strange things and he said, nobody really knows what those symbols mean. He said some will guess and think they know, but know body really knows. I thought that was really strange. One day the leader of Rome converts to Christianity and creates the Roman Catholic Church and makes himself the first pope, though their church history denies this and Rome goes from killing Christians to putting to death anyone who refuses to become Catholic.

Study the history of Christianity and the first organized church is the Roman Catholic Church and all churches that exist today have broken off from the Roman Catholic Church, well what happened to the Christians before that time? And why doesn’t anyone know why they etched fish, birds, anchors and other strange things into walls of the catacombs?

The Christian church teaches that Peter would be the rock of the church until Jesus returns, Christians believe this strongly today. I don’t know, it looks to me like that rock got broke, or did it. Maybe, now this is just an idea, the Christians that we don’t know a lot about, who hid in the Catacombs to escape persecution have been raptured into heaven.

This is what I figure happened. Word got to Alexander, the Catacombs were empty, we couldn’t find any Christians to capture to bring into the arena for our entertainment, could it be that Jesus did come back and get them? So Alexander and his advisors had to think fast, because if word got out that Jesus did come back and take his followers home there would be panic in the streets and the Roman empire could be toppled. So they came up with the bright idea of claiming to have converted, organize the church, make yourself the leader and should anyone disagree with your dictates, they are also disagreeing with God himself. So you could sweep this bit of history under the carpet and no one would dare question it or they would be tortured, imprisoned, and or killed.

That’s what I believe happened though I have no way to prove it. The only church I know of who comes close to that same belief is the Jehovah Witnesses and I have a friend who visits once a week teaching me the bible in hopes to convert me. They believe the rapture happened in World War I, or something like the rapture, that’s a little fuzzy, but maybe in time I’ll have a better understanding of that.

3. One day I decided that I would start over and stop believing everything I have ever been taught and start over, study for myself and discover for myself what I believe or not so I studied all the major religions and I must admit that unknowing to me, when it came to Islam I had studied the Christian version and it was “The Nation of Islam” and not the Islam religion. “The Nation of Islam” and “Muslim” is not the same, they are two different religions and I hadn’t read the Koran, but I did start reading it. I had read all the Gnostic scriptures that existed today and decided that the Gnostic were the true religion mainly because, they we’re not around anymore. Though some have tried to recreate Gnosticism and it is often referred to as New Age, a lot has been lost, many of their scriptures have been destroyed, so the new age is really guessing. I did however receive a message from someone saying that the Gnostic have moved underground and are now the Illuminati of today, well, I don’t know, I think that is just a smoke screen.

But anyways. The Gnostic believed in two Gods, they believed in a true God and a false god. Now if you believe their is a false god and a true God then you really only believe in One God, and that of course would be the True God because the false god would of course be false. But, because they claimed to believe in two Gods, they were wiped off the face of this earth for breaking the commandment where God commanded he was one. A sad misunderstanding and just an excuse to kill another. History tells of babies of Gnostic parents being hung from stakes.

The Gnostic believed that the false god created our bodies, but the body had no life, so the true God breathed into the body the soul and brought the body to life. Salvation for the Gnostic was to escape from this human body that we are trapped in and once again return to the true God. It made sense to me, so I decided that’s what I would believe.

Then one night I had this dream that told me that it was true that the false god created our body, but the false god also created our soul, but the true God takes us as if we were a ball of clay and makes us unto himself. That of-course goes against Gnostic teaching and that teaching I was given in a dream can be found no where that I am aware of.

So, this is why I am a man without a church or religion, but on my own out here. But I find truth in all religions, churches and teachings. I even believe that Mohammad was a true prophet of God. Because Mohammad teaches us of the spirit of the false Messiah who rules our world.

Some have tried to help me interpret this dream because they want me to join their church or religion, but what is there to interpret, pretty straight forward. My own father has tried to explain to me that I had been deceived by Satan, but since when does Satan deliver hope of salvation? I can show you many places in the bible where people have been guided by their dreams, but I don’t know anywhere in the the bible that Satan has deceived anyone with a dream.

