In 2004, Rev. David co-founded the New Thought Center for Spiritual Living in Lake Oswego, a suburb of Portland, Oregon, and continues to serve as its senior minister today. He was inducted into the Martin Luther King, Jr. Board of Preachers at Morehouse College in 2009. A social justice activist, Rev. David has worked with at-risk youth and has served on the Board of Directors for the Community of Welcoming Congregations, a Portland-based alliance with the mission of ‘providing a voice for LGBTQ and allied people of faith.’ He also sits alongside Rev. Dr. Michael Beckwith – and other internationally recognized spiritual leaders – on the governing board of the Association for Global New Thought, which offers ‘tools to empower the conscious majority.’ In 2015 Dr. David was inducted into the College of Bishops and Affirming Faith Leaders by the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries.
Tag: religion
Hope and Other Superpowers
John Pavlovitz is the author of the new book, Hope and Other Superpowers: A life affirming, love-defending, butt-kicking, world-saving manifesto. John is a pastor and blogger from Wake Forest, North Carolina. In the past two years his blog, Stuff That Needs To Be Said, has reached a diverse audience of millions of people throughout the world, with an average monthly readership of over a million people. His home church, North Raleigh Community Church, is a growing, nontraditional Christian community dedicated to radical hospitality, mutual respect, and diversity of doctrine.
Spiritual Science
Steve Taylor PhD is the author of the new book Spiritual Science: Why Science Needs Spirituality to Make Sense of the World. He is a senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University, and the author of several best-selling books on psychology and spirituality. For the last six years he has been included in Watkins Mind, Body, Spirit magazine’s list of the ‘100 most spiritually influential living people.’
Why are we here?
Lawrence Krauss is the author of the new book The Greatest Story Ever Told–So Far: Why are we here?. Lawrence is a renowned theoretical physicist, is director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University. He is the author of more than 300 scientific publications and nine books, including the international bestsellers, A Universe from Nothing and The Physics of Star Trek. The recipient of numerous awards, Krauss is a regular columnist for newspapers and magazines, including The New Yorker, and he appears frequently on radio, television, and in feature films.
Listening to Ayahuasca
Dr. Rachel Harris is the author of the new book, Listening to Ayahuasca: New Hope for Depression, Addiction, PTSD, and Anxiety. She received a National Institutes of Health New Investigator’s Award, has published more than forty scientific studies in peer-reviewed journals, and has worked as a psychological consultant to Fortune 500 companies and the United Nations. Her background includes careers as a research psychologist as well as a psychotherapist.
I Am Not I
Jacob Needleman is the author of I Am Not I. A philosopher, author, and religious scholar, Jacob teaches philosophy at San Francisco State University. He is also the author of The New Religions, a pioneering study of the new American spirituality, Money and the Meaning of Life, A Sense of the Cosmos, The Heart of Philosophy, Time and the Soul, Why Can’t We Be Good? , and other books.
A Manual for Creating Atheists
Dr. Peter Boghossian is author of the new book, A Manual for Creating Atheists. Peter is a full-time faculty member in Portland State University’s philosophy department. His main focus is bringing the tools of professional philosophers to people in a wide variety of contexts. Peter has a teaching pedigree spanning more than 20 years and 30,000 students – in prisons, hospitals, public and private schools, seminaries, colleges and universities, Fortune 100 companies, and small businesses. His fundamental objective is to teach people how to think through what often seem to be intractable problems.
Does God Have a Future?
Just watched a most excellent debate on the question “Does God Have a Future” on Nightline, which took place last March 14 at Caltech, between Deepak Chopra and Jean Houston on the side representing spiritual mysticism, and Sam Harris and Michael Shermer representing scientific atheism. All I can say is “Wow, thank you God!” (irony intended)
Even though it is divided up into several segments (most with a commercial) by ABC News on their site, I was enthralled by the entire thing, which I watched over the span of 3 days.
For someone like myself who is constantly deepening his own understanding, reading and studying about consciousness and belief systems, it was utterly fascinating … and lol entertaining! This discussion in an age of crazy fundamentalisms is more than relevant. If we are to survive and thrive, we need to evolve our belief systems one way or the other. Check it out and let me know what you think here.
What Paul Meant
Garry Wills is one of the most respected writers on religion today. He is the author of What Jesus Meant, Why I am a Catholic, Papal Sin, (which were New York Times bestseller) and won the Pulitzer prize for Lincoln at Gettysburg. He studied for the priesthood, took his doctorate in the classics, and taught Greek for many years at Johns Hopkins University. His most recent book, and topic of our conversation today, is What Paul Meant.
Divination Verses in the Bible
Adapted from the book Divination: Sacred Tools for Reading the Mind of God by Paul O’Brien
Most of the organized Christian religions believe that the Bible prohibits the use of divination. However, there are numerous places in the Bible where God seems to be in favor of the esoteric arts. While it is by no means complete (you will not find passages referring to dream interpretation, channeling, or prophesy here), this list of New King James Version Bible passages proves that there are cases where God supports the use of divination.
Verses Condemning Divination
Exodus 22:18 You shall not permit a sorceress to live.
Leviticus 19:26 You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor shall you practice divination or soothsaying.
Leviticus 19:31 Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 20:27 A man or a woman who is a medium, or who has familiar spirits, shall surely be put to death; they shall stone them with stones. Their blood shall be upon them.
Deuteronomy 18:10-11 There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, 11 or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.
Deuteronomy 18:14 For these nations which you will dispossess listened to soothsayers and diviners; but as for you, the Lord your God has not appointed such for you.
