Religion

I believe ALL religions are a cancer of the mind!

I don't care what your god is... I only hope you meet it soon!

Religion is the worlds most popular faery story concocted by weakminded buffoons that are too scared to accept responsibility for their own hypocritical thoughts and actions. Cowards that would rather blame their sick thoughts and murderous actions on FICTION than accept responsibility themselves!

People say satan is evil - as far as I'm concerned there are more people killed & brutally murdered in the name of god! Idiots promised of a better life in heaven... something they can't prove... take countless lives in their automaton suicide killings. By all means kill yourselves you dense fucks, but don't take innocent people with you who don't give a shit about your pathetic J K Rowling inspired delusions of grandeur!!! What gives you the right to be godplayer???

I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees!

Fuck Your God!!!

I believe ALL religions are a cancer of the mind!

 

I don't care what your god is... I only hope you meet it soon!

 

Religion is the worlds most popular faery story concocted by weakminded buffoons that are too scared to accept responsibility for their own hypocritical thoughts and actions. Cowards that would rather blame their sick thoughts and murderous actions on FICTION than accept responsibility themselves!

 

People say satan is evil - as far as I'm concerned there are more people killed & brutally murdered in the name of god! Idiots promised of a better life in heaven... something they can't prove... take countless lives in their automaton suicide killings. By all means kill yourselves you dense fucks, but don't take innocent people with you who don't give a shit about your pathetic J K Rowling inspired delusions of grandeur!!! What gives you the right to be godplayer???

 

I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees!

 

Fuck Your God!!!

Geez... why don't you tell us how you really feel?

I like this thread better when it was called.... GF "Religion" threads.

Proofreading is't one of your strong suits, is it?

I believe ALL religions are a cancer of the mind!

 

I don't care what your god is... I only hope you meet it soon!

 

Religion is the worlds most popular faery Proofreading sure isn't one of your strong suits.story concocted by weakminded buffoons that are too scared to accept responsibility for their own hypocritical thoughts and actions.

Like yourself? Cowards that would rather blame their sick thoughts and murderous actions on FICTION than accept responsibility themselves!

 

People say satan is evil - as far as I'm concerned there are more people killed & brutally murdered in the name of God! Idiots promised of a better life in heaven... something they can't prove... take countless lives in their automaton suicide killings. By all means kill yourselves you dense fucks, but don't take innocent people with you who don't give a shit about your pathetic J K Rowling inspired delusions of grandeur!!!You must not get out much, do you? What gives you the right to be godplayer???What gives you the right to be a dumbass?

 

I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees!Are you sure that you're not a Klingon?

 

Fuck Your God!!!

Yet another victim of our totally messed up public school system. Tyler, you really need to get a life and a clue.

Proofreading is't one of your strong suits, is it?

It obviously ISN'T one of yours is it???

Those who blindly follow any religion - exist!

Those who have their minds open without the restraints of religion - LIVE!!!

The only 'victims' are those who are mentally deficient enough to need others to fill their heads with bullshit religious dogma, restricting their freedom of choice and thoughts.

sounds like someone was molested by a priest

Sounds like I despise religion and those who blindly follow...

because of the priest incident ?

As far as I'm aware, there was NO priest incident. If there was, I suppose it would only add fuel to my hatred for religion...

As far as I'm aware, there was NO priest incident. If there was, I suppose it would only add fuel to my hatred for religion...

To me, your as much of a dick for hating religious people with such passion as the religious zealots are for shoving their beliefs on those who aren't religious. I too find religion to be a fouled practice and a waste of your own personal human experience but all are free to dedicate their lives to whatever they wish. I dont hate the people who believe, I hate the message they preach. I hate the seperation they cause.

If you truely understand religion and it's history then you should not be so threatened by it's presense. Instead you should find religion humorous. I agree with what you said in principle but you sound to overzealous and mis-guided.