Genesis 1:27 – And God proceeded to create the man in his image, in God’s image he created him; male and female he created them. (The New World Translation- a Jehovah Witness Bible)

The Jehovah Witnesses gave me this bible and I gave them a donation for it, but they said it was free and I said I’ll pay for it anyways.  So far in comparing it to old faithful KJV I’ve not found any errors, and it is very easy to understand.  I’ve been told that the Catholic bible was the most accurate version, but I don’t think the Bible Church who told me that heard of this one.

I was listening to a clip of Coast to Coast and they had some historian expert on (didn’t catch his name) who claimed that Genesis was the oldest religious transcript in the world.  And that the new world order people were working hard to discredit it but were not able to.  I wished I could have heard the whole show so I knew what he was talking about, but I just got into the middle of it. You know how (me) and a few people like me believe that when the bible was talking about the sons of God finding the daughters of men desirable, we think the bible is talking about Alains.  Well this guy claims that there were two races of mankind on the earth at that time.  One followed God and this is why they are called sons and daughters of God and the other fell away and are called son’s and daughters of man.  Now that opens up a whole new train of thought.

Not a subject discussed on coast to coast, but I’m thinking now maybe this might shed some light onto why both Satan and Jesus are called the morning star and Jesus keeps being referred to as the son of man while he is also acknowledged as the son of God, so you know, I got to look into this.

So far I got as far as Genesis 1:27 and I remembered, now that I am a minister, that this is something I need to share whether I’m listened to or not.  Because there is a lot of confusion about this.

I have been told that the bible is sexist and thus the Jewish, Christian and Muslim religions are sexist.  I will not deny that there are religious leaders in all three religions who are sexist and thus lead people to be sexist, but this is a mistake and Genesis 1:27 explains it.  If you come across a Jew, Christian or Muslim who believes that it is taught that man is superior to woman, you can explain to them that man is men and women and here is your little verse that they subscribe to as the ultimate authority, to show them and prove to them that they are wrong.

If further proof is needed, tell them to google, “deborah the prophetess.”  There is no greater person on this earth in any of these three religions than a prophet and if a woman can be a prophet, then how can she be less than a man.  And if that don’t work, explain how Jesus was born of a woman without the help of a man, now that should stop them dead in their tracks right there. They might argue that there are more men prophets than women prophets, and right there, I’d just give up with the realization that some people just aren’t capable of learning.  But it is true that most of the prophets, government leaders and corporate leaders are men, this is by design of woman, not men.  If women wanted it to be different, it would be, it is enough that they be mothers of prophets, government and corporate leaders, this does not make them less but only because they are equal that this is so.  I’m going to try to explain this the way  I understand it and you can disagree and teach me something new, because one thing I am certain of, I can learn, I can be taught.

The spiritual explanation of men and women is:  Woman is the inspiration and man is the creator.  In other words, women inspire men to create.  Men and women are different.  I’m not going to create a list of this is men and this is women because we will argue over it for days, weeks, months, years, forever possibly.  Lets be honest, we kinda lost site of what a woman and a man is.  If you have lived on this earth awhile, you will have seen some men who act more like what you think is a woman than most woman you have known and you will see some woman who act more like a man than most men you have seen.  I think this is partially natural and unnatural.  I think in nature you will find this naturally occurring but our domesticated life style we have created for ourselves and a state of confusion that we seem to be in today is a contributer.

What has caused the confusion we seem to be in today is equality.  This is something that some people just won’t get.  It is believed by some that to be equal to me, you must be just like me, if you are different you are less than me.  This to me is a sign of maturity and some people just won’t grow up.  They will believe, that to be as good as me, you must be just like me.  They will never understand that someone who is different than they can be equal to them, they just can’t get it.  Part of this is the fault of our society where we send our kids to school to learn math, science and proper word structure but fail to teach wisdom and understanding.  Some say that this is by design and I have to agree.  Why would you want someone to question things, wouldn’t it be better if we all just went along.

