Right! As I posted something about The Spirits Book in my previous post, I thought it would be interesting to choose some questions that I find relevant for beginners and are part of this book. I am not the wisest of all in Spiritism, but these are questions that I asked myself once, when I knew nothing about it, and I found my answers in this book. I also heard so many people asking things like does God exist? How can we be sure of His existence? Can God be the creation of men and religion? Is there life in other planets? How can some beings survive in other planets so further away from the sun? Did God create demons and do they exist? Does reincarnation exist and why would men need to reincarnate? Why philosophers and scientists haven't found proof of God's existence if He does exist? Did God create angels as perfect beings?
Please note that this book was based on answers from Spirits through two mediums. If you believe in the existence of Spirits or not is irrelevant. The answers and questions elaborated in this book are the relevant part because they will make us think and will help us open our minds to something beyond what our eyes can see. The answers to these questions will make sense if you think carefully about them without prejudice or a closed mind. To me, these questions are interesting and very contemporary although the book is old. I added in blue, beside the questions, another way of saying the same question. I did that because I was talking to people about it before and some of them couldn't understand the way the questions were translated to english. They were translated faithfully from the book in french, which can cause a bit of confusion, because of certain terms and the way of saying things used in the book (if its the 1st time you read the questions). But I haven't changed the essence of these questions, just to make it absolutely clear! :)
If you would like to read about other questions from this book, you can find it on line at this link http://www.oconsolador.com.br/linkfixo/bibliotecavirtual/ingles/Spiritsbook.pdf Lets have fun thinking about stuff!!!!!
Mrs. P
1. What is God?
"God is the Supreme Intelligence-First Cause of all things."
4. What proof have we of the existence of God?
"The axiom which you apply in all your scientific researches, 'There is no effect without a cause.' Search out the cause of whatever is not the work of man, and reason will furnish the answer to your question."
To assure ourselves of the existence of God, we have only to look abroad on the works of creation. The universe exists, therefore It has a cause. To doubt the existence of God is to doubt that every effect has a cause, and to assume that something can have been made by nothing.
6. May not our seemingly intuitive sense of the existence of God be the result of education and of acquired ideas? Can the intuition we have of the existence of God be result of education or acquired ideas?
"If such were the case, how should this intuitive sense be possessed by your savages?"
If the intuition of the existence of a Supreme Being were only the result of education It would not be universal, and would only exist, like all other acquired knowledge, in the minds of those who had received the special education to which it would be due.
55. Are all the globes that revolve in space inhabited?
"Yes; and the people of the earth are far from being, as you suppose, the first in intelligence, goodness, and general development. There are many men having a high opinion of themselves who even imagine that your little globe alone, of all the countless myriads of globes around you, has the privilege of being inhabited by reasoning beings. They fancy that God has created the universe only for them. Insensate vanity!"
God has peopled the globes of the universe with living beings, all of whom concur in working out the aims of His providence. To believe that the presence of living beings Is confined to the one point of the universe inhabited by us is to cast a doubt on the wisdom of God, who has made nothing in vain, and who must therefore have assigned to all the other globes of the universe a destination more important than that of gratifying our eyes with the spectacle of a starry night. Moreover, there is nothing in the position. size, or
physical constitution of the earth to warrant the supposition that it alone, of the countless myriads of globes disseminated throughout the infinity of space, has the privilege of being inhabited.
58. Are the planets furthest removed from the sun stinted in light and heat, the sun only appearing to them of the size of one of the fixed stars? Is there life in other planets further away from the sun where there's not much light and heat?
"Do you suppose that there are no other sources of light and heat than the sun? And do you count for nothing the action of electricity which, in certain worlds, plays a very much more important part than in your Earth ? Besides, how do you know that the beings of those worlds see in the same manner as you do, and with the aid of organs such as yours?"
The conditions of existence for the beings who inhabit the various worlds must be supposed to be appropriate to the sphere in which they are destined to live. If we had never seen fishes, we should be at a loss to understand how any living beings could exist in the sea. So in regard to all the other worlds, which doubtless contain elements that are unknown to us. In our own Earth, are not the long polar nights illumined by the electrical displays of the aurora borealis? Is it impossible that, in certain worlds, electricity may be more abundant than in ours, and may subserve, in its general economy, various important uses not imaginable by us? And may not those worlds contain in themselves the sources of the heat and light required by their inhabitants?