Sure he sounds like he is way overline and all but I kinda understand where he is coming from. He is obviously very much pissed about the whole matter, and how things such as "killing in the name of God" seems very much contradictory. Sounds biased but he has a reason to be pissed. Now as long as he understands exactly what is going on by putting himself in other's shoes, he is not an idiot. He is just quite upset about how this whole thing works. It is his opinion and it doesn't seem like he is blanatanly trying to piss in anyone's Cheerios but rather just sharing a general view. I am not a big fan of religion myself, I'm just not going to spew off a really large rant about it.

But he shouldn't hate the religious folks. Sometimes religion is all a person has to get them through life. They need a deity of some sort to help them move on. A belief of some source. What he SHOULD hate (well dislike, hate may be too strong of a word) is the extremists who are going around spweing their beliefs and trying to get everyone to convert with idle threats and other unpleasurable methods. I am friends with tons of people who practice religion but as long as they don't go around saying "YOU WILL BURN IN HELL IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN MY GOD!!!" or run around with a bomb in their hand, it is all good.

To me, your as much of a dick for hating religious people with such passion as the religious zealots are for shoving their beliefs on those who aren't religious. I too find religion to be a fouled practice and a waste of your own personal human experience but all are free to dedicate their lives to whatever they wish. I dont hate the people who believe, I hate the message they preach. I hate the seperation they cause.

 

If you truely understand religion and it's history then you should not be so threatened by it's presense. Instead you should find religion humorous. I agree with what you said in principle but you sound to overzealous and mis-guided.

I have to differ in opinion here... I certainly don't find it in any way humorous, when someone steps onto a plane or a bus full of people with a hidden belt of dynamite and kills not only themselves but a shitload of other totally innocent people over their misguided fantasies indoctrinated to them whilst bouncing on their parents knee!!! I couldn't give a shit about god or satan or any other fictional deity! What I despise is PEOPLE playing god and acting out their fantasies in order to hurt or kill other people!!!

Don't underestimate religion and the domination it has over peoples lives. I don't see why I should just sit back and blindly follow one path. I prefer to make up my own mind. I'd rather live my life on personal experience than base it on one thing to the exclusion of all else.

I don't understand why I should practice compassion for those who don't have the personal strength of mind to BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES through their OWN experience!!!

If people didn't believe in religion - there would BE no message to preach!!! In order to believe, you have to be given the idea in the first place. Whenever you take that idea and place a belief system onto it, over time it mushrooms into reality in peoples minds and they start to sculpt their own life round their beliefs! The human ego then likes to nurture this profound insight and it's not long before they pass this belief onto others (who pass it onto others, and so forth), resulting in a cult of believers. The cult then reaches saturation and needs balance, which results in idols with the strongest voice becoming leaders and dictators in the chosen matter until they're usurped by someone with a louder voice. However, there will always be someone out there who opposes the pure ideas, and proceeds to split off into sub groups with their own agenda and personal manipulated beliefs, who push those beliefs to the extreme.

God, Budda, Krishna, Allah, etc. - it's all a concept of human fabrication, designed to make insecure people feel all safe and cosy that 'their little fictional delusional world governed by their equally fictional deity' will protect them from being stabbed to death in the street by a junkie for the $20 they had in their wallet, or from being plowed down by a drunk driver. How absurd!!! It's more ignorant for these people to believe that, than it would be to believe they're the only intelligent (ha! ) life that exists...

I have to differ in opinion here... I certainly don't find it in any way humorous, when someone steps onto a plane or a bus full of people with a hidden belt of dynamite and kills not only themselves but a shitload of other totally innocent people over their misguided fantasies indoctrinated to them whilst bouncing on their parents knee!!! I couldn't give a shit about god or satan or any other fictional deity! What I despise is PEOPLE playing god and acting out their fantasies in order to hurt or kill other people!!!

 

Don't underestimate religion and the domination it has over peoples lives. I don't see why I should just sit back and blindly follow one path. I prefer to make up my own mind. I'd rather live my life on personal experience than base it on one thing to the exclusion of all else.