Joshua 13:22 The children of Israel also killed with the sword Balaam the son of Beor, the soothsayer, among those who were killed by them.
1 Samuel 6:2 And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it to its place.”
1 Samuel 28:8 So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes, and he went, and two men with him; and they came to the woman by night. And he said, “Please conduct a seance for me, and bring up for me the one I shall name to you.”
2 Kings 21:6 Also he made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.
2 Chronicles 33:6 Also he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom; he practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft and sorcery, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.
Isaiah 2:6 For You have forsaken your people, the house of Jacob, Because they are filled with eastern ways; They are soothsayers like the Philistines, And they are pleased with the children of foreigners.
Isaiah 8:19 And when they say to you, “Seek those who are mediums and wizards, who whisper and mutter,” should not a people seek their God? Should they seek the dead on behalf of the living?
Ezekiel 21:21 For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the road, at the fork of the two roads, to use divination: he shakes the arrows, he consults the images, he looks at the liver.
Micah 3:6 Therefore you shall have night without vision, And you shall have darkness without divination; The sun shall go down on the prophets, And the day shall be dark for them.
Micah 3:7 So the seers shall be ashamed, And the diviners abashed; Indeed they shall all cover their lips; For there is no answer from God.
Micah 3:11 Her heads judge for a bribe, Her priests teach for pay, And her prophets divine for money. Yet they lean on the Lord, and say, “Is not the Lord among us? No harm can come upon us.”
Acts 19:13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.”
Acts 8:9 But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great,
Acts 13:6 Now when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus,
Acts 13:8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for so his name is translated) withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.
Acts 19:9 Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver.
Verses Supporting Divination
Genesis 44:4-5 4 When they had gone out of the city, and were not yet far off, Joseph said to his steward, “Get up, follow the men; and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good? 5 Is not this the one from which my lord drinks, and with which he indeed practices divination? You have done evil in so doing.’”
Exodus 28:30 And you shall put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be over Aaron’s heart when he goes in before the Lord. So Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel over his heart before the Lord continually.
Leviticus 16:8 – 10 8 Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat. 9 And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the Lord’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering. 10 But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness.
Numbers 26:55 But the land shall be divided by lot; they shall inherit according to the names of the tribes of their fathers.
Numbers 26:56 According to the lot their inheritance shall be divided between the larger and the smaller.”
Numbers 27:21 He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire before the Lord for him by the judgment of the Urim. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, he and all the children of Israel with him–all the congregation.
Deuteronomy 33:8 And of Levi he said: “Let Your Thummim and Your Urim be with Your holy one, Whom You tested at Massah, And with whom You contended at the waters of Meribah.”
Joshua 14:2 Their inheritance was by lot, as the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses, for the nine tribes and the half-tribe.
Joshua 18:6 You shall therefore survey the land in seven parts and bring the survey here to me, that I may cast lots for you here before the Lord our God.
Joshua 18:8 Then the men arose to go away; and Joshua charged those who went to survey the land, saying, “Go, walk through the land, survey it, and come back to me, that I may cast lots for you here before the Lord in Shiloh.”
Joshua 18:10 Then Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the Lord, and there Joshua divided the land to the children of Israel according to their divisions.
Judges 6:36-40 36 So Gideon said to God, “If You will save Israel by my hand as You have said–37 look, I shall put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that You will save Israel by my hand, as You have said.” 38 And it was so. When he rose early the next morning and squeezed the fleece together, he wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowlful of water. 39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew.” 40 And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.
1 Samuel 14:8-10 8 Then Jonathan said, “Very well, let us cross over to these men, and we will show ourselves to them. 9 If they say thus to us, ‘Wait until we come to you,’ then we will stand still in our place and not go up to them. 10 But if they say thus, ‘Come up to us,’ then we will go up. For the Lord has delivered them into our hand, and this will be a sign to us.”
1 Samuel 14: 42 And Saul said, “Cast lots between my son Jonathan and me.” So Jonathan was taken.
1 Chronicles 24:31 These also cast lots just as their brothers the sons of Aaron did, in the presence of King David, Zadok, Ahimelech, and the heads of the fathers’ houses of the priests and Levites. The chief fathers did just as their younger brethren.
1 Chronicles 25:8 And they cast lots for their duty, the small as well as the great, the teacher with the student.
1 Chronicles 26:13-14 13And they cast lots for each gate, the small as well as the great, according to their father’s house. 14 The lot for the East Gate fell to Shelemiah. Then they cast lots for his son Zechariah, a wise counselor, and his lot came out for the North Gate.
Nehemiah 10:34 We cast lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for bringing the wood offering into the house of our God, according to our fathers’ houses, at the appointed times year by year, to burn on the altar of the Lord our God as it is written in the Law.
Nehemiah 11:1 Now the leaders of the people dwelt at Jerusalem; the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city, and nine-tenths were to dwell in other cities.
Psalms 22:18 They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.
Proverbs 16:33 The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the Lord
Proverbs 18:18 Casting lots causes contentions to cease, And keeps the mighty apart.
Obadiah 1:11 In the day that you stood on the other side– In the day that strangers carried captive his forces, When foreigners entered his gates And cast lots for Jerusalem– Even you were as one of them.
Jonah 1:7 And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
Matthew 27:35 Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet: “They divided My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.”
Mark 15:24 And when they crucified Him, they divided His garments, casting lots for them to determine what every man should take.
Luke 23:34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” And they divided His garments and cast lots.
John 19:24 They said therefore among themselves, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be,” that the Scripture might be fulfilled which says: “They divided My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots.” Therefore the soldiers did these things.
Acts 1:26 And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. And he was numbered with the eleven apostles.