Take care what you thank God for.

[RascalPuff]

The old and true story of an airplane passenger thanking God, after they happened to change seats with someone else on the plane.... Whereupon, the plane crashed, and the passenger they changed seats with, perished, and the person who traded seats with that passenger survived, to thank God...

What this implies is that God chose to perish the other passenger and spare the survivor...
When the likelihood is it was just a simple coincidence, and God did not intervene to save the surviving passenger's life and take the other...

The same principle applies to a lot of similar such turns of fate and coincidence.

Conclusion: God did not favor the surviving passenger and disfavor the perished one.

Albeit, it's fine to thank God under such circumstances, but important to understand what the event does and does not mean, relative to 'divine intervention'.

Best regards,
- RP

[sillysally]

I don't believe in the regular God. I'd say I believe in one that is amoral and really could care less if we thank it or not. I don't like to use the word believe because it has so much opinion base to it but I'd like to think that my life is predestined the way I chose for it to be before I came to life. After having a dream and seeing something before I came to life, I am almost certain that I was intelligent prior to life and that the life I have is something I created and dreamed up and wanted to experience.

Who does that man that died have to thank? It's almost like dejavu, done this before because it could have already been planned out the way you wanted with free will or choice. They chose to change seats, one chose to die and the other to live. It had nothing to do with God, at least not the kind you thank.

[RascalPuff]

I don't believe in the regular God. I'd say I believe in one that is amoral and really could care less if we thank it or not. I don't like to use the word believe because it has so much opinion base to it but I'd like to think that my life is predestined the way I chose for it to be before I came to life. After having a dream and seeing something before I came to life, I am almost certain that I was intelligent prior to life and that the life I have is something I created and dreamed up and wanted to experience.

Who does that man that died have to thank? It's almost like dejavu, done this before because it could have already been planned out the way you wanted with free will or choice. They chose to change seats, one chose to die and the other to live. It had nothing to do with God, at least not the kind you thank.

Dear Sally:
Interesting philosophy.
I'm not so sure that there was a choosing to live or die on the part of the issued passengers, rather, a simple if ironic coincidence.
(Your posts are enjoyable and interesting.)

Best regards,
- RP

[gunnar]

existence is structured energy evolving from the concept of life. spirit transends space and time by connecting what was, is and will be in the structure of every moment. life is god. everything is a part of life, and because it is structured, this explains it all, that the energy of life is evolving in a structure that is fixed. the experience of life may not have occured yet, and in spirit, one can sense the structure of life and ask for help from god, even if this someone doesnt understand it. thank you. have you read the holy grail?

[gunnar]

that is to say that when this someone was on the plane, the structure of life in energy confronted this someone with a feeling that could be sensed. upon sensing the feeling, this someone asked for god, in doing so, this someone opened up to the sense of life, instead of a sense of being, and asked to move into a seat that would allow the structure of life to evolve into occurence. if you remember that everything is a part of life, than concepts of life are not one or another, rather a little of everything. and human concepts have a different foundation in life. they are made up by humans, that is to say that any system of measurement is accurate: standard or metric... and to say that science religion and government are different, is truely saying that you dont understand life as a whole.

[RascalPuff]

existence is structured energy evolving from the concept of life. spirit transends space and time by connecting what was, is and will be in the structure of every moment. life is god. everything is a part of life, and because it is structured, this explains it all, that the energy of life is evolving in a structure that is fixed. the experience of life may not have occured yet, and in spirit, one can sense the structure of life and ask for help from god, even if this someone doesnt understand it. thank you. have you read the holy grail?

Hi gunnar:
Yes, I just did make a point of reading your rendition of the holy grail. Although it evokes many questions, one question in particular occurs to me - if I understand you correctly, when you say that nothing can generate different realities, how is anything generated out of nothing?

Are you familiar with the proclamations of the philosophers, Hume, and Locke.
Each of them have written 'Nothing begets nothing'.

Have you any response to that?

Best regards,
- RP

[gunnar]

it is the concept of evolution. when one group like minerals evolves into something that can nolonger be classified as it was it is in concept something else. the concept of nothing is that it is something. yes i am somewhat fimiliar with all areas of study to a extent. however, i am more fimiliar with the concepts in life, rather than quotes. this is how i have learned. i understand e=mc2, but could propably not recall much about einstein's life.

[sillysally]

Dear Sally:
Interesting philosophy.
I'm not so sure that there was a choosing to live or die on the part of the issued passengers, rather, a simple if ironic coincidence.
(Your posts are enjoyable and interesting.)

Best regards,
- RP

Thanks RP.

As far as the passengers choosing one to live and one to die, their subconscious or unconscious drove their conscious decision. They did make the choice, unknown to them at the time. I think it was gunnar in another thread that helped me realize this.

Most of your actions/decisions on a day to day basis don't require you to figure out how the vcr works, you just press play. Everyday you put socks on, we don't think about why we put them on, such as the day we first dressed ourselves. It's embedded in you from all the way back then, and you are still reacting to it. So your decision to do what you do today was embedded in you long before you even had a moment to think twice about it.

Ps. I don't believe in coincidences.

[RascalPuff]

Dear Sally:
Isn't there an implication here that both subjected passengers foresaw that the plane would crash, and, what part of the plane would be subject to live or perish in?

I don't think that the conscious or unconscious mind could access such knowledge before the proposed incident actually occurred. Anyway, that's why I think it was a simple coincidence.

Best regards,
- RP

[Profpat]

Hi RP;

I don't really believe in coincidences or accidents, rather I believe everything that happens has purpose, though we may not be aware of it.

Best to all,

Pat