 

I don't understand why I should practice compassion for those who don't have the personal strength of mind to BELIEVE IN THEMSELVES through their OWN experience!!!

 

If people didn't believe in religion - there would BE no message to preach!!! In order to believe, you have to be given the idea in the first place. Whenever you take that idea and place a belief system onto it, over time it mushrooms into reality in peoples minds and they start to sculpt their own life round their beliefs! The human ego then likes to nurture this profound insight and it's not long before they pass this belief onto others (who pass it onto others, and so forth), resulting in a cult of believers. The cult then reaches saturation and needs balance, which results in idols with the strongest voice becoming leaders and dictators in the chosen matter until they're usurped by someone with a louder voice. However, there will always be someone out there who opposes the pure ideas, and proceeds to split off into sub groups with their own agenda and personal manipulated beliefs, who push those beliefs to the extreme.

 

God, Budda, Krishna, Allah, etc. - it's all a concept of human fabrication, designed to make insecure people feel all safe and cosy that 'their little fictional delusional world governed by their equally fictional deity' will protect them from being stabbed to death in the street by a junkie for the $20 they had in their wallet, or from being plowed down by a drunk driver. How absurd!!! It's more ignorant for these people to believe that, than it would be to believe they're the only intelligent (ha! ) life that exists...

Have you met SD87? Something tells me you two might find something in common.

While I can see where you're coming from, you might want to yank your eyeballs out and look at the world from a different perspective. On its own, religion is just a thing. Religion is just some text on pages, and some pews in a church. What you should be pissed off at is people. It's people who follow the religion, people who corrupt its purposes, and people who twist and mangle the concepts to suit their own selves. We're the ones that bring it to life and end up destroying.

You've got yourself quite backwards, mate. If you're going to be pissed off at something, get it right.

The only thing I like about religion is that because of it, I can be proud of my own opinions, and continue to correctly debate the existence of god.

I mean, it's one thing to believe in god, but most people can't even get that right. Their view of god is totally wrong.

God would, in all his power, and we can prove this through observation, not need to place man on the earth, or any life for that matter, himself. He could have the power to make the universe with the big bang, and know that it would turn out the way it would, and have life develop on its own through natural selection. If he had to create the universe, and place life on a single planet, he wouldn't be omniscient or omnipotent.

?God doesn't exist in man's image. He's god. God could only be perfect. He wouldn't need a nose (what the hell does he need to breathe anyway? can't he make air inside his lungs if he really needed it? He does not need eyes (being all-seeing, these wouldn't do the trick) does not need a brain, he doesn't need a body, or any physical form whatsoever. By definition, god created the rules of survival, of physics, of everything, if he existed. So he shouldn't be bound by them, or made up of his own creations, or he would be his own little paradox. Anything less, and you would have to ask who designed the designer.

Also, I refer to god as he. This is wrong, god is an it. But that's hard to work with, so I'm sticking to he. Why is god it? Because it has no need to reproduce, especially not in a way that benefits evolution and nothing more. He would reproduce through mitosis if it were that he couldn't create a duplicate by thinking about doing so.

And figuring he is this perfect god, why then, would we need to talk to him? In god's infinite wisdom and knowledge, wouldn't he know what you want already, and have known since the beginning of time what you would eventually want? So what good does talking do? And in his infinite wisdom, wouldn't making a suggestion of any sort be an insult to him? As if you're smarter than god?And what if, by chance, you pray for something that god already intended to happen, and you say to yourself, "hey, it worked!" Wouldn't this also be an insult, because you're assuming that it was your own idea and god wouldn't have done it without you?

isn't all praying a waste of the precious time god has given you?

God would not have a heaven and hell. Especially not for an eternity. Anyone would prefer death to an eternity of anything, including bliss. And why would god keep us? He has plenty of us, and if he runs out he can make us again. He would have no need for our company, being god. It would be a completely useless arrangement for him- humans would be the only ones impressed.

