On 9/5/06, Gruss Gott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > No. Faith is part of spirituality and that's something we should all > explore. Religion, however, is the part that says I'm right and > you're wrong. And that's the part that creates suicide bombers, the > inquisition, the Dark Ages, the witch trials, etc.
That is a really fucked up definition of religion dude. Religion is merely the practice of one's said faith. Yes, some people think they need to force their beliefs on others. Yes, some people practice their faith in horrible ways....suicide bombings, crusades, etc. But the vast majority do NOT. The vast majority simply congregate with others of the same faith and celebrate their beliefs. How is that evil? Religious fanatics are bastards....but religion is not evil. Faith and spirituality should be very *personal* things. Forcing your > spirituality and lifestyle on others is the evil part; look at all of > the wars, murder, and death it causes. Absolutely. As an example, many devoted Christians I speak with have the same > line: "you to pick one religion because it's about your afterlife! > Your soul is on the line!" You speak with too many silly Christians. Try some others, like...well....ANY of the ones I know. Why? Why do I have to pick one? They could all be right. You don't. And then there's the Bible. Many people believe it's the Word of God. > Yet, for example, they have pictures of themselves and their kids. > That's a Bible no-no: graven images and vanity. But they'll spend > hours telling you how "the Bible says ... blah blah blah" but then > ignore those things that are inconvenient for them. We can have all kinds of fun singling out the 1% of Christians who are fundamentalist wackos. What about the 99% of the others, who view the Bible in a much more logical way? Catholics have who process for ignoring parts of the Bible! Catholics, from my experience, seem to be less prone than others to fundamentalism, so not sure why you singled them out. Further, my opinion is that the Bible is a flawed book of Man giving a > rough translation of *some* of Man's experiences with God. Anyone > that wants to argue it isn't better know Greek, Aramaic, and Hebrew as > well as be a historical scholar. Ok. And, either way, they should keep this to themselves since faith is > personal. But, sadly, religion typically tells them not too. Hmmm. You mean the Zealots, or the evangelists. The christian religions that I see practiced in my area generally preach that you best exhibit your devotion to God by helping others. Through your actions as a servant of man (such as Christ was), is your faith revealed to others. That's quite a bit differen than forcing your beliefs on others. And that's where war comes from. War comes from people...and people are inherently evil. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:214813 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