So, men and women are different, but are both equal having been created in the image of God as it is written in Genesis 1:27, according to an historian, the oldest document in existence. Whether you believe that this writing is a scientific document written in reality or a Parable written in dream language, meant to portray a truth, either way, it means the same thing.  It is possible for two people to be different and yet still be equal and we need to learn this and began treating each other as such, then, there will be peace in the whole world, and it begins with me.

PEACE.

This weekend I was depressed.  I had bad dreams that people did not like me, so I took a gun and blew my head off.  I prayed real hard to have better dreams and I did, last night I dreamt that everybody liked me.  Weird huh?

Update on the future.  I figure 2012 will be interesting and people are tired of me talking about it.  I think those of us in Oklahoma are going to be ok, but that’s only a guess, I have nothing but hearsay to base it upon.  My X wife said she had a strong feeling and I also have a feeling.  Also based on a dream I had long ago that the earth shook really bad and we had no TV, radio or telephone.  The discrepancy is, there was no mention of the Internet in this dream and I’m not real sure if that is relevant, but I’m guessing we won’t have any Internet either.  This is my guess from my brief studies on the subject.  Planet X will be headed onto a path right at us or close to it.  As planet X follows this path it will go right thru the Asteroid belt, and when it does this, as it has done in the past, it will send asteroids in our direction, at least one will hit us.  This has happened before to our earth.  But as in the dream, we lived, but didn’t know what happened.   This could explain why it was before I was born I saw a mushroom cloud.  I always believed it was an atomic explosion but now I believe it might have been an asteroid slamming into the earth.  All of this makes me think of the Georgia Guide Stones.

I have moved in with my old girl friend who has always loved me, as I have learned a great and simple lesson.  Though we must try to love all, don’t leave behind those who love you the most, they deserve your most.  Don’t try to make friends with those who want nothing to with you, just like Jesus when faced by a town of people who wanted him to leave, who thought swine were more important than people, he just walked away, that’s what you got to do. 

I’ve bought my girl friend an engagement ring, we plan on getting married in May.  She has lost her job.  I hope she finds a job soon so that we can begin to make plans.  I will be a grandfather in February and I’m not sure how I feel about that.  I’m supposed to be happy, but the grandchild will live over a thousand miles away so what’s the point, just means I’m getting older, but I’ll pretend to be happy because that’s what I’m supposed to do.  We are supposed to visit in May when the child is baptised and please don’t comment about the value of children being baptised, I will not post it, it doesn’t matter.  I believe God appreciates it anytime we think of him, and yes I believe God is a him based on a dream I had, so leave that one alone also.  We don’t know, we really don’t, people should just be allowed to believe what they want, you don’t know, so how can you tell anybody that they are wrong, because you might find yourself turning around some day and saying, “they were right all along.”

If my girlfriend gets a job I will buy me a new computer, it will have a solid state hard drive, something I’ve been waiting for a very long time.  I thought hard drives that spin in circles at thousands of rpms just to give us our data was a joke and was always wondering when we would move out of the dark ages, finally, can’t wait to get my hands on it.  A job with the Coca Cola Company looks promising, I will pray.

This blog used to link with my facebook, recently that has not worked, I need to figure out why, but if this post doesn’t, well then I’ll have to do it my self.  My facebook name is Minister Roger Peacefulpoet.  Sounds corny I know, but that was the only way facebook would let me do it, as I have recently became an ordained minister.  I had to make my first name minister, it would not except reverend.