Life is unfair sometimes. God would have planned everything the way that it must in order to work, ultimately. He would not sidestep in order to make every life perfect, and then why would he bother caring about what it took to get there? God doesn't have morals. No need for them, they would slow him down if he felt pain for all the terrible things that happened here. Morals are evolved as survival traits, and god's survival is guaranteed. Feeling pain would be a flaw, and that god couldn't work.

God doesn't love. People say he does, but then they also admit that God can deal good and bad, regardless of of whether or not you are bad yourself, so how does love even factor into it? No hate, no love.

Is it possible to be all-knowing? It seems to me that knowledge comes from observation, and if there was a god, and there was nothing to gift god with knowledge, and nothing around to observe... Where did he find knowledge enough to create the universe? He can't seek to find something if he doesn't know what he's missing.

In fact, what are the attributes of god, and are any of them possible? He is all knowing, all powerful, and immortal. We've put omniscience to rest, but how about omnipotency? By what method would a god create existence from nothing? How would god have gotten this power?

Now what about immortality? It's impossible for anything to exist forever, that means it was never created to begin with. It shouldn't exist.

Any trillion year span to god would be so short-lived that he might not even notice it. Eternity is something god would not want to be omniscient to experience, and he would not want to be omnipotent so there are absolutely no challenges in existing for such a time.

If there is a god, he is nothing more than time. He exists, leads the universe from beginning to each, not capable of thinking, just existing in the way he must, and then coming back again for the next round.

The universe, by definition, is all powerful. It is itself, everything within it can be said to be a part of it, so there is nothing to test against its might. All-knowing has been proven to be a challenge life is capable of. The universe, and life (through generations) can be immortal. Especially the universe, time being directly related to it and all. All the attributes of god, without god, and with proof. This is atheism.

So religion, to me (even intelligent design), is an attempt to project the divine qualities of existence onto an imaginary friend.

The only thing I like about religion is that because of it, I can be proud of my own opinions, and continue to correctly debate the existence of god.

 

I mean, it's one thing to believe in god, but most people can't even get that right. Their view of god is totally wrong.

 

God would, in all his power, and we can prove this through observation, not need to place man on the earth, or any life for that matter, himself. He could have the power to make the universe with the big bang, and know that it would turn out the way it would, and have life develop on its own through natural selection. If he had to create the universe, and place life on a single planet, he wouldn't be omniscient or omnipotent.

?God doesn't exist in man's image. He's god. God could only be perfect. He wouldn't need a nose (what the hell does he need to breathe anyway? can't he make air inside his lungs if he really needed it? He does not need eyes (being all-seeing, these wouldn't do the trick) does not need a brain, he doesn't need a body, or any physical form whatsoever. By definition, god created the rules of survival, of physics, of everything, if he existed. So he shouldn't be bound by them, or made up of his own creations, or he would be his own little paradox. Anything less, and you would have to ask who designed the designer.

 

Also, I refer to god as he. This is wrong, god is an it. But that's hard to work with, so I'm sticking to he. Why is god it? Because it has no need to reproduce, especially not in a way that benefits evolution and nothing more. He would reproduce through mitosis if it were that he couldn't create a duplicate by thinking about doing so.

 

And figuring he is this perfect god, why then, would we need to talk to him? In god's infinite wisdom and knowledge, wouldn't he know what you want already, and have known since the beginning of time what you would eventually want? So what good does talking do? And in his infinite wisdom, wouldn't making a suggestion of any sort be an insult to him? As if you're smarter than god?And what if, by chance, you pray for something that god already intended to happen, and you say to yourself, "hey, it worked!" Wouldn't this also be an insult, because you're assuming that it was your own idea and god wouldn't have done it without you?

isn't all praying a waste of the precious time god has given you?

