Famed religious historian and author Karen Armstrong speaks at The Progressive Forum in Houston on her new book, The Lost Art of Scripture, November 2019. Scripture teaches us what to remember, not what actually happened.
I've read many of her books, but this is the first time I've heard her speak. The presentation spoke directly to me as I'm pretty much equating Jesus' proclamation of the coming of the Kingdom of God with the breakdown of the bicameral mind. (Some bait to see if there's any Jaynesian's out there...)
Precisely speaking the Bible is accounts of God, through human vehicles, as God did not write it Himself. Naturally if He did so, he knew it would be corrupted in the later generations and that's His wisdom not writing it by Himself. Jesus foretold it's hard for rich man to enter heaven (for our world is deceived by money and human creations. With no difficulties, why will we seek God? ) Jesus says: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:24). There are many other similar accounts. She questioned why would God allow suffering and does nothing? God's purpose was and is free will. That's why He has so much patience still today. As a Catholic child, did you stand up for righteousness so that you might be able to see God? In Matthew 5:20, Jesus said, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Karen Armstrong, such a shallow and deceived writer
Everything is God, there is nothing that is not in God. When you look for God, look in the here now. The here now can not be thought or described it is pure awareness, no mind. God can not be seen by mind, mind is always in the past or in the future, God is here now. Let your prayer be silent, let it be in the heart not in the mind. Your heart is in the here now, your awareness is in the here now, godliness is in the here now. Meeting God is like meeting the guy who invented the automobile, there is no need to look for him or Him who gave you life. You would like to find God and look at him from a distance. You would like to find Buddha or Jesus and look at them from a distance. But you are a potential Buddha, you can find enlightenment and you are a potential Jesus, you can be in God.
