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How God Can Be Cognized/Faith versus Knowledge

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Faith versus Knowledge

The foundation of faith is our trust in what we have heard or read. This concerns, among other things, religious subjects.

As for knowledge, it is acquired through one’s own practical experience first of all.

There are a number of kinds of religious faith.

Religious knowledge, on the contrary, is one and common, though there are different levels of profundity of this knowledge, and there can be errors of particular spiritual seekers.

It is personal cognition of oneself and of God that allows an intellectually developed person to gain the higher and highest spiritual achievements.

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Faith is needed at the early stages of spiritual development, because it lays the foundation of one’s aspiration to cognition.

Church ritualism is the most common socially-established form that contributes to gaining and strengthening of faith. The religious rituals can be more or less reasonable and effective. Some rituals help one to feel the presence of God. Others can be regarded as felonious; such are, for example, those related to bloody sacrifices or aimed at harming other people (rituals of black magic).

One also has to take into account that against the background of ritualism, the believers are always offered some kind of ideology peculiar to their religious movement: from true Teachings of God — up to hatred towards humankind disguised as religion.

But even in the case of the best religious rituals, at a certain stage of development one begins to understand: God has never taught people ritualism! It is people that invented rituals and imparted them to the next generations!

Moreover, God does not need rituals! He needs something completely different from us: He needs us to develop ourselves (as souls)! And the “daily bread” that Jesus suggested to ask from the Father is not food for our bodies but higher spiritual knowledge, spiritual guidance from our Creator!

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Let every reasonable person think: what does God want from me?, what does He want me to be?

Jesus said: “Be perfect even as your Heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matt 5:48).

And: “I have known the Father” (John 17:25). “As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father” (John 10:15). “I and the Father are One” (John 10:30). And: “Learn (this) from Me!” (Matt 11:29).

What does the Perfection of the Creator consist in?

In order to find the answer to this question one has to understand first of all that God-the-Father is not an old man riding a cloud, as He is depicted sometimes. He is an infinite in size Ocean of the most subtle Consciousness abiding in the multidimensional depth of the Universe.

He also is absolute Love, Wisdom, and Power.

It is this that we have to learn from Him! And it is in the task of this learning that we have to ask for His help!

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This learning from God has to begin with studying the ethical principles suggested by Him and with changing oneself in accordance with them.

It is also important to gain understanding of what God is, what man is, what is the meaning of human life on the Earth, and the ways of realization of this meaning.

Then one can use the methods of cleansing the body and its energy structures from energetical contamination and begin work on opening and further development of the spiritual heart. The latter allows worthy spiritual seekers to realize the precepts of Jesus Christ mentioned above.

Those wanting to walk this Path can find help in the materials (books, films, etc.) available on our web sites:

www.new-ecopsychology.org

www.aquarian-age.org.ua

www.path-to-tao.info

www.pythagoras.name

www.atlantis-and-atlanteans.org

www.swami-center.org

www.philosophy-of-religion.org.ua

www.spiritual-art.info

www.encyclopedia-of-religion.org

Our books and films can be ordered online from:

http://stores.lulu.com/spiritualheart

http://www.amazon.com/Vladimir-Antonov/e/B002BM5BF4