Seasons

I agree with you Onyx. Though my own religious background is that when it comes down to it, what you do is more important than who you are. There's an old Jewish story about a man who believed he was evil. He went about the world in utter terror that those around him would perceive how evil he was. Obsessed with the need to deceive them, he fastidiously followed every commandment, breaking no laws and taking every opportunity to perform mitzvot (good or commanded deeds). Yet even on his death bed he feared his children saw him for the evil man he believed himself to be. The punchline: And he died a tzaddik (righteous man).

Less doctrinally, there's a principle I learned in therapy as "act-as-if". If you want to be a certain way, act as if you already were. And one day, you will be.

To me the moral question for individuals has less to do with why you do a good thing and eschew a bad thing, as with how you determine what differentiates the two.

Hee-hee! Watching the Fox News Channel get all worked up about the ruling against the 1954 amendment to the Pledge of Allegience.

Don't blame me for discussing religion & such, Eugene's the one who started it.

Damnit ladydyke! What did skysaw just say?!

I believe in God, but I don't believe faith in God (or anything supernatural) is necessary in order to live well. Sure, there's AA. There's also Secular Sobriety, I think it's called, and a variety of other organizations that don't involve a "higher power" but do involve rehabilitation and healing. Different things are inspiring and empowering to different people.

I hate it when I misspell misprint.

STRMkiry ,^l^^ my version of saying F*ck You

Exactly, Butterfly. Faith in God or such doesn't necessarily make us behave any better than lack of it, so it's really pointless to argue about because it's all personal preference. Maybe some of us will go to hell for it, but it's our choice. I mean we don't want heaven to get TOO full do we?

As for extremely devout people, they tend to drive me nuts. Why is it the vast majority of people either don't believe in God or spend so much time believing in God that they do nothing else? Isn't it possible to have a happy medium? Can't you believe in God, act in a manner you believe he approves of, and not sit there talking about God 24/7?

Fine, go on with your novel-length posts with no breaks, but I ain't reading them.

I was really surprised to see the media (not politician) reaction to the ruleing on the amendment to the Pledge of Allegience -- and by people's reaction in general. Even CNN, whose readers are pretty liberal, had poll results showing only about 25% of people agreed with the ruling. Of course, in their next poll, it looks like about 25% of people responding don't even believe in separation of church and state to begin with...

But Eugene should be happy -- did you hear Bush saying "our rights come from God"?

Good idea George. Build the foundation of a free society on a bedtime story. Killer.

Well, he didn't think of that idea first. It's in our Declaration of Independence. But I'm not really that concerned about the Pledge of Allegiance deal. Saying that we are "one nation under God" doesn't make it true, any more than putting, "in God we trust" on our money means that we trust in God.

OnyxFlame,

I don't talk about God, or even live for Him 24/7, but I ought to do the latter.

Okay, I was gone for a few days and can't remember if I left any threads hanging. Did anyone ask me anything that I failed to answer? I would read back posts but it takes my computer forever to load these pages as it is.