 

God would not have a heaven and hell. Especially not for an eternity. Anyone would prefer death to an eternity of anything, including bliss. And why would god keep us? He has plenty of us, and if he runs out he can make us again. He would have no need for our company, being god. It would be a completely useless arrangement for him- humans would be the only ones impressed.

Life is unfair sometimes. God would have planned everything the way that it must in order to work, ultimately. He would not sidestep in order to make every life perfect, and then why would he bother caring about what it took to get there? God doesn't have morals. No need for them, they would slow him down if he felt pain for all the terrible things that happened here. Morals are evolved as survival traits, and god's survival is guaranteed. Feeling pain would be a flaw, and that god couldn't work.

 

God doesn't love. People say he does, but then they also admit that God can deal good and bad, regardless of of whether or not you are bad yourself, so how does love even factor into it? No hate, no love.

 

Is it possible to be all-knowing? It seems to me that knowledge comes from observation, and if there was a god, and there was nothing to gift god with knowledge, and nothing around to observe... Where did he find knowledge enough to create the universe? He can't seek to find something if he doesn't know what he's missing.

 

In fact, what are the attributes of god, and are any of them possible? He is all knowing, all powerful, and immortal. We've put omniscience to rest, but how about omnipotency? By what method would a god create existence from nothing? How would god have gotten this power?

 

Now what about immortality? It's impossible for anything to exist forever, that means it was never created to begin with. It shouldn't exist.

 

Any trillion year span to god would be so short-lived that he might not even notice it. Eternity is something god would not want to be omniscient to experience, and he would not want to be omnipotent so there are absolutely no challenges in existing for such a time.

 

If there is a god, he is nothing more than time. He exists, leads the universe from beginning to each, not capable of thinking, just existing in the way he must, and then coming back again for the next round.

 

The universe, by definition, is all powerful. It is itself, everything within it can be said to be a part of it, so there is nothing to test against its might. All-knowing has been proven to be a challenge life is capable of. The universe, and life (through generations) can be immortal. Especially the universe, time being directly related to it and all. All the attributes of god, without god, and with proof. This is atheism.

 

So religion, to me (even intelligent design), is an attempt to project the divine qualities of existence onto an imaginary friend.

I like how you present your God as something that is just a divine being, and not something attached to a bible.

However, what made it hard to want to read past your first few lines was you saying this: Their view of god is totally wrong

Yes, I'm atheist, but saying something as blindly like that is complete ridiculous. It is GOD that we are discussing, and if he/it/she is as divine as what you and all others claim him to be, how can you possibly be so sure of yourself as to declare who has the right and wrong concept of God? Arrogant little bastard.

Have you met SD87? Something tells me you two might find something in common.

 

While I can see where you're coming from, you might want to yank your eyeballs out and look at the world from a different perspective. On its own, religion is just a thing. Religion is just some text on pages, and some pews in a church. What you should be pissed off at is people. It's people who follow the religion, people who corrupt its purposes, and people who twist and mangle the concepts to suit their own selves. We're the ones that bring it to life and end up destroying.

 

You've got yourself quite backwards, mate. If you're going to be pissed off at something, get it right.

I think Jenn hit the nail sqaure here. Even when religion is used as a murder weapon it cannot nessasarily bear the blame. Think of the old adage "guns don't kill people, people kll people". This theory applies to religion as well. Christians have engaged in murderous acts in America in recent decades and molested the principles of the xtian belief to validate their actions. I'm refering to the few radical individuals who killed abortion clinic workers in the name of their god.

However, power corrupts, and power IS the reason for religion. I'm not talking about the Johson family that goes to church ever sunday as a means of instilling morals in their children. I'm talking about the Vatican. I'm talkin' about Pat Robertson. I'm talkin' about Osama Bin Ladin. Each uses religion as a means to extort power.

If you go back to the inception of all major religions you see only a form of government. These 'governments' were used to murder countless thousands throughout history. It makes me wonder what the world would be like without religion. Would it be better or worse?