Emily, one of my friends on facebook just brought up a good point.  Whether or not the green house effect really has an effect on the climate is only one part of the problem, a lack of oxygen is causing people to become sick.  Recently it has been discovered by accident that a lack of oxygen causes paranoia in people.   I was at a party some time back and someone had mentioned how everyone is so paranoid these days, I said, “it was the lack of oxygen.”  Everyone laughed, they thought I told a joke.  The other problem is TV,  if you come to know me you’ll hear me blame a lot things on the TV, but it is to blame for a lot of things.  On TV, the glass is almost always half empty.  We seem to be attracted to that, but in the end, the hero always wins.  In the real world we are never faced with all this death and destruction, and while we imagine ourselves as being the hero, in real life, we can never be that person, because that person is acting and the story is never real, even when they call it reality tv.  So we look around us and expect those we like to be that imaginary hero.  When we look at others we will always compare them with those we encounter on tv, the good and the bad, and these are only people acting out characters that don’t even exist.  So when the earth shakes and the tv will no longer work, it will be a good thing, we will be forced to see each other and ourselves as we really are and stop pretending to be something else or expecting others to be different.  The hypnotic trance of consumerism will pass and we will have to find new ways to be happy.  Rather than buying new things and throwing old things away, we will learn the value of things, ultimately the value of each other.

Cindy Sheehan posted this on her Facebook and I thought I should repost it. Discouraged, Satan is the ruler of this world and we can’t change that. I tried to commit suicide and lived anyways and what the hell for. I’ll tell you why:

If I can stop one tear from falling today, I will have a good day. If you could stop one tear today, you can have a good day. If we all stopped one tear, we can all have a better day and the world can have a better day. We can never win, “BUT” we can make things better and that’s why we’re here.  So do your part and “STOP ONE TEAR TODAY”. Don’t give up like I tried to do.

Peace and Love
Roger

Had this dream last night

Thunderstruck black clouds form in a distance
A cold wind blowing our way
I’ve got a place for you to stay
I’ll keep you safe
When the storm passes
I’ll let you free

We all need someone sometimes
But we all need to be free all the time
Let me hold you when you need me to
I’ll let you go when it is time to leave

I thank God for the storm that brought you
and the strength to let u free
Because that is the way it is supposed to be

By: Roger Harkness
08/06/09

I had a dream once where I died, it was a long, long ago, sometime I’m guessing in the late 1800s, I was a bank robber. I was a tall strong man who wore glasses. I stepped out of a Lutheran Church, walked down some steps and then down a walkway and nearby was a man seated on a bench, when I got passed him he shot me in the back three times and I died. He was a bounty hunter. I woke up. I thought it strange how I knew I was bank robber and that I was leaving a Luthern Church and the man who shot me a bounty hunter. Until I had this dream I used to have back pains right where the bullets landed but since the dream the pain has not appeared. I believe this was my earlier life and that would explain why I am not a tall strong man today and why I could not stay in heaven.

Strangely I have always remembered before I was born. I was in a wonderful place where there was perfect peace that is indescribable. Looking down I saw awful things, fighting and murder and such, I can’t recall all the details but I do remember the last thing I saw was a mushroom cloud bellowing up. An older man with white hair, beard and mustache (who in my younger years I believed was Jesus) came to me and said, “It’s time to go.” I felt like I knew it was coming but I was hoping it wouldn’t happen. I just could not believe after seeing all this, I would be sent there, I was distressed so much that my inside shook and tears flowed from my eyes. Understanding my pain, the older man wanting to reassure me that I would be okay put his hand on my shoulder and said, “You will be Okay.” You figure, hey, I was born in America, it hasn’t been perfect but its been okay. I spent 14 years in the Navy and never fired a gun.

When I was very little we used to have this red and white encyclopaedia set called the book of knowledge. When I would take my nap everyday I liked to look at the pictures. Sometimes when I went to take my nap I didn’t have one to look at, so I would pray to God and one would appear, when I opened it I would see that same mushroom cloud bellowing up into the sky and then it would stop and a red X would be painted over it. I had this happen about six times, but wasn’t counting so I don’t really know how many times. I was very little, before I was in kindergarten, I was psychic then. I always knew that the phone was going to ring and I always knew who was calling.