119. Could God exonerate spirits from the trials which they have to undergo in order to reach the highest rank? Could God stop the suffering that people have to undergo in order to progress morally?
"If they had been created perfect, they would not have merited the enjoyment of the benefits of that perfection. Where would be the merit without the struggle? Besides, the inequality which exists between spirits is necessary to the development of their personality; and, moreover, the mission which each spirit accomplishes at each step of his progress is an element of the providential plan for ensuring the harmony of the universe.”
Since, in social life, all men may reach the highest posts, we might as well ask why the sovereign of a country does not make a general of each of his soldiers; why all subaltern functionaries are not made heads of departments; why all scholars are not schoolmasters. But there is this difference between the life of the social and the spirit worlds, viz., that the first is limited, and does not afford to every one the possibility of raising himself to the highest rank whereas the second is unlimited, and ensures to every one the possibility of attaining to supreme degree.
123. Why has God permitted it to be possible for spirits to take the wrong road?
"The wisdom of God is shown in the freedom of choice which He leaves to every spirit, for each has thus the merit of his deeds."
129. Have the angels passed up through all the degrees of progress?
"They have passed up through all those degrees, but with the difference which we have already mentioned. Some of them, accepting their mission without murmuring, have reached the goal more quickly; others have been longer in reaching the same goal.”
130. If the opinion which admits that some beings have been created perfect and superior to all others be erroneous, how is it that this opinion is to be found in the tradition of almost every people? If it's incorrect to believe that some beings were created perfect, how can this view be shared by almost every people?
“Your world has not existed from all eternity. Long before it was called into being hosts of spirits had already attained to the supreme degree and, therefore, the people of your earth naturally supposed those perfected spirits to have always been at the same degree of elevation."
131. Are there any demons in the usual acceptation of that term? Do demons exist?
"If demons existed, they would be the work of God; but would it be just on the part of God to have created beings condemned eternally to evil and to misery? If demons exist, it is in your low world, and in other worlds of similar degree, that they are to be found. They are the human hypocrites who represent a just God as being cruel and vindictive, and who imagine that they make themselves agreeable to Him by the abominations they commit in His name."
132. What is the aim of the incarnation of spirits? What is the purpose of reincarnation?
"It is a necessity imposed on them by God, as the means of attaining perfection. For some of them it is an expiation; for others, a mission. In order to attain perfection, it is necessary for them to undergo all the vicissitudes of corporeal existence. It is the experience acquired by expiation that constitutes its usefulness. Incarnation has also another aim, viz., that of fitting the spirit to perform his share in the work of creation; for which purpose he is made to assume a corporeal apparatus in harmony with the material state of each world into which he is sent; and by means of which he is enabled to accomplish the special work, in connection with that world which has been appointed to him by the divine ordering. He is thus made to contribute his quota towards the general weal, while achieving his own advancement."
The action of corporeal beings is necessary to the carrying on of the work of the universe ; but God in His wisdom has willed that this action should furnish them with the means of progress and of advancement towards Himself. And thus, through an admirable law of His providence, all things are linked together, and solidarity is established between all the realms of nature.
133. Is incarnation necessary for the spirits who, from the beginning, have followed the right road?
"All are created simple and ignorant; they gain instruction in the struggles and tribulations of corporeal life. God, being just, could not make some of them happy, without trouble and without exertion, and consequently without merit."
But it so, 'what do spirits gain by' having followed the right road, since they are not thereby exempted from the pains of corporeal life?
"They arrive more quickly at the goal. And besides, the sufferings of life are often a consequence of the imperfection of the spirit; therefore, the fewer his imperfections, the less will be his sufferings. He who is neither envious, jealous, avaricious, nor ambitious, will not have to undergo the torments which are a consequence of those defects."
145. How is it that so many philosophers both ancient and modern have so long been discussing psychological questions without having arrived at the truth?
"Those men were precursors of the eternal truths of the true Spiritist Doctrine, for which they have prepared the way. They were men, and therefore subject to error, because they often mistook their own ideas for the true light; but their very errors have served the cause of truth by bringing into relief both sides of the argument. Moreover, among those errors are to be found many great truths which a comparative study of the various theories thus put forth would enable you to discover."
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