microbite

Honk, Jones and Higgins (which later became Hounsditch) was closed down long long before all the huge retail parks appeared in Old Kent Road. I used to go Jones and Higgins to see father christmas when I was a kid ha! and it was a huge department store with like 4 floors (if I remember correctly) Peckham used to have Richard Shops, Sainsburys (but not as you know it), you had to queue at different counters to obtain different items of shopping which were all stacked up behind the counter and passed to you by a shop assistant! it was a pain queing at different counters. There was a huge C&A, (just before the railway bridge),Burtons and loads of big name shops, including the now extinct Woolies, in fact Peckham and the housing back in the days, was considered quite a posh area to live in, they had so many other really great shops down the lane, a fantastic huge furniture shop right at the bottom of the lane on the left hand side just before you got to Peckham Rye Park and we would often go to the Lido in Peckham Rye which was open regularly throughout the summer for swimming, to be honest Lordship Lane was an utter dump, and the only reason we used to go down there was because of Dulwich swimming pool at Goose Green, or if there were any country fayres on at the Green, which were really good too. Other than that there was nothing at all to Lordship Lane. There were also tons more playing places for children, we had huge dumps that were converted into adventure playgrounds, back in the days when you were out all day as a kid playing tin-can-tommy with a whole street load of kids, (trying not to show my age) but we had a fantastic Silver Jubilee street party too, took up the whole of the street. Then one by one the shops all closed down. But that isn't to say that I don't like the way Peckham looks now I love the shops, markets (not sure if the Choumert Road one is still there) and they are alot more diverse, interesting and colourful, there is a life, soul and vibrancy about Peckham Rye Lane, which is not evident anywhere else, not even Lewisham or Bromley, I love it, and that is 6 days a week it is usually busy, not just on a Saturday! Ha I was wondering how many ED posters on this forum actually, whilst driving down Peckham Lane or anywhere in Peckham at all, wind up their windows and lock the doors of their cars!!

Mark - you have no way of proving or disproving the existence of a higher being, (be that God or whatever else), simply because NOBODY KNOWS FOR SURE until they pop their cloggs, what is actually out there, whether consciousness exists or carries on in spirit or soul or whatever way shape or form, no-one knows for real, I live in the hope that there is. On another note, I am also not arrogant enough to think that in the whole solar system, space, galaxy whatever, infinitey and beyond and all that, that we happen to be the only living things period anywhere, we just havent evolved enough or are not advanced enough in any way to probably comprehend anything other than ourselves, (yes we are that arrogant as a species) or advanced enough to discover much of anything really, so until then, I just live in the hope that our existence has not been in vain and we were not just put on this earth to live and die for nothing. So until that day although I belong to no particular religion, I will carry on with life the way I am leading it, and trying to be the best I can, coz you never know hehe ;-)

Wow, this thread has grown quite a lot since I last looked ha! As many for religion and Jesus as there are against it all. PK - The points about quite a few of the Catholic Priests being paedos, and the Vatican and fellow priests etc. basically turning a blind eye to this major sin and covering their @rses was interesting, it is quite well known and documented. PK if you choose to bury your head in the sand about this by saying it was only a "minority" of priests within the Catholic faith who abused their powers of trust, so that you can continue practising the religion of your choice being preached to by people who cover up/ignore/sweep under the mat incidents like this (choose whichever)then that is fine and entirely your choice, but I have to say I side with Dulwich Mum on this one, I'm not saying that this doesn't happen in other faiths either, it does way too much abuse of power on the vulnerable, but the whole thing that turned me off of Catholicism was basically the constant guilt trips you were given, the hypocrisy displayed, and the fact that I could cold bloodedly go out shoot 20 people a week, but as long as at the end of it all I confessed all and said 200 hail Marys etc. I would be forgiven of all my sins, my tab would be wiped clean and I could start all over again! Ok, an extreme example and not a very nice one I know, but its true. But I am sure that as with most religions and ways of life, there are things others do not agree with, am not about to sit and pull each religion apart. You mentioned Dan Brown, I am assuming you were referring to the Da Vinci Code, I actually liked that! and the idea that God is within us all and lives through us in our actions in our lives and that we don't have to go to some man built church every week in order to worship and be guilted into parting with money etc. in order to get closer to "him", no wonder the Vatican wanted it banned! doesn't paint a very nice picture of them all, (yes fiction I know!) but they are one of the richest and wealthiest religions in the world! mmmmm one wonders ha!

