Originally Posted by WhatAmIDoing

Freedom doesn't exist in this world. It's all a fallacy. Peace cannot be forced, the cycle must be allowed to perpetuate. Freedom is a perspective.

Originally Posted by LegalizeNature420

All this freedom talk is b/s! Yea, theres some places on earth where its better to keep your mouth shut, but not even close to the majority of countrys. I have visited everywhere from France to Israel, and the U.S. doesn't stand out when it comes to this issue. We just happened to be the first to really form a true democracy, but that was hundreds of yrs ago.

Religion is a result of man's fear of death.....nothing more!

Originally Posted by mockingbird131313

You are correct; Freedom is perceptive. I was trying to explain to him, that the hand that he bites is also the hand that enables him.

Originally Posted by aattocchi

"Why is it that a lot of Christians wear crosses around their necks? Do you think when God comes back he's gonna ever want to see another fuckin cross man? It's like walking up to Jackie Onassis with a rifle pendent on, just thinking of John."

Bill Hicks, another dead hero!

Originally Posted by UncleSunny

My parents are very Christian people. Good People, and i love them very much. I spent the first 16 years of my life steadily going to church, serving as an alter boy and in the choir, and aside from a private, Catholic education, my parents had bible study every Thursday, and two "retreats" a year. I spent my life with this Jesus guy following me around everywhere.

Now, when I hit my teenage years, I went through a faze where I didn't believe in God, and I hated religion. Over the years I found that my 'not believing in God' was more about the crazy double speak and hypocrisies that I perceived in the Church, and my disdain for religion was really just part of my own spiritual breaking away from the herd I had been born into.

One of the things that really confounds me about Christians is that they have this sort of self-destruct clause written into their law. See, much discussion is based on bringing the Kingdom of God to Earth, where we shall all live in peace. But then, in that final chapter, Revelations, it speaks of a charming man who will come and bring peace to the Earth, and that person who unites the great nations will turn out to be the anti-Christ.
So, they are working towards peace on Earth, but the sign to us all that the devil has arrived is that he will bring peace to Earth???

Please. I know that the Christian faith has brought a lot of joy and comfort to millions, and based on what it says in the Gospels, well, I'd vote for Jesus--he was a great guy. He spoke of loving your enemies, overcoming obstacles by faith and resolve, and reminded us that we can always be forgiven if we forgive.

I wish we could pretend, just for sake of argument, that there never was a Jesus of Nazareth, no water into wine, just a collection of current myths about a god figure circulating at that time, pulled together in story form to speak to the Jewish and Greek community. They slapped together the myths of the Syrians, the Mithras cult, the Osiris Cult, and several other eastern and Gnostic ideals and attributed to a carpenter named Jesus.

See, some people cannot even entertain that thought, that there never was a Jesus. But to those people I say that if there wasn't a Jesus, does that make his words any less meaningful? If the whole thing was a fake, does that mean I shouldn't still love my neighbor?

Of course not. It's just that some people get so hung up on their specific landline to God that they forget that no man can know the mind of God. Maybe God made us all differently because he knew how to talk to each one of us in our own way, and maybe that's the way he wants it.

I don't know that answer; no one does. One of my favorite quotes from the gospels is John 3:12 where this guy Nicodemus is asking Jesus about the rewards in the next life, and Jesus says,: "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?"

It's like so many Christians are focused on when they get to die and meet Jesus in person at that Country Club in the Sky, rather than finding the pieces of Heaven that are here on Earth. They don't seem to want to make peace with others, unless that peace is a form of assimilation from others. Believe in this guy, don't worry what he said, because he's watching you and he doesn't like doubters. So you'd better not pout, you'd better not cry, you'd better watch out, cause they're telling you why...

Christians spout Love and Compassion, and I have to say that my Mom is both a Christian and a damn good woman, so I know it isn't everybody. However, the fundamentalists who cling to the Word rather than the Meaning are just diluted at best and evil at worst. For example, they say being gay isn't allowed because it's written in the Bible, but the Bible also condones slavery, domestic abuse and child murder. If you want scripture and verse to back me up, ask, I'll quote. My point is that you can't say one thing is Law because "it's in the Book" and then not take ALL of it as Law.
I don't want to offend any Christians, but if I do, well, too bad. I just have spent a good deal of my life looking closely at these words I was told to live by. I believe some of those words, but I, like many people nowadays, see the Bible as a book crafted and edited by a lot of people with a lot of political agendas, and it cannot be taken literally, at all. I think believing in Jesus, like the smiling eyes above me, footsteps in the sand Jesus, is great if it works for you. And honestly, when someone prays to Jesus, I believe that something out in the Universe does hear that prayer and responds. It's just that I fear people who believe in something without questioning constantly, and I get frustrated when I hear people use a book made to bring people together, in a way that separates us and justifies the institutions of dogma and exclusion.

Originally Posted by ganji2

My religious beliefs changed alot when I started experimenting with drugs as well. hmm..