I’ve read the bible and book of Revelations several times; belonged to many churches, been baptized three times and been to several alter calls. I’m thinking it was around 1988, but one day I woke up and really began to question things. Who condemned me that I should need salvation? All of a sudden the idea that I would go to hell for not finding salvation became ludicrous and I realised that it was I who condemned me for believing something that is completely stupid. So I decided to throw out everything that I ever believed and start over. First I decided that there was a God, there had to be, looking at all of creation and its perfection, perfection cannot come by accident – and nature is more than perfect, it is art above anything we could create if we tried, no, it could not be an accident, there must be a God. So I began to study ALL religions.

I’ve read almost every scripture I could find, studied most all religions and doctrines. Hindu, Buddhism, Confucius, Indian, etc. I settled on the Gnostic religion believing the church was in aposticy.

The Gnostics believed that there were two gods. The false god was created but did not know there was anything created before it and thought it was god and created us, but we did not live and the true God had mercy and came down and breathed into us the breath of life, thus we are the only animal on this earth having a living soul. A living soul capable of great things but trapped into a carnal body. Jesus’s life, teaching and death was all about freeing our living soul. The old testament would reference both the true and false god and get the two mixed up which would explain why we have a god who would claim to be jealous and tell us to kill innocent women and children. Then I had this dream in 1996:

Now I have the truth, but it is such a little piece of truth with a million questions. I’ve prayed for further explanation for years and not received an answer, I finally decided that if I did know how we are taken like a ball of clay and made unto God, or what that even means and what is the false god and the true God? If I knew all these answers I could then tell which church was true and which church was false. I could tell which religion was false, and what one was true. I could even know what system of beliefs was right or wrong. MAYBE I’m just not supposed to know that, because there are people who very much love God and try to do His will and want to believe that they are, what would happen if I came along and told them they were wrong? Does it matter, beliefs are nothing more than strings of ones and zeros that we put together in the back of our head. When we stand before the judgment we may receive a reward for our belief in God not our belief about God but MOSTLY we will be judged according to our works.

It is now 2009 and by 2012 The Aztec Pahana is to return with the missing corner to signal the beginning of the new brotherhood; is this Jesus?

During my life I have made several attempts at suicide and thought about it much when my feelings get hurt because I know there’s a better place to be, I remember being there and all I want to do is go back there. I’ve just turned 50 today, having lived a half a century and decided it’s time to stop being a cry baby and sit down and figure out what this is all about. If you could help, I started a new group. I Remember Before I Was Born

~Roger The Okcitykid~

Making Of The Mud

Gray skies are blue
Lightning is frightening too
When rainbows are no where to be found
This is when the world is flat
Rather than round
I want to turn the light on
But I can’t find the switch

Is there really something on the other side of tomorrow
or have we borrowed it all away
and Jesus are you really coming
do you really exist
and what is God who stands and watches his creation
crash and burn in its own greed
from whence is our seed
actually I dreampt that a false god created us
this might explain the fuss

The storm makes mud
That the Lord will take
and make unto himself

By:  Roger Harkness

03/04/09

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I wrote this poem today.  I felt a little depressed today, not real bad, just tired.  Putting in a lot of overtime and we’re working hard taking contracts from other states.  Usually when I feel bad it is time to write a poem, it makes me feel better.  I usually don’t know what I will write until I start writing and then a poem comes out and I will usually discover something new.

Based on my studies of the Gnostic religion I had a dream that we were created by the false god but the true God will take us as if we were a ball of clay and make us unto himself.

Our current state looks hopeless as a storm appears to be coming and it doesn’t look like we will be able to stop it.  A storm makes mud and God will take us from the mud as if we were a ball of clay and make us unto himself.

