To think Angels might be real

[Turquoiserosepeony]

I let ll month old DD play with my phone briefly today so that I could drink my coffee and she somehow managed to google 'archangels' which got me thinking - I've unexpectedly found white feathers indoors and seen pretty blue lights in my room at night (not from passing emergency vehicles!) but nothing more convincing than that.

Ex DP's DM however swore blind that soon after her own DM died she saw something in her living room that she can only describe as an angel. She was convinced.

Anyone else had more impressive experiences than mine? I'd love to think they're real.

*when I'm lost in my car

Not when I'm lost inside my car obvs, that would just be silly.

Zoroastrianism had angels.

I'll give you that, although the hierarchy of the messengers was interpretated in a modern Christian context.

Those angels carried maces. They weren't to be fucked with. They are not leaving feathers on your pillow either.

Neither is fine for my tastes. Neither Angels nor Gods exist.

Of course, we are discussing people who pick one and not the other to believe in, so this doesn't bother me.

LongLostCherub We're through the looking glass now...

Because you're placing a belief in something which has come from a Judeo-Christian belief system, but it's been bastardised by people along the way? You're literally taking something from its ancient source material and applying modern notions to it, which isn't supported by any text except new age nonsense you can buy in the bargain bin at any book shop in Glastonbury.

And the Bible has more authority because...?

I'm very open minded but I cannot understand how people think that a feather that came out of a seagulls arse and found it's way into the house on the bottom of a shoe, through a window, in the hands of a child could have any mystical explanation.

I believe in them, definitely.

And the Bible has more authority because...?

I am not saying that the Bible has more authority. Or that it's true above all other holy books. But a belief in angels has roots in the Bible. The idea of a kind, pretty guardian angel with big feathery wings is a complete bastardisation of the source. It is not supported by any text except shaky new age works. If you believe in angels such as these, where do you think they come from? Who do they serve? Where do they live?

Whenever I discover feathers inside the house, I start looking around because the rest of the bird will probably somewhere around on the floor, courtesy of our two cats.

It is not supported by any text except shaky new age works.

If it's in a book, it must be true.

If you're looking for an argument about Christianity, EastMids, I'm not biting.

I am not bashing anyone's religion. Believing in angels is not a religion.

Seeing white feathers unexpectedly round the house on occasion does make me remember lost loved ones, though not angels.

Sometimes... when I can't find something, at all, as a last resort, I just say out loud "I can't find xxxx so if you could just put it where I can see it" and the item has turned up after a while (face cream appearing on the windowsill and such like). I like to think it's fairies rather than angels thou...or maybe I just stop having a man look

Yes i believe in angels, saw one at the side of my bed, thought it was my mum at first,who passed away a couple of years before
Didnt see a face,just a figure in a bright white robe,with arms spread out towards me, scared me to death, so dived under covers
I believe also in an afterlife,seen and heard other things

If you're looking for an argument about Christianity, EastMids, I'm not biting. I am not bashing anyone's religion. Believing in angels is not a religion.

So bashing people's crazy beliefs is fine, unless they are crazy beliefs that you deem to be religious. OK. Sounds fair.

Why do we have to have proof of everything for it to be real. I would find it odd that we are inhabitating this small planet in the middle of a vast universe just for nothing. To me that makes less sense than believing in God. We have to stretch our minds and accept that there are things we don't know, our brains aren't working to their full capacity yet.

I believe in them OP.
I truly do.

Funnily though, I'm agnostic. I can't fathom there being a God but don't want to rule it out just in case - because really what do I know in the grand scheme of things.

If that makes me batshit so what

My mother believes in angels
I think it's her way of processing her grief after losing her husband and one of her daughters
When my dad died I had just moved house and a robin kept coming in to the kitchen and occasionally throughout the ground floor. My mum was convinced it was my dad
I was never sure whether to be convinced or dismissive because it routinely shat all over my house

Why do we have to have proof of everything for it to be real.

Seriously? I'll take the fact that you haven't used a question mark on this to suggest that you do, deep down, understand that believing in a supposedly omnipotent, loving being who has chosen never to reveal him/herself or intervene in the appalling suffering of the creation for which he/she is supposedly responsible, makes as much sense as believing in the tooth fairy. Or in psychics/angels/horoscopes/ Thetans/reiki/the power of healing crystals/that blood transfusions are evil etc etc.

We have to stretch our minds and accept that there are things we don't know, our brains aren't working to their full capacity yet.

That we don't use 100% of our brains is a frequently-debunked myth only trotted out to shore up arguments like this for why we should all trot about believing that burst duvets mean the angels are near/that all Leos with a rising moon in their tenth house are going to get a nice surprise this month, and that your dead Auntie Maureen has contacted you via a psychic with bad facial hair and an orange tan to tell you that Mildred's lost brooch is behind the fridge.

faculty.washington.edu/chudler/tenper.html

I think we all believe in tons of things we have no proof of. I think it is a core part of the functioning of the human brain. Getting all superior over not believing in certain things is crazy.

The number one thing people believe without evidence is: 'well it probably all turn out okay'

followed by: 'i'm a good person so bad things won't happen to me'

I mean even if intellectually you accept the above are both provably BS, you still in your heart of heart know it won't be your child that gets killed in a hit and run...it won;t be you that gets made redundant and ends up going to food banks....

I don't believe in angels...but not because I have particularly good reasons not to. I just check inside if I do...and no...I don't.

I can post rationalize that felt sense all you like....I mean if there are angels they have some fucked up priorities don;t they? They don't, for instance seem to stop children from catching horrible diseases....but do help find lost keys....etc. Or maybe, whats with the feathers? IF they are made of feathers then we would see them, if they aren't then why do they leave feathers behind?

But none of that is the reason I don't believe. I just don't. and that is just as logically indefensible as believing in them.

playingsardines my lack of an answer doesn't mean you've got me stumped or that i think you're right, it's just that i can't be bothered to argue. Arguing over whether there is a God or not is usually futile and often leads to cross words.....and it's Friday, i'm in a good mood.

Totally believe they exist. We find feathers where there would never normally be feathers like in a Chinese restaurant during a family meal.

Most are plain white and represent my SIL who we lost two years ago.

Sometimes the feathers have a grey streak through them which is my FIL who we lost last year.

It's comforting to see them and I always say hello when I find them.

regardless of angels or not you definitely shouldn't eat in restaurants where you find feathers. That's not cool.

I'm sure even angels would realise the food safety issues around that. Time and a place feathered (or not) friends, time and a place!

Honestly, Morphene, I think you'd have to be deeply naive to think either of those things, and I don't think most people do. We all know, even if it's not uppermost in our conscious minds that we are one throw of the genetic dice from facing the horror that Charlie Gard's parents are facing, and that becoming homeless is appallingly easy?

My 10 year old godson almost died of an unsuspected heart condition last year, and people kept saying to his parents, as he was in surgery, 'I can't imagine what you're going through', but his mother said the awful thing was is that it was exactly the way you imagine it would be to discover you child has something potentially fatal wrong with them.

Happy Friday, lazylab