Bug

If God's plan involves me becoming a cordon bleu sandwich, then I don't want anything to do with that psycho! I am moving toward a raw food diet. It is a Vedic tradition that goes back at least three thousand years. But alas, cashew chicken at Thai Ginger just goes down so nicely. I doubt it will ever be completely off the menu. Got any sisters? I also love eggs.

The Vatican has art works worth tens of millions of dollars on every wall. Their bishops moved preists who were known pedifiles from parish to parish yet the Vatican says the Congregation has to pay the settlement that the court awarded. I have always been appalled at the pagentry and opulence of Catholic churches and ritual. Other demoninations try to be just as bad. I think they all say it is to glorify God. Meanwhile people like Mother Teresa go begging for funds. I have been a registered member of two churches. Both of them rented time in public schools to hold services. The money that was collected was spent transparently. The Pastor was paid. The rent was paid. Administrative costs and outreach programs were covered. In both cases, most of the money went to specific missions in remote areas. The missions were orphanages and medical clinics. For me, Church is where Christians meet with other Christians to plan their service to the community and share their faith with each other. There is a lot of persecution, understandably, and we need to help each other.

You will have to ask a Catholic or a fundamentalist most of those questions. They really are not questions nor assertions that I beleive to be in the same context as my beleifs. It is my understanding that God just wants you to be who you are and get to know you.

"The planet is a single organism." "The revolution is now." Perhaps in industrialized societies the revolution is now. The concept of the earth being one organism is what the native americans both north and south have been trying to tell us for a few hundered years. A shamman from the Amazon was sent to the United Nations by his peers in 1978. He was allowed to speak as his mission was clearly of no threat. He stood up and said that the world was out of balance. Man had too much power over nature and man was not using that power wisely. That the world could still heal itself if it is given a chance. And that if the world was not given a chance to heal itself soon, it would be too late.

Well I'm glad they are reunited and happy. But I get grossed out when people let their dogs lick their face. Do you know where that tongue has been in the last five minutes?

He is richest whose needs are least. -Thoreau Great sig. Reminds me of "He who is least amoung you is first before God." Hank also had some baggage he didn't claim.

The abercisor, $19.95 plus shipping. The look on her face, PRICELESS. Thanks for the socks baby.

When my grandmother was 12, both of her parents were killed in an industrial accident. There was no social or corporate support for her or her five younger siblings. They went to work cleaning houses and were soon hired by a prominent Chicago family. My great aunt once told the story of the end of prohibition. There were many long faces in the household she worked for. The family business was going to have to be totally restructured. I don't drink much anymore. A glass of cheep Merlot is just fine.

This, overall, is a very uninformed discussion. There is no distinction between "religion" and "spirituality" which are often very different experiences. There is also no expressed awareness of the colloquial "myth" as it contrasts with "mythology". This circumstance cannot help but lead to a dichotomy between "science" and religion". It serves no purpose other than to expose the values of your families of origin in a broad social-anthropological way. But you all seem so happy for once. Carry on.

friggin bible thumpers! not the devout atheists are a whole lot better. Both religions are completely based on fundamentally unsupportable assumptions. I get this a lot, but I'm not sure I understand it. For one thing, I don't know the difference between a 'devout' atheist and an atheist. It's digital: you either are one or you're not, in the same way you either believe in Santa Claus or you don't. You may be ranting, raving atheist. You may be a quiet, unassuming, respectful atheist. But you cannot be a 'devout' atheist. You can only 'devoutly' follow a practice, and atheism is simply the absence of religious practice, not a practice in itself. There's no such thing as 'devoutly' not believing in something, although you can be sure, in your own mind, that you do not believe in something. See previous Santa Claus example. For me, there is absolutely not a shred of difference between belief in either one. In fact, I've experienced more evidence of Santa Claus than God...all those presents from Santa, etc. Atheism From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search "Atheist " redirects here. For the death metal band, see Atheist (band). Part of a series on Atheism Concepts Religion · Nontheism Antireligion · Antitheism Secular humanism Metaphysical naturalism Weak and strong atheism Implicit and explicit atheism History History of atheism Arguments Against religion · For nontheism Against god · Criticism Demographics Atheism · Irreligion Famous atheists · State atheism Discrimination and Persecution Atheism Portal · v • d • e Atheism, as an explicit position, can be either the affirmation of the nonexistence of gods,[1] or the rejection of theism.[2] It is also[3] defined more broadly as an absence of belief in deities, or nontheism.[4][5][6][7] Many self-described atheists are skeptical of all supernatural beings and cite a lack of empirical evidence for the existence of deities. Others argue for atheism on philosophical, social or historical grounds. Although many self-described atheists tend toward secular philosophies such as humanism[8] and naturalism,[9] there is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all atheists adhere;[10] and some religions, such as Jainism and Buddhism, do not require belief in a personal god. The term atheism originated as a pejorative epithet applied to any person or belief in conflict with established religion.[11][12] With the spread of freethought, scientific skepticism, and criticism of religion, the term began to gather a more specific meaning and has been increasingly used as a self-description by atheists. Read Unfinished Man and the Imagination here . It was considered the most important work of its time in the field of the philosophy of religion. Basically, it was a treatise on the proof of atheism as a logical beleif using a brilliant combination of the works of foundational western thinkers. The author Ray L. Hart, was fired from his tenured position at Vanderbilt for publishing this book. He was an atheist for awhile there. But if you read his later books, it makes more sense as to why he became a Christian again. I studied under him when he was an athiest at the University of Montana.