I believe ALL religions are a cancer of the mind!

 

I don't care what your god is... I only hope you meet it soon!

 

Religion is the worlds most popular faery story concocted by weakminded buffoons that are too scared to accept responsibility for their own hypocritical thoughts and actions. Cowards that would rather blame their sick thoughts and murderous actions on FICTION than accept responsibility themselves!

 

People say satan is evil - as far as I'm concerned there are more people killed & brutally murdered in the name of god! Idiots promised of a better life in heaven... something they can't prove... take countless lives in their automaton suicide killings. By all means kill yourselves you dense fucks, but don't take innocent people with you who don't give a shit about your pathetic J K Rowling inspired delusions of grandeur!!! What gives you the right to be godplayer???

 

I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees!

 

Fuck Your God!!!

My guess is you beleive that the Constitution protects criminals but provides no protection for crime victims

My guess is you beleive that the Constitution protects criminals but provides no protection for crime victims

I don't know about Tyler Durden, but I'm glad you compared the U.S. Constitution to religion expecially religious text.

The documents themselves are intended to either improve or protect a good life or act as a guide to lead a good life. The problem is when stupid asshole extremist (either radical religious leaders or radical thinking attorneys) twist, manipulate and violate the text by interpreting them in a way to fit their needs, not to just let the text sit in it's simple common sense version. This is usually how great legal documents and religious documents get perverted to what we see too often in the world (i.e. the murders in the name of a religion or sick perverted child molesters who even though they confess to the crime, are released back into society because their lawyer found some crappy little technicality or loophole.)

I have trouble believing that these men, that were probably some of the more intelligent people in history, who wrote these brilliant works would be pleased with how these documents have been misused and abused at will.

It is the un-accepting and un-relenting that cause these sort of problems. All decisions ultimatly fall upon the indivduel, no matter what is influencing them they make to choice to act or not act. Manipulated idologies are no excuse nor are they to blame.

Let it be known forthwith: Assholes and the ignorent are the ones fucking things up, and nothing else.

I doubt that I have to actually post to let you all know this, but I'm totally there with you, Tyler. You've got the right idea, so let's join forces and beat religious people upside the head with...um....baseball bats, I don't care--just knock the sense back into them. Religious people are out of their MINDS. (That or they don't have them at all--I've seen both types.) And you're right, Jenn, I think Tyler and I will be getting along famously.

For any of my rants about religion and how I loathe it, see...........any of my threads.

Though you will see that one is called 'symbol of my religion' in which case I'm using religion in the sense of a way of living WITHOUT any divine being, not any of this christian cult shit. (Every been to a catholic service? It's fucking CREEPY) In other words, yes, I have a 'religion' as in a way of life, but not a RELIGION as in a text and prayer and all that ridiculous shit. Just clearing that up before anyone jumps down my throat about it.

Rock on, Tyler, I hope you make the cut and stick around. I need some more atheists on my side.

But it the same way the peganism is to you "A way of life" cannot it also be argued the same for christianity, islam or any other mainstream religion? I could almost agree that 'religions' such a Buddism, Taoism or Peganism are more philosphies of life then religions but they still restrict the mind to a dogma of sorts and labeling yourself under that collective banner is to put chains on your mind (And the minds of those around you as they will judge you based on this potrayal of self).

Personally I take a great deal from many religions, especially eastern ones such as Taoism, but to say I am part of this collective following of outlined principals under the assumption that they know 'the path' to whatever their believed end may be is rather pompous and concieted in my opinion, even if those who are doing so are not. (And I don't necessarly mean just the end of 'life')

If you were to take your studies from many sciences then you'd not label yourself solely as, say a physicists, but rather as a student of science. I would say that religion can be seen as the collective learnings of life and perceptions of morality (What ever their justification EG: A god of sorts). With this outlook, it would be impossible for me to advocate the idea of 'belonging' with concern to religion. It only restricts, therefore it is unreasonable and unacceptable. I am a student of my life and that alone. (As far as religion is concerned)

I believe ALL religions are a cancer of the mind!