If the true God had created us to begin with we might not have been so ignorant, but because of our selfish self destructiveness we take ourselves apart so the true God can recreate us the way we should be, to support life rather than destroy it.  So that’s what this is all about.  Now you may not believe this, but that’s alright, this is my religion and I believe it.

http://www.peacefulvet.info

http://www.peacefulvet.info/testimony.html

http://www.peacefulvet.info/mybeliefs.html

http://www.peacefulvet.info/poetry

I get a lot of email (not just junk mail – we all get that, gmail is very good about filtering that out).? I spend hours daily going thru my mail and am never able to read it all.? Most recently I have started to receive email from people wishing to convert me to Christian (once they discover I am not) and Muslim.? I even get email from one individual who wants us all to believe that the Catholic Church is really evil.? While he does offer a lot of factual news articles, well, I’m sorry.? While it may be true that one church might be better or worse than others, or one religion worse or better than others, it is not my place to judge this and I won’t go there, I find such things a waste of my productive time and because he has no option to unsubscribe from his list, I will have to add him to my spam list.

To you who are religious like myself but might belong to a religion unlike me, feel free to share, it’s ok, I’m curious, I like to learn, and even to evangelize may be apart of your religion and that’s ok too, I don’t mind, but be careful not to try to convince me that you have the corner on truth, I assure you, YOU DON’T.

****

I have read the bible, I have also read all the Gnostic scriptures, the teachings of Confucius, the Hopi legends, Jewish Apocrypha not included in the bible and about half of the Koran.? Next I plan to tackle the book of the dead, Egyptian scriptures. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof , for correction, and for training in righteousness,”

**** – You should not say that my testimony or beliefs cannot be found in the bible.? I can remember being told that the Catholic’s teaching about purgatory was not scriptural and that’s what I told a Catholic Priest one day who was happy to show it to me in the bible.

The KKK uses scriptures to justify their actions and the early settlers actually quoted scriptures as they were throwing Indians into the fire.? Hitler was scriptural too and so was Bush in his decision in attacking Iraq.

You see, you can make that bible say almost anything you want, you just have to find the right scriptures.

But I’m not going to waste my time or yours throwing scriptures back and forth trying to prove something.? Because the real word of God is in the heart not on a piece of paper.

You ask your heart, was we all born on this earth to die and go to hell unless we are saved?? If you tell me that your heart agrees with that, then I think you’re lying to me or you have manipulated you’re own heart to accept beliefs that it could not.

With all due respect, that usually
happens when a person follows hearsay, what was heard
in church rather than what was read in God’s word.

****, you didn’t read my testimony.? But I’ll tell you what, I’ll shorten it for you.

For the longest time I searched for salvation, I joined several churches, been baptized a couple times. I was looking for truth or true salvation.? I spent many years, Pentecostal, Bible Churches, Catholic and the last was Mormon.? One day I woke up and asked myself, who condemned me?? Who made me believe that if I wasn’t saved I would go to hell, that’s nuts. What kind of God would create something just to send it to hell?? So I discarded all of my beliefs and started over and I studied all the major religions and decided that Gnosticism was the most true and it was then that I had this dream:

THE DREAM

With out question, thought or prayer
For no reason what-so-ever I had this dream one night
I saw nothing, but only heard a voice
A?voice that was both male and female.
“It is true that the body is made by the false god
But the false god also creates the soul
This continues to happen
But God takes you and makes you unto himself
As if you were a ball of clay
And makes you His own
This process takes time.”
I woke up

**** – To understand this dream a little more you’d have to have an understanding of Gnosticism.? But no matter, because this dream is actually saying that Gnosticism is wrong.? And you know what, I don’t know a single religion that believes what’s in that dream, and you know something else, I don’t know of any religion that teaches that we came from heaven (that’s in my testimony) except Mormonism.? But they teach that you can’t remember, but I do remember.

So I have my beliefs that I didn’t just make up nor did anybody teach them to me and I’m all alone without a church or religion, but you know what, I don’t care.? And I’m not going to try to prove to you or anybody else my beliefs, because I don’t have to, I don’t doubt what I believe.