Its OK as long he wasn't texting.

Me

Christianity is just another form of shammanism. I'll leave the details to your own research. The sign was offensive to me but not because of what was said or what the author beleived but because the people who put the other religous items on display did so in a positive spirit. Whether or not they are misguided is each individual's personal choice. So if the author of the sign had instead erected a replica of a famous scientific event such as a representation of evolution, it would have served the same positive purpose as the other items on display. It also would have represented a differing world view. The sign was intended to contradict what was without rather than reveal what was within. As for the religious bashing on this thread so far, it represents the bad experiences of the people who posted. I respect that and wish for you that it had not been. Religion is a very dangerous thing. Equally so for Christians if Christianity as displayed in Jesus' words is a truth from a real and living God. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." Merry Christmas! oops. You don't beleive that Christ was born. Happy holidays. Oops, that would be "Holy days". Get lots of stuff!

That was a simplistic, callous, and ignorant response. Let's forget that I participated here.

Sounds fun Bill. Sign me up for the next Republican party in your neighborhood.

The problems with this line of reasoning also apply to your examples of gun violence in other countries.

OK. Ive told this story before but here it goes again. When my step son was about 12, his father's Schitzophrenia acted up and he was hearing the voices of "5 evil demons" (not good demons mind you) telling him to kill his own son. My daughters were 2ys and 2 months respectively. My wife at the time, mother of all three kids, was in denial and would not try to have the guy locked up. One night at about 11PM the front door started thumping loudly as though someone were trying to kick it in. Sure enough, there is the ex-hubby holding a tire iron and standing about 6'2" in my front hall. Of course, I knew what was going on and had thought out every scenario I could and planned what I would do if this happened. So I had the mother take all the kids into a back bedroom when the thumping started and had her call 911. Then I sat at the top of the stairs with my loaded pistol wondering if I was going to have to shoot my stepson's father. When he came through the kicked in door I had the legal right to shoot him dead in self defense. But that did not seem like the best thing for the whole family scene. So I called his name and showed him the pistol and told him the police were on their way. He stood there looking confused for about 20 seconds which is a really long time. I had planned that if he started up the stairs, I would have no choice. Finally, the police showed up and he ran away. They didn't catch him that night. Tell me that you would not have wanted to have a gun for the rest of that night.

Chastity belts are coming back eh? Ooooooooooo. I love a challenge.

Domestic cats kill an estimated 29 million song birds every year. Karma.

My first wife had a bed like that.

What wrong man the pills ain't working for ya? Maybe just get yourself a guitar and start playing with that instead. All I would like is to be able to get on a freaking plane. I am going on one week of being stuck in Bangkok, I guess there could be lot worst places to be stuck. The pills still work fine sonny. Its the "all toys & no responsibilities" that looks good. As for Bangkok, look around and consider where you will be in 20 years. Store that memory. Mine are very useful.

There are lots of trip reports on the nf route. If you use the search function you will get more than you care to read. Enjoy!!!

I want to go through puberty again.

Has someone had a baby recently!

Sounds to me like you are angry at him for what you perceive as him copying your MO. Cheerio!