Then you are delusional.

I don't care what your god is... I only hope you meet it soon!

What a nice thing to say. And after I called you delusional...tsk, tsk. Where is my manners?

Religion is the worlds most popular faery story concocted by weakminded buffoons that are too scared to accept responsibility for their own hypocritical thoughts and actions.

Well, I cannot say for Buddhism, Shintoism, Hinduism, etc., whether they were concocted by "weakminded buffoons that are too scared to accept responsibility for their own hypocritical thoughts and actions." And of course there is no telling what one thinks of when stoned on peyote, but Judaism and Christianity are based on historic events verifiable by common historiographic means. And they were not founded by "weakminded buffoons that are too scared to accept responsibility yadda yadda."

Simply put, the Resurrection of Jesus is the most researched event in all of history, and NO ONE has been able to disprove it. There is more and better evidence supporting the Resurrection of Christ than that supporting the EXISTANCE of Julius Caesar.

Cowards that would rather blame their sick thoughts and murderous actions on FICTION than accept responsibility themselves!

People say satan is evil

I would be one of them.

- as far as I'm concerned there are more people killed & brutally murdered in the name of god!

If you want to make a correct statement, try saying this: There have been more people killed by those who only paid lipservice to the teachings of Christ, than by those who actually took His teachings seriously and tried to the best of their ability to live by them.

Did you say that? I knew that you could.

Idiots promised of a better life in heaven...

And again, what religion are you refering to?

something they can't prove... take countless lives in their automaton suicide killings. By all means kill yourselves you dense fucks, but don't take innocent people with you who don't give a shit about your pathetic J K Rowling inspired delusions of grandeur!!! What gives you the right to be godplayer???

I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees!

Fuck Your God!!!

CHRISTIANITY

I think Bono once said "sometimes I think religion is the enemy of God", and there's a lot of truth to that...and I'm talking about christianity here.

I've been to a lot of different Churches, and some of them are so full of man-made rituals etc that they weirded me out. I think the christianity as it was intended is a very simple, beautiful thing. It's basically having a personal relationship with God, being nice to everyone, helping out others - especially those in need. All the stained-glass windows, smoking balls, weird robes, high hats, wooden pews, confessionals, and other guff are just man-made distractions from the real story.

The christians I know spend a day or 2 each week doing unpaid work for the needy in their community...they donate a fair whack of their salary (usually 10%+) to helping others. Many of them donate their lives to go and work for nothing in impoverished 3rd world locations, like my sister in a remote region of India volunteering in an orphanage.

We don't door knock, we don't ever get in your face, we have almost no involvement with you at all. So why someone would get inflamed about christianity really has me stumped. If I told you a new religion was starting that would be based purely on peace, love and non-violence, and that millions of people around the world would join, and as a result there would be a massive outpouring of aid and volunteers to those in need, and this new religion would run most of the aid agencies in the world, and all this would cost you NOTHING...

...would you object??

If you would, then perhaps you have some issues to deal with personally before you start looking at others.

ISLAM

Ok, if you want to talk about a religion that's inspiring people to hate and kill, then Islam is a fair target. While most muslims are not terrorists, most terrorists ARE muslim. They have a stated aim to get in your face and convert you - by peaceful means first, and if that doesn't work then jihad.

Islam is breeding a wave of fanatics who are intolerant of other religions to the point of violence. Their stated aim is to convert the world to be an islamic state. When there are disasters, even in islamic countries, they are the last to offer aid or assistance, and when they do it's begrudgingly and token.

The proof is in the pudding, and you'll find many of the conflicts and killing you refer to around the world are a result of islam clashing with christianity, islam clashing with judaism, islam clashing with buddhism, islam clashing with anyone that disagrees with islam.

And yeah - that is messed up.