Snorky, now don't be holding anything back lad just get it off your chest.... >:D

Hi there Admin, how can I add to the message within the "edited 2 times at such and such a time by so and so" message that appears when you edit, so that I can say, edited because of cr@ppy spelling or suchlike? many thanks, I have seen people use it and wondered how it was done. Many thanks Microbite

Oops sorry Ted Max, tried to remove it quickly, but no joy, system playing up, it was freaky deaky though

Removed because I have gone completely off topic now, sorry :( How do you get a message to appear within the edited at **** time please?

and just on a lighter and different note:- Loved the films "The Prophecy" with Christopher Walken together with Constantine (Keanu Reeves) and the Devil's Advocate (Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves) I know they are fantasy but can sometimes be quite thought provoking.

Am with you on that one mate >:D< Although I would go one step further to say I believe there is actually something out there, this can't just be it.

PeckhamRose, you're funny >:D< I am actually going to throw the cat amongst the pigeons and say, I sometimes actually believe that this is hell now, on this earth, and we will be judged as to how we cope with living here and how we treat our fellow human beings....despite all that is going on around us, war, famine, slaughter of the innocents, etc. I sometimes think the book of Revelations is upon us as we speak, but am not about to go to down to Hyde Park with one of those "the end is neigh" placards!

Well good luck with your mission and I hope you find the enlightenment you seek! It would be interesting to see what you discover. I have been looking for a church for ages, have participated and dabbled in quite a few, and I have yet to find what I'm looking for, but in the meantime I try to live my life as best I can, you know, just in case ;-)

It is very confusing and misleading though for the average person who is seeking a faith to follow when each religion's holy book/bible purports to be the original "word of God"

Philosophers have been looking for the same answers for thousands of years, I would love to be around the day they finally find them, I would really love to be able to read the orginal first version of the bible, I think it would be cause for quite a lot of surprise, but alas this will never happen.

Now there is no reference to reincarnation in the Torah, (as is the case with the Bible), who is to say that it wasn't there before? The simple answer is no-one knows, not that I believe in reincarnation to be honest, but it was just used as one example (as this has been recorded) of how holy books were adapted and tampered with to suit needs.

Just an example of how many versions of the bible there are out there and how they have been changed to suit the tastes and needs of whoever happened to be currently in power at the time, as I am sure with investigation it will be found to be true of most religious books and texts, whatver denomination.

Roman Emperor Justinian was the first to ever change the bible in 589 ad, as far as I am aware (may be wrong I'm sure I will be told if I am), by removing all references to reincarnation in the bible, and ever since then it has been basically pulled apart and added to by nearly every successive ruler:- "In the Sixth Century, all of the major passages in the Bible that espoused a belief in reincarnation were ordered by Roman Emperor Justinian to be removed. This was followed by a period of censorship and persecution of those who didn't adhere to the laws of the church. There are still hints of reincarnation that have remained in the Bible but any open preaching of reincarnation was condemned by the government, starting under the reign of Emperor Justinian". I quote my first reference: "The first gospels must have contained teachings which the early Christians were prepared to preserve with their lives. Unfortunately they appear to have died in vain. Our orthodox versions of the Old and New Testaments date no further back than the 6th Century, when the Emperor Justinian summoned the Fifth Ecumenical Congress of Constantinople in 533 A.D. to expunge the Platonically inspired writings of Origen, an early Church Father, who had upheld reincarnation until his death three hundred years before". From: How The Early Church Suppressed Paganism & Astrology While Supporting Reincarnation. I quote my second reference: "Reincarnation was a part of early Christianity. Most all Eastern religions believe in reincarnation, and Judaism is an Eastern religion. Christianity, coming from Judaism, also accepted reincarnation as a basic tenet. Until May 5th, 533 AD. The Emperor Justinian I, guided by his wife, called a council of bishops from the Eastern Empire. They gathered in Constantinople along with representatives from Pope Vigilius back in the Western Empire. At the Fifth Ecumenical Council, the Emperor announced he no longer wished to advocate the belief in reincarnation. This may have something to do with the idea that man can be "immortal" through multiple lives. Although this Council was well documented, the reason behind the Emperor's decision was never noted. After a show of hands, the bishops agreed with the Emperor. They found three chapters in the Bible mentioning reincarnation and decided to remove those chapters. The Pope agreed with the Council but did so only because he did not want the Eastern Empire to appear "advanced" to the Western Empire. Bibles were collected throughout the two Christian Empires, they were burned and completely rewritten removing the offending three chapters. As an outsider, I find it interesting that whims of one man can cause the word of God to be completely rewritten".

