Buco, there are some nice ideas in the Gospels and in places like Psalms. But, look at Leviticus, say. That book is hideously cruel to the point that it directly contadicts the aforementioned in every way.

A book is a book is a book.

You have your book and your beliefs and Muslims have their book and beliefs and so do the Mormons andthe Hindus and the Buddhists, etc. Read all of those particular books, as I have, and you find some commonalities to be sure. Take your studies a bit further and go to the cusp of the written word, to Gilgamesh or the transcriptions of the Navajo myths and those of the Romans, Norse, Tibetans and other cultures, and you find even more commonalities about what it is in particular to be moral and to be human.

But when people pick one book and place it above all others and say that this is the only truth and that all others are wrong, well then, you have what is going on in the world today. Read my book and you will see the truth, see that my idea is right and yours wrong. How silly, how egotisical! I'm divinely inspired and beloved of god and you are not. It isn't far from what is happening in the world today. All of a sudden, I can bomb your cities and kill your children and doing so makes my god happy and dance and sing.

You point to the book, but you have nothing else to really and truly prove that your ideas are better than those of other religions, and that it thus makes god giddier when people from your religion bomb the children of other religions instead of vice versa.

We may indeed find out when we die, but you do not really know anything. You believe and others believe but nobody knows, there is no proof at all anywhere. There is just your faith and the faith of the Muslim, the Jew, the Hindu, the Jain, the Zoroastrian, Pagan, Mayan, ad infinitum. But I believe this. No person from one religion has more right to think that bombing the children of those from another religion would make god happy or not. No one religion has a stranglehold on truth.

So, please don't go swinging your sacred tome around as if it were the god's honest truth, because you have no idea at all about that and nobody does. You don't and the billions of people on this earth who believe in different flavors of God than you, they don't either. Sorry, but your sacred tome doesn't make you any more special than anybody else's sacred tome makes them.

Christianity is no more a cruel hoax than anything else in this world. We all need something to believe in. My life has not exactly been filled with all good things either, but I make a choice to look at my glass as half full instead of half empty. I have overcome DESPITE my past. I have my own beliefs just like anyone else. I take a little from this religion and a little from others and come up with beliefs that I can live with. You are right to want to educate yourself. That is the only way that we have to combat ignorance in a world that is rampant with it. Good luck.

please research and you will find that some religions also can also be full of hyprocricsy.Wicca is just for women on lyand it has got a lot of study.

Freeheeler you want us to believe your an expert on religion. Sounds to me like your confused about what you believe in. Your like a jack of all trades master of none. You know a little bit about alot of religions. JennS is renouncing the Christian religion and is considering turning buddist or wiccan. I guess you and JennS are more rightous than me. More power to you. Sounds to me like you are the one taking the sacred tone. But we still don't know what you believe in.....

I never quote anything religious, but I feel like it now... :-)

We believe that God sent down a book with *every* messenger for every nation, because He says: "Indeed We sent down Our messengers with the clear signs, and We sent down with them the book and the balance, so that people may uphold justice" (57:25).

Which freeheeler is what you were saying: "you find even more commonalities about what it is in particular to be moral and to be human"

Anyways I am not trying to debate or anything - I just thought that was a neat match.

Utter Bollocks

Jenn - I am not Christian, in fact I am Muslim. But I wanted to point out the flaws of *your* argument...

In your words -
Christianity is a cruel hoax because:

~Your life isn't any better since you started following it...

Now where is it than *any* faith/philosophy has a guarantee that your life will be better if you follow it... and how would you define better? One person's better is not the same as another persons better...

~Your life has been miserable and still is...

Ok, so how is this going to change any if you leave your current faith and become Buddhist or Wiccan?

~Your life has been filled with abuse, neglect, and failure...
Is this Christianities fault? Did someone promise you that any faith would fix everything and make you immune to any type of these things?

~What makes you think Buddhism or Wicca will be any better? Are there promises that your life will be immensely better and immune from all those bad things?

I am not trying to argue with you, only ask you these questions to get you to think... In the end whatever you decide is ultimately your decision. I wish you the utmost best.

:hugs:

Why not research spirituality???

Not religion but spirituality.......check into it.....you may find something of interest to you and that actually works for you.

Oh hell (!!!) Lets listen to music...

I love them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKbLR3MEjAg

& an oldie but goodie:

Joan Baez - Kumbaya (1980)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3MiD_U4CHQ

There' always a reason a person gets converted and there's always a gloating convertee.

Within religions.
They are all killing each other anyway.

I'm with Shelly and Zany.... Christianity has been good to me.. Faith is good for me..
I to have had many challenges starting from a young life and have found what I need in many ways due to those struggles.
I hope you find what you need that will enrich your life.

i stopped believing in fairytales a long time ago. i try to live my life in a way that treats others as i would like to be treated. each to their own and hate it when people shove religion disguised as judgement down my throat not allowing me my own beliefs. i respect theirs so let me have mine. each to their own. rudeness in my pet hate.

Well, hell, I am from South Carolina, and in the southern United States traditionally there are two undeniable truths: religion (whatever faith or denomination you are) and sports (football, basketball, baseball or nascar) are in your blood. Your loyalties run deep and they are lifelong.

Few people really care whether you are Baptist, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, Pentecostal, nonbeliever, Presbyterian, Mormon, Methodist, Jehovah's Witness or whatever . . . an individual's faith or spirituality or lack thereof is his/her own business. After all an individual can only answer for himself or herself and no one else.

What really matters is who you pull for?

Are you a Carolina Gamecock, a Clemson Tiger, a Duke Blue Devil, a Georgia Bulldog, an NC State Wolfpack , a Tennessee Volunteer, a NC Tarheel, a Virginia Cavalier, a Florida Gator, a Wake Forrest Demon Deacon, a Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket or Florida State Seminole?

Are you a Tony Stewart, Jimmy Johnston, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Mark Martin, Kasey Kane or Jeff Gordon fan~~just to name a few?

Are you a Braves fan or do your loyalties lie above the Macon/Dixon Line?

My Uncle Fred who was a Pentecostal minister always said that a man who felt compelled to continually question the validity of another man's faith wasn't too sure of his own.

Live and let live folks! Believe what you will . . . go in peace and try to have a great day.

Hugs

I was angry at Christians for a long time until I came to realize those that offended me were sick people. I'm also with Shelly and Zany on this one and the person who asked you all the questions who is Muslim. I also believe that religion is for people who don't want to go to hell and spirituality is for people who've already been there. I believe in a God of my understanding and he has been kind to me. I do not believe in the God I grew up with in a Christian church but one of my understanding. I wish you well on whatever path you choose.

I suggest that one follows one's own path.

I believe in the saying:

"When the pupil is ready, the teacher will appear..."

All the best in your search for knowledge...

In love and light

Marion