Like you, my father believed I was being deceived and I disowned him because of it and he died shortly after and I felt a little bad about it.? But you know my dad did a lot of bad things in his lifetime.? You know what, he never said he was sorry.? Two words “I’m sorry.”? would have fixed a whole lot of hurt, but he believed he didn’t have to because conveniently Jesus died for his sins so he didn’t have to.? I think he will discover that he was mistaken.? I figure he will be sent down here again to try it again to see if he gets it right, and that don’t mean to live a perfect life, but say “I’m sorry.”

So now that you know a little bit more about what I believe, you can believe it to or disbelieve it, that’s up to you.? But you are not going to make me disbelieve what I believe even if I’m the only person in the world who believes it.

Sincerely,

Roger

*******************************

So what do I know. I know that salvation is a process and that I’m not going to hell and that’s all I know.

So what is the true God and the false god and does the life and death of Jesus have anything to do with this process, I DON’T KNOW!

So I don’t know a lot and have lots of questions, I do have some ideas and let me explain here and now, religion is faith in things unseen, things that cannot be proven, or unproven, so all you people who spend your days trying to disprove or prove religion, it disappoints me that I live in a world that is so ignorant – but good luck with that, you who have so little faith that you must defend it and you who have no faith and must justify it.? You both have much to learn.? Learn to be confident in your own beliefs rather than steal your confidence from the destruction of others, this is disappointing.

But I will share this one idea I do have, as I believe it does have the backing of logic. I believe that the God that created the earth, the birds, trees, flowers, the fish and the bees and all other living things on this earth is not the same god who created us. And this is why I believe this. All other life is a part of a natural order that sustains each other on this earth maintaining this earth for a very long time. However, we are different. We go against the natural order on this earth and may very well be someday it’s destruction. We create great things like no other animal on this earth and some scriptures actually refer to us as gods. Some have argued with me that we are just like all the other animals on this earth and while I think that is a very nice idea, they miss the obvious and do not recognize how we are so much different than all the other animals on this earth. That being said, that’s what I believe and if you wish to discuss this with me further, you are more than welcome.

From The Mailbox – Salina sends:

Islamic Finance appeal growing in face of credit crisis

The global credit crisis presents the $1 trillion Islamic finance industry with an opportunity to expand its appeal beyond Muslim investors, as a haven from speculative excess.

The message may have particular resonance in the West after the crumbling of the U.S. mortgage market left banks holding hundreds of billions of dollars of nearly worthless credit instruments tied to home loans by a web of complex structures.

While conventional banks worldwide are nursing losses of more than $400 billion from the credit crisis, Islamic banks are virtually unscathed. And they are playing up the contrast to scalded shareholders, bondholders and borrowers and fearful depositors.

“It’s very much a return to old-fashioned conservative lending,” said David Testa, chief executive of Gatehouse Bank, which began operations in April as the fifth Islamic bank in Britain.

“The current global market condition has given Islamic finance a great opportunity to show what it can do – help to fill the liquidity gap,” he said.

Investors traumatized by the credit crisis could seek comfort from the stricter rules imposed on lending by Islamic law, which bans some of the structures and financing methods that quickly unraveled during the U.S. mortgage crisis.

Testa said that Islamic finance practices were more fiscally conservative, with direct participation by investors in plans that do not involve parking assets in off-balance-sheet vehicles.

Islamic finance is based on Shariah, or Islamic law. It requires that gains be derived from ethical and socially responsible investments and discourages interest-based banking and investments in sectors like pork, gambling and pornography.

The Asian Development Bank estimates that Islamic assets globally have a combined value of about $1 trillion, with annual growth of 10 percent to 15 percent a year. Al-Rajhi Bank of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait Finance House are the two biggest Islamic banks in the Gulf region. In Malaysia, the largest Islamic lender is Maybank Islamic, a subsidiary of Malayan Banking.