Actually this has nothing to do with the Alpha Group and the original post, was going off on a tangent there!

The bible is a story written by man, as are most other religious books, over the years these get added to, adapted and changed and bits get left out, etc. to suit the current faith that is trying to adopt it, I find faiths also interpret what they find in these books differently and adapt it to suit their needs or wants at the time. The bible and many faiths are completely against homosexuality and look on it as sin, my friend who is gay and a Deacon is having to hide that fact at the moment, she asked a simple question, so why did God make me gay then if this is such a mortal sin? She knew from a very young age that she was this way and was not coerced into it by anyone, or corrupted neither had she been living a sordid life. The Koran and Islamic faith fear the power of woman, which is why they cover them up and hide them away, the more fanatical of them rule out education for women so they do not step out of line, and even to this day stone women for "acts of wantoness", erm...a woman gets raped, it must therefore be her fault and not the fault of the rapist as she allowed him to rape her, lets stone her instead, I won't even begin to explain how muslims view women they deem to be promiscuous! Jehovah's witnesses, the first thing I ask when they knock on the door is, do you have a tv? in the Witness ideology the tv is in fact called a "devil box" and must not be watched at any cost because of corruption, but now with modern advances in technology they have now decided to ignore that part of their preachings and have changed their view to say, well we must watch out for the news to see what is going on with the world and act as proper witnesses. I found some practitioners of this way of life to be quite hypocritical in that they could stand on my door, say that most catholic priests were "shirt lifters and paedophiles who like the little boys in the choir", that pentecostal believers just liked babbling rubbish and being caught when they "enter spirit" and faint by men who like looking up their dresses! that the Church of England and many other religions, (which is most prob true especially in relation to COE), were just religions invented to suit the person's needs, i.e. Henry VIII wanted a way of divorcing... etc. well we all know the story, but the Jehovahs witness movement was founded by a man who was a pastor Charles Russell in 1872, who just woke up one day and decided to create his own religion, so I couldn't take the hypocracy of it all.

I love to love - Tina Arena

:)) I would say what ever makes you happy, gives you peace of mind and spiritually fulfills you, go with it, just be aware that there are lots of confidence tricksters out there, (not saying all churches/organisations are like this), and some take advantage of people when they are at their most vulnerable and most susceptible, I would head for the doors def if someone started talking about standing orders from your bank for a new church roof etc. though. ;-)

Have to say I have had a similar experience to Hislordship (great name by the way!) with a friend of mine, its the holier than thou attitude I couldn't be bothered with once he had found Jesus, and I am no longer in touch with him. Organisations do prey on vulnerable people who are looking for answers and seeking hope, I have to admit I am one of the millions who feel the same way, I am seeking answers to life and want to really believe that there is something spiritually greater out there and am looking for answers too, I have yet to find a relgion/way of life that I feel comfortable with, and believe me I have investigated quite a few, I used to love it when Jehovah's Witnesses came knocking on my door spouting their views on the various "fake" religions out there, I would get them to argue their "points" with me and then proceed to explain how their religion/way of life was just as "fake" and hypocrytical as quite a lot of others out there.

A thread for "who has done who?" on the forum instead of a "who's who" thread A thread for posting marks out of 10 A thread for "who I actually intended doing but on account I drank soo much at the ED Forum night out did this person instead" thread

What lovely news,congratulations to you both XXX >:D<

a "rant at your boss" thread, (hoping he/she is not a forumite here!) a "what you really think of the other forumites" thread a "how many names are you listed as under this forum?" thread a "how many cats did you shoot this morning in ED?" thread (seem to be an inordinate amount of "have you seen my moggy" threads on this forum ;-)

Jim Reeves, Johnny Cash, pinky and perky (our special album)ha! and later Pink Floyd,