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I think that to an extent, we are what we eat.
What we eat (or drink) will help shape our bodies and feeling of wellbeing. => hence thoughts => hence actions.

But as most of us know, our fibres are already programmed to react in a similar manner to familiar environmental conditions.
So I don't think that we should be too hard on ourselves if we can't seem to make the simplest of changes that we have consciously set for ourselves. And in the same vein, not too self-congratulatory of the better aspect of changes which may naturally occur with an aging body or changed environmental conditions.

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Like ice in liquid form, it's a wave in stationary form isn't it? 

For a wave to appear, it requires some type of external energy. If there is an analogy between waves and the thoughts that define our actions, then there would be an external energy which precedes our thoughts. Food for thought I suppose.

Death and taxes are inevitable. You wont escape it by trying to believe in fairy tales.

SOB

Yadda wrote on Jan 15^th, 2013 at 9:25am:

Yes, the destruction of memory and personality from brain deterioration is the fly in the ointment for magical thinkers, who are forced to imagine that memories (which are, anyway, grossly imperfect and highly contingent), are somehow stored in a celestial vault and returned to us after death, such that we can be who we are (whatever that means) in the after world.

No one, I'm sure, would believe that an amputated limb survives death years after it has been detached... Not so with memories... To the magical thinker they (memories), of course, must somehow survive for there to be an 'I' in the afterlife.

For believers to accept that memories, too, pass away, and still maintain their belief in an afterlife, they would then need to imagine what, exactly, would or could survive death... But a surviving essence, devoid of an 'I' (the child of memory), is not 'me' and therefore the reward (and punishment) factor (which defines the primary reason for believing in an afterlife in the first place) is eliminated. They are then left with the prospect of (after)-living as 'celestial zombies' - no will, no self... no I... What would be the point to that existence?

1 Corinthians 13:12
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.


1 John 3:1
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

Yadda wrote on Jan 16^th, 2013 at 9:54am:

Redemption from what?

The destruction of memory also includes those memories for which you would be damned.

Damnation is only just when one's actions can be recalled, as, similarly, awareness of good deeds done is a prerequisite for acceptance of one's apotheosis.

In the absence of memory, it must be left to living others (faculties intact)  to determine the value of our legacy with regard to its worth to the world we leave behind.

Amadd wrote on Jan 16^th, 2013 at 4:53pm:


It is way out. For a memory to be formed requires the input (visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory etc.  If any of these sense are damaged, then clearly the data cannot be propagated.

Then, sensory input is propagated via the thalamous, and this is severely baud limited to about 50000 bits per second, where a bit per second is equated to a neural firing (from MRI studies).That in itself means that we can't physically process and take in everything that we sense.

NorthOfNorth wrote on Jan 18^th, 2013 at 8:00am:




Not so.

In this physical realm good and evil can exist in very close proximity to each other.

Not so, in the spirit realm.

Luke 16:26
.....between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.



But in this place [in this physical realm], if goodness and evil are mingled, goodness is polluted, by the evil.

In this place [in this physical realm], if we join that which is precious with what is vile, we do not in that act of joining, 'improve' that which is vile.

We merely corrupt that which is precious.


In this physical realm light and darkness cannot co-exist [in the same place].
Though those who choose the darkness [as their 'sanctuary'], may be able to see a distant light [from within the midst of the darkness]....
It is impossible for those who have [chosen to] become a part of the darkness! to approach the fullness of the light, or to ever live in the light.


Good and evil, light and darkness.
It is our human purpose to choose one, and to reject the other.





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When we choose to embrace, and to be 'tolerant', of those [in our midst] who are wicked,
...we OURSELVES, always become wicked.

We are always corrupted, by the wickedness which we [would] choose to tolerate.




2 Corinthians 6:16
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
17  Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
18  And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.



A Holy people.
The Holy 'land'.
A Holy spirit [God's spirit].
...on a spiritual level these concepts are all connected with each other.





Leviticus 20:26
And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD am holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine.


Deuteronomy 7:6
For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.