The jump in popularity of Islamic finance is drawing the interest of companies outside the Middle East.

City Developments, one of the largest developers in Southeast Asia, said last week that it could issue Islamic debt and sell hotels to enhance its ability to make acquisitions.

The Islamic finance industry, which was nearly nonexistent 30 years ago, has certain distinguishing features that make it less risky, analysts say.

Islamic bonds, or sukuk, replace coupons with payments backed by the performance of tangible assets. Islamic law prohibits the payment of interest and requires transactions to be linked to assets, thus deterring the kind of complexities prevalent in conventional financing operations.

Debashis Dey, the Dubai-based head of capital markets at the law firm Clifford Chance, said that although the Islamic finance industry was adapting conventional products to make them compliant with Shariah, it was a long way from sophisticated products like collateralized debt obligations.

But while Islamic products are coming into favor, analysts say market commentators and intermediaries may be too zealous in promoting the merits of Islamic finance as a safe product.

Mohamed Damak of Standard & Poor’s cited the case of the boom in real estate financing in the Gulf mainly by Islamic banks in the past three years, amid soaring property prices.

“A correction of the real estate sector would impact Islamic banks involved in this business line. Islamic finance is not immune from risk,” he said.

Even as experts are weighing the degree of insularity that Islamic financing provides, there are differences in the way accounts are prepared and in how Shariah law is interpreted.

Banks in Britain differ in their accounting operations from banks in Bahrain, for example, which in turn differ from banks in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Dey, at Clifford Chance, said the lack of standardization posed a hurdle to growth, but others said that a cookie-cutter approach was not desirable and that regional differences would remain.

“Complete standardization may not happen – there will always be variants,” said Raj Maiden, managing director at Five Pillars in Singapore, who added that it was more important to tailor products according to the needs of each market.

While the debate rages on whether Islamic finance provides a safer bet or is merely a potential source of irrational exuberance, most agree the industry should make the most of the attention it is now receiving.

“If Islamic banks step up to the mark, then they will gain traction,” said Testa, of Gatehouse.

Source: International Herald Tribune

http://www.islamicity.com/articles/Articles.asp?ref=IH0810-3694

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My Two Cents:
http://forum.khurram.ca/viewtopic.php?t=489
Posted: Mon 12 Jun 2006 1:04 pm Post subject: The Answer is Buried Under The Ice of Antarctica

I had a dream last night that I was a part of a crew employed by the government to uncover a structure under the ice of Antarctica that would contain the answer, led by a recently discovered prophesy that led the government and policy.

There is prophesy if Isreal excepted Jesus and there is prophesy if Isreal did not except Jesus and that was the key that led us to believe in this prophesy that took us to Antarctica, thus the reason for global warming.

The law required that you submit to the doctors treatment (I’m guessing we were ill from the global warming).

The alarm went off before I could find out what the answer was we were trying to uncover.

Strange dream. Last meeting I had with the mormon missionarys, I was explaining that I felt that the church had cracks in it (one major crack was its silence on global warming).

Is this dream in response to that, or just a creation of my mind to find peace with this – don’t really know. But because I remember this dream so vividly, it must be important.

My two cents: I predict that in ten years we will be raising a different flag. I don’t know if it will be Asian or Arab, I suspect a little of both. But it won’t Russia or China or even communist at all. We will be ruled by religion and I believe it will be an Islamic religion. I base this on a dream I had that keeps coming back to me.

Posted: Mon 12 Jun 2006

I had a dream last night that I was a part of a crew employed by the government to uncover a structure under the ice of Antarctica that would contain the answer, led by a recently discovered prophesy that led the government and policy.

There is prophesy if Isreal accepted Jesus and there is prophesy if Isreal did not accept Jesus and that was the key that led us to believe in this prophesy that took us to Antarctica, thus the reason for global warming.

The law required that you submit to the doctors treatment (I’m guessing we were ill from the global warming).

The alarm went off before I could find out what the answer was we were